Through the looking glasses
Unlike hundreds of other shops in the Beijing Glasses Mall in Panjiayuan, in Chaoyang district of the capital, Liu Baoxiang has no flashy hoardings to attract customers. However, there is never a dull moment as he labors in his nondescript shop on the mall’s 10th floor.
Liu, 59, has worked in the glasses industry for more than 40 years, but he does not sell manufactured glasses; he mends them, apart from designing and making bespoke glasses by hand.
Beijing Glasses Mall, formerly known as Beijing Glasses Factory, came into existence in 1963 with the coming together of several small family workshops. Liu went to the factory when he was barely 18 and had freshly graduated from high school in 1979.
He loved to visit different sections of the production line, learning the skills involved, and after spending years doing so he is now an authority in the art of making glasses.
The factory faced an existential crisis in the 1990s because production costs were several times higher than those of private companies in southern China. It gradually changed its traditional business model, removing the production line and forming a national glasses wholesale market in Panjiayuan. In 2003 the Beijing Glasses Mall began operating.
However, Liu lost his job in 2005. Around that time, some factories in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, wanted to employ him, and he accepted an offer to work for 7,000 yuan ($1,040) a month.
But it was a management position and Liu was not involved with production. Feeling lost, he resigned in six months to return to Beijing.
In April 2008 he rented a 215-square-foot room on the 10th floor of the Beijing Glasses Mall to start his glasses repair business. He remembers that the first order he got earned him 50 yuan.
For 12 years now, Liu has been going to his shop at 9 am and returning home about 6:30 pm. He works six days a week, spending Fridays with family. In his spare time he also browses the net to keep himself abreast of the latest eyewear techniques. He has also designed some tools of his own that help him in his job.
“I enjoy repairing glasses. It makes my day feel complete. My wife says I am addicted to it, but I don’t have any other skills and this is one job I love doing. Look at young people today. Many of them do not have the chance to do what they’d love to do.”
Those wanting to buy glasses at the Beijing Glasses Mall in Panjiayuan usually hang around downstairs, where there are hundreds of stores.
“If people are willing to come to my store on the 10th floor to get their glasses fixed, there must be some reason,” Liu said. “Whether or not they tell me why they take such great pains, I try my best to meet their demands.”
He recalled an elderly man who came to him with an old pair of glasses. They were in very bad shape. He told him that he could buy a new pair of glasses with the money it would cost him to get them repaired. However, the man insisted he wanted them repaired.
As Liu sat down to work he learned from the man that his mother had promised to buy him a pair of glasses with her month’s salary of 23 yuan, if he made it to high school. When her son made it to high school, the mother checked out almost every optical store in her hometown before buying him a good pair.
“The old man shed tears as he recalled his mother. I knew that I did not deserve to hear the story behind his glasses if I could not repair them well. The story kept haunting me even after the man had left.”
Moments like these make him feel his life and works
have been worth it. Spectacles come at a price, but the emotions behind them are priceless.
Liu Jiaqi, 75, another former worker of the Beijing Glasses Factory, once taught Liu Baoxiang how to make glasses. Since the factory shut down he has been making glasses for some television and movie actors at his workshop on the eighth floor of the mall building.
Making glasses for period films or television programs requires intricate knowledge about how glasses have evolved over time. But Liu Jiaqi has spent an entire life in the glasses industry and read enough books on them.
As he is catching on age, Liu Jiaqi hopes he has enough time for his work.
“My eyes and hands are not as good as they once used to be.”
But most of his orders come from friends, so he cannot turn them down.
Liu Jiaqi feels privileged to have acquired this skill. He said artisans like him can make a living and support their families, even if they cannot make much money. “However, I am glad I can still do what I love doing.”
“I enjoy repairing glasses. It makes my day feel complete. My wife says I am addicted to it, but ... this is one job I love doing.”
LIU BAOXIANG