Snapshots: The Fu Wu Yuan
Fu wu yuan (æœåŠ¡å‘˜) literally means "service person" in Chinese, yet the term applies to waitresses, barmaids, and virtually anyone else in the service sector. At any Chinese restaurant or bar, it is entirely appropriate and normal for customers to shout this word in order to summon help, something that makes Westerners new to China noticeably uncomfortable.
The fu wu yuan at The Box, my local watering hole, is 17 years old. She comes from Guizhou, the province east of Yunnan and amongst the poorest in all of China. Her parents are illiterate peasants and no longer work; her father is an alcoholic and her mother disabled. She herself has little education, as she has had to work from an early age. When she came to Kunming, she worked in a hairdressing shop, but for the past year or so has been at the bar. This work she likes better.
She typically works about fifty hours a week for a rather low salary, though her wage has recently been doubled due to her diligent management of the bar. In addition to making drinks (including alien concoctions like screwdrivers and mojitos), she also serves as the bar chef, making mainly Italian-style pizzas and lasagnas. She once confided that she doesn't much care for Western food, and when the bar is quiet she typically sneaks outside and grabs noodles or vegetables for dinner.
The Box, like most laowai bars in a foreign city, is often rowdy and full of drunken men. It is also small, grim, and full of cigarette smoke. Yet the fu wu yuan never complains. She often steals catnaps during the afternoons so she won't be tired at night. For a girl without any English, she remembers every regular customer by name, and greets them with a "ni hao!" and a smile.
Once, while I was there having an afternoon coffee, she told me that the she had spent her day off with friends at Grand View Park, one of Kunming's greener and more scenic outdoor spaces. Her friend had taken photos and had them developed. In the Chinese style, each photo showed the fu wu yuan posing in front of a scenic landscape. In no photos did she smile. I asked her why.
"Because I don't like my teeth"
This girl, at 17, sends most of her salary back to her family in Guizhou. Her younger brother plans to attend college, and will be the first member of her family to do so. He will do so based almost solely on the financial support of his older sister, who at this moment is making pizzas and serving drinks to foreigners in a dingy bar.
