Liang and plastic shoes are selling like hotcakes, hair perms and driving lessons are all the rage, flowers are being sent to celebrate the New Year, New Year’s Eve dinners are being booked, face-swiping payments are being made, and the Internet is being used for fitness... Time flies, money flows, and people of different generations are interested in life and fashion. Each pursuit has its own characteristics. It is precisely because of its distinctive features that the marks left by the years are so vivid and worth recalling.

From the 1950s to the 1970s

Following fashion in the era of shortage

Keywords: Plastic shoes are really good

In the era of shortage economy , people’s conditions for food, clothing, housing and transportation are not very ideal. Rare beers, cheap and high-quality plastic shoes and "Chen Liang" became the fashion hot spots at that time.

In the 1950s, there were only two beers on the market in Beijing: Five Star Beer and Beijing Beer, both of which were sold by the municipal monopoly company. At that time, people's lives were mainly based on food and clothing, and beer was a non-necessity. However, beer was still often out of stock in the summer.

In 1958, workers in Beijing Brewery were producing beer. Gao Hong/Photo

In the next 20 years, the supply of beer in Beijing has always been tight. In the late 1970s, Five Star beer had to be purchased with a ticket because demand exceeded supply. Anyone who wants to get married and wants to buy beer has to look for tickets everywhere. Only employees in the brewery who get married can get two boxes of beer. After entering the 21st century, this situation has changed dramatically. China has ranked first in the world in beer production for many years and has become a veritable beer power.

In terms of clothing, high-quality and low-priced plastic sandals were once the "standard accessory" for many Beijingers during the summer. In 1963, plastic sandals became a very popular "hot item" as soon as they were launched in Beijing. According to a salesperson in the department store, more than 400 pairs are sold here every day. After the emergence of wear-resistant, beautiful and cheap plastic sandals, the number of people wearing sandals in Beijing in summer has greatly increased. Take the courtyard at No. 11 Donghuangchenggen as an example. There are 63 children aged 1 to 15 in the courtyard, 28 of whom are wearing plastic sandals.

By the mid-1980s, with the increase in people's income and the improvement of quality of life requirements, plastic sandals gradually withdrew from the market. A newspaper report on May 14, 1984 mentioned that people are demanding that the styles of shoes match their clothing. The demand for leather shoes has been rising steadily, and tennis shoes and travel shoes are very popular.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the styles of clothes were basically the same for men and women, and the colors were only gray, blue, and black. However, the appearance of "Chenliang" suddenly caused a flow of color on the streets.

In the 1960s, indeed good materials were a hot commodity that people queued up to buy.

In the beginning, everyone could not afford to buy a few pieces of Chuiliang shirts. They could only buy fake collars made by Chuiliang, and wear several fake collars in turn to give people a brand new, dignified and high-class feeling every day. In the mid-to-late 1970s, with the popularity of Liang, girls began to wear small floral skirts and lined white skirts, with skirt corners flying when they walked.

This newspaper once recorded such an interesting story in "Fashion Notes", page 7, November 21, 1994: In the early 1970s, a girl once bought something at Wangfujing Yimin Store A 14-yuan long silk embroidered blouse with the words "Exquisitely crafted" and "Made in China" embroidered on it. Because it was too luxurious, I had to lock it in a box until I went to college in 1978. I just took it out to wear, but it is still very conspicuous.

In the 1980s and 1990s

The pursuit of individuality has a higher vision

Keywords: perm hair, learn to drive, and book New Year’s Eve dinner

In the 1980s and 1990s, the supply of materials in the market became abundant, people's living standards were greatly improved, and higher-grade personalized services were welcomed by more and more ordinary people.

In the 1970s, hair perm was only available to overseas travelers and literary and artistic workers who had image needs, and required a letter of introduction from their employer. Wang Lvwen, a regular customer, recalled that in 1976, there was only "Silian" in Beijing with a hair perm business. He represented his unit as a solo performer in the city's performance, so he received a letter of introduction, which read: "Today I have a comrade from the publicity team. , I came to your store to have my hair permed due to performance duties. Please handle it. My best regards.

"When I went to get a perm, I discovered that there were a lot of lesbians holding letters of introduction in various ways.

In 1961, a barber at the "Silian" barber shop was doing hair for a customer. Photo by Gao Hong

On October 20, 1980, the second page of the Japanese newspaper "A "Leading" Household in the Barber Industry" recorded: In addition to electric perm, cold perm, and hair dyeing, the business items of "Silian" also include eyebrow shaping, makeup and production Wigs, etc.

In 2007, students majoring in hairdressing showed off their “painted new clothes” at the Beijing Secondary Vocational School Skills Competition.

