久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Lifestyle
Home / Lifestyle / News

No match for progress

By Wang Ru | China Daily | Updated: 2012-11-19 09:03

No match for progress

Beijing collector Wang Yuxiang and his matchbox collection. Photos by Wang Ru / China Daily

Cigarette lighters and other conveniences have killed a once-essential commodity, but matchbox-label collectors are keeping the flame of a lost art alive, Wang Ru reports.

Related: Cases of fire

As time goes by, some things fade into history while other things pop up and thrive.

After the license-plate lottery began for private vehicles in Beijing, Wang Yuxiang's family-owned car-rental business boomed almost overnight.

But change hasn't always been kind to the Being native, 55, a passionate collector of matchbox labels. Wang heard some bad news in September.

Botou Match Co Ltd, the biggest producer of matches in Asia - 280 km away from Beijing in neighboring Hebei province - announced its bankruptcy.

"It is inevitable in times when few people use matches," says Wang, sitting in his office in Dongcheng district in Beijing.

"There are many fire-making tools now. The value of the match has gone," says Wang, who similarly notes that he seldom writes with a pen instead using a computer.

In the 1990s, there were about 40 match factories across China. According to Wang, only three are still producing matches now.

The existing match factories, like the oldest one in Beijing, now only produce orders from wedding planning companies and hotels. Some so-called match companies are in fact souvenir producers.

However, the story of the match has not been extinguished. Earlier this year, a nationwide convention of matchbox-label collectors, known as phillumenists, was held in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

"The labels of matchboxes are full of information and aesthetic value, like stamps. I am glad to be one of the collectors who have recorded the stories of matches in China," Wang says.

Since the 1970s, when Wang saved his first matchbox label, he has been charmed by the colorful patterns that often represent diverse cultures, landscapes and characteristics of different regions.

Matches then were a necessity of life, when most people used them to smoke and to light coal stoves.

In the planned-economy era, a box of matches remained at the price of 2 fen or 0.02 yuan, affordable for daily use. "It was very common that some customers and neighbors came to borrow matches for lighting cigarettes or making their lunches," he says.

One year in 1970s, Wang's remembers, an official proposal to raise the price of a box of matches from 0.02 yuan to 0.03 stirred a wide debate.

A national newspaper published the proposal and discussion. The price was never raised.

The match industry witnessed the modern history of China. In the old days, matches were sometimes called yang huo, literally meaning "foreign fire".

Previous 1 2 Next

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 色本道| 一区二区日韩欧美 | 欧美成人aaa大片 | 成人国产在线视频在线观看 | 免费a一毛片 | 模特精品一区二区三区 | 亚洲精品在线网站 | 99久久国产综合精品国 | 国产成人精品男人的天堂网站 | 国产成人精品日本亚洲麻豆 | 欧美一区二区三区激情视频 | 在线免费自拍 | 成年人在线网站 | 免费香蕉成视频成人网 | 日本午夜视频 | a欧美视频 | 九九视频在线观看视频 | 国产精品人成 | 岛国搬运工最新网地址 | 中文字幕视频在线 | 一本色道久久综合 | 日韩在线视频观看 | 午夜性生活视频 | 黄色成人毛片 | 欧美在线精品一区二区三区 | 亚洲一区二区三区91 | 免费播放欧美毛片欧美aaaaa | 黄色天堂 | 免费国产a国产片高清不卡 免费国产不卡午夜福在线 免费国产不卡午夜福在线观看 | 91aaa免费免费国产在线观看 | 欧美成人aaaa免费高清 | 亚洲不卡一区二区三区在线 | 欧洲freexxxx性| 国产亚洲欧美日韩在线看片 | 日本红怡院在线 | 国产精品高清视亚洲一区二区 | 亚洲精品国产男人的天堂 | 性做爰片免费视频毛片中文i | 欧美精品做人一级爱免费 | 99精品视频一区在线观看miya | 久草在线在线观看 |