To the editor:
I gather the implements of torture. With pride I lay out the clamps, poles, hooks, and wires on the shelf ready to be applied. Next I prepare the liquids, soap, bleach, softener and water. This is a wet job. It is early Saturday morning and time for the week’s laundry.
In the advertisements for jobs here in China and targeted to foreign experts there is a line which now brings much amusement to those of us who live here. It is “Washer/Dryer included”, in the listing of amenities. For a nation which has had the luxury of modern conveniences like dishwashers, dryers, and clothing washers for over 80 years the ability to do laundry is taken for granted. Speed, accuracy, and efficiency are the rules. Our wardrobes reflect this. How many shirts, pants, socks, underwear and sheets does each person have?
Today, I can trot down to the local appliance store and choose from an assortment of drying machines. Properly installed, an average person can do a week’s worth of laundry in about two hours: Two hours from hamper to hang up! What a luxury. China is of course at the forefront of a modern ecological movement. This is most profoundly represented by the ubiquitous laundry pole found in every home. A Chinese clothes dryer is solar powered.
Laundry is a most dangerous beast. I live 22 floors above the ground here in Shanghai. Outside my window is the latest in dryer design. A large square formed of metal tubes are anchored by two wires to the side of the building. There are five loops on the two sides parallel to the building. Through these loops one pokes a long pole that holds the laundry for drying. To reach the pole, you must lean out the window and grab hold of a rod no bigger than your wrist. Hint, do not look down.
Clothing is attached with a series of clamps or the pole is run through the holes for our arms and legs. The pole is then put on the rack as described above. This then is tied down so that it can not escape. Next, you use the cell phone to call your bookie and get the odds that your sweet nothings will be appearing on the forsythia hedge. I am very popular at the bookie’s office.
Once all this is done, you next wait for about eight or nine hours and then you can have fresh clean laundry to retrieve and put away. Laundry day has begun.
Orpheus Allison
Shanghai, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
