The peidu mama

We have been buying our papayas from the same vendor for some time now. In the beginning, he manned the stall himself. Then, for a while there, he was helped by a woman we presumed was his wife.

We got asked by the other stall vendors: "You buy your fruits from that peidu mama?" Well, yes. Was there a point to their line of questioning? If there was, we ignored them.

The woman always wore make-up. Her hair was always done up in some fashion and she has a flair to her dress sense. She was also always helpful and she was obliging of fussy customers poking and prodding the produce. She even helped us with the ingredient-mix and wrapping technique when we were on our jiao zi making craze. We liked the woman; she added a cheeriness to the market place.

Then we noticed she was not at the stall for several days in a row. We asked the papaya seller if his wife no longer came to help at the stall. He let on that he he had no idea what she was up to. She had taken a job doing facials but would not tell him where. The work conditions are 12 hour days, no days off, no base pay.

We were stunned. We felt badly for the man - he sounded pissed off and sad at the same time. Worst of all, while intellectually we are fully aware we don't know anything more about the situation, we felt all our prejudices and suspicions towards all women from the mainland come flooding back.