Let me say goodbye to you: the day when the working museum closes and leaves the Peel Village

The Migrant Workers Culture and Art Museum in Pi Village, Beijing, is the only public welfare museum in China founded by migrant workers themselves, and officially opened on May 1, 2008, recording the history of migrant workers. (Southern Weekend reporter Fu Ziyang/Photo)

At six o'clock in the evening, under a huge apricot tree in front of the part-time work museum, the farewell ceremony began.

This is the proposal of Hu Xiaohai, a worker in Henan. He was working in a warehouse that day, and when he heard that someone had written the word "demolition" at the door of the museum courtyard, he "immediately knew that it was settled." He wanted to take a video to record the process, rushed to see it, and the words were already on the wall.

Let me say goodbye to you

Say goodbye to Sun Zhigang, who does not have a temporary residence permit

Say goodbye to Zhang Haichao who opened his chest and tested his lungs...

Amid the noise of a plane passing low, Shi Hongli, a female domestic worker, recited a poem written by a volunteer, "Farewell to the Museum of Part-time Workers, Culture and Art." She stated in advance that I speak Sichuanese, sorry, everyone can only listen to Trump. After the reading, she said that many people wearing glasses at the scene, especially thankful, "are the elites of our society."

"The official language is quite good," Wang Dezhi, the head of the part-time work museum, said with a smile as the host of the day. ”

Documentary filmmaker Gu Tao and friends sang a song "Farewell" on guitar, and people sang along with the chorus.

In the last days of the museum, the streets of Pi Village were filled with young faces who came to visit, carrying canvas bags, dyeing their blonde hair or wearing crop tops, lamenting that a roast duck in Pi Village was 25 yuan and an old popsicle was 5 Mao, which is really affordable in Beijing. The proprietress of a Shanxi noodle shop also heard that the museum was going to be demolished, but she didn't go to make it lively, she was so busy that she couldn't get out of the store.

A young man who had worked as a driver at a charity store came back to see it, carrying a bag of roast duck. He worked as a waiter, security guard, and driver in Beijing and moved from the fourth ring road to the sixth ring road. Every time I go back to Pi Village, "it is supposed to be a dirty place", but it always feels like returning home. He felt that the stories of workers on display in the museum were a bit "miserable": "These are outdated". He didn't know what meaning suffering could have.

The vacant land around the museum that had been demolished was full of cars, and Wang Dezhi said, after you left, this piece will be demolished into a parking lot.

On the day of the farewell ceremony, the programs were all made up temporarily, there was no official program list, and whoever was called could be on it. A lot of old friends don't show up. Hu Xiaohai was a little regretful, the ceremony was too short, less than an hour. He himself was embarrassed to sing with a guitar. After the end, a girl bought 100 yuan beer, a total of 4 mentions, beckoning everyone to drink.

The apricot trees at the entrance are full of green fruits, and every year when they are ripe, they will pick apricots and eat them, which are very sweet. The tree should also be cut down, Hu said.

On the evening of May 20, 2023, people held a farewell ceremony in front of the Part-time Work Museum. (Zheng Haipeng/Photo)

"Suddenly faced with a state of dispersion"

On the first working day after the May Day holiday, Wang Dezhi received a notice of demolition, demanding that the move be completed by mid-June at the latest. The courtyard of the part-time work museum, staff dormitory and storage warehouse used to be factories, but in recent years, the surrounding factories have been demolished, which may have been delayed by the epidemic and "demolished intermittently for several years".

In the courtyard of Picun Village, across the street from the Migrant Work Museum, more than a dozen families live. Like the Part-time Museum, the wall at the entrance of the courtyard is written in bright red.

The courtyard looked dilapidated, with piles of construction waste, red fire hydrants, dust-stained bedding and children's toys scattered around the bunkers. The garden was overgrown with weeds and the trellis collapsed.

But deep in the courtyard, there are two clusters of bright pink moon season, half-tall flowers with large bowls, one after another are blooming.

The grower of the monthly season is an old man who has returned to his hometown. Mr. Wang's wife, Liu Na, remembers that when she first moved in, there were two tall acacia trees and bamboo in the yard, "like a small garden." At that time, many college students came, and there were people singing every night.

