Zhu Bo's "doll clinic" came with new guests: someone hung up the emergency room and came to Shanghai from Dalian.
Zhu Bo, whose real name is Zhu Boming, is 74 years old this year and has a good spirit. When he was young, he was a Zhu gong who had to strive for excellence in everything he did in the institute, and after his retirement, he opened a "doll clinic" to repair old dolls. Customers generally call him Jubo, and he likes to call these dolls sent for repair as "little friends".
The "little friend" who hangs up the emergency room is a small bear called "gray ash", whose fluff is no longer three-dimensional because it has been repeatedly touched, and there is a crack under one arm.
On the small sofa stool at the window, Jubo received hundreds of "children" who were out of shape. Some people send dolls for help, some people rush to the emergency department at any cost, and some people even feel tormented by the separation of repairing dolls these days.
Every "little friend" has a story, they can't act, they can't speak, but they can also accompany their master forever and never hurt. Emotions are like falling snow, floating densely in time, unconsciously, piled deeply.
Juber knows that some people can't tell where it is good, but no one can replace it. Some bears, cats, dogs, pigs, rabbits, monkeys... Also.
Someone hung up the emergency room
Zhu Bo's "Doll Clinic" is located in Lane 252, Tianbao West Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai. In the room at the end of the narrow staircase, Juber was already preparing for surgery. Like Detective Holmes, most of the time, Juber sorts out his thoughts in the room, using a magnifying glass to observe, screen, and judge, mostly about hair, skin, and bones. Occasionally, he also goes out in search of materials and inspiration.
"How old are you?" Jubo pushed the glasses and did preoperative questioning.
Sun Jingjing, who brought ash to the emergency room, knew that she had found the right person. Asking the age is the first thing That Jubo does to receive all the "children", just like the pediatrician wants to confirm the basic situation of the young patient.
The "children" in the "Doll Clinic" seem to be really cute to outsiders: dirty, there is little fluff left on the body, and the filling is dry... They are the owner's most beloved treasures.
Juber sat between them, hunched over, squinting his eyes through the needle lead. The lights sprinkled down, the air was full of gentle concentration, and everyone tacitly breathed very lightly.
Zhu Bo is "operating on Ash" Li Chuyue
Ash is a small bear with gray and white patches, 33 years old this year, which is a gift given to her by sun Jingjing's father on her 4th birthday. Since then, she and Ash have not been separated for almost a day. The only time she went on a business trip to Xinjiang a few months ago encountered an outbreak, and during the quarantine, Ash ash was placed elsewhere. Sun Jingjing spent a lot of effort to communicate with the staff to let the other party understand, "That's my friend, not an item." ”
For the past 33 years, Ash ash has been by Sun Jingjing's side. Take it everywhere you go, and hold it when you sleep at night. Sometimes she leaves work late, and when she walks at night, because there is ash, she will be more at ease. After the death of his father, the meaning of ash is even more different. Over the years, Ash has followed her to the north and south, and it has never been bad. Until the end of 2020, a crack appeared under one of Ash's arms, and Sun Jingjing was a little anxious, but she did not dare to casually find a tailor to repair it. Searched for the information of Jubo's "Doll Clinic" on the Internet, immediately arranged the itinerary, and hung up the emergency department.
The surgery begins. Zhu Bo held ash in his hand, carefully cleaned, stitched, repaired, stroked, and talked to ash from time to time. Sun Jingjing sat waiting for the operation to end, and the small sofa stool she was sitting on had heard too many stories, some warm, some sad.
At first, Ash did not receive special treatment, but over time, Sun Jingjing felt that Ash was different from other dolls. It seems to have a living being, a gender, an age, an emotion, a change in growth, just like family. There are also friends around who do not understand, think that this is a mental illness, or have psychological trauma, and will put their emotions on a cloth bear.
But Sun Jingjing and Ash get along sweetly and warmly, and decades of companionship have become the most precious memories. In the past 33 years, Ash has accompanied her through too many important moments in her life. "I didn't mean to carry it, but it just didn't leave me." Sun Jingjing remembers going to Dalian from her hometown to study at university, find a job, and start a family. Ash has always been, like a relationship with the best old friend.
When Ash gradually grew old, her family reminded Sun Jingjing not to hold it anymore, and to hold it again to pieces. But Sun Jingjing felt that if she put it there, what was the point? "It's because it's with me that it became it." Sun Jingjing said.
Before coming to See Zhu Bo, Sun Jingjing hesitated to give Ash a major operation. Later, it was decided to keep it as it was, because this is the trace of its age. If one day it does break, it means that its life is over. After becoming a mother, Sun Jingjing also bought a bear for her son, hoping that he would also have such a friend to accompany him to grow up.
