Hanging Out the Washing

Most people in Nanchang live in apartment blocks and so don't have gardens to hang out their washing. Also tumble dryers are pretty much non-existent here. The only way washing can be dried is to hang it out on a balcony or railings attached to the wall on a south-facing side of the building.

When I first arrived in China I hated the sight of washing being hung out this way. I thought it looked ugly and it also reminded me of old pictures of Manchester back to backs with washing strung across alley ways between rows of grim-looking Victorian slums. It spoke of people being forced to live in cramped conditions with little personal outdoor space. Then someone said that people here used to refer to this way of drying the laundry as 'hanging out the flags of all nations' and that it added a bit of colour to the older grey concrete blocks that made up the majority of housing in Nanchang up until about 10 years ago. This, to me, is a much better way of looking at it.

As people get richer though and begin to live in more aesthetically pleasing accommodation they may start to invest in washer-dryers and the tradition of hanging out the flags may disappear. In some richer cities apartments are being designed with laundry rooms now (currently most people keep their washing machine on a balcony or in the bathroom - never in the kitchen). But this does raise the question of how will the world cope with a richer China as the growing middle-class here will consume ever more energy to fuel their increasingly western lifestyles and all the resources such a lifestyle requires.

I remember reading somewhere that if people in China used resources at the same rate per capita as Americans then we'd need 4 or 5 planet Earths just for China! Of course I don't deny anyone the right to have a comfortable and modern life but can the planet survive it? What with the rise of India, China, Brazil et al the next couple of decades will be interesting indeed.

Although I have faith in the ingenuity of mankind to solve the resource problems I will still be keeping an eye on how the washing is dried, for when it starts to disappear from the exterior of the buildings it could be a sign a trouble ahead...