Hope to Visit Co-Worker’s Hometown

Abstract

H, male, born in 1991. The only child in the family. Mild intellectual disability. Graduated from a special education school—Shanghai Zhonghua Primary Vocational and Technical School in 2009 and started working at Shanghai Papa John’s in the same year.

Interview with Mr. H’s Family

H, male, born in 1991. The only child in the family. Mild intellectual disability. Graduated from a special education school—Shanghai Zhonghua Primary Vocational and Technical School in 2009 and started working at Shanghai Papa John’s in the same year.

Interviewees: H’s parents

Interviewers and writers: Qi Lin, Yi Zhang

Interview date: August 18, 2016

Interview place: H’s home

Poor Health After Choking on Amniotic Fluid

Q: Did you two meet while working at Shanghai No. 2 Socks Factory?

H’s father: We did.

Q: When did you get married?

H’s parents: On May 20, 1990.

Q: How long after that did you have your first child?

H’s mother: We only have one child. We got married in 1990, I was pregnant 3 months later and had H in 1991.

Q: When did you find out that the child was in poor health?

H’s father: He choked on amniotic fluid when he was born. The original plan was a C-section which would not have caused him any harm. Then the doctor wanted to manually break the water. She had hypertension throughout the pregnancy, and 2 weeks before the due date, the doctor had her hospitalized. Once she was stabilized, the doctor wanted a natural birth. The doctor we had been seeing was off duty and another one was in charge who said that she was young enough to have a natural birth. On the day the baby was born, her blood pressure was normal, so the doctor decided to manually break the water for a natural birth. When she was 10 cm open and ready for birth under normal circumstances, her blood pressure suddenly shot up and the doctor realized that C-section was still the way to go. So, she had a C-section. Because of the long delay, the amniotic fluid went into the baby’s lungs. It wasn’t too bad, and we didn’t see anything wrong with the baby when he was first born. She was discharged first and the baby stayed another 2 weeks in the hospital.

Q: Was H in poor health when he was young?

H’s mother: He always had asthma.

Q: He did?

H’s father: Yeah, ever since he was young. He has outgrown it now. He had it because of having choked on amniotic fluid. He was on medication for a long time when he was young.

H’s mother: We took him to the hospital a lot.

H’s father: He saw countless doctors. Because of his having choked on amniotic fluid, we never gave him anything cold to eat or any seafood, and we took him to see doctors everywhere.

Q: Which hospitals did you take him to?

H’s father: I can’t even remember them all. He has seen both traditional Chinese doctors and Western-style doctors, and has been to No. 6 People’s Hospital on South Zhongshan Road. We used to live with my mother-in-law and there were many hospitals around where she lived. We also took him to see experienced doctors on Huaihai Road and traditional Chinese doctors at Ruijin Hospital. He has seen so many doctors. Because he choked on amniotic fluid, his lungs were always sub-healthy and he suffered from really bad coughing whenever he had a cold.

H’s mother: We were living in Putuo District then, and neighbors in the old-style public housing all knew that he had choked on amniotic fluid when he was born and that we were taking him to see doctors everywhere. My husband and I had a tough time when he was young and we were literally hospital hopping. As soon as we heard good things said about some hospital, we would rush him there. Fortunately, his asthma was gradually cured and once he started school, he seldom had tracheitis or anything like that.

H’s father: He was on white fish oil ever since he was born, until…

H’s mother: …until it wasn’t available anymore.

H’s father: He was on it till he turned 18 or 19.

H’s mother: Right, till he was almost grown up.

Q: So, he always had supplements when he was young?

H’s father: We gave him whatever supplements there were available when he was young.

H’s mother: Back then, the white fish oil was a really good supplement, but they don’t make it anymore in China. That was a really good thing and I am not trying to sell it. H was on it till he was almost 20, and then it was not available anymore. I wish I could still give it to him now.

H’s father: It was good for the eyes and for physical growth.

Q: Who recommended that supplement to you?

H’s father: We were living in the old-style housing then. Someone told me that his kid had a poor immune system but had been in good health because he had always taken white fish oil. It was in fact Jiang who told me that. He had an operation on his abdomen and his kid was a middle school graduate, too. He had always given him white fish oil to boost his immune system. So, I started giving H the supplement after talking to that guy.

H’s mother: White fish oil tasted awful (laughing).

H’s father: It smelt very fishy.

H’s mother: Very, very fishy. Most of the kids wouldn’t want to take it after they had gone through just one bottle.

H’s father: But we forced H to take it.

H’s mother: Our child listened to us well. We told him the fish oil was for his own good. We said, “You will have to take medicines for treatment and medicines are no fun to take. Just see this as a medicine—it’s better than getting shots which could be painful.”

Q: Did he take any other supplements?

H’s mother: Not really…Oude Brain Booster!

H’s father: Oude Brain Booster and there’s another one…We gave him quite a few.

Q: What did that one do?

H’s mother: It treated the brain.

H’s father: It was good for brain development.

Q: Who recommended the brain booster?

H’s mother: No one exactly recommended it. A co-worker of mine said that her kid took it, and I figured that since my kid wasn’t the smartest…

H’s father: There’s another one, Tiantian Xiangshang.

H’s mother: Right, Tiantian Xiangshang.

Q: What was it? An oral solution or a pill?

H’s father: Pill.

Q: Was it recommended by a co-worker too?

H’s mother: We heard about all of them from other people, and we would give H what other people said was good. He wasn’t on this one long-term. We heard about it and tried a treatment course with him which we didn’t think was effective. So, we would just give it to him before exams to stimulate his brain.

H’s father: A neighbor told us about Oude Brain Booster.

H’s mother: An old neighbor of ours mentioned it, so we tried it with H. But we didn’t keep up with it and eventually stopped. So H took Oude Brain Booster and Tiantian Xiangshang, but mostly the white fish oil.

Q: Does he still take supplements now?

H’s father: Not really.

H’s mother: He doesn’t take any supplements now. Just regular meals, three times a day.

Q: When did his health start to improve?

H’s father: When he was young… his health improved once he started school. When he was about five or six and in preschool, his health started to improve.

Tagging Along in Third Grade

Q: How did you find out about his intellectual disability later?

H’s father: We could tell nothing when he was in preschool and the teachers all said that he was doing okay. In first grade, he did well at academics and came in second in the mental math competition. He was good at calculations. Then he started falling behind in second grade, and we realized that something was wrong during the second half of the school year.

H’s mother: He was doing okay in first grade.

Q: Were you worried about what would happen as he got to higher grades? What went through your mind?

H’s father: I didn’t know what to think when he started falling behind in second grade.

Q: Which subjects was he falling behind in?

H’s father: Chinese. Actually math, too, when he was in second grade. The homeroom teacher asked us to take him for an IQ test.

