There once a poet said, "In Chongqing, if your friends even yourself are drunk, you can employ Bangbang man to shoulder them or you back; on the birthday of girlfriend, you can employ a group of Bangbang men to send flowers, and offer a song of Happy Birthday as well ; If your beloved pet has suffered mishap, you can employ Bangbang men to mourn for it, and their saddest crying would be very touching, with tears and mucus flowing profusely; If you don't like someone, he can be hired to help you abuse him; when you feel frustrated, he can accompany you to drink, usually with effective result."
The history of Chongqing Bangbang man
In Chongqing, there's such a group of people, who climb and descend the city's steep hills, with a one-meter long bamboo stick on their shoulders, and there are two indigo nylon cords on the stick. They usually wander along the street to solicit business . They come from countryside, acting as the temporary porter in the streets of Chongqing, also called "Bangbang" by Chongqing citizens. Bangbang men can be seen everywhere in Chongqing, with the large number of three or four hundred thousand population, aging from teen-age to fifties or sixties.
Undoubtedly, when you ask the outlanders about their deepest impression for Chongqing, their answers may vary from different people, but there's an answer that never be neglected, that is "the army of Bangbang". It is such a mighty urban cultural landscape, which is almost unique in the whole world.
The historical reason for the appearance of Bangbang is quite simple. As Chongqing is located near the mountain and by the river, and it is built on mountains, for which the buildings are surrounded by mountains, and the streets are formed from the foot to the top, which equip Chongqing with little easy paths. So regardless of urban construction or the transport work in life, it requires a lot of labor.
It is said that the address of "Bangbang" became popular in about the late 80 s and early 90 s, so the name is both vivid and colloquial, which is accepted soon by Chongqing citizens. In the nineties, there are more and more Bangbang in Chongqing, and they shoulder their life by their own shoulders. They usually work in groups, so they are also called “ the army of Bangbang”.
The large-scale appearance of Bangbang begins in the late 1980s early 1990s. While their migration from wharf to urban area arises from the social change actually. In 1980s, plenty of workless rural men began to move into the city to look for a job, and they had a simple purpose, that is make some money for family supporting and housing building.
"Bangbang's inbound to city is an epitome of urbanization, while pining their fate on land is a negative reaction of encountering setbacks in the process of urbanization. The existence of Bangbang offers employment, absorbs workforce surplus in rural area, and provides citizens with conveniences."
In Chongqing, as long as one has strength, it is not difficult to earn living ----because the terrain of Chongqing determines the existence of porter. Besides, this occupation requires neither energy nor skill, not to say the investment. It needs nothing more than a stick and two ropes to wander around wharf, station or food market. After strolling around these places, they will find some physical work.
Bangbang in the fast developing city
Instantly, more than a decade later, when Bangbang is becoming older, the modern city is growing at the same time.
In August 2000, the concept of " 8 hours around Chongqing " was put forward for the first time, and it was formally incorporated into Tenth Five-year Plan of Chongqing. Meanwhile, the traffic project construction of “ reaching urban core in half an hour ”(It refers that get to the city government in half an hour at any district government by bus )was officially declared to be implemented.
Traffic improvement is a microcosm of the rapid development of Chongqing. Being municipality for fourteen years, the most intuitive feeling of citizens is that there are more buildings, private cars, and people run after the films despite at the price of fifty. There are almost new words everyday to update our memory, such as light rail, cloud computing, public rental housing, and micro-enterprises. With the fierce competition of logistics, distribution, express delivery and so on, combining with the track transportation connections, the convenience of taxi, the booming of private cars, the flourish of all kinds of supermarkets in communities, and the custom of bulk merchandise's home delivery.....all of these are competing the livelihood with Bangbang, which deprives their ample strength for abilities.
On the other hand, with the improvement of peasant labor's education, the increasing gap of enterprise employees, improvement of working treatment , and the diversity of employment way for the farmer second generation, there’s no need to make living by wandering along the street with a stick on their shoulders for more and more young people from the countryside.
"In traditional view, known as a mountain city, Chongqing is inappropriate to turn to a metropolis because of its rough roads, and uneven terrain. But it has become an inland city with a population of over 30 million from a population of only 2 million in 1967, therefore it is called the world's fastest-growing city." In the global international city ranking of 2010 published by an American magazine Foreign Policy, there are seven Chinese cities on the list, in which Chongqing is included.
Knowledge Expert
The second half of the Yuzhong district in Chongqing is the " mother city" of Chongqing. In ancient times, Bangbang walked up the steps by carrying sedan-chair or other things.
Pu Yongjian, a teacher for tourism speciality in Chongqing University, thinks that after restoring the Chongqing down area, some old streets, such as Eighteen Stairs, could be explored to involve Bangbang in tourism, which can not only increase revenue, but also show the regional characteristics of the old Chongqing culture; tourists can sit in Bangbang's sedan chair to visit old streets, admire the charming of old Chongqing, watch folk acrobatics, and listen to folk music, which will give a deep impression to people, and make them regret leaving.
He added that the laboring tools of Bangbang --a golden bamboo stick, can also be sold as a tourism commodity. Many tourists will like it if curved the picture of old Chaotianmen and old down area.
