Shi
Bai introduced me to Shi, saying he was the person they all took care of because of his poverty. The called Shi “the little stone’, as he is the youngest worker among them. When I asked if I could take his picture, he hesitated, saying he wouldn’t look good on camera. He then asked if he could ever become a star, since he was just a rubbish recycler plus part time factory worker. He had recently sold his tricycle because the factory wasn’t paying him overtime, but he still needed to pay off his house debt. I repeated that he looked amazing.
His debt
He showed me the tally book he keeps. He hadn’t completed grade 5 before leaving school to work. He still owed 76,000, borrowed from “ughle,” “uhntie,” and “cuosans”—his handwriting was so unclear that I had to reassure myself these were Chinese words. He worked hard to repay the debt. Bai told me he was always the first to arrive and the last to leave.