Q: So it was the teacher who asked you to take him for an IQ test? Where did you take him for that?

H’s mother: We took him to No. 1 People’s Maternity and Infant Hospital, on Renmin Road, which was the designated place.

Q: And what were the results?

H’s father: The results were bad.

H’s mother: He scored a little over 40. The average was 70, but our kid only scored 45.

Q: How did you react?

H’s father: There was nothing we could do about it. We knew that he choked on amniotic fluid when he was born which must have affected him. So, starting third grade, he was just doing the LRC (learning in regular classroom).

Q: Doing the LRC?

H’s father: What happened was that the teacher felt that our kid was dragging the whole class down. There was competition among teachers, and our kid was lowering the average grades of the class.

H’s mother: So, the teacher talked to us and we agreed in writing to have H just do the LRC. He would attend classes and take exams as usual, but his grades would not count towards the average grades of the class. Since the teacher talked to us nicely, we figured we should not let H drag the whole class down.

H’s father: When he was at school, he liked chatting with other kids. The teacher didn’t do a good job arranging his seat in the class. If he had no chance to talk to anyone in class, he would have paid more attention to the teaching, instead of always turning back to chat with other kids.

From first grade to third grade, it was almost as if I was going to school with him because I watched him so closely. When he was young, we seldom let him out of the house, because if we didn’t maintain a close watch, he would fall behind at school. If we hadn’t had to work and had spent more time on him, he could have kept up somehow. When he was in third grade, I went back to work every other day. So, I could watch him one day and couldn’t the next day. When I wasn’t watching, he wouldn’t study. The teacher said that he was hyperactive. In a low-income family like ours, we had to work. We needed to spend time on him, but we also needed to feed ourselves.

H’s mother: He had no self-discipline.

H’s father: If you didn’t watch him, he wouldn’t do his homework. If you watched him, he would do a little.

The best way was to have someone go to school with him to keep a watch on him.

H’s mother: I did that, till third grade.

H’s father: But I didn’t think it would have worked in the long term.

Q: Did the teacher ask you to go to school with him, or did you propose it yourself?

H’s father: It was our own idea. The teacher didn’t want any parent to go to school with the kid.

H’s mother: I had no choice. When he was going to Yongmou Road Elementary School, his homeroom teacher was close to me. Once I sat in for one of the classes. And I told the teacher to teach me first if H failed to learn and that I would teach him once we got back home.

Q: So, you did go to school with him?

H’s mother: Not all the time. Just occasionally, when there were seats available in the classroom.

H’s father: The teacher would keep him behind after class and teach him again.

Q: Has H been transferred between schools?

H’s mother: He has been to only two elementary schools, the other one being Anmou Road Elementary School.

H’s father: Anmou Road Elementary School was later merged into Yongmou Road Elementary School and H went there till fourth grade. Then we were relocated to where we live now from the old housing near Old Ximen, in 2002.

H’s mother: He was in fifth grade when we moved here. He went to Shangnan Special Education School for fifth grade and had another IQ test.

H’s father: Teachers here said that everything was normal with him.

Q: Why did you move him to a special education school? Did some teacher suggest it?

H’s father: After we moved here, we tried to transfer him to Youyou Elementary School so that we could drop him off and pick him up every day while still keeping our jobs. The principal of Youyou Elementary School didn’t want him, not even for LRC.

Q: Why didn’t he want H?

H’s father: Because H would drag the whole class down. So the principal didn’t want him and referred him to the special education school.

H’s mother: He had to continue going to school. He definitely couldn’t drop out and stay home.

Q: Do you remember exactly how he got into that school?

H’s father: With a referral from the principal.

H’s mother: My mom and I took H there. We were asked where H had gone to school before, and I said, “Yongmou Road Elementary School. We were relocated by the government, and the kid has to have a place to go. Yongmou Road Elementary School has tried to keep him, but it’s too far and my husband and I have to work and can’t drop him off and pick him up from that school every day. Staying at that school just won’t work.”

Q: So you dropped him off and picked him up from school all the time when he was young?

H’s father: Everyday.

H’s mother: I was the one picking him up. I was staying home and not working back then.

Q: Besides falling behind in academics, did the teachers say anything negative about him?

H’s father: The teachers had no problem with him in anything else. The main issue was that his grades were dragging the whole class down.

Q: How did he get along with other kids at elementary school?

H’s father: So-so. Because he wasn’t very smart, the other kids didn’t like playing with him.

H’s mother: The other kids all discriminated against him.

Q: Was he outgoing when he was young?

H’s father: He was pretty outgoing.

H’s mother: Right, he has always had a good personality.

Q: Would he come home upset about things at school?

H’s father: Not exactly. He was really naughty and we had always believed that there were things he just couldn’t get. So, we would keep telling him to try hard at school and he was good at acknowledging that.

A Student Leader at Special Education School

Q: Did H change once he was in the special education school?

H’s father: He became a student leader at the new school, because the other kids had disabilities more severe than his. At the school, he picked up a lot of things even without being taught.

H’s mother: A lot of the things he had learnt at the regular schools before.

Q: Was the curriculum the same at the special education school as at regular schools?

H’s father: It was simpler at the special education school. Actually, H found it too simple. Because he had a relatively solid foundation, his grades were very good at the new school. The teacher liked to give him responsibilities. He would tutor other kids sometimes and the teacher said he was acting like a young teacher. When the teacher was absent, he would be teaching the other kids.

H’s mother: Actually, the special education school only covered the curriculum from first grade through third grade, which he had already learnt at the regular schools.

H’s father: That’s why the teacher said that H should have been attending a regular school.

H’s mother: But the regular school didn’t want him! Yongmou Road Elementary School told me that H could stay there if he was rejected by Youyou Elementary School, but I figured that if he had stayed at the original school, we would have no way of dropping him off and picking him up every day and we wouldn’t feel comfortable having him go to Puxi for school himself which was very far. So we preferred a school that was closer by. And he had another IQ test while going to the special education school.

Q: In which year was that?

H’s father: In 2006.

H: The test seemed to be simpler the second time round. I looked at the math problems and was asked if I could solve them. I connected some lines and scored 64. It went better the second time and I was pretty happy with it.

H’s mother: Right, he scored above 60. The first time he scored only 45 when he was going to Yongmou Road Elementary School. It was a very low score which implied that his disability wasn’t that mild. After we moved here, we took him for another assessment.

Q: How did you feel about the score going up from around 40 to above 60?

H’s father: The primary feeling was that our kid wouldn’t be able to keep up with other kids. I can’t exactly describe it. But what’s there to do? He choked on amniotic fluid which must have affected him. And to put it bluntly, what will he do when we get old? He was going to school then and we just hoped that he would get a decent education. When he scored above 60 on the IQ test, we felt better because we figured that it meant he would be better at self-dependence.

