Preface
Sapeur is a non-mainstream cultural group that pursues pleasure, although most of them have an unstable life. Sapeurs are extremely conscious of the quality of their dress and are very sophisticated. The definition of a sapeur is non-violent, a group of people who live a sophisticated life in the midst of a constant war in the Congo, guarding the peace and living a life that is all their own. Life will always return to dull, but the human ecology can choose.
Master Liu, who drives a taxi, was the last cross-dresser to arrive at the studio.
As soon as he pushed open the door, he bumped into Kang Xiaorui, a courier who was going to the bathroom to try on clothes. Kang Xiaorui, holding a brand new suit, nodded hello to Master Liu, who was meeting for the first time. Master Liu smiled sarcastically and stood at the studio door in a formal manner.
Kindergarten teacher Xie Jing was sitting on a high stool in the middle of the venue. The makeup artist on the side is hesitantly picking a suitable lip gloss for her from the wide array of cosmetics.
Wang Tao, a crane driver waiting to be recorded, boredly raised his cell phone to Xie Jing and the cameraman, respectively, and took two small videos to send to his workmates. Cashier Yu Shanshan, who had already completed the makeup shoot, sat off-camera, and was taken over by the set manager to do a good job on the makeup artist’s half-rolled hair.
Less than forty square meters of studio, witnessed an escape from them – from the ripples of daily life.
Master Liu, Kang Xiaorui and Wang Tao, who were wearing makeup for the first time, looked at their unfamiliar selves in the mirror and felt some novelty.
At 2pm, the five dressed up for the photographic art exhibition “The Yakuza of the Congo” held at the French Cultural Center in Beijing. In the 1960s, when war was raging in the Congo region of Africa, local residents had little recreation and entertainment, so some people found another way to enjoy life, scrimping on food and clothing, spending a lot of money on brand-name clothes and dressing up, called “elegant people”. Underneath the elegant clothes, there is a hope for life that has not yet been extinguished.
Before the bell rang at the end of the photo exhibition, Chinese “elegant” Liu masters were Cinderellas wearing crystal shoes, temporarily forgetting the reality of leaving their hometowns and raising their families. Their former regrets and reluctantly revealed dreams peeked out cautiously.
Living like a real young man
When Shanshan Yu, a cashier at a liquor and tobacco supermarket, arrived at the studio at 9:00 a.m., the shooting site was not yet fully set up. She sat by the corner by the window, quietly playing with her phone, waiting for work to begin.
In 2013, she dropped out of school and came to Beijing, where her first job was as a shoe store assistant for a year before quitting.
In Yu Shanshan’s opinion, many things are judged by “whether it’s fun” to practice or not. She dropped out of school because she was not good at studying, and envied her peers who were working around her, “their life is quite interesting”. She resigned from the shoe store because the owner had changed and her familiar colleagues had left, so she found it uninteresting and went to a winery to do sales. She participated in the cross-dressing event because she was curious, “This should be fun, right?
Her look this time is on the retro side, heavy makeup, high heels and long skirts. Yu Shanshan love beauty, nothing like flipping through fashion magazines, but usually rarely wear skirts, “work inconvenient”, and never tried this heavy makeup wind. Today, after taking a day off, Yu Shanshan finally did not have to worry about affecting the work, she put sequins on her nails, but also painted the favorite blue and purple.
The makeup artist started to paint Yu Shanshan’s eyes, and she clutched her hands uneasily, not talking much, peeking in the mirror every now and then to see how she looked.
“She dropped out of school because she was not studying well, and envied her peers who worked around her, ‘they live quite an interesting life’.” (Author’s photo) “She dropped out of school because she was not good at studying and envied her peers who were working around her, ‘they have an interesting life’.” (Photo by the author)
Kang Xiaorui also arrived on the set, he lives near the supermarket where Yu Shanshan works, often goes to buy cigarettes and is responsible for the delivery and receipt of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Kang Xiaorui, 25, went to junior college and worked as a courier before following two masters to learn how to do mechanical design and work indoors.
He did not like the design so much, “very tired, and boring”, at least 12 hours a day on the computer. In 2013, the company to move to Shenzhen, he did not want to go south, simply resigned. After resigning to do odd jobs around, did sales, hotel front desk, porter.
Couriers run rain or shine, Kang Xiaorui home from work, often fall asleep, and even too lazy to wash. Despite this, he said that “courier is the first occupation that I like besides design”.
The first lost pieces, a beauty school girl ordered drugs, he rummaged in the courier pile for a week, rushed to get back before the girl went home. The girl did not rush to blame him, but also became his first beauty school friends in WeChat.