Most of the more than ten families living in the courtyard are employees of the Workers' Home of the non-profit organization - they are also the organizers and participants behind activities or institutions such as the Part-time Museum, the Migrant Spring Festival Gala, the Pi Village Literature Group, and the Tongxin Experimental School.

The employees, mostly from rural areas, have lived in the compound for more than a decade since 2008 and have good neighborhood relations, "almost without locking the doors." Wang Dezhi said.

For more than a month, the group of people living here have been busy moving exhibits at the Migrant Museum and receiving visitors, while they have been busy moving for themselves – some will move to the urban village apartment in Pi Village, and some have not found a suitable house.

Between collecting luggage and looking for a house, Li Youqing, who works in the warehouse, is very disappointed, "After all, the yard that has lived for more than ten years, although it looks shabby and old now, suddenly disappears, it is still a little confused." ”

A native of Yueyang, Hunan Province, he started working at a workers' home in 2009, where he met a girl from Inner Mongolia and had two children. The bunker in the open space of the courtyard is the playground of his 3-year-old son, full of his toys. Pee in the sand, he says it's a lake.

The collective lifestyle of the small courtyard is difficult to replicate, and "suddenly faced a state of dispersion", Li Youqing is a little uncomfortable.

Wang Dezhi's wife, Liu Na, and her daughter-in-law rode an electric car to move things little by little to their new rented home. It was a 30-square-meter set, and the windows were clear. Liu Na has some longing for her future life, she hopes that her children will grow up in an environment where "the table for eating is the table for eating, and the table for writing homework is the table for writing homework", and wash dishes without going to the toilet faucet.

But her daughter Xiaoyu likes the small courtyard where she used to live, and she said that she grew up here. She attends boarding school in Baoding, and comes back on weekends before moving and takes pictures of her everywhere in the house: her awards, her brother's Ultraman, "Mom and Dad, we love you" on the door.

She photographed a lot of puppies, the few stray little black dogs in the yard, they have been getting along for many years, and they recognize people. That year, the dog's mother was hit by a car and died, Xiaoyu cried very sadly, and Wang Dezhi took his two children and buried it.

Li Qingyou and his family of four have lived for more than a decade in the courtyard opposite the Migrant Works Museum, and the bunker in the small courtyard is the playground of his 3-year-old son. (Southern Weekend reporter Fu Ziyang/Photo)

Go and see what the house is dismantled into

The day after moving, the bungalow where Jia Xiaoyan lived was demolished. At noon on May 20, a worker wearing a straw hat and jeans demolished the roof.

At breakfast that day, Jia Xiaoyan's husband walked in the direction of the Migrant Works Museum as usual, and only when he arrived did he realize that he couldn't live here. Jia Xiaoyan didn't sleep at school the night before, and she said that she would go back after work to see what the house was demolished.

She and her husband lived in a bungalow northeast of the Migrant Works Museum compound, which was first demolished. Jia Xiaoyan, a native of Hohhot, came to Pi Village in 2010 because her child was attending Tongxin Experimental School, and has been working at Tongxin Reciprocal Store for thirteen years since then.

The row of bungalows lived in the cold in winter, the doorway was covered with sheets, there was no place for an iron shed outside the house, and they were covered with white oilcloth. There are two plug-in radiators painted with chrysanthemums and goldfish in the room, and in winter you can only feel a little temperature by sticking your hand to it. Later, when the children returned to their hometown, she saw them three times a year, and the walls of the room where they used to live were plastered with basic language knowledge:

Antonyms: very-general; Snow white - jet black; ugly - pretty; Words: Athletic, rosy little hands. the ancient poems "On the Pond" and "Little Pond"; Pinyin: vowel, single vowel, complex vowel, overall recognition of syllables.

On the evening of May 18, at the charity shop where Jia Xiaoyan worked, she complained that the bungalow she lived in would have to hand over the keys the day after tomorrow, and she had no time to pack her luggage.

"Buy big brother if you need anything, this will be open for a few days." Jia Xiaoyan greeted in front of the cash register. The eldest brother carried the bed quilt to settle the bill, 12 yuan. Second-hand goods are sold here, mainly from used clothing recycling or public welfare donations, and then sold at low prices to urban village residents.

