Household items show 40 years of development

Around 3,000 items donated from Chinese families are being displayed at the Taiyuan Art Museum in Shanxi Province to show China’s changes over the past 40 years.

The exhibits include bikes, sewing machines, tape recorders, tapes, concert tickets and business suits.

An old bike stands out at the exhibition hall. It was the first bike owned by Wu Erbao’s family.

From the 1950s to the early 1990s, ration coupons were needed for many necessities and household items in China as the country had a shortage of food and materials.

Wu bought the bike for 157 yuan (around $23) in 1967 when he finally attained a coupon. The plumber who only earned more than 20 yuan a year had to borrow money from his parents and colleagues.

When he rode the bike home, his neighbors were surprised and envious.

Following the reform and opening-up of the late 1970s, the market economy gradually replaced the planned economy, phasing out ration coupons in the early 1990s.

Wu now owns a car and can now afford to buy bikes for his daughters.

“We have better cars and a better life, but every time I see this old bike, it reminds me of where I started,” Wu said.

A blue-grey business suit has also attracted public attention. In 1979, Cai Peiyi purchased this custom-made business suit before he left China to study in the US.

“I took the suit with me wherever I went,” Cai said.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Huang Haibo, 48.

When she was a visiting scholar in the US, she told locals that televisions and cars only became part of ordinary Chinese homes in the 1980s.

“Americans usually asked me what China was like at that time,” Huang recalled. “I hope to show the changes through the antiques owned by the Chinese families.”