Q: What subjects did H like better when he was going to school?

H: Math, English, and PE too.

H’s mother: PE? You weren’t good at PE.

H’s father: He did well in PE at the special education school. He won many prizes and a dozen or so certificates of merit. He had never won any of those at the regular schools.

Q: What were the certificates of merit for?

H’s father: For sports meets and reading.

H’s mother: As parents, we were happy to see the kid’s certificates of merit. They meant something, so we have saved all of them just in case we need to show them someday.

Q: Which events did H excel at in PE?

H: Tug of war, jump rope, and basketball.

Q: Were you on the school team?

H: No.

Q: Which sports do you like to do now?

H: Running.

Q: Is it a habit?

H: I ran all the time at school and competed too.

Q: Has H participated in any Special Olympics activities?

H’s father: No.

Q: Were there any schoolmates or good friends who participated in Special Olympics activities?

H’s mother: When he was going to Shangnan Special Education School, there was a kid with the last name Xu. He was 1 year above H and very famous. He was of a stronger build.

Q: Was he famous for participation in Special Olympics activities?

H’s mother: He was well known and even went abroad. He met with the Prime Minister of Britain, an elderly lady.

Q: Did he and H know each other?

H’s mother: Not well.

Q: Did he have good friends at the special education school?

H’s mother: He did. The friend calls him often, even now.

H’s father: Our son was probably the best student at the special education school. There’s a kid whose disability was slightly more severe than H’s. His mom worked at a textile factory. We talked when her son called. His last name is Chen.

Q: Are the two of them close?

H’s father: They are. His mom is a manager at the factory and always says that H is very capable and understands everything.

H’s father: He called quite often for a while. Now he seems to be working…

H’s mother: He seems to have a job too, managing a warehouse.

H’s father: His mom is a manager, so she got him that job. What she seemed to be telling me was that he wasn’t doing as well as H. She said herself, “Chen is always talking about H, saying that H helped him with schoolwork and taught him this and that.”

H’s mother: He is a nice kid, very courteous.

H’s father: He is indeed nice. Because he was taller and stronger than H, he would beat up anyone else who was taller and stronger than H and who wanted to bully him.

H’s mother: He told me over the phone that he would protect H.

Q: After leaving the special education school, would H and Chen go out with other schoolmates on weekends?

H’s father: Not really, because H was the only one from the special education school who got into the primary vocational school. The special education school offered 9 years’ free education. H was there for 4 years. After graduation, he got admitted into the primary vocational school because he had some smarts.

A Car Accident

Q: Was the special education school far from home?

H’s mother: He needed to be dropped off, too. At first I dropped him off at school, then I dropped him off at the bus station. I would watch him get on Line 782 at South Yanggao Road stop.

Q: How long did it take to get to school?

H’s mother: It took us 20 min just to get to the bus station. So it would take at least 40 min one way.

Q: H has no problem taking care of himself in daily life, right? Like knowing his way around and interacting with others.

H’s father: He has no problem. He had a car accident on his way home one day. He was hit by a car…

Q: When was that?

H’s father: It was either in 2003 or 2002…

H’s mother: It was in 2002, the year we moved here. Let me tell the story. I recall it happened on May 8, 2002.

He started at the school in February and I had been dropping him off and picking him up for the ensuing 3 months. In May, I figured that he was old enough for me to just drop him off at the bus station and pick him up there in the evening. So I talked to the teacher who agreed to escort him to the bus station across from the school for him to get on the bus. It worked out for me since I wouldn’t have to commute so far everyday myself and could save on bus fare. School was out at 4 p.m., so I would wait at the bus station before 4 p.m. and could normally pick him up pretty soon.

On May 8, I waited at the bus station and saw all the other kids come back except for H. The kids couldn’t exactly tell me what happened except that my son had been taken away by the police. I couldn’t figure out why. School had just resumed after the May 1st long holiday. I was starting to panic while still waiting in vain. Then another kid arrived who was better at telling me what happened.

The teacher did escort the kids to the bus station across from the school. On May 8, however, she got a little lazy because she was pregnant. Or maybe she wasn’t being lazy. She just figured that kids crossing the street in a group should be okay. The teacher later apologized to me saying that she had been taking H across the street herself every time except for that one time. Since the teacher wasn’t there, H and another kid ran into the street and a jeep carrying people from Beijing to a meeting in Shanghai hit him and he went flying.

H’s father: And had a bone broken.

H’s mother: The teacher immediately took him to Punan Hospital. By the time I knew about it, it was almost 5 p.m. I had not a penny on me when I was waiting at the bus station, so I went home first. By the time I got home, the school had already called. My husband was at work and not home. H’s grandma was still alive then, but she was getting confused and couldn’t understand much about the phone call except that it seemed to be from the teacher and that H had been taken to Punan Hospital. My husband came back then and we went to Punan Hospital together. H was already there for treatment.

The traffic police said that the jeep from Beijing and the school were trying to blame each other for the accident and that it went on for a long time. According to people in the jeep, my son was running wild in the street, and the teacher escorting the kids to the bus station turned back to school even before the kids had reached the other side of the street.

Q: Was H badly injured?

H’s mother: Very much so and he still has the scar from the accident. (Pointing to H’s leg) A steel plate was placed there and wasn’t removed till a year later.

Q: Where else was he hurt?

H’s mother: Nothing serious elsewhere. People said that he actually got lucky, because the car that hit him was a good performance one. Had it been a crappy car, H might have sustained even worse injuries.

H’s father: He got one of his teeth knocked out, too.

H’s mother: When we saw him at the hospital, he had blood all over his face and I was so scared. I didn’t know what was going to happen, seeing his broken leg dangling there. His schoolmate only had some scrapes. H was the one with the real injuries. And it was a pretty major accident.

H’s father: Yes, a major accident. People in the jeep from Beijing wouldn’t take responsibility and wanted to drive off, and Shanghai No. 7 Traffic Corps held the car on Yuntai Road. Then we sued them and won, and got them to come to apologize.

H’s mother: They came to our place to check on H.

H’s father: That was several months later.

H’s mother: Yes, several months had passed. We wrote a letter to appeal.

Q: You wrote a letter to appeal? Who did you address the letter to?

H’s mother: To the workplace where the jeep belonged.

H’s father: It was their fault hitting H with the car and they should take full responsibility. We wrote to the workplace. They received our letter, replied and sent people to visit us to apologize later.

Q: In which month did the reply come?

H’s mother: It was already hot. He had the accident in May, so the reply probably came in August.

H’s father: I still have the letter in a drawer.

Q: Was H hospitalized?

H’s father: He was, for a long time, more than a month. After he was discharged from the hospital, he rested for several months at home and couldn’t go to school. The steel plate was removed 1 year later and he was hospitalized for close to a month for that.

