CHINESE PEDLARS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 27, 13 November 1935, Page 12

CHINESE PEDLARS

WHERE NOISE IS NOISE.

SHOUTS AND CRIES AS TRADE

MARKS,

As a raconteur of Chinese customs and habits Mr S. Hutchison, who is at present visiting Wellington, sets a high standard. He is a fund of information on the subject, and in conversation with him it would be possible to spend profitable and entertaining hours listening to anecdotes of China and her teeming millions. In an interview with a “Post'' reporter, Mr Hutchison dealt among other matters, with Chinese methods of advertising. The point he made was that the shouts and cries of the Chinese hawkers are their trade marks. For instance, more melody is used in the sale of hair oil than in the sale of meat.

Mr Hutchison, a New Zealander, has been in China about six years. His headquarters are at and he represents the New Zealand Co-opera-tive Dairy Co., Ltd. He is also an honorary representative of the New Zealand Government Department of Industries and Commerce.

Chinese street advertising, said Mr Hutchison, might not be of such a high-pressure, energetic nature as that of America, nor as dignified, and dull as English advertising, but, nevertheless, it was effective in that it persuaded people to buy. A great deal of it abounded in simple and: often beautiful melody, and the fact that music played such an important part in the business life might make it worth a little study by economists. He suggested that a band on street comers with a slogan painted on the bass -drum would perhaps he more potent and better advertising than the practice of scattering huge, ugly billboards all oyer the landscape. : Some of the cries heard in the streets ih China were far from beautiful; in fact they sounded like nothing so much as the voice of that well-known protester, the jackass. The explanahowever, was that the shouts of the "hawkers were meant merely -as trade marks to distinguish the cries of the hawkers from each, other. The peculiar walled architecture demanded that each hawker should have a cry loud enough to penetrate into the innermost courtyards and also distinctive enough the leave no doubt in the minds of prospective buyers just what he had for sale. Therefore no two yells were exactly alike. The majority of the hawkers had anything but. melodious voices, which doubtless were not improved by many years of use on the Streets.

Mr Hutchison went on to refer to the order in which the hawkers appeared, beginning with the man who at early dawn came round with small seed-cakes and oily waffles for breakfast. After the head of the house had eaten his breakfast, the lady of the house began to arrange her hair, a long and tedious process. To complete the final effect a thick coat of oil was necessary, so, of course, where there was a demand there arose a supply and the man who sold oil for milady’s hair Sang a charming little tune, more melodious than the meat pedlar, the next to appear. And so it went on, with the appearance of first one .and then a host of others, all with something to sell and each with a distinctive cry. ' J The barber’s song was better than his work, said Mr Hutchison. His noise was made by a tuning fork, the note of which continued to vibrate while he walked seven steps; it had amazing carrying power. The medicinal man sold a plaster which he guaranteed: would draw out every kind of pain from toothache to rheumatism. His advertisement was a circular tube in which a steel ball ran around making a musical, if somewhat neryetraeking noise. The junk dealer struck a tiny leather drum with a- quick jazzy rhythm, and the black date seller was a boastful liar who Claimed that his fruit was absolutely free from stones which it never was. The ribbon hawker who sold bands to bind the trousers round the ankles had a rapid little tune which he sung at a breathless tempo. Not so many people used these to-day as formerly, but he still seemed to sell enough to satisfy him. Perhaps being anxious to dispose of his stock before everyone took to Oxford “bags” was the explanation of the rapidity of his song. ■Another thing , which bore out that theory was the words of the song. He said: !; “I don’t care for prot. I just want to get rid of my stock.” , These and other things, strange, humorous, and interesting, Mr Hutchison can talk about in a delightful way.