Clothes are best sold in winter, and they can make do with it in summer, but he can't help it when he is cold in winter, Jia Xiaoyan said. A young man who recently visited the Migrant Museum bought a building block for 2 yuan, which looked like a monkey, and when it was found, only its feet and body were intact, and the young man found some parts under the table, "and some of them may have been crushed."

The charity store is also going to be demolished, and Wang Dezhi said that the workers are more disappointed than they are, and always ask them where to open next.

Not long ago, a female cat came to Jia Xiaoyan's house, orange, with a big belly, and she couldn't get away. It is estimated that it was also after the surrounding area was demolished, Jia Xiaoyan thought. A few days later, the mother cat gave off five kittens, all orange and white, and Jia Xiaoyan found a cardboard box, put a quilt, and put it in front of the iron bed where she and her husband slept.

Jia Xiaoyan worked, and the female cat followed at her feet. She called it Mimi. Mimi drinks water and Mimi eats. Now Mimi is a problem.

After receiving the demolition notice, Jia Xiaoyan took time to go to Pi Village to find a house. A little sunshine costs 1300, and if you don't see light, you need 100, and as soon as you enter the door, you will be a bed, "like a cellar". She and her husband had to go to the Concentric Experimental School first, but she didn't know if she could bring the cat there. Two children called from their hometown to tell them not to throw the cat away, they came to see it during the summer vacation.

"What's the benefit of that?"

In Pi village, the most common means of transportation is battery cars, followed by vans.

In front of the yellow gatehouse of the Phi Village roundabout, whenever trucks pass by, a burst of yellow sand is set off. Pi Village is located in Jinzhan Township, Chaoyang District, East Sixth Ring Road, and is the easternmost point of Chaoyang District. From Beijing, the most common way to get is to take Metro Line 6 to Caofang Station, and then take the 306 double-decker bus to Picun Roundabout for about 20 minutes, passing through a large forest in the middle, and the cityscape gradually disappears.

Every day from 5 p.m., cleaners, decorators, exhibition masters, sanitation workers, real estate sales, and small white-collar workers returning from work in Beijing poured out from the bus stop. The main street of Phi Village gradually increases, and this is where the day really unfolds.

This year, the swallows come out of the nest early and fly around in the dense wires. On the narrow commercial street, construction workers have not yet taken off their hard hats, riders in flash suits are walking a large off-white dog, and one worker is wearing slippers and carrying two large bags of steamed buns. The incense oil seller knocked on the wooden pole, and the sound of "bang bang" sounded throughout the urban village. In the small yellow building where Sichuan workers lived, the sound of mahjong was heard one after another, and people walked together on the road, discussing the results of the card game.

In 2015, Wang Haixia, associate professor at the School of Sociology of Beijing Normal University, and Meng Qingguo, professor at the School of Public Administration of Tsinghua University, introduced in their paper that the administrative village of Picun covers an area of 2.8 km², with only more than 1,000 local residents and more than 20,000 migrant workers.

Before 2005, it was a small, quiet village with a small foreign population. Later, with the continuous demolition of urban villages such as Dongba and Caogezhuang in Chaoyang District, people moved to Pi Village, which had lower rents. In addition to the wave of building buildings rising by local villagers, there were also a number of abandoned factories from the collective economy period that were leased out one after another to do furniture factories, exhibition production business, etc., according to the statistics of this paper, there were 205 factories and enterprises.

Now, most of this industrial area has been turned into yellow sand. To the north of Pi Village, a large area of forest greenery has been formed, next to the silk-like Wenyu River. Walking in, the temperature gets much colder, with young people running in Bluetooth headsets, city cyclists and campers.

Wang Dezhi remembers that after about 2017, this factory was withdrawn one after another. The main group of tenants in Pi Village has changed from traditional workers in these factories to daily workers and small white-collar workers engaged in exhibitions, doors and windows, air conditioning loading and unloading in Beijing.

The Part-time Museum is on the edge of the junction between industrial and residential areas. According to Wang Dezhi, during the epidemic, due to the restrictions of prevention and control policies, activities could not be held in the courtyard, and it was almost abandoned, and the staff who were originally responsible for the part-time work museum were also withdrawn.