When there is no work, he often to the beauty school basketball court and students to play basketball together. Usually the work encounter pressure, and take a few words of flirtation with the students of the courier, it will pass. Knowing that he was leaving in a couple of months, students who knew him well also sent a bracelet. He likes this group of young people in the beauty school, like the feeling of being trusted.
A while ago Kang Xiaorui worked overtime every day, he always wanted to take time to see a movie, play ball, see the exhibition, do not give all the time to work, to live like these real young people in the beauty school.
That day after styling home, it was late at night. He did not have time to remove his makeup, with a head full of hairspray, stroked eyebrows, eyes and lips, went downstairs to the kiosk to buy water, the store familiar with his old aunt startled. Kang Xiaorui naughty smile, he said in the future really have to pick up their own.
“Want to try everything”
When the film crew found Master Liu, he was in the waiting area of a shopping mall, lining up to pick up passengers.
Earlier, the director asked a circle of drivers one by one, “whether they are interested in cross-dressing”, “whether they accept the whole shooting”, were rejected. When asked to Master Liu here, he agreed without much consideration, “mainly because I want to try everything”.
In his 43 years of life, Master Liu has had many attempts. 20 years ago, he came to Beijing with a friend to make a go of it, and started out as a construction worker, moving bricks and mud. Later, he went to the vegetable market to sell beef and mutton, and fell in love with the girl selling vegetables at the opposite stall. Dated a few times, watched a few movies, get together less than 3 months to get a license.
After the marriage, Master Liu opened his own restaurant, but business is not good, closed down in 2011. Also in this year, he obtained a driver’s license, opened a taxi. At first, his wife was very opposed to his line of work, “and tired and unsafe. Six months later, the wife herself also ran to learn, and now he drives a cab.
Master Liu’s ordinary day, divided in half by two five points. Five o’clock, is the husband and wife set the delivery time. The wife is out of the car during the day, he will stay up all night. Master Liu has two daughters, the family is in Beijing, but because of the taxi, but also get together less and less. When he wants his wife and children, he will close earlier.
The stylist gave Master Liu with a white striped suit, but he was not used to tie a tie, so he replaced it with a loose bow tie.
Three days ago, he ran to work for a special car company. The company asked to wear a tie, he did not tie, always feel tied up. Caught once by supervision, he immediately quit his job. He still likes to live a casual life, just like his WeChat nickname – “freedom”.
The three men’s makeup all from simple. Master Liu with a bald head and Wang Tao with an inch head do not even need to redo their hair.
The company requires a tie, he does not tie, always feel tied up. Caught once by regulation, he immediately resigned. (Author’s photo) The company asked to wear a tie, he did not wear it, always feel tied up. Caught once by the supervision, he immediately resigned. (Photo by the author)
Wang Tao, a tower crane driver, looked at himself with makeup on and “felt weird”. He lived in the dusty construction site and was used to the dusty face. From his hometown in Sichuan to Beijing, Wang Tao also did not bring a few good clothes, “I will dress up at home, here I feel no need”. Usually wear the earthy gray work clothes, and then a black dirty cotton jacket.
In 2012, 33-year-old Wang Tao, with his wife for the second time in the north. 2005, he and his mother came once. The two had a storefront near the Sun Palace, selling Sichuan seasonings, which was poorly run and closed after two years. This became his biggest regret in 37 years.
He attributed his first failure in the north to his youthfulness, “I was so greedy at that time that I didn’t take care of the business”. His first child was born during this period, and he began to feel the responsibility of family. Driving a tower crane truck on the construction site was a compromise choice made to take care of his family.
Today, his wife is a signalman. Every day, Wang Tao sits in the fifteen-story tower crane truck, and she is on the ground, assisting him to find the right position and dispatch the materials through the intercom. Compared with cement workers and bricklayers, this is an easier job. Besides, “I feel more secure with her down there”.
But when he sits alone in a space several dozen meters above the ground, depression and boredom are everywhere like air. Only when hanging things, time passes faster. “When something is lifted, the whole crane will tilt down, and then people will also lean forward a little. It feels especially heavy, like you will be carrying something. If the crane comes up, it feels like a weight.”
The working hours of the tower crane are variable and change with the progress of the project. “It takes 12 or 13 hours to hit the columns and 6 or 7 hours to hang the wall panels”, and the work requires a long time to maintain a low posture, which has a great impact on the cervical vertebrae and spine.
