Section: 30 Years

Title: Communication

千里通讯

Subtitle: How changes in communication have changed lives

Byline: Yi Qing

Translated by Ginger Huang

The first time I visited Su Ke was in the latter half of 1978. I was a freshman in university. He lived in Jianli, Hubei Province. I was amazed to see a telephone in the house. He told me the number of the phone was 014—the 14^th telephone in the county. I was impressed; it was as if he had suddenly gone posh. Indeed he was—a telephone 30 years ago! There was no doubt he must have been a part of a privileged family.

Picture 1: An old-fashion telephone

第一次在湖北监利县一位叫苏科的同学家作客是1978年下半年，那时我刚进大学不久。在苏科家我发现了一个很让人吃惊的东西，那就是磁式电话。苏科说，这部电话是014号，也就是说是县里的第14门电话。当时那个吃惊，好像同学突然之间就有了身份。确实，30年前的家庭里有一部电话，那一定就是官员家的象征。

In 1988, 10 years since then, Su Ke went to Hainan and became the first businessman among my classmates. Apparently he had made a fortune in this picture taken two years later—evidenced by the Da Ge Da (the nickname of the very first cell phones in China) in his hand. And it was the improved Da Ge Da, slimmer in size relative to the very first cell phones, but still not at all dwarfed by a bottle of water.

Picture 2: Su Ke with his Da Ge Da on the construction site of his estate in Hainan Province

十年后，1988年，苏科去了海南，是我们同学中第一个下海做生意的人。两年后，他像所有发了财的人一样，手中持有的竟是一部让人看着眼红的“大哥大”，而且，他的“大哥大”还属于第二代的产品，是改进了的那种，但也有矿泉水瓶大小。

A Da Ge Da in hand was sure to attract people’s attention at that time. This is a Tibetan woman holding a Da Ge Da and a beeper, definite tokens of wealth.

Picture 3: When the Da Ge Da first appeared, it was a symbol of privilege and wealth

  那个年月里，能拿着“大哥大”在街上走，后面一定牵着一串羡慕的目光。这是一位藏族妇女，手持着砖头一般大小的“大哥大”，腰间还配着一个“BP”机，在当时，这绝对就是财富的象征了。

Meanwhile, the best thing wealthier villages (“Production Brigade of People’s Commune” was how villages were called at that time) had was a magneto telephone. Whenever it rang, a big horn would bellow out throughout the village: “—’s got a call! Hurry up!”

Picture 4: This big horn, used to call to those who had a call, still hangs on the roof

而这个时候的中国大部分地方，比较发达一点的村子（当时叫“生产大队”）里也就一部手摇式电话。电话来了，便由村里的大喇叭全村子大叫：“谁谁有电话啦，快快来接呀！”

Before the telephone became an every day crutch, people were dependent on mailmen. Cities had telegraphs, but they were a luxury, costing around 8 mao (0.8 yuan) per piece. Major companies even had fax machines. However, neither telegraph nor fax had anything to do with ordinary people. The latter still needed to write and wait to hear their names come from the big horns.

Picture 5: A Chinese mailman (on a stamp)

在中国的老百姓普遍有电话之前，人们之间的通讯，一般靠邮递员传递。在城里，也有发电报的，当时花八毛钱发一份电报，已经很奢侈了。当然通讯双方有条件的也用传真，但这都是大单位之间的事，一般的百姓，那还是写信，或者通过大喇叭传递声音。

Liang Cheng is special because he resembles a leader. He can mimic the voices of strangers wherever he goes. At the age of 14, he was recruited by the Nanjing Opera Troupe. The first telephone arrived at his house in the early 1990s, and it exhilarated him to feel like he had really become somebody. Liang said it cost 3,000 RMB for the installation alone. Now he has success and fame, but seldom the wonder and happiness of when the first telephone was installed in his home.