As people’s living standards and incomes improve. Not only have their vision become higher, they also have forward-looking requirements for their own skills. According to statistics, from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, the number of drivers in this city increased at an average rate of nearly 30,000 per year. February 15, 1992. The Japanese newspaper, Page 6, "Brothers and Sisters, Learn to Drive" records that there is a "driving craze" in Beijing. In 1994 alone, as many as 5,000 to 6,000 people came to Xiangshan Sibo Driving School to take driving exams. Among them, they were learning to drive and find jobs. The proportion is less than 10%, and the vast majority of them are learning to drive at their own expense.

On October 15, 1998, the 8th page of "Beijing Daily" reported. "Learning to drive is hot."

From the 1980s to the 1990s, going out to restaurants became common, but going to restaurants for New Year's Eve dinner still tested people's consumption concepts. People are eager to give it a try and have launched New Year's Eve dinner services, but not many restaurants are doing well on New Year's Eve. The occupancy rate of restaurants that are still open is only 20%.

After entering the new century, the "post-70s" and "post-80s" who grew up in the spring breeze of reform and opening up have gradually become the main consumers. They often don't want to let their parents who have worked hard for a year get caught up in the busyness of cooking New Year's Eve dinner. Most of them treat New Year's Eve dinner in restaurants as a special gift to the elderly. In 2010, New Year's Eve dinner in restaurants became in short supply. Customers who were able to book a New Year's Eve dinner at a time-honored restaurant had placed their orders as early as the middle of the previous year.

During the 2016 Spring Festival, it was difficult to get a table for the New Year's Eve dinner at a time-honored restaurant in Beijing. Private rooms at Shao Hotel have been booked until the sixth day of the Lunar New Year. Photo by Mu Jinglin

In recent years, more and more people have chosen to order takeout meals on New Year’s Eve to enjoy reunions with their families more easily. Time. From cooking New Year’s Eve dinner by yourself, to ordering New Year’s Eve dinner at time-honored restaurants, to ordering with your fingers and having New Year’s Eve dinner delivered to your home, the tradition of family reunion and celebrating the festival has become more and more fashionable.

New Century

Technology makes life more beautiful

Keywords: Flowers, New Year, Internet Fitness, Face-Swiping Payment

Entering the 21st Century , we have ushered in an era of technological innovation. The mobile Internet is developing rapidly, new hot trends are constantly emerging, and people are making great strides in the pursuit of life and self-improvement.

Flowers for New Year celebrations have quietly become a part of Beijingers’ lives. On June 12, 2005, the first page of the newspaper "Beijingers spend 550 million yuan on flowers a year" recorded that 80% of the city's households bought flowers in 2005, and Beijingers spent 550 million yuan on flowers a year. .

On September 20, 2013, the first page of the Japanese newspaper "Festival low-price flowers enter ordinary people's homes" stated that many flower companies focus on household consumption and have added some types of flowers suitable for display. Variety on the desk. Every year, some new varieties of small flowers suitable for home consumption are introduced from abroad, such as anthurium, orchids, cyclamen, lilies, etc., to provide citizens with more choices.

On September 7, 2018, the sky at Beijing International Flower Harbor was beautiful and the flowers were in full bloom. Wu Yibin/Photo

Since 2010, new technologies have made people pay more attention to their own health, and various APP projects about fitness and weight loss have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. Those fats waiting to be lost have accumulated and created a big trend about slimming and fitness.

On September 19, 2015, the Japanese newspaper "Fat is also on the trend these days" introduced that from the Baidu Index, searches for keywords such as fitness, sports, yoga, vest line, etc. have increased several times since mid-2014. growth trend. Various weight loss and fitness APPs and O2O products are surging, and even technology giants have aroused great enthusiasm to get involved in the fitness field. New Internet technology has made fitness more popular.

At the 2018 Great Wall Marathon, nearly 10,000 runners from more than 20 countries and regions ran. Photo by Fang Fei

With the rapid development of science and technology, high-tech facial recognition payment has become more and more common in life. During the Spring Festival of 2016, the new passenger self-service ticket inspection system was put into trial operation at Beijing Railway Station. After inserting the ID card and the blue real-name magnetic truck ticket, the system can scan the passenger's facial information and "swipe the face" to enter the station. It only takes about 14 seconds to "swipe your face".

In 2017, major municipal colleges and universities welcomed new students, and many colleges and universities have enabled "face-swiping" registration. With the help of the facial recognition system, students can complete the registration in a few seconds by swiping their faces in front of the camera. These freshmen who grew up in the mobile Internet environment follow new technologies and enter university campuses.

Every hot trend and every fashion memory truly records the history full of quality of life and shows the tremendous changes in New China over the past 70 years. These "trivial" bits and pieces of life make those who experience it sigh, and those who come after us understand that this is how our lives change step by step with the development of the country.

Jointly produced by Beijing Daily Special Issues Department and Art Department

Historical information: Beijing News Group Graphics and Text Database