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is still tough enough. Auntie Bian runs her business almost
every day, and her longest vacation in a year is the ten days
around the Spring Festival. For the rest of the year, she
wakes up at 5 or 6 a.m. to make fresh ingredients, be it
toppings like red glutinous rice, rice balls, white glutinous
rice and sweet potato balls, or drink bases like mungbean
soup, milk tea and coffee. Around noon, she moves new-
ly-boiled, streaming ingredients from her kitchen to the
store to replenish ingredients after morning business. On
a good day, Auntie Bian can sell 2,000 cups of drink a day.
Auntie Bian told us that, when she was younger, her
mother used to peel fruit to help out. Later, she recruited
an hourly employee to share some necessary procedures. Now,
some of her family sometimes come to look after her business. “Auntie Bian wouldn’t be affected as she can open another
“Sweet! This street smells so sweet!” An old lady store”, just as she had done before. But Auntie Bian gave
complimented as she stopped on her way home. “You can an unexpected reply, “I would quit if the community is
come here when you are free to enjoy the smell.” replied removed. I am no longer young, and I don’t think I will
Auntie Bian. This old lady said she was “born with a silver find a new store to restart the business.”
spoon in her mouth” and took bird nests as sweet drinks Even so, Auntie Bian is still in her full passion. When
when she was young. Since she was diagnosed with diabe- she helps to move ingredients around noon, she sometimes
tes when she got older, she can no longer eat anything talks to passers-by, “If I can’t even carry this, I should just
sweet and all she can do is to smell the sweet fragrance. In quit, shouldn’t I?” When she rides on her way to deliver
this way, Auntie Bian’s store becomes a place she would milk tea in the afternoon, the sunglasses and helmet make
frequently visit on her way. her look no less fashionable and energetic. When she hands
A few neighbors mentioned the news that Tilanqiao out drinks, you can hear her loud voice in Shanghai dialect,
community might be removed soon, and they joked that “You are welcome! See you again!”

came for dinner, and how close she was with Auntie fits from those “pioneers”. The existing smart milk tea
Bian. “My daughter used to drink this milk tea during production line driven by manpower and technology is
pregnancy, and my granddaughter also sticks to this developed from the large pot to keep milk tea and sweet
flavor. She just got her Gaokao result and visited me for soup warm, with which milk tea sellers stood near the
dinner. She asked me to treat her with milk tea, so I drove entrance of lane to earn a living. It was at the time that
here to get her one.” she said. Auntie Bian developed a femoral head problem.
In recent years, the massive coverage on Auntie Bian “Nowadays, many milk tea sellers complain it is a
by self media has brought customers from other provinces. tough job, but I can’t agree at all.” She recalls the heavy
During our two visits, we met two young girls from North- green pot she used to carry, which got even heavier with
eastern China, a couple who changed their flight just for red glutinous rice. Though she was a young girl, she sup-
the drink, and a young man from Nanjing who returned to ported the pot with her belly, a smart way to carry the pot
the store by the chance of 2020 China International Railway with less energy, to carry a pot just by herself. But she
Conference for Urban & Intercity Transit held in Shanghai. said, “I can’t do it anymore. I struggle to carry a lighter
Just have a look at how tea drinks develop to a pop- plumbum pot full of ingredients.”
ular business, we can tell the milk tea industry gets bene- Though a rented store makes her work a bit easier, it

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