The museum's display cases are covered with ash, and black sofas and children's school bags are discarded at the door. Translator Hu Dongzhu came here in 2008 with Japanese director Daizo Sakurai, feeling youth and hope, and walking into this courtyard again after fifteen years, "to be honest, it is a little sad."

A Didi driver who sent passengers around the part-time work museum, puzzled, why build such a thing? What's the benefit? Wang Dezhi was not angry after hearing this, saying that if this was a temple that collected money, he would feel normal.

On the morning of May 18, 2023, in front of the part-time work museum, someone was moving items. (Southern Weekend reporter Fu Ziyang/Photo)

"Whoever receives is the curator"

In the Part-time Museum, what you can most intuitively feel is the atmosphere of the beginning of the new century. The exhibition hall of about 300 square meters is converted from a glass factory.

What the curators want to present is the story of China's industrialization and urbanization, and the contribution of 300 million migrant workers to cities will not be forgotten. In the people, they should have their own museum, where migrant workers can tell their own stories.

In these stories, in addition to the well-known Sun Zhigang and Zhang Haichao, there are Wang Yuji, who has repeatedly defended his rights and asked for wages, Xu Fang, who writes poems while spreading pancakes, and temporary residence cards, salary slips and deposit vouchers.

On November 19, 1993, a fire broke out in the Shenzhen Zhili Toy Factory that killed 87 people and injured 51 people, and the museum exhibits a letter written by a dead female worker to her relatives four months before the fire.

The letter was written as "Incompetent Daughter: Qin," and the writer said he couldn't remember how long he hadn't written because the factory worked overtime until 11 p.m. every day. One day after work, she heard that her brother was coming, but she still didn't believe it, and hurriedly saw her brother and went elsewhere. She asked her parents to cherish her body and wrote to her about everything at home.

One visitor said that the museum presents "the story of the first three decades of reform and opening up", and the changes of migrant workers in the past decade, such as delivery riders and couriers, are not reflected here.

In 2005, after Wang Dezhi, Sun Heng, and many others came to Pi Village, they first established the Tongxin Experimental School, a school for migrant children. Opening a migrant museum was originally Sun's idea — because to educate workers, "you need a root," Mr. Wang said.

At first, Wang Dezhi did not put this matter at ease, "What is there to show here." But after everything was laid out, "it really scared myself." Most of these exhibits were raised through non-profit organizations in the South, when the Internet was not popular, or through advertising leaflets.

Wang Dezhi himself contributed the exhibit, a temporary residence card from 1996. There were some things he didn't take out, "involving personal privacy." He is a native of Inner Mongolia and was born on January 10. One year my brother wrote to say, I don't know if you have passed your birthday this year, we have it for you at home.

When the museum was built, there was nothing in the factory building, all were cement walls, and everyone painted it white. At that time, many workers in the surrounding factories came to help out for free, tiling, painting walls, and making curtains.

Some workers visited and said, "This can also be exhibited? So he sent his temporary residence card and factory brand.

Wang Dezhi has the impression that 2010 to 2012 is the most popular years for the part-time museum, college students, scholars, and social caring enterprises come non-stop, he, Sun Heng, and many take turns to receive, "whoever receives is the curator". For several years, Singapore's St. Nigola Girls' School brought primary and secondary school students to visit every year to "understand China and understand the bottom of China."

Many intellectuals were also active here. Zhang Huiyu, a teacher from Peking University, Liu Chen, associate professor of the Department of Culture and History of the Central Party School, Meng Dengying, associate professor of the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and other scholars often come to give lectures. Huang Lang, the author of "My Second Student", came to Picun twice in 2016 and found that unlike university classes, students here listen very seriously.

Wang Dezhi feels that the Part-time Museum is more like a window, many people in the society care about the worker group, can not find a suitable way, here is a connecting touchpoint. Over the past ten years, the museum has received more than 50,000 visitors.

Female workers content exhibition area in the Part-time Work Museum. (Zheng Haipeng/Photo)

"It's like it's all experienced"

However, in Pi Village, the part-time work museum is a bit "dark under the lights", Wang Dezhi said, many workers may have played in the courtyard for two years, but have not entered the museum to take a closer look, "he may come out halfway through the first exhibition hall".