H’s mother: The doctor said that he had recovered well upon removal of the steel plate. We were worried that his legs would be of uneven lengths as a result of the accident, so we minimized his movements when he had the steel plate on. His leg turned out to be okay and doesn’t affect his work or anything else at all.

Q: How many months did he take off after the accident?

H’s mother: He had the accident in May and school was out in July. After the summer vacation, he went back to school on September 1st.

Q: So, he went back to school as soon as the school year started?

H’s mother: Right, and the teacher took good care of him, always telling him to be careful and try not to have anyone bump into him. He still had the steel plate in, so it could have been dangerous if someone pushed him. The school was actually responsible for the accident to a certain degree. If the teacher had taken the kids across the street, whatever happened to the kids after that would have had nothing to do with the school.

Q: Once he returned to school after the accident, did the teacher escort him to the bus station like before? And did you continue to pick him up at the bus station?

H’s mother: I still dropped him off at the bus station every morning for him to go to school himself.

Q: So nothing else happened after that, right?

H’s mother: Nothing else.

Q: The hospital stay must have been costly. Were you stressed out financially?

H’s father: We were both working back then, and we didn’t get too much in compensation.

Q: What about the medical expenses?

H’s mother: We paid for everything. What else could we have done? We had to get treatment for H. Someone at the hospital told us to wait for those people from Beijing to pay. But we couldn’t afford to wait because H’s broken leg was literally dangling there. The doctor said that before H could be treated, the hospital had to receive some payment upfront, wherever that payment came from. We just wanted H to get treated as soon as possible, and as for the medical expenses, we would cover it ourselves if we had to, even if we had to borrow money.

H’s father: We received some compensation.

H’s mother: Those people from Beijing came to our street as some kind of token gesture. Our family had financial hardship since I had been laid off in as early as 1996.

H’s father: I was laid off in 2000 and signed an agreement on insurances after retirement.

H’s mother: I was a contracted worker. Once the contract was terminated, I receive no pension.

H’s father: Our factory was shut down and no one had a job and we were all sent out there to fare for ourselves. Because our family had financial hardship to start with and was receiving low-income subsidies, the Community Affairs Committee referred me to work as a helper for people with disabilities¹ and she went to work in home care.

Q: When did you start working as a helper for people with disabilities?

H’s father: I started in 2005.

H’s mother: So it’s been more than 10 years.

Q: What do helpers like you normally do?

H’s father: I mainly manage things for people with disabilities.

H’s mother: He means that he works for the Community Affairs Committee.

H’s father: Yes, I do. We mainly service people with disabilities. The Community Affairs Committee needed someone to issue disability certificates and update information as well as communicate with people.

Q: And you started working in home care after H’s accident?

H’s mother: That came much later. H had the accident in 2002 and I still had a job then. I was selling books. It was in 2004 that I switched to home care.

Learning to Make Appetizers After Getting into a Vocational School

Q: After graduating from the special education school, how did H decide to take the entrance exam for the primary vocational school?

H’s father: The teacher said that he was good with his hands and with his mind as well and recommended that he go to a vocational school. But we were advised to hold him back a year because he was still too young then. Then another teacher, of the last name Zhu, said H should be fine. So we didn’t wait a year and had him take the exam right away.

Q: What was the exam like?

H’s mother: I went with him for the exam. He was asked to lift a huge wok, but since he had never done anything like that at home, he couldn’t lift it up. The teacher said his arms were not strong enough. I said that given time, he could learn to make appetizers. I actually begged that teacher to give my child the opportunity of several more years’ schooling so that he could be self-dependent and feed himself.

Q: So he was not tested on book knowledge?

H’s father: No… Actually, he was tested on book knowledge at the same time.

Q: How did he do on that? Do you still remember?

H’s father: He did very well.

H: It was pretty simple.

H’s mother: Since his arms were not strong enough, he couldn’t cook on the stovetop. So he was taught to make appetizers like pancakes and buns, and he made them at home, too.

Q: Which primary vocational school did he go to?

H’s father: Zhonghua Primary Vocational School, on Pusan Road.

Q: Did the primary vocational school organize any activities?

H: It did, including field trips.

H’s mother: We let him go on all of the trips. We encouraged him to participate in everything the school organized so that he could socialize with other kids.

Q: Was he happy at the primary vocational school learning to make appetizers?

H’s mother: He was very happy. We wanted him to go to school and acquire some skills so that he could feed himself later. If he didn’t go to school and stayed home instead, there’s nothing we could do for him.

Q: When you were going to the primary vocational school, did you think about what you would do later in life?

H: I just wanted to make appetizers.

Q: So you were really interested in that and knew that you wanted to do that?

H’s mother: He could also make steamed buns. We also made him do it at home for practice. He and his dad would lay out everything on the table. I had no idea what they were doing, and they got flour everywhere.

Q: So when H was going to the primary vocational school, his dad would find all kinds of opportunities for him to practice what he had learnt. What did H make best?

H: Matching dumplings.

Q: What’s more difficult for you?

H: The bun with sticky rice inside.

Q: Why was that difficult to make?

H: Because the wrapping needed to be rolled and stretched, which wasn’t easy.

H’s mother: He could still make it but it would have taken more time. After he graduated from Zhonghua, he went directly to Papa John’s.

H: I actually went to Novotel first.

H’s mother: That was a 6-month internship at Novotel.

Q: Did the primary vocational school arrange that?

H’s mother: They did. The school sent him to Novotel for a 6-month internship. After 6 months, he couldn’t work there anymore and was sent back to us. As soon as he was done there, his teacher called us saying that Papa John’s was hiring on campus and that we should dress him neat the next day so that he could be hired, as the school had a very limited number of referrals. It seemed that only a limited number was given to each school. The teacher said that she would recommend H. We are very grateful to Ms. Zhu, the teacher at the primary vocational school. She was very nice and very caring towards us.

Q: In which month was that?

H’s mother: In June. And on June 30, he was hired by Papa John’s.

Q: Let me ask a more specific question. Do you remember what he wore to the interview that day?

H: White T-shirt and jeans.

Q: Do you remember what you were tested on?

H: Making pizza and things like that.

Q: Where was the test held?

H: At school.

Q: What else was in the test?

H: I was asked several questions like whether I could toss pizza dough. The company headquarters used to be on Changshou Road, close to subway Line 7.

H’s mother: He remembers much better than I do.

H: The address was 999 Changshou Road.

H’s mother: We went with him to the headquarters but told him not to tell the trainer that, because we didn’t want anyone to have the misunderstanding that he couldn’t even be self-dependent enough to go to work on his own and had to be dropped off by his parents.