He was on the tower crane to change the shape of the city, feel the spring, summer, autumn and winter, “today hanging steel, tomorrow is the cement slab, you do a year in this site, watching these leaves slowly sprout, after a while, and watch them wither. Just know that a year has passed.” But never had the chance to walk around and see for himself the giant city beneath his feet.
His latest wish, he says, is to take his wife and children out on a trip.
“I’ve created my own life.”
Among the five, the most educated is Xie Jing. She loves children, is good at singing and dreams of integrating music into early childhood education and bringing the beauty of music to more children.
“When you are with a child, you can feel his admiration and trust in you, and will be influenced by you to start being interested in music, which makes one feel very accomplished.” She is cheerful, friendly and energetic, and draws children close to her at every moment.
It’s a gift and an ability that comes slowly. During her undergraduate studies at Henan University, she volunteered many times at the childcare center in Lankao County, and in 2009, after studying at the China Conservatory of Music, she often gave music lessons to children with Down syndrome at the Angel Home in Yanjiao.
In her third year of study, she gave up the option of most of her classmates going to a professional orchestra and determined to start a kindergarten. “I love the feeling of being with little kids so much that I knew in my heart that it might be sooner or later, but I would definitely go for it.”
In ’09, she rented two 70-square-foot rooms in Beijing’s Xiaoxitian and the venture officially began.
When there was no source of students, she took it upon herself to play piano and sing in the classroom, attracting a group of grandparents to bring children to listen, thus starting the first step from the care class. A child once ran home excitedly and told her mother that she wanted to write a diary, “to write down the happiness that Ms. Xie brought me. This child’s parents later became one of Jing Xie’s investors.
And then it was a busy day, getting up at six o’clock every morning, riding the electric bike for forty minutes to the classroom, and then riding home at ten o’clock in the evening. Sometimes she was so tired that she slept with her car on the roadside green belt. She woke up covered in injuries and slowly rode the bike back.
She has encountered all kinds of troubles, not being trusted, not being understood, losing money and even being forced to close her kindergarten. But no matter what she faces, she can say “I created my life by myself” with great confidence and no regrets. This girl, who is kind and gentle in front of her children, has determination in her eyes at this moment.
The careful make-up artist caught this and chose a bottle of crimson lip gloss for her, which was paired with a slim knee-length dress, bold and competent. The contrast with Xie Jing’s brightly colored sportswear in the kindergarten is stark.
Everyone is waiting
At 1 p.m., all five were in costume and ready to go.
The art exhibition “The Elegant People of the Congo”, featuring 22 photographs by the photographer Baudouin Mouanda. Moanda’s 22 photographs. In the photos, Congolese people, dressed in bright colors, walk confidently in the streets and alleys.
When Sandra Yu entered the lobby of the French Cultural Center, the cameraman followed her all the way, making her a little nervous. With her ten centimeter heels, she was not walking so naturally. She was looking for the right expression for the makeup on her face.
Wang Tao was also nervous, and when he was nervous, he wanted to smoke.
A group of cute French kids, paraded in the exhibition hall. He envied the foreign kids with good families, and thinking of his own children, he planned to “save more money and pick up the seasoning business again to reunite the family”.
“Courier Kang Xiaorui also has long-term plans for the future, decided to resign to return home to Hebei to start a business, but also to do the field of logistics (author’s photo) courier Kang Xiaorui also has long-term plans for the future, decided to resign to return home to Hebei to start a business, but also to do the field of logistics. (Photo by the author)
Courier Kang Xiaorui looked a little excited, as soon as he entered the door, he was excited to run to the photography work to examine. At the moment he and those who like the art of beauty school students are no different, the future, he also has long-term plans, decided to resign to return home to Hebei to start a business, “but also do the field of logistics.
The first thing you need to do is to take it easy. Her early education institution is getting bigger and bigger, just got married not long ago, and intends to have their own children.
After the make-up, cross-dressing, interviews and art exhibitions, at 4 p.m., these Chinese “elegant people” returned to the ordinary. Like the nature of life, it is always ordinary, but those extraordinary dreams and aspirations are still pulsating.
Master Liu drove his cab back to his home in Fangshan. Not much to say on the way, willing to talk more about the topic is the daughter, daughter-in-law and the annoyance of driving a taxi. As he talked, he grunted, “life seems to be chained to the car. Ask him what else he wants to try, he paused, “I want to go to school, but I don’t have time”, waiting for the opportunity.
At the beginning of the night, Master Liu parked his car at the exit of a busy street, and people were coming and going at the crosswalk. All the people who come to Beijing to make a living, are waiting for the opportunity.
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