On the contrary, it is workers from other places, because they have learned about it in the media or online articles beforehand, they will look more carefully. In 2014, Wang Dezhi met Zeng Cheng, a Hubei co-worker who said Zeng Cheng had a light in his eyes when he watched the exhibition. Zeng Cheng, born in 1991, was working at a noodle restaurant in Suzhou when he burned his foot with boiling water and had a scarlet scar on his heel. Wang Dezhi speculated that it may be that in the place where he works, it is more difficult for migrant workers to get the attention around him, and coupled with the fact that there are many college student volunteers on site, "it is difficult for him to have college students around him."

For the workers living in Pi Village, the Part-time Museum is more like a public space. At night, the courtyard of the Part-time Workers Museum is very lively, and after coming out of the boring and depressing factory, everyone here watches movies, sings karaoke, and dances in the square.

Fu Qiuyun, a museum worker, said that before 2018, "nearly 100 people" went in and out of the courtyard every night.

Wang Haijun, a native of Baoding, Hebei, came to Pi Village to build a house eight years ago, and the newcomers asked where to have fun at night, and someone mentioned the part-time work museum.

The first time he entered, Wang Haijun did not go to the exhibition hall to look, but walked around the courtyard to watch others dance and play billiards. Sometimes the workers' theater would show movies, and he hadn't seen them very seriously. But for eight years, he used to walk around the yard whenever he could, where he was single and didn't have a cell phone, where he could talk to people.

Wang Haijun said that many workers just use the migrant work museum as a place for recreation, "He doesn't think about the meaning of this place at all, he doesn't care what the meaning of this museum is, most migrant workers just look at the flowers, red willows and green." ”

Wang Haijun has only entered the exhibition hall a few times, sometimes the door is not opened, and sometimes he enters alone, a little uncomfortable. After reading it, there is no special emotion, "as if it is something that has been experienced."

The narrow aisle in the museum was like a deep alley, and he felt a little depressed. There is a 4-square-meter model of a rental house in the exhibition hall, and Wang Haijun has lived in an identical one. Step by step, look at it, the past things still emerge like a horse lantern -

In 1995, he followed his father out to work, built a house in Wudaokou, Haidian District, worked as a small worker, and worked with ashes and bricks, because the work was not good, he deducted 5 yuan per day;

One winter, he couldn't find a job in the Hufangqiao labor market, ran out of money, and took a bus back to the village from the long-distance station, so he had to get on the bus first and pay the fare when he got home;

One year, I wanted to go to Shijiazhuang to learn to cook, but I was tricked into going to a black brick kiln and taken to the Handan coal mine. From summer to winter, you can finally take some money and leave. His parents couldn't find him, and he wrote to say that now I am in the Handan coal mine, it is very good, and I will go home during the Spring Festival.

Wang Haijun now works odd jobs, does exhibition loading and unloading, works every 8 hours, earns 180-200 yuan, and lives in a single room with a monthly rent of 450 yuan in Pi Village, less than 10 square meters. In this dimly lit hut, he picked up his own allegro and read the words he had written, "It's not a song, it's not a poem, it's not like counting treasures": "Walk forward on the bamboo board, full of sorrow to whom to speak." The cold winter air was all over the face, and I saw that: people on the street moved their homes, carrying their luggage on their shoulders, and large and small families followed. ”

Talking about the significance of the part-time museum, Wang Haijun thought for a while and said, "Let the student see it, it will motivate him to study hard."

"Our Museum"

Li Wenli, a native of Gansu Province, came to Beijing in 2017 to work as a female domestic worker in Wangjing, and is the backbone of the Pi Village Literature Group. Every Saturday when she comes to Pi Village to participate in literary group activities, she has to go to the migrant museum to sweep the floor and wipe it, which she says is "our museum".

Li Wenli has seen some "palatial museums" in Beijing, and she thinks that these are "all known in the world and known by Chinese, but many people do not know these things as migrant workers."

In 2005, her husband injured his left leg and could not go out to earn money, in order to support his family, Li Wenli went out to work, went to Lanzhou and Inner Mongolia, and raised her three children as adults.

The first time she came to Pi Village, Li Wenli felt very dirty and smelled of cat urine, "I think it's not as good as our village." One day in February 2017, when the wind was blowing like a knife, Li Wenli and a few sisters searched their mobile phones for places where female domestic workers were active, and found the social work organization "Hongyan House" that serves the urban migrant population.