H’s father: After the interview at the school, he was given a piece of paper on which to choose which store he preferred to go to. There were many stores including the one in Yaohan and another one on Chenshan Road. I figured that we should pick a good store. The one in Yaohan was very nice because of the location, so we picked that one and H worked there for many years.

H: It was inside Huachen Building on Zhangyang Road.

H’s mother: After Yaohan was shut down, he was transferred to a store on Ershan Road which was close to the old Yaohan.

Q: When was he transferred to the store on Ershan Road?

H: It has been 2 years.

Q: Does he help around the house?

H’s father: He is the only child and doesn’t help around the house.

H’s mother: We get everything done ourselves (laughing). When he was going to school, we wanted him to just focus on studies. He seldom helps around the house. It’s not that he doesn’t know how, we just don’t let him. Now that he is working, he gets tired after work, which is all the more reason we don’t let him help around the house. The thing is that I work in the neighborhood, going to elderly people’s places to clean up and keep them company. So we are okay doing household work ourselves.

Two of my co-workers and some neighbors told me that I should let H cook for us, because he might have to do it one day when we are too old to cook ourselves. I said that we didn’t feel like having him do it now and preferred to wait till later. My reasoning was that growing up, I didn’t help around the house, but I can do everything now.

Hardworking and Outgoing

Q: H’s job position is a little different, right? Is he called an employee being cared for?

H: That’s what the company calls me.

H’s mother: Joint ventures like Papa John’s pick good students from vocational schools, which was why H was picked. He has a disability certificate and his intellectual disability is mild. Had it not been mild, for example, had it been Grade II intellectual disability, he wouldn’t have been able to get a job. His is Grade IV, the mildest, which is why he can work. My husband manages things like that.

H’s father: There are a total of four levels of intellectual disability. People with Grade III can get jobs, too. Grade II is considered severe disability, while Grade IV is the mildest.

H’s mother: With only a mild disability, he can go to work. The school said that Papa John’s wanted to hire kids like him and there were not many openings, because every school wanted to refer its own students. The teacher said to dress H up to make a good impression and, if he was hired, it would be free publicity for the school showing that its students could get jobs. So he ended up working at Papa John’s.

Q: What did he do when he first joined the Papa John’s store in Yaohan?

H: I worked at everything, in the kitchen and dining area, delivery and cashier. It was hard work at that store in Yaohan. I worked till very late every day, sometimes as late as 11 p.m.

H’s mother: He looked exhausted when he came home. He would leave for work very early and come back very late. The neighbors all commented on how hard he worked, how early he left the house and how late he came back. It was indeed hard work.

Q: Do you like your job?

H: I do.

Q: So, you have liked it from the very beginning and didn’t need time to get used to it right after graduation?

H: I didn’t need time to get used to it because I liked making appetizers to begin with.

Q: Have you changed job positions?

H: Job positions… I make dough and things like that (see Fig. 1)

Fig. 1

Mr. H at work

.

H’s mother: He has always been at this job. He works a lot and there was a time when he almost worked every day, 365 days a year.

Q: Why?

H: Because there weren’t enough employees.

Q: How many employees are there at the store?

H: Seven or eight employees, plus delivery people. So, a total of around ten. I used to work every day, now I work 1 day and get off earlier the next day.

Q: When do you normally go to work and get off work?

H: I normally go to work at 9 a.m. and get off at 10 p.m.

Q: Those are long hours. Do you get a lunch break?

H: I do, 1 h’s break.

H’s mother: If he works all-day shift, he will get to the store at 9 a.m. and punch out at 10 p.m., which is as late as he will work now. He worked all-day shift yesterday, today he got home earlier after a half-day shift, and tomorrow he will work all-day shift again.

H: Half-day shift is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

H’s mother: He brings lunch every day now, because Papa John’s doesn’t provide lunch. They have no fixed work hours and start earlier some days and later other days. I prepare his breakfast every day and pack some snacks and a meal for him for lunch, because he won’t eat two meals. I also pack apples for him. He has always liked apples of all the fruits.

Q: Have you ever been frustrated or unhappy at work?

H: No.

Q: So, you have always been happy at work?

H’s mother: He always comes home smiling.

H’s father: His managers all like him.

H: This store is nice and the store manager brought me here with him. It’s not as busy at this store.

Q: Your store manager brought you here with him?

H: Yes, the manager from the general store.

Q: Why did he bring you here with him?

H: He thought I was doing well and was happy with my job. His last name is Wang.

H’s mother: Both managers are very nice. The other one has the last name Zhang. They both care a lot about him.

H’s father: They do care about him.

Q: How are you getting along with your co-workers?

H: I get along well. At the store, I am close to an older guy and close to the store manager, too.

H’s mother: Everyone says that he works hard. Whenever the manager calls, we will hear good things about H including that he is always available whenever he is needed at work. Like the other day, he was supposed to be off, but the store was short on one person for a shift, so he was asked to fill in. I tell him to go whenever the manager asks him to, since he will just play on the computer if he stays home, and going to work is better than that. He is still young, so he should make money whenever possible.

Q: How does H get along with customers at the store?

H: Not bad.

Q: Is there communication with them at work?

H: There is if I make deliveries. I will deliver to the door and knock. We actually have nine steps for delivery.

Q: You mean standardized processes?

H’s mother: What are those steps?

H: First, I will ring the bell or knock on the door. Second, I will tell the customer my name. Then I will pass him the order, tell him that it’s hot, introduce promotions running at the time, give him change, thank him and ask whether he wants me to take any trash out.

H’s mother (laughing): You will ask to take out other people’s trash?

H: I don’t ask that anymore. I did at first. Those are the nine steps for delivery people to follow.

H’s mother: Asking to take out other people’s trash is a courtesy and probably an invitation for the customer to order Papa John’s pizzas again. His sense of providing service is pretty sharp.

Q: What did you do with your first month’s pay? Were you happy when you got it?

H: I was very happy and saved the money.

H’s father: We are saving his money for him, under his name. We are still feeding him as of now. Down the road… We have told him that every penny he makes belongs to him. He can still live off us, so he can put aside his own money.

H’s mother: He uses some of it for pocket money. What I mean is that after he started working, we stopped giving him allowances. He will take some pocket money from his pay and give the rest to us. Once we have 10,000 yuan from him, we will put it in the bank for him under his name and show him the deposit slip. We agreed that all of the savings will be given to him later. He needs to be able to survive when he finds himself on his own one day.

Q: Has H changed over the years since he started working?

H’s father: I feel that he is more outgoing after he started working. Except that when he was going to school, he was eager to greet everyone. Now he doesn’t go out of his way to do that.

H’s mother: I am always on him about that. Our neighbor, an elderly lady, said that my son is aloof now and when someone calls his name, he won’t acknowledge it but will just walk by and keep playing on his cell phone.