When there is pressure at work or when she is unwell, she will talk to Ash. Even if you don't talk, with it around, you feel sustenance. "This is a wonderful experience that very few people can capture." She said.
Sun Jingjing has many bear cubs, large and small, with different shapes. A handmade teddy bear, expensive, she also bought. But it is usually placed in the home and becomes an ornament, and none of them can replace the ash.
Minimally invasive surgery
Irreplaceable, this feeling Guo Kunjie understands too well. Her "bear" is also over thirty years old, and time has not easily spared this teddy bear. The fuzz that had been pricked to the touch had fallen off most of it, and the nose and tail that had been repaired were about to break again.
"Your teddy bears are all broken like this, let's change one." The previous boyfriend tried to convince Guo Kunjie to trade the old for the new. Guo Kunjie did "change", but not a teddy bear, but a boyfriend.
When Guo Kunjie was 3 years old, bears, little tigers and monkey toys were given to her by her aunt as gifts. Whenever there are new toys on the first night, Guo Kunjie will hold them to sleep, but the second night, Xiong Xiong will always return to the main position again.
In 2008, the Wenchuan earthquake struck, and the whole family drove out to take refuge at night, and Guo Kunjie only brought a teddy bear. "Possessions may be regained, but not bearish. If there is another major earthquake, I will only take it with me. As the bear 'age' grew older, Guo Kunjie did not dare to take it out of the house, and the number of cleanings became less and less. Because every wash is a big loss, it will lose hair.
However, when it comes to bathing, Juber has a way. Two lamps, blue and pink, are placed on the workbench for night work. The iron box contains "scalpels" such as crochets, scissors, wire breakers, and hair trimmers. After more than twenty years as a doll doctor, Juber gets up at 8 o'clock every morning and is busy until 12 o'clock at night, and has repaired more than 800 dolls so far.
Jubo repairing dolls (courtesy of interviewee)
Looking back at the beginning of the profession of toy repair, it is still the internal needs of the Zhu family. The first doll Zuber repaired was his son's toy polar bear, and as a result, he repaired it three times without his son being satisfied. "He said it wasn't right, he said it wasn't mine." The son complained. It turned out that the toy was also named by his son, and Zhu Bo, who thought he was skillful, was not convinced and changed until the child was satisfied.
"Fixing toys is a complicated mess." Jubo sighed. After getting each doll, Jubo had to take three views to see the doll's disease. It is then cleaned, filled with cotton, and finally hair planted and repaired for damaged areas.
Long-term bathing, serious wear and tear, and external damage are three "common diseases". The older the doll, the less the owner dares to wash it, but Jubo has his own set of secrets. Add "exclusive reagents" to warm water at about 40 ° C, soak the toy for 3 minutes, and then brush back and forth with a brush, and a basin of water slowly turns yellow. His exclusive cleaning reagent has no alkaline components and can break down stains on top without harming the villi. After washing, the air drying process is also very exquisite, the temperature should be maintained at 25 ° C, humidity 50%, hair dryer, stove, thermometer, indispensable.
Blowing and drying dolls also requires a special technique: while the cold fan is turned on, the hot air generated by the hair dryer is transmitted by hand to transmit the temperature. "There are hot and cold winds, which becomes a physical rotation and produces air currents." Juber said.
What really caused him a headache was to replant the doll, make clothes, and find ingredients. "A velvet shop, thousands of materials can not meet me, I ran all over the velvet shop in Shanghai." Juber was annoyed. Looking for materials, the color requirements are extremely high, the eyes see no color difference, and the color after aging must be close. Repair to 70% of the original appearance of the toy, the ingredients may take a week; the requirements for repair to 90%, a month may not be found.
In search of the right yarn, Zuber often visits various markets. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
From the form, color, texture, customer requirements are getting higher and higher, And Juber's technology is constantly improving. When he was young, he was a man who did not accept defeat and did everything to the extreme.
When supplies were scarce, he learned to be a tailor at the age of 12, making clothes for his younger siblings with limited fabrics; in his spare time, he taught himself an instrument, and Jubo played his violin very well and tuned the piano. When he was an engineer in the development department of the Integrated Circuit Research Institute, Europe and the United States were imposing a technical blockade on China, and an integrated circuit component imported by the Institute was worn out of the model, and there was no internal circuit diagram, and he stayed up for 6 nights, and he figured out the internal structure of the component.