Every Saturday, Li Wenli first goes to the "Hongyan House" and then takes the subway bus to Pi Village. Her job search requirement was to rest on Saturday, otherwise she would not be allowed to talk. These are the two most important places where Li Wenli lived in Beijing.

She is tall and thin, and she used to blush when talking to people, but when the literary group engages in activities, she will be the host, wearing a red top and a black dress and dancing ghost steps. On the day of the farewell ceremony, Li Wenli wore a pink sweatshirt, jeans and some lipstick.

The youngest daughter's first salary after working bought her a gold necklace, and later bought rings and earrings, which she put in her bag and did not usually wear. She explained that she worked in someone's house, and it was not appropriate to wear this.

She has a deep guilt for her children, and in her employer's house, she takes care of other people's children too carefully. "When my sons were young, I had to work in the fields, and I would often tie them to the kang and break their heads and bleed." Before you know it, they've all grown up.

Sitting on a wooden board in front of the museum, Ms. Li talked about the employers she met. A sister was holding her child at her employer's house, and after she sat on the bed and left, the sheets would be lifted and changed, "You said that you hate people so much, discriminate against others, and let people hold children for you." ”

Li Wenli has met the most "strange" employer living in the villa, not allowing her to rest for a while, she is really tired, dizzy, and can't tell where the door is. On the third day she stopped working, "On the day I came out, as soon as I came out of the gate, the wind blew, and I was alive all at once." ”

The articles written by Li Wenli were included in the collection of works of the Pi Village Literary Group "The Stars of Laborers". During the New Year, the literary group will present awards, such as "Diligence Award" and "Popularity Award". After returning home, my husband said that your box was so heavy. Open it and say, everyone has taken it and walked back, you will take some rags. "I said it's not a rag, it's my honor."

Yang Jing, also a female domestic worker, warmly greeted the reporters who came to interview on the day of the farewell ceremony, showing them the way and introducing them to places to eat. "There is a sense of ownership," one of the journalists said.

During the Spring Festival in 2020 and 2021, Yang Jing did not go home. She is a live-in nanny, and her employer gave her a few days off, and it is not convenient to celebrate the New Year at someone else's house. One day was the first day of the new year, at 8 o'clock in the morning, she walked from Yin Gezhuang who rented a house nearby to the part-time work museum, the sun was very good, all the way through the Wenyu River, the library opened, and she borrowed a copy of "Ordinary World".

The female worker in the part-time worker stands in the Part-time Museum, and behind it is the pancake trolley of the female worker Xu Fang. (Southern Weekend reporter Fu Ziyang/Photo)

"Don't be too sentimental"

Hu Xiaohai described the development of the part-time museum in recent years as a downward curve. "It used to grow there, withered, grew, withered." Unfortunately, after the epidemic, "this severe frost fell and all withered." This demolition, this physical space completely disappeared. But given the right opportunity, we will do something similar in another form. ”

Since 2017, with the adjustment of relevant projects and policies, money has become a big problem after the loss of public welfare funders who regularly funded migrant museums. They maintain the basic operation every year through crowdfunding - the rent of the museum venue is 130,000 yuan (including indoor exhibition halls, workers' libraries, new workers' theaters, concentric mutual stores, etc., a total area of 2,000 square meters), a full-time staff labor allowance subsidy of 30,000 yuan and water and electricity administrative expenses of 10,000 yuan.

"But crowdfunding every year is also more laborious." Fu Qiuyun said. She was originally a full-time staff member of the museum, but was transferred for financial reasons. In 2020, the Part-time Museum began to raise funds by looking for 17 honorary directors to fund 10,000 each, and it was difficult to survive.

However, during the epidemic, the courtyard was largely abandoned due to the frequent inability to carry out indoor activities - in order to reduce storage costs, they held charity sales of home appliances and department stores donated by public welfare. When the epidemic is severe, many part-time workers may not be able to work for several days, so they distribute rice noodles collected by public welfare in the community.

"Last year, there was a period of time when it was said that it was going to be demolished, but the landlord and the village did not negotiate and never signed." Fu Qiuyun said. Wang Dezhi was once lucky, and wanted to wait for the situation to stabilize before reviving until he received a notice confirming the demolition. They still owe tens of thousands of dollars to their landlords.