H’s father: I used to work at the Community Affairs Committee and people there said to me, “Your son makes pizzas now. One time he delivered a pizza to us and acted really outgoing. After the delivery, he kept telling us about other products. He sure can talk.” I used to take him to the workplace when he was younger and everyone knew that he wasn’t talkative. Now he talks a lot.

H: They actually came to eat at the store.

H’s mother: He is much better than before. After all, he has been working for 7 years, from 2009 till now.

H’s father: Now that he is exposed to society and interacting with other people, he’s got to have improved in every aspect.

H: I am happy making deliveries or interacting with customers. I am happy making deliveries. Making pizzas in the kitchen is tougher, what with all the tossing.

H’s mother: He always comes home happy and has never been grumpy.

Entertainment Needs and Multiple Interests

Q: After work, what do you do for fun? For example, what social networking tools do you normally use?

H: QQ! QQ, WeChat, and Sina Microblog.

H’s father: He is on WeChat a lot and won’t show us what he does on it, so we just leave him alone.

Q: Are there any celebrities that you like?

H: Not a lot, but I occasionally follow some of the online hosts.

H’s mother: He got it from me. He will take a shower once he gets home and play on the computer whenever he has time. Or he will just sleep when he isn’t working. Other than that, he does nothing.

Q: Which sites do you visit to follow the hosts?

H’s mother: I was told not to follow any hosts because it could cost a lot.

H’s father: He follows them all the time, especially the good-looking ones.

H: I mainly follow Venice and Chinatown, not anything else. I chat with people.

H’s mother: I keep telling him not to get mixed up with certain kinds of people and not to just follow anything.

H: It’s a kind of socializing, talking to other people. I also like watching movies. I get along well with the girls at work and we all like watching movies.

Q: What kind of movies do you like?

H: Horror movies and love stories, like those you find on iqiyi.com on the computer.

Q: Do you not go to the theater?

H: Not really, because I will have to pay for tickets.

H’s mother: We are not big spenders. As parents, we are conscientious about saving.

H: Occasionally I will go to sing. The store will organize activities like going to sing at Holiday KTV.

H’s mother: It’s a karaoke place.

Q: Karaoke. So, are you good on the microphone?

H: I sing okay. (Laughing) Maybe just average. My co-workers tell me I sing well, and I kind of agree.

Q: Which songs do you like to sing?

H: Those by Adu.

Q: What kind of games do you play?

H: I play some, like Chinese Poker.

Q: What about online games?

H: I don’t play a lot of those. I also play Chehang.

H’s father: A driving game.

H: Yes, it’s a game.

Q: Is there any place you want to go in the future?

H’s mother: He works so much and has no time.

H: I have to work and there’s no time. There are places I want to go but I have no time to go.

Q: If you had time, where would you like to go?

H: I would like to go to Henan, because it’s beautiful there.

H’s mother: He heard all about it from his co-workers.

H: Several of my co-workers are from Henan, and Hubei, too. Some are from places even farther like Chongqing. I heard that it’s good for your body to climb mountains.

Cherishing the Present and Envisioning the Future

Q: When he was a kid and it became known that there’s some gap between his intellectual disability and that of similar-aged kids, how did the neighbors and friends react?

H’s father: All of our relatives and friends knew that he choked on amniotic fluid when he was born and was not the smartest in anything… We don’t know how to bring it up with other people. We couldn’t help but feel sad when other people talked about how their kids were excelling at school. And we suffered some kind of low self-esteem when we thought about other people’s kids getting into colleges whereas our own had always had poor grades. We didn’t like talking about kids or commenting on other kids.

H’s mother: Not everyone is curious.

H’s father: Half of the people won’t ask anything. At the old housing, no one asked anything. And at new apartment buildings, the neighbors have nothing to do with each other anyway.

H’s mother: People don’t ask questions. Only our next-door neighbors know.

H’s father: And you can’t tell just by looking at him.

H’s mother: No one notices when he leaves for work or comes back home, and we will never tell anyone that he has a disability certificate. If asked, we will just say that he is working at Papa John’s now, making pizzas.

H’s father: Someone asked me and my wife why we let H make pizzas for a living because it’s hard work and how come we didn’t get him an easier job, especially since I work at the Community Affairs Committee myself. But I can’t exactly reply by saying that my kid’s ability is not quite there. So I just let it go whatever other people say, even though I want the best for my kid. People will ask why we let H work at Papa John’s where he has to work really hard. But what options do we have?

H’s mother: Some neighbors will ask why we don’t give H a chance for more schooling, because he might land a better job with more education. We won’t tell them anything, and we can’t anyway, otherwise H will be upset.

H’s father: Kids have self-esteem, too.

H’s mother: Why bother telling anyone? We don’t know the neighbors well and don’t feel like confiding in them, especially since you can’t tell that H has any disability just by looking at him.

Q: Do community organizations for people with disabilities organize any activities?

H’s father: Not a lot right now.

H’s mother: Now that he is working, H doesn’t go to those activities often. If he wasn’t working, he would. Our Youyou Community in Pudong now does a good job in that regard.

H’s father: We have the Sunshine Home and Sunshine Base here.

Q: Has H ever been to those places?

H’s mother: He was in school all the time and got a job right after school, so he never had time to go to those places. Had his disability not been mild, he would have gone to the Sunshine Home. If his IQ test score had remained at 40 or something like the first time he took the test, he wouldn’t have been able to get a job and would have been sent to the Sunshine Home instead where he would have…

H’s father: He wouldn’t be working now.

Q: Does the community give you any special help or subsidies?

H’s mother: H and I received low-income subsidies. My husband signed a contract to receive 100 yuan instead of the low-income subsidy.

H’s father: The two of them started receiving low-income subsidies when H had the broken leg from the car accident which could have prevented him from working. There’s no help for our financial hardship per say. The low-income subsidy was a little over 200 yuan.

H’s mother: The subsidy wasn’t much. I started working in 2004. The Community Affairs Committee helped me land the job. What I do is go to elderly people’s places to take care of them and do the chores, and I get paid by the government, not the elderly people. Once I got the job, I was removed from the list of low-income subsidy recipients because the government didn’t want me to be there if it could help it. Instead, it wanted me to work to support my son till he got a job himself. Once H started working, his low-income subsidy stopped, too.

Q: Did anything really enjoyable or really difficult happen during all these years?

H’s father: Nothing really difficult or really enjoyable. We are happy that he is working now.

H’s mother: We are pretty happy that he is working, because we are relieved that there’s some security for him now. To be honest, we are very happy about it. Getting a job for him had always weighed heavily on our minds.

