Ma Shi Fu · Brush Trimmer at the Xuan Brush Factory

Full transcript

《Xuan Brush Factory: Interview with Master Ma, Brush Trimmer》

Editorial note: Q = interviewer; Ma = Master Ma; Anon = anonymous interjection. In editing, I have tried to keep the original wording and cut repetition and meaningless filler. Obvious transcription errors have been restored from context.

Q: What's your surname, Master?

Ma: Ma.

Q: What year were you born?

Ma: '58.

Q: Where are you from?

Ma: Jing County, Huangcun. We used to be Anwu Township. Later the state reorganized things—like Taiping County merging with Huangshan City, and it became Huangshan City.

Q: What year did you start doing this?

Ma: '78, at 20. I started trimming brushes as soon as I came to this factory, and I've been trimming ever since.

Q: You got in through recruitment?

Ma: I had someone pull strings. Without that, you couldn't get in. My aunt was in this factory. People really had it hard then. If you didn't have someone pulling strings, you couldn't get into the factory. Back then, getting in as a worker was just too good. If you didn't have connections, you couldn't get in.

Q: Were you happy when you first got in?

Ma: Happiest when I first got in. My leg's bad; I can't do much. This job doesn't require getting wet.

Q: How many people in your family?

Ma: Just me.

Q: You never married?

Ma: No. I support myself.

Q: Back in the '70s, getting into a factory—people were willing, right?

Ma: Willing to marry you. Now factory work isn't popular. Before, like my father's generation in the '70s, everyone said being a worker was great. How much did workers earn before? I got 12 yuan a month. Back then it was 12 yuan. A village cadre—only cadres got thirty yuan a month. Cadres only got thirty. It's different now.

Q: What about prices then?

Ma: Pork was 7 mao 3 a jin. Dried tofu was 2 fen a piece. Back then 30 yuan was still enough to live on.

Q: Your leg—was it an injury or?

Ma: Polio. It's gone now. The state gave vaccines, a sugar pill. It's gone now.

Q: Can you walk?

Ma: I can walk, with a cane.

Q: Do you think this work is good?

Ma: You see my work—it's very simple. One piece is 5 mao. I do 100 pieces a day. This work is too dry. They make 3,000; I make less than 2,000.

Q: So you earn a bit less?

Ma: Right, a bit less. They say doing this—mainly I think it's because you don't have to get wet, as long as you can go down there. Winter isn't cold either, so no problem. The thing is, the materials can't get wet; you can't soak them.

Q: How much per piece for trimming?

Ma: 5 mao a piece.

Q: Does size matter?

Ma: Size matters. Medium is 5 mao, large is 7 mao, small is 4 mao, and there's 3 mao. 3 mao a piece—that's the very smallest, 30 centimeters. We do over 30.

Q: What's the standard for trimming well?

Ma: If you trim badly, the shaft is warped, and you can't fix it. If the head or shaft is warped, it's warped.

Q: After all these years, what do you think is the hardest part? If you took an apprentice, what would you teach as the most important thing?

Ma: The most important is picking out the hair. If you don't pick it out, the brush won't write—there are bald hairs, uneven ones, uneven ones without tips. All have to be plucked out.

Q: The knife in his hand—he has to pick out the ones inside too, otherwise it splits when you write?

Ma: Right, if you don't pick them out, it splits. You pick out the ones sticking out, the useless hairs, the ones without tips—bald-headed hairs—you have to pick them out. So when we make brushes, your eyes must be good. Your eyes absolutely have to be good. If they're not, it won't do. You can't have presbyopia. Because the master has years of experience—he touches it with his hand and knows which hair is useless.

Q: After a day of this, what part of your body gets especially tired?

Ma: Neck and lower back. Neck and lower back get tired. My hands go numb too. Winter and summer are about the same.

Q: Can you still do it now?

Ma: Can't do it now, can't see. My eyes are bad. Need glasses. I'm not used to wearing glasses. Sometimes I look once and don't see, twice; sometimes three times. Presbyopia—yes, I'm presbyopic now. That's how it is.

Q: Get some reading glasses and wear them.

Ma: Not used to wearing them.

Q: Planning to stop next year?

Ma: Next year I can't do it, can't do it. My neck is affected, my neck hurts, my lower back hurts too.

Q: Do you stand up and walk around after going home at night?

Ma: Yes, I walk. Walking helps, helps a lot. After dinner at night, sometimes I walk; sometimes after dinner I don't go, then I walk.

Q: When you're not working, what do you listen to?

Ma: Listening—it affects the electricity quality. I don't watch at night. No TV now. I don't like TV. I look at my phone. News, Douyin.

Q: There's not much waste in this, is there?

Ma: Waste is okay, not much. We've done it for decades. Brush trimming has waste—there's waste in trimming. It gets wasted. He might trim it badly.

Q: Are you the only brush trimmer here?

Ma: Used to be. There used to be thirty-some brush trimmers. Now I'm the only one left. Their factory used to have over 200 workers, 200-some people, nearly 300. It used to be big.

Q: It really was a big factory.

Ma: Yeah, it used to be big.

Q: You trim the brushes so beautifully. You make them so beautifully yourself. Are you happy when you look at them?