Liu Na does not ask Wang Dezhi how much income she has, her family is very strapped for money, she works as a kindergarten teacher and bears the tuition of her two children. After moving, after deducting rent, tuition, and living expenses from each month's income, there is not much left. Last winter, the school where she worked was unable to pay her salary.

In recent years, because of asking people to do things, Wang Dezhi has experienced some warmth and coldness. At the most difficult time, he asked a junior of a foundation if he had the resources to support it, but the other party did not reply to the message. After the news that the museum was going to be demolished, the junior posted a circle of friends saying that he had a "deep relationship" with the part-time museum.

The museum does not charge admission, and previously they left a donation box at the door. Later, it was found that it was pried, "There should be one or two hundred, and the workers are too poor to estimate it." Wang Dezhi said with a smile.

Recently, a native of Hengyang, Hunan Province, approached him and said that he might have to settle abroad, and that a two-story villa could be used for free. He persuaded Wang Dezhi to learn to tell stories and operate, and then said, let's do it well, how to divide the profits when the time comes.

Wang Dezhi feels that the part-time working museum is more of a "symbolic thing", "combing and recording the exhibition hall of workers' participation in urbanization construction", without it, it will not be good, "do not be too self-conscious". But he remained optimistic and left for the time being today to "get the conditions later."

According to him, there is now several good news about the museum's whereabouts – in late May, he was approached by the village secretary of Pi Village and asked him to write an application to the village and the village to "preserve some of the exhibits in other ways." Some universities in Hebei are willing to accept some exhibits, while others want to provide panoramic scanning technology and set up "online museums".

In the last few days, Zhang Shuxin of the Propaganda and Education Department of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions came to visit and found that many exhibits were indeed of historical value. What impressed him was a female worker's pay slip, densely packed with years of pay slips in one place.

He told Southern Weekend that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is preparing for the "Exhibition on the History of the Chinese Workers' Movement" for the 100th anniversary of its founding, and has taken back some of the exhibits of the Migrant Works Museum in two batches, with more than 170 pieces, which is intended to be included in this exhibition. "It's not easy for these things to come together, and it's a pity if they are lost."

In the newly rented house, Wang Dezhi first placed the bookshelves. He told Southern Weekend that these years have been the most stressful time for him, "too difficult, very complicated." On the whole, everyone is also a little distracted, to take care of everyone's emotions, but also to maintain the situation, can not show it... If I want to fall, they will definitely give up. ”

"That's what I learned at the Part-time Museum."

In 2016, after leaving Pi Village, female worker Meng Jinli returned to her husband's hometown of Xiangyang, Hubei Province, to open a rural library focusing on left-behind children. Meng Jinli said that after leaving the workers' home, many people run their own social institutions or libraries.

Born in 1990, she grew up in rural Guangxi because her younger brother had better grades and went out to work. When her daughter was one and a half years old, she came to Beijing by train to attend computer training at the workers' university in the workers' home and go back to open a printing shop.

At the part-time work museum, she saw her story and thought that she could wear a university uniform, but now she can only wear a factory uniform, "that feeling is very uncomfortable." In Pi Village, Meng Jinli met many university teachers, including Peking University Tsinghua University, "whether it is a museum, a literature group or a workers' university, you can see their shadows."

In seven years, Mong's library has moved six times, mostly due to money issues. Meng Jinli copied the business model she learned at the part-time museum - trying to support the library with the income from tutoring classes, and the team now has 4 sisters. The library has changed from 10 square meters to 200 square meters, costing 200,000 yuan a year.

In the hardest time, Meng Jinli is not hesitant, but she thinks of those people she knows in Beijing.

Another library related to the Migrant Works Museum is located in Beidadan Village, Wuxian County, Jiaozuo, Henan Province, which is smaller. 90% of the books were sent by Wang Dezhi.

The owner of the library is Xue Juxia, who was born in 1975, and she opened up two rooms in her home to read books to the children. There is no such place in the surrounding villages, and many children from neighboring villages will come.