We keep reminding him to work hard, because it would be very difficult for him to get another job if he loses this one. It was hard for us to get jobs, so it would be much harder for him because not many workplaces will hire people like him. Papa John’s is a joint-venture and the government requires that joint-ventures carry some of the burden, which is why they hire people like H. If H doesn’t cherish the opportunity, we wouldn’t know what to do with him if he was sent back home.

H’s father: Now that he has this job, we don’t need any other help. It’s not easy to get a job right now, so as long as he keeps this job, we won’t expect anything else.

H’s mother: We have no other expectations except that he keeps this job at Papa John’s. I think it’s a nice place to have kept him for so long. The contract he signed this time is valid till 2017 which is next year. He went to the company headquarters to sign contracts. I just hope this can turn out to be a long-term job for him so that he can support himself.

H’s father: We will be able to rest easy when we can’t work ourselves one day and when we pass away. If he didn’t have a job, we wouldn’t even be able to die in peace. So, when you asked about anything enjoyable happening to us, we are happy as long as he has a job.

Q: Did you ever think about having another child?

H’s mother: No.

H’s father: No, no.

H’s mother: Our priority was to do a good job raising this one.

H’s father: He even asked us if we could have his disability certificate cancelled. I told him that once it had been issued, there’s no way to cancel it. I said that with the disability certificate, he will receive help from society and he can’t just get rid of it.

H’s mother: If he got rid of the disability certificate, things could get tough for him without the government taking care of him. He doesn’t have a good education. Even for those with advanced educations, like college graduates, it’s not always easy to get jobs…

Q: When did he start having this thought?

H: After I started working on Ershan Road.

Q: Why?

H: It’s not something I’m proud of.

H’s father: What’s there not to be proud of?

H’s mother: He is worried that girls won’t want him for that.

H: I don’t have a good education, in which case it’s not good to get rid of the disability certificate.

H’s father: He once jokingly said that he won’t let the girl know about it if he gets to date one. And I said he can’t do that.

Q: This may be none of our business, but has H ever dated?

H and H’s parents: No.

H’s father: He asked me if it’s okay that he doesn’t tell the girl about the disability certificate. I said he will have to tell her upfront, otherwise the girl will think she has been tricked into the relationship. The disability certificate shouldn’t really matter.

H’s mother: But he struggles with it because he doesn’t feel proud of it.

H’s father: I told him it’s not something to not be proud of. There are smart people and people who are not so smart, and no one is perfect. Even in the same person, he can be both very smart and very dumb. We keep telling him this at home and telling him that no one is perfect.

Q: Now that H is getting older, have you thought about him having a family of his own?

H’s father: Of course we would like him to have a family of his own. The girl doesn’t have to have money, she just needs to be down-to-earth and know her way around the house. We will help whenever we can, but if we can’t, so be it.

Q: So you hope to see it happen naturally.

H’s father: That would be ideal.

H’s mother: If he does get a date, I hope the two of them can get something good going. We won’t ask for much except that the girl is nice, doesn’t mind working and can work, although it won’t matter how much she makes. For us, how much we spend has always depended on how much we make.

H: I make a little less than 4,000 yuan.

H’s mother: He said his pay for the last 2 months has increased.

H’s father: If he does have a family of his own, we will be supportive if they are committed to having a life together. Otherwise we will object.

Interview with H’s Co-Worker (I)

Interviewee: Female store manager

Interviewer: Qi Lin

Writer: Yi Zhang

Interview date: October 28, 2016

Interview place: Restaurant where H works

Q: You are the store manager, right?

Store manager: I am.

Q: Have you always worked at this store?

Store manager: No, I joined at the end of last year.

Q: Before you came, did anyone from this store brief you on how H was at work?

Store manager: Kind of, so I knew something about him.

Q: What was your impression of him when you first came?

Store manager: He has always done well in everything. He knows what he is doing, and he has all-around skills and can do pretty much everything.

Q: What distinguishes him at work?

Store manager: Compared with others, he is dependable and willing to work hard.

Q: Can you give me an example?

Store manager: For example, after getting his own job done, he will help his co-workers. He works in the kitchen, and because our store does mostly takeout and there are no servers in the dining area, he will take the initiative to clean up the tables.

Q: Does he face customers normally?

Store manager: He does.

Q: Will he interact with them?

Store manager: He will, and it will go pretty well.

Q: Have you received any customer feedback about him?

Store manager: The feedback is basically that you can’t really tell that he has an intellectual disability.

Q: What do you think of his personality?

Store manager: He has a nice personality. He is easygoing instead of being a shut-in. I think he is nice.

Q: I saw that the employees would chat among themselves when it’s quiet in the store. What would everyone chat to him about?

Store manager: Just small talk about everything.

Q: How does he get along with his co-workers?

Store manager: He gets along well.

Q: Outside work, do you get any chance to interact with him? For example, at activities organized by the store.

Store manager: I do, like when we go out together to eat during townhalls, or when we go to sing after the group meal. We do a lot of that.

Q: So he will join. Do you remember the last time you had a group activity like eating out or singing?

Store manager: We basically do it once a month.

Q: Is once a month a fixed thing?

Store manager: No, no.

Q: So it’s random?

Store manager: Right, because we can’t leave the store during work hours, so we will have to wait till we are done for that day, like after 10 p.m., before we can eat together and have some other activity.

Q: Do you remember where you got together last time?

Store manager: Sometimes we get together at the store and other times we eat out together. Last time we ate together at the store.

Q: Did everyone bring food?

Store manager: We bought from outside the store.

Q: Is there anything else you can tell us about H?

Store manager: I really think he is a very nice kid, willing to work hard and to follow instructions. He gets whatever you teach him and I don’t think he looks different from anyone.

Q: So, you don’t see him as different from other people.

Store manager: Right. Once you are used to him, you don’t see him as different. I think he is very nice and has a mild temperament and personality.

Q: So everyone likes him?

Store manager: Right. Compared with others, he reacts at a slower pace. He will for sure do whatever you ask him to, but he doesn’t always look for things to do, so he isn’t as good at taking initiative. For example, if the floor needs to be swept, you will have to remind him for him to do it.

Q: I see. Thank you.

Interview with H’s Co-Worker (II)

Interviewee: Female co-worker

Interviewer: Qi Lin

Writer: Yi Zhang

Interview date: October 28, 2016

Interview place: Restaurant where H works

Q: When did you join this store?

Female co-worker: I joined in April 2014.

Q: So it has been a while.

Female co-worker: Right, more than 2 years.

Q: You met H when you joined the store?

Female co-worker: No, he wasn’t at this store first and was transferred here later, so there’s a gap there.

Q: Do you remember your first impression of him?

Female co-worker: First impression… let me think, because it has been more than a year. He looked pretty neat to me.

Q: You mean he dressed neat?

Female co-worker: Right, and he looked young to me and I was surprised that he would be working at such a young age. It wasn’t until later that I learnt he is older than I am (laughing).

