The flee market

just before the school year started, the mall had an event that is mostly alien to Chinese culture: a flee market. the connotation of flees turns people off, and it doesn’t help that you tell them it’s just a sarcastic sort of name for a very practical activity: getting rid of junk.

the flee market was mostly about kid’s stuff. parents got their kids to put out their old toys and clothing.

i guess it had educational value, getting the kids to learn how to sell and haggle. there was a lot of crying as kids were selling off their toys which they obviously havent even looked on for ages.

my baby was soooo excited. we walked between the little tables , full of stuffed animals and cars and action figures. i had a massive bag prepared and was quickly filling it, feeling a bit guilty, that i am taking them away, like some monsterous capitalist giant, among the lamenting liliputians.

it was then that i saw the kleidoscope. i have not seen one of those in a long time. i think the tree where they get them from, has gone extinct. you can’t find them in toy stores anymore.

i guess the simple wander of little colorful shapes changing with beautiful symetry is not such an appeal to kids anymore. they have more exciting things to see. they get their shapes and colors on smartphones, and you don’t need to squint.

the one on sale was mostly made of cardboard, it was a ‘finding nemo’ paraphernalia (so at least 15 years since peoduction stopped) and indeed, the flakes inside were shaped like little fishies.

my baby loves fishies and i was hoping she would find it interesting, if not now, then maybe a few months down the line. who knows when i’ll see such an archeaic artifact again?

i tried to show my princess how to use it. you hold it so, you look through the hole.

she was more interested in a monkey robot toy.

but she humored me. at this age she already knows daddy’s an idiot, but it pays to be nice.

she takes the thing. inspects it, for a second, hold it up to her eye.

then she smashed the thing on the table.

it’s amazing how forceful she can be. the cardboard just buckled, and a million colorful fishies were set free upon the low plastic coffee table, which incidentally was blue.

the little girl that was selling her old stuff was amused by this and offered more things for my angel to smash.

but of course, the 'you break it, you bought it' rule applies in china, and even in flee markets.

i 'bought' the thing, along with the plastic monkey, for something like a dollar and we went on to destroy/buy other things.