shoe fix story

Can You Fix Shoes?

Thor May

21 February 2008

I had two problems with my shoes. a) The laces on my shoes were frayed, and b) several of the loops to hold the laces were broken. These shoes had loops, not holes in the leather.

Firstly I went to a shoe repair shop on the right hand side of a nearby street, walking from this college. It was a poor, hole-in-the-wall shop with an open front onto the pavement. The lady there said she couldn't make holes in the leather. I was surprised.

I went to a second shoe repair shop on the left hand side of the street. This place had a sliding glass door, and seemed more upmarket. A couple of customers were sitting in electric massage chairs.

A middle aged lady in the second shop took my shoes, and invited me to sit in an electric masssage chair. She put a plastic bag over my feet and put my feet in an electric massage box. I wasn't really interested in this luxury, but I didn't want to be rude.

One of the customers asked in English where I came from and what I did. He was very surprised at my age. When I asked, I found out that he was sixty, and also an English teacher.

After 15 minutes I was becoming impatient. I only wanted some shoelaces, and some holes in the leather for laces. The shoe lady just seemed to be polishing shoes.

Eventually I muttered in English, "I'll have to do this myself. In Australia I could make those holes in two minutes."

The old English teacher translated what I said, and everyone looked surprised. They asked, "you can do that?". I realized that my status had suddenly dropped! Apparently I was really a cobbler pretending to be a teacher. In Australian culture we respect people who can do things with their hands, but in Chinese culture I think people often look down on manual skills.

Anyway, the shoe lady had not been able to do what I wanted, but she didn't want to say so. I told her I needed a hole punch and a hammer to do the job. I mimed what a hole punch was. She went looking in her workbench drawers, and after a couple of minutes showed me a hole punch. It was exactly the right tool.

I took the hole punch and a hammer, and made the lace holes in my shoes.

I asked her how much. She inquired if I wanted my shoes polished. I said "No. Out there on the street they will be dusty again in five minutes." The teacher translated. She looked disappointed. The other customers came to get their shoes polished. Her shop seemed to be a social meeting place for them.

When she saw I wasn't going to buy anything else, she said "eight yuan". That included the price of some new laces.

I accidentally gave her two twos and two fives. The English teacher said "she wants eight yuan, not eighteen." She looked sly, and gave me the two twos back. The stupid foreigner wouldn't know any difference.

I said nothing and left the shop. I won't go back. She was a shoe repairer who couldn't fix shoes. She wasn't honest. But her other customers will go back. They respect shiny shoes.