shanghai postcard #15: wicker chair repairman

As the weather gets better, the chairs come out. Traditional wicker chairs, or lawn-chair loungers, or brightly colored plastic chairs festooned with packing-tape bandaging. Life moves out of the house and onto the alley. 

After the chairs come the cots. When it's too hot to sleep inside, people just move outdoors and trade in feather pillows for bamboo-bead matting.

The repairman above is mending traditional chairs. He repairs all sorts of wicker-work, as well as repairing traditional beds, which use a inner wooden frame with a woven insert made of coir rope instead of a mattress.