Longmen ancient village on the Fuchun River in Zhejiang province, about an hour south of the capital Hangzhou, is the ancestral home of the Sun family which proudly records a number of historical notables on its family trees and artwork displayed in the village’s buildings. The big daddy of them all was Sun Quan (182 to 252 AD) who hailed from Longmen and was the founder of the Wu State during the Three Kingdom Period. He was a hero of his time and widely respected for his honesty in handling state affairs.
About 90% of the village’s 7,000 present day inhabitants have the surname Sun; they are the descendants of Sun Quan. Many of them are elderly, and it seemed to me when I was there on Thursday that they lead contented lives with a strong sense of community. A large group of them were playing mahjong in a hall, while elsewhere small groups of men played cards, and on the village bridge older guys stood around and chatted.
A seemingly incongruous sight amongst the ancient buildings and simple lifestyles were piles of shiny new badminton racquets at the bottom of many chairs along the alleyways. But my hosts explained that nearby is a large sports equipment factory that churns out racquets by the thousands that are then dispatched to the Longmen villagers for stringing. I spoke to one woman who does this work; she said she could do 50 badminton racquets a day, but the payment she receives for each was a shockingly low amount (about the equivalent of 5 Australian cents for stringing one racquet)!
As we left the village to return to our car we passed some small shops that had racquets for sale. After stringing, most go overseas for sale, but a few find their way into the shops of Longmen. The low price was scarcely believable; not even one-fifth of the typical price of the same tennis racquet in an Australian sports store. Had anyone told me that morning that I would be going to Longmen ancient village and would be leaving having bought two new tennis racquets I would have told them they were crazy. But that’s exactly what happened. That’s China for you – you never know what you’re going to see around the next corner.
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