``IF I have time, I would write a book with the title ¡®How Much Time You Spend in Line Everyday¡¯,¡± complained Xie Yiqing, an editor of Travelling Scope magazine.
She went to the bank in the morning, and waited in a long line without chairs for about one-and-a-half hours. ¡°I just wanted to take out 15,000 yuan (US$1,814) to buy a laptop,¡± she said.
In the evening she went to Pizza Hut at the Grand Gateway in Xujiahui with friends, only to find there were already dozens of people waiting outside the restaurant. She joined them and got a table after half an hour standing in the hot air.
¡°It seems my destiny is to queue and queue everyday!¡± she complained.
Among ordinary people who don¡¯t enjoy special privileges living in China, queuing is almost an unavoidable part of daily life.
Material shortages
¡°The most impressive queuing in my memory involved buying food,¡± said He Longlong, a local housewife in her 50s. ¡°Food, in my youth, was the most attractive thing for most people, and no matter how much time we waited, it seemed worth it.¡±
China started rationing food, clothing, cotton, meat, sugar, oil and some other daily use items in 1953. By 1961, a total of 156 goods were on the ration list because of material shortages. At that time, the GDP per capita in China was only 16 per cent of the world¡¯s average.
He, a young girl at that time, would buy rice for her family every month with a rice ticket which was necessary to buy rice at par price.
¡°But the ration of rice was never enough. One day, we heard the rice store would sell sweet potatoes to residents according to the number of family members. In case there weren¡¯t enough sweet potatoes for every family in the community, I went to the store very early that morning, but I found there was already a long line outside the door. Everyone worried they would sell out,¡± He said. ¡°At that time, no one complained of waiting. It was very normal to queue at that time when everything was in short supply.¡±
The rationing did not end until the beginning of the 1990s. Since then, seeing people line up to buy food and daily use articles has become rare.
But the long period of rationing made people a little nervous about supply. Scare buying was seen in the 1980s when rumours about rising prices for a particular item would prompt consumers to rush to the stores. Matches, towels and even tanyu (a kind of enamelware toilet used by Shanghainese) became hot articles in the market.
¡°Someone would rush to line up in the store even if they didn¡¯t know what was being sold,¡± He said.
Political fervour
In the 1960s and 1970s, in addition to food queues, there was another type of line which made people more optimistic and excited: processions to express love for Chairman Mao.
¡°I remember the school organized us to attend a procession in front of the city government building to celebrate the ¡®cultural revolution¡¯ (1966-1976),¡± said Chong Ming (alias), a local retired woman.
¡°When we arrived at the spot, we found hundreds and thousands of people there. With real excitement in our hearts, we waited in line for four hours just to pass the government building where the mayor stood. When the most exciting time came, I cried slogans so loudly that my throat was almost hoarse.¡±
Political movements with mass followings were widely seen in that period. Documents record that in the summer of 1966, Chairman Mao saw 10 millions red guards in Beijing on eight different occasions. Most people waiting in the throngs looked excited and awed. After each spectacle, many shoes and broken watches were left behind in Tian¡¯anmen Square.
Fortune hunters
This excess of political enthusiasm faded gradually when the country opened up in the 1980s and Chinese people became interested in going abroad.
In 1981, the Chinese Government agreed with the United States to establish TOEFL test centres in China. The rapidly increasing number of people participating in this test was beyond what anyone had imagined. In 1986, getting a chance to take the exam was difficult. People had to line up one night before the registration. Some students lined up outside by turns day and night.
Other queues comparable with those at TOEFL test centres were the long lines outside the stock market in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province years later.
In 1992, the release of new stocks started in Shenzhen. Later statistics said about 1 million people around the country came to the city to buy stocks, a new concept at that time in China. Most thought it would be a chance to make a big fortune.
¡°The order in the long line was terrible. In order not to be pushed out of the line, people, no matter whether women or men, held each other closely,¡± said Zhang Xinmin, a photographer in Shenzhen who recorded those days with his camera.
It happened in August, and thousands of people waited in the terrible heat. Water bottles and lunch boxes were thrown everywhere.
¡°A young man from East China¡¯s Jiangxi Province who was pushed out of the line cried to me that he had lined up for three days but still failed to buy the stocks. His eyes looked almost crazy,¡± Zhang added.
Housing hunger
In the 1990s, as the economy in the country continued to grow, there were fewer lines. People complained if they had to queue at toilets in the downtown or in scenic spots, or if they had difficulty buying train tickets during the Spring Festival. Yet big athletic events, quality exhibitions in museums and popular performances still attract long lines. To Chinese people who had experienced so many lines since their childhoods, these seemed small matters.
However, new lines, which appeared at the end of last year, have provoked close attention. From the last quarter of last year to the spring of 2005, people have lined up outside newly developed communities to buy houses.
In March this year, a real estate project named Jin Wai Tan (Golden Bund) attracted hundreds of buyers. Some people employed migrant workers to queue for them around the clock. All the apartments were sold on the first day.