Ma: I'm happy when I look at them. Mainly because there are also calligraphers, painters—as long as they're happy, that's fine. Right, as long as they're happy.

Q: If they'd actually had you do water-basin work?

Ma: Water basin won't work. My leg's bad. Water's over here, and there's a basin. You pour water from a basin; you have to carry the water yourself. And there's no helper. No, no.

Q: You boil the glue yourself too?

Ma: I boil it myself. They don't know how. If you can't trim brushes, you can't boil glue.

Q: Roughly, you just glue this on first, then scrape it off, then use a tool, pull it out with a string?

Ma: Right, right. There were tools too, but they're gone now. You dig out this head and weld it with glue. Is it gone now? You don't even have this machine? It's gone now, gone. Now after this is done, the boss does it, then welds it. Do you check whether it's done well? Not just whether it's done well—done well.

Q: Do you write yourself?

Ma: Ha, I don't write. I don't write, I'm not literate. In the '50s not many people went to school, not like now when every kid has to go. I don't write, but I can tell at a glance whether a brush is good or not. Even though I don't write, whether a brush is good, easy to write with—I can tell at a glance.

Q: You glue it together—it looks the same to me.

Ma: They're all the same at first. If not, when he writes—at the start of writing—I can tell at a glance in someone's factory that some brushes won't write. Even without opening it, you can tell.

Q: They all generally think the brushes their factory makes are good?

Ma: Of course. This is the biggest brush-trimming factory.

Q: Your shafts are brought in from outside?

Ma: Brought in from outside. The heads—you make them yourselves? Yes, we used to make them ourselves.

Q: Now your factory has so few people. How many brushes can you produce a year?

Ma: They don't have that big a sales volume. You'd have to ask the boss. Such a big place, year after year.

Q: They say this is ICH?

Ma: This ICH—he says it's ICH. The boss is ICH; I'm not ICH. Oh, the boss is ICH.

Q: Master, you're ICH too.

Ma: The boss's daughter trims brushes; they trim brushes.

Q: Machines really can't do this?

Ma: Machines can't. Why can't machines? When a machine trims the hair, if you don't pick them out, it can't write. The machine can't pick them out. Time—it can't pick them out. This hair—I know it's shed. This hair—doesn't it have seams? This one doesn't. The fine hair doesn't have seams. This doesn't count as seams either; you can't see it. Sometimes an apprentice isn't qualified yet. The most important thing is picking out the stray hairs, picking them out.

Q: Do you usually talk with them?

Ma: Sometimes I talk with you. Whether a brush can be trimmed, butting it together. Butting it together, right. If it's not even, it writes off-center.

(Inheritor: This is our brush-trimming craft. You want little kids to experience this brush-trimming craft. Our glue is the kind of agar weed you hang on the wall—seaweed from the sea. Kelp. Agar weed is a cold dish. As a cold dish, it contains a lot of starch. After soaking in clear water and boiling over high heat for two hours, it turns into glue. Some people think it's paste, but it's not. Paste is white. When this is boiled down, it's this—this pale yellow. See, the agar weed is hanging there. Because, first, it doesn't damage the hair—animal hair—it doesn't damage it. Also, it makes it easy for us to open. Some brushes bought on the market have to be soaked in water for eight hours, two hours, one hour, before opening. We don't. We just open them directly. That simple. So we—mainly our shaping can't... if you use industrial glue, you definitely have to soak it in boiling water first, because like our hair, once scalded with boiling water, it curls. That's how it is.

Tour group: So this is in the trimming, shaping our brush?

Inheritor: A brush has the Four Virtues: sharp, even, round, and resilient. If it lacks a sharp tip—if it isn't sharp—what happens when you write? It splits. If it's round—if it isn't round—it writes off-center. There are many reasons a brush writes off-center or splits, but we sum them up as the Four Virtues: sharp, even, round, resilient. If it lacks one, it won't do. It won't do missing even one. So this has to be trimmed well. You see, every brush of ours is round and sharp, and when we open it, the first line is even. If the first line isn't even, it will write off-center too. This is the last step. This is our brush trimming—well, not exactly the last step. After the brush is trimmed and dried, you can use it, but we still can't sell it retail, because we're... Then we'll be going, Master.

Ma: Okay, okay. You're busy. Okay, okay. Thanks.

Inheritor: He emphasized the brush, saying it doesn't damage the hair and is easy to open, using glue boiled from seaweed-type agar weed to shape the brush. He also described the brush-trimming process.

Q: The restaurant owner we just ate at—he used to make brushes too?

Ma: Yes, the restaurant one. He said he made brushes for over 20 years, over in Taohuatan. He used to be at our factory; he came out of our factory. They used to apprentice in our factory, did it over 20 years, about that.)

Q: Do young people learn now?

Ma: No one learns now. No one. Now the boss learns himself. There are no young people. Kids all go to school, so no one's here. In our rural areas, it's all old people at home. The ones who work—basically those in their forties and fifties—all work outside; those in their thirties and forties all work outside.

Q: Are the brushes bought outside all synthetic hair?

Ma: The brushes bought outside are all synthetic hair. Ours—whatever people say—the hair is all animal hair, natural animal hair. Now most outside are synthetic.

Q: The boss's wife is also a boss?

Ma: The boss's wife is a boss too, also a boss.