Picture 6: Liang Cheng during filming

   梁程是一个有些特殊的人，他长相酷似中国的一个伟人，因而他的一举一动总是能引起别人的注目。这个14岁就被招入南昌市京剧团的小演员，当他九十年代初第一次在家里拨出一个电话时，那种喜悦，就像自己真有了“伟人”的享受。梁程说，他当时装家庭电话，还先交了3000多元的初装费。现在，他已经很有名气了，在上海、在江西、在湖南，他出演了许多与伟人有关的剧目。一谈到第一次有了家庭电话的感受，仍掩不住乐。

When I asked this middle-aged taxi driver about his first experience with the telephone, he was so enticed by the topic that he stopped driving to tell me about it. His name was Liu Yuming, from Nanxian county. “I lived in the countryside, and my family scraped money together, bit by bit, to get our first telephone in 1995. On the first day, I sat there staring at the phone all day long, expecting it to ring. But no one called. Who would? No one had a phone.” Now Liu earns 5,000 RMB a month driving his taxi, just enough to pay the tuitions of his two daughters.

Picture 7: Liu Yuming, the taxi driver

每个人都有自己与通讯相关的故事。这位开出租车的中年汉子在谈起通讯方式变化时，干脆将车子停在了路旁，连生意也不做了。中年人是南县人，叫刘育明。“我们家在农村，1995年安装第一部电话时，可以说是砸锅卖铁凑齐的钱，装好电话后，一天到晚就蹲在电话机前，想有人给我家打个电话啊。整整等了一天，一个电话也没有。因为当时大家都没有话机，谁给你打电话呢？”现在，刘育明在省城里开着出租车，月收入在5000元左右，他说，所有的收入基本上就是供两个女儿读书用。

20 years ago, even a well-off white-collar worker could not imagine himself owning a mobile phone like the rich and famous. 20 years later, even shoe cleaners and waste collectors are doing their business with cell phones. Liao Deming is a waste collector in the capital of Henan Province; he is contacting the collection sites with a cell phone that used to be so unobtainable.

Picture 8: Liao Deming at work

二十年前的高级白领，也无法想到自己会在哪一天也同那些富豪一样拥有一部属于自己的手机。但二十年后，大街上擦皮鞋的、拾荒的，都有了自己的手机，并且用它联系业务。这位叫廖德明的师傅来自河南，在省会的街道上拾荒，他联系收购站和业务所使用的，就是十多年前的高级白领都不敢想像的手持电话。

Communication in China has changed from letters to calls to texts. Beepers, later costing only a few bucks, once charged an access fee of 2,000 RMB, the price of a washing machine. Today’s young people no longer know what a beeper is. For them, items such as a magneto telephone or a magnetic telephone card are simply antique.

Picture 9: An old beeper

由书信的传递，到手机的直接通话，再到手机短信业务的兴起，中国的通讯事业一日千里，方便了老百姓。想想当年，一个家庭为了买上一个后来才值几元钱的BP机，竟像购置一台洗衣机一样，需要付出2000多元的入网费，真是梦一样的让人难以相信。而今，年轻人已经不知道什么叫寻呼机了，更不知道曾经有过的流行语：“有事请呼我！”，至于什么叫磁石电话、电话磁卡，更不知所为何物。

图九：BP机

Communication today has developed mediums other than phone calls. QQ, MSN and e-mails have made the world smaller, and people can see each other on video with only one click. Actress Huang Ting is texting short messages to her far-away family.

Picture 10: Huang Ting is texting her family during a scene break

现在的通讯，除了电话，更有了网络，有了网络上派生的QQ、MSN、伊妹儿。千里通讯即时实现，万里视频也在键击之间。这位曾在话剧里饰演过杨开慧的演员黄婷小姐正与异地的亲人们短信聊天哩！

Text messages have also reached Dong Guoyan, this beautiful young wife in the small town of Mengyang, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province: “It is really convenient. Now it has become the main way through which I communicate.”

Picture 11: Dong Guoyan

发短信聊天的还有这位西双版纳勐养镇的美丽少妇董国艳，她说：“手机短信真是方便，现在都成了即时与客户沟通的主要工具了。”