Zhu Bo is also a "ashes-level" audiophile, and 20 years ago he made a half-palm-sized tape recorder with a hand-welded integrated circuit board, which can still be used now. After getting older, he independently developed a thermos shoe, "This is very simple, there is a chip, C language can write a few words." Juber said.
Compared with writing C language, the technical requirements of repairing dolls are not high, but this meticulous craftsmanship is not an easy task. Restoration, including restoring the appearance, but also creating something based on memory. For each step of repair, Zhu Bo must take videos and photos to confirm through WeChat and the owner of the toy. In Jubo's WeChat list, the owner of a yellow bear notes that the name is "neck is gone", which sounds like it requires major surgery.
The yellow bear without a neck is one of the lucky ones, and the fur is successfully matched at one time. But finding a fleece of a similar color is only the first step, and after the velvet thread is patched up with one stitch and one thread, it has to be scattered like cotton. The hair planting is completed and then uniformly trimmed to integrate with the original fluff of the toy.
"Definitely minimally invasive surgery!" Juber said as he showed a comparison chart of the teddy bear's neck repair, "Remove the doll's head to repair the neck?" The master is going to be angry! It's all a little bit of movement, you can't see it, I can see it. Juber said.
Repair childhood
The soft fluff rubbing against the skin, coupled with the right temperature, the owner of the childhood toy willingly took half of the bed by the plush toy. However, plush dolls age faster than humans, and being busy finding ways to save dolls becomes a top priority.
"This group is in the minority." Jubo introduced that before the explosion, he would only receive one or two dolls a month that only needed to be repaired.
"The customer base is always small." Liu Haimei and Zhu Bo, a Yangzhou native, felt the same way. Liu Haimei opened a toy store on Taobao, mainly engaged in toy customization, and there will also be customers who ask for resampling or repairing their old plush toys. A pink bear changed its ears, hands and feet, mouth, and nose in Liu Haimei's shop, and completed the cleaning and cotton change.
The customer group is not large, and the requirements for each person are not low. The owner of the toy remembers every detail of the doll, and any minor changes in the restoration process will be discovered.
Juber remembers the scolding he had received because of a fold. A toy owner, when he came to pick up the doll, was full of gratitude and questioned online two or three days later. "The owner of the doll said, I've made his doll look like a smile." After communicating, Juber learned that the original folds on the mouth of the toy had been fixed, and had changed after cleaning. "All are normal. Failing to meet the requirements and not being able to restore the image in their minds, you can't blame him. Juber understood.
Juber began to demand more of himself, his repair surgery, the error is calculated in millimeters, the color should be placed in the cold light, warm light and natural daylight repeatedly compared. Gestures, looks, looks, and even smells must retain traces of memory.
More often, most of the feedback that Jubo received was the expression of the owners who were moved to cry after receiving the repaired doll, and the words of thanks for the "grace of life".
Jubo found that many of the people who came to repair the dolls were at the age when they needed the most care, and they lacked the care from their families. He can repair the doll and let the owner relive the warm moments in the memory, but the love of the parents for the child in childhood is irreplaceable by any toy.
"I also feel guilty, busy working when I was young, I rarely had time to spend with my son, I bought him a bunch of toys, hoping to accompany my children instead of myself, but the company of my parents is the most important." Juber said.
For only children, this kind of companionship is even more precious. When she was a child, her only daughter, Guo Kunjie, learned to have fun for herself, and Xiong Xiong was the best playmate of her childhood. "Would love to have family members of the same age, but not. Dolls are a complement to the loneliness of our generation of only children. Guo Kunjie said.
Behind every stitched and repaired doll is a lost and regained childhood, and repairing the doll is not only a technical repair, but more importantly, smoothing the folds of the mind. Zuber felt that this job was not something anyone could do, except for the doll restorer, who was a psychological counselor.
Zhu Bo and Ash Ash and Sun Jingjing took a group photo by Li Chuyue
Two hours passed and the surgery was a success. Sun Jingjing brought the little bear grizzly ashes to the emergency room, and took the arm in Zhu Bo's hand, and the whole bear looked a lot more energetic.
Zhu Bo gently combed the gray cheeks with a small toothbrush, because the repeated strokes of the collapsed fluff stood up again, and the round face did not know when to quietly raise the corners of the mouth.
"Oops, that smile is back, don't you see?" Zhu Bo is warm and sticky with Shanghainese Mandarin, and also has a little smile. Sun Jingjing looked at it for a while and carefully tied a bow on the gray chest. Her childhood was back.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zai Fei Text Editor: Zai Fei
Source: Author: Wang Qian Li Chuyue