Those winter nights in Shanghai, bed was as cold as the room. And because of the moist in the air, comforters were always kinda damp and heavy. After we stopped using hot water warmers for safety reason, going into bed became a very challenging thing. I remember it usually took like 3 minutes to warm the bed up. But those 3 minutes were definitely very intense.

These three were the most popular ways to keep people warm in winter in 1990 Shanghai. They are all hot water containers. Tangpozi: Made of brass. Nice looking and last long. Very Expensive. Normal family wouldn't own more than one. Not safe. Rubber warmer: Safer. Soft. Still kinda expensive. Leaks more. Glass bottle(Medical waste): Very cheap. Everyone in the family can have one. Not safe. Easy to break. In the first a few years in my life, those were the only heating method

Tang Po Zi (汤婆子) is a brass warmer. The name literally means hot water grandma. (photo from internet) When my Mom married my Dad, they both were poor and didn't own much. She moved in with only a few things, and Tangpozi was one of them. We always poured boiling water in so it could stay warm longer. It was made of brass which conducts heat very well. In order to prevent burning, My Mom made some sort of wrapper with old clothes to wrap it up. But minor burning still oftened

There wasn’t much spare space in the bedroom. My parents’ bed occupied most of it. There were many closets in the room, but they were never enough for our needs. My bed was a folding bed. Every morning my parents would fold it up to get some small empty space. It was the same blue color as the baby stroller and stool. I believe that they came used and my Dad painted them all. My uncle’s family lived right above our bedroom. The floor in between was just a single layer of wood

My Dad and his brother shared a narrow little house. We got the side facing north. Uncle's family and grandma all lived on the South side and owned a 2nd floor. Their living room/bedroom was right above our bedroom. . Shortly after my parents got married, they decided to block the door between the South and north with a closet. When people live too close together, many things get complicated. Even family members won't be exceptions. We had one living room/dining room/study

Lilong( or Long Tang) is a unique Shanghaiese community and housing style. The word "Li Long" itself means lanes in Chinese. The neighborhood I grew up at was a group of houses connected by a main lane and several side lanes. (wikipedia for Lilong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longtang) (picture from internet) (picture from internet) Here's some data, probably not accurate, just my memory and guess: * The usable space of each house was about 30-40m² (approximately 300-400

Shanghai is on the south east side of China. The latitude of Shanghai is similar to Austin, Texas. Winter in Shanghai has some similarities to Seattle: cold and wet. It can go as low as -4°C (24°F). But my experience of winter in these two cities are really different. I got frost bite every year when I was in Shanghai but never in Seattle. It's because there's no heating system in Shanghai. The central heating system in China was built with Soviet Union's help in 1950s. At

This was the living room/dining room. It's about 6 square meters.(64 square feet) We ate meals around this table. I played toys and did homeworks on this table too. Around 1990s in Shanghai, the high chairs designed for little kids didn't exist. So when I was too short for the table, my parents stacked two stools together for me to reach. It worked for years. One time a toy rolled off the table so I bent down to reach for it. The 2-story stools collapsed and I wrenched my wri

My parents are both the oldest among their siblings. But they got married very late so I am the youngest among all the cousins. China started one child policy since 1980 and it was more strict in cities than in rural areas. Among all my peers, I don't know anyone who has a sibling unless they're twins. So I didn't really have the idea about siblings when I was a kid. I considered my cousins as siblings. Many of my cousins are 1-3 years older than me. Their parents gave many u

I don't remember much about this stroller. My Dad got it somewhere and painted it with blue color. Almost every kid around me once sat in this kind of iron stroller. It doesn't look comfortable to me now, but it did the job. (photo from internet ) The neighborhood I grew up at is called Li Long. It's a classic housing style in old Shanghai. People live in very small space and share narrow lanes. There are a lot of things going on everyday in the neighborhood. It has good side