The way a kitchen or bathroom is set up differs greatly between rural and urban areas. In rural homes, kitchens are sometimes separated from the living area. When it rained or snowed we would have to use an umbrella to carry dishes from the kitchen to the living room. The separation of kitchen and living room spaces was good for fire prevention and also saved the other rooms from being tainted by the fumes. We cooked on an old-fashioned mud stove heated with firewood.

After moving to the town, we began to use a coal stove, which required us to store briquettes. In order to save the RMB 0.5 per month on transportation costs, we would borrow a push cart and carry them directly from the coal factory. It was only after we moved into the apartment in the city that we finally had a self-contained kitchen and the dining room, and began to use a gas stove for cooking. But during that time not many people had access to gas, and there were only a few gas supply facilities. We would store the gas in a tin cylinder and had to carry it to the gas station for refilling when it was used up. It wasn’t until the 1990s that gas pipelines were available in our community. Now even in rural areas, farmers have said farewell to firewood and have started to use gas or methane.

As for the bathrooms back in the countryside, every household had to build a kind of outhouse or pit latrine behind their homes. Indoor plumbing was still unknown, but villagers found ways to use the waste as fertilizer for their farmland. We were more environmentally friendly in those days even without being aware of it. We still didn’t have a self-contained toilet even after moving to the town. Over 100 households in the neighborhood had to share a horrible smelling public pit latrine. Imagine having to use the toilet on an extremely cold winter night or having to wait in a long queue on a busy morning. It wasn’t until 1985 that my family moved into an apartment in the city, and we finally had our own self-contained toilet.

Water in those days had to be fetched from the nearby river. The labor-intensive life of the countryside made having strong sons important. Luckily there were five boys in my family. I remember the large vat in the doorway of every home used to store water for daily use. Moving to the town allowed us to use running water for the first time. However, it was only a faucet attached to a pipe on the side of the road, shared by over 30 neighboring households. The water fees were covered by each household calculated based on their family size. During the cold winters, the faucet would often freeze. All that changed after we moved to our apartment in the city with indoor plumbing equipped with an expensive water purifier, and bottled drinking water delivered directly to the home.

From Political Icons to Authentic Art

Another element in our homes that has changed with times would be how our homes are decorated. Back in our small rural home in those days we normally hung a large portrait of an important leader like Mao Zedong or Hua Guofeng. We would also maybe hang awards and certificates that my brothers or I had received or some revolutionary-themed pictures. In the past, the newlyweds without much money would simply cover their walls with old newspapers.

When the reform and opening-up policies kicked in, traditional images returned to the walls of homes along with paper-cuts or calligraphy. Now people in China have more disposable income, allowing them to arrange their homes beyond just basic practical needs. In my apartment in Beijing, I have three paintings and some calligraphy hanging on my walls which were gifts from my artist friends. In addition, I love to collect things in my travels and brought back two oil paintings from Mexico and a metal mask purchased in Spain. We may live in different times now, but our homes have made the journey with us. I look forward to imagining what my son’s home will look like 40 years from now.