At the age of 29, Xue Juxia's husband overturned on a motorcycle while collecting wheat and died. Xue Juxia was unwilling to remarry, and took her son to join her brother who was doing logistics at Tongxin Experimental School. From 2006 to 2010, Xue Juxia worked at Concentric Reciprocal Store. The curtains of the part-time museum were made by her and a few co-workers, red and gold velvet fabric.

There is a painting in the part-time working museum, called "The Voice of the Flowing Heart", which was painted by Xue Juxia's son. Above the painting is the city, below is the countryside.

"The city is the place we yearn for, but it is not our home, the countryside cannot go back because of the family environment at that time, and the city is our temporary refuge, which is a feeling of drifting." Ms. Xue said her son is now graduating from college, and the painting was completed when he was in fourth grade at Tongxin Experimental School, and the child's years there "should be happy."

Meng Jinli's 10-and-a-half-year-old daughter is the longest-serving volunteer in the library, she is proficient in computer borrowing, and she reads stories to the children in the library after homework.

Meng Jinli describes the impact of people as a "chain of characters" - children who used to serve are now in college and became volunteer college students last year. She has a small story corner on the library wall, recording "people who come to the library, people who have a relationship with the library."

"That's what I learned at the Part-time Museum." She regrets not being able to take her daughter to the museum, but she believes that "the people who grew up in it will always be there, not that if it's gone, it's gone." ”

On June 13, the exhibits of the Part-time Museum were relocated and awaiting demolition. (Southern Weekend reporter Pan Xuan/Photo)

"As long as someone is there, there is this heart"

Hu Xiaohai has loved ruins in recent years.

He works at the Harmony Reciprocal Shop in Yin Gezhuang and also lives there. Yin Gezhuang and Pi Village are separated by the Wenyu River, which is like an outflow of Pi Village, and many people who cannot afford the rent of Pi Village have moved here.

Hu Xiaohai knows some people who have left Pi Village, mostly older construction workers, and through a network of acquaintances of fellow villagers, "work wherever there is work" across the country. He himself is a post-80s generation, working for many years, came to Beijing in 2016, worked as a viewer on TV stations, a twenty or thirty games, let laugh and laugh.

Recently, workers often come to the store to buy second-hand shoes, they say that cutting bricks costs shoes, at first Hu Xiaohai did not understand what "cutting bricks" was, but later learned that this is a type of work. After the house is demolished, the demolition team will ask someone to take away the discarded materials and collect the commission. Some pull iron frames, some pick up pieces of iron, and the people at the very end pick up wood and plastic. The hardest thing is chopping bricks, mostly done by Sichuan workers - cutting bricks down and recycling, one brick earns a few cents.

Hu Xiaohai found that the ruins were also the source of survival for some people, and he felt a power from them, even if they were ruins, there were people who could struggle to survive.

When walking on the ruins, Hu Xiaohai would be inexplicably touched, and he felt that something must have existed here.

Hu Xiaohai feels that it doesn't matter if the part-time museum is demolished, "I think as long as people are there, feelings are there, and there can be another space anywhere." It doesn't matter if Pi Village is demolished, as long as someone is there, there is this heart. ”

He once wrote a poem called "Youth on the Assemblyline", when he saw the winter apricot branches on the apricot tree at the entrance of the Part-time Museum, bare and a little undulating, he felt the buds inside, but hidden deeply. "It's red, it's probably going to be angry."

On June 13, the exhibits at the Part-Time Museum were emptied. Some materials are not easy to store, Wang Dezhi sent them in the group, and the workers who needed them came to pick them up, and many people came, and some people came looking for them with flashlights in the middle of the night.

The small courtyard where the staff accommodation was also moved has also been completed. The bungalow where Jia Xiaoyan lives has become land, "covered with a layer of soil" to facilitate planting and greening in the future.

After the farewell ceremony that day, Wang Haijun stood alone with a bottle of beer at the door. Many friends did not see each other in the end, some returned to their hometowns, and some did not know where to go. Later, the eldest brother Guo Fulai came from work, and the two chatted together for a while.

Wang believed that if he found a suitable place, the museum might be rebuilt elsewhere, but if it was too far away, he would not go.

(Southern Weekend reporter Pan Xuan also contributed)

Southern Weekend Reporter Fu Ziyang Southern Weekend Intern Liu Yuyuan