Q: In which year were you born?

Female co-worker: 1995.

Q: You are so young! What do you think distinguishes him at work?

Female co-worker: At work, he is warm-hearted and ready to help. He doesn’t slack off and is serious about what he is given to do. So he is very good.

Q: Can you give me an example of his readiness to help?

Female co-worker: For example, when we get busy at the store, he will be working at his own station, but since there’s only one person working in the dining area and it can get overwhelming there, like you witnessed today, he will go to the dining area to help clean up the tables and set up the dishes when he has free time. Just like that, if he sees that you have too much to do, he will come over and help you.

Q: Does he mostly work in the kitchen?

Female co-worker: Right.

Q: What about you?

Female co-worker: I mostly work in the dining area.

Q: Can H get his own job done well?

Female co-worker: Yes! He does a very good job.

Q: Did anything happen at the store that you remember really well?

Female co-worker: What I remember well is that on his own, he could make all the deliveries and all the dough within just 2 h. There are only four of us working in the kitchen and the dining area and we can get super busy. He is not very tall and is actually very skinny and lighter than I am, weighing less than 90 lb. I found it incredible that he could do what he did. Had it been me, I would have been overwhelmed. So I think he is doing well, at least for an employee being cared for.

Q: When did you learn that he is an employee being cared for?

Female co-worker: I didn’t know till 2 months later.

Q: How did you find out?

Female co-worker: Someone told me. Some co-worker mentioned it when talking about his family situation. Also, he speaks funny and I feel that he has no logic when he speaks.

Q: Can you give me an example?

Female co-worker (laughing): I’d rather not.

Q: How did you feel when you first learnt that he is an employee being cared for?

Female co-worker: I felt that even though he is an employee being cared for, there’s not much difference between the way he does things compared to other people. When I first got to know him, I never imagined him to be any different. After someone told me about his condition, I started to get it and to realize that he is a little off on certain things.

Q: So will you help him more or be more understanding towards him?

Female co-worker: More understanding.

Q: For example, if there’s something that he doesn’t get sometimes, will you explain it to him?

Female co-worker: When he makes deliveries and cannot understand the customers’ requirements written on the orders, he will need help.

Q: What are the requirements usually?

Female co-worker: Just something extra added to the orders, for example, there are certain items a customer won’t need or the delivery person should call the customer once he gets to the delivery address. H doesn’t get some of the requirements sometimes, so he will get confused, like not being able to find the customer once he gets to the customer’s place. If that happens, he will call us at the store and we will handle it for him. That’s all.

Q: What do you think of his personality?

Female co-worker: He is funny.

Q: Does he tell jokes to make you laugh? Or do you mean he is outgoing?

Female co-worker: He is outgoing. If you talk down to some regular employee, he might feel bad and not want to have anything to do with you for several days. It takes H only several minutes to get over it.

Q: So he can switch back pretty fast?

Female co-worker: Right.

Q: Does he often chat with you during the lunch break? What do you chat about?

Female co-worker: He seldom hangs out with us during the lunch break. He likes to be with same-age male co-workers because they have more in common like games and other entertainment. He won’t have much to talk about with girls, because girls only talk about shopping and eating.

Q: Do you contact each other on your days off?

Female co-worker: Hardly, unless it’s on occasions like the townhall. We see each other at work every day, so we normally don’t contact each other on our days off. And he works when we are off, because he takes a half day off every other day.

Q: Do you work all-day shift every day?

Female co-worker: We work 6 days with 1 day off or 5 days with 2 days off.

Q: And it depends on which shift you work?

Female co-worker: Right.

Q: So he might be closer to male co-workers around his own age.

Female co-worker: Right.

Q: Like who?

Female co-worker: There are two around his age, one isn’t working today and the other one has the last name Yan. There’s also an older guy with the last name Xie. He is actually closer to the older guy. Yan only joined last month and might be able to talk games with H, but when it’s about everyday life, H prefers to talk to the older guy.

Q: Where are you from originally?

Female co-worker: I am from Sichuan.

Q: Okay, thank you.

Interview with H’s Co-Worker (III)

Interviewee: Male co-worker

Interviewer: Qi Lin

Writer: Yi Zhang

Interview date: October 28, 2016

Interview place: Restaurant where H works

Q: When did you start working here?

Male co-worker: Two or 3 years ago.

Q: Who came first, you or H?

Male co-worker: I came first. He used to work at the store in Huacheng then he got transferred here.

Q: When he first joined, did you know that he was an employee being cared for?

Male co-worker: We all knew when he joined.

Q: What do you think of him? What kind of personality does he have?

Male co-worker: He is outgoing, but his mind is a little different from that of other people. He doesn’t know what he is supposed to do at work. If you ask him to do something, he will get it done, but he doesn’t know where to find things to do.

Q: How is his attitude at work?

Male co-worker: He has a positive attitude.

Q: What do you mainly do?

Male co-worker: I mainly make deliveries.

Q: It seems that he makes deliveries too.

Male co-worker: He likes to do that, because he can make an extra 200 yuan doing that.

Q: Do you normally have a lot of deliveries? Like how many per day?

Male co-worker: Between eight and ten a day.

Q: Can you handle them all? Or will you send him sometimes?

Male co-worker: There are several of us making deliveries.

Q: Do you usually deliver within this park?

Male co-worker: We deliver to several apartment complexes in the neighborhood.

Q: I just heard from a female co-worker that when he makes deliveries sometimes, he won’t understand the special requirements of the customers and will call the store for help. Is that true?

Male co-worker: It is.

Q: What are the special requirements normally?

Male co-worker: Most of the time the customers just want you to bring some extra pepper or extra sauce.

Q: What if H forgets?

Male co-worker: He will just call to have someone else bring it over. If we happen to have another person on the same delivery route, that person will just bring it over.

Q: Does this happen often or just occasionally?

Male co-worker: Occasionally.

Q: You chat with each other during lunch break. What do you chat with H about?

Male co-worker: It’s all random (laughing), we talk about everything but nothing serious.

Q: So it’s just small talk. In your opinion, how does he get along with co-workers?

Male co-worker: Not bad, not bad. He never throws tantrums at anyone.

Q: He never throws tantrums. So he is very mild.

Male co-worker: Right.

Male co-worker: Was there anything related to him that you remember well, like something funny?

Male co-worker: I can’t recall anything right now.

Q: Where are you from originally?

Male co-worker: Henan.

Q: When he was interviewed earlier, he said he wants to visit Henan because he heard from a co-worker that it’s beautiful there. That co-worker must have been you. How old are you if I may ask?

Male co-worker: I am 54.

Q: You have been here for 2 or 3 years. So you probably came in 2014?

Male co-worker: Right.

Q: Okay, thank you.

Interview with H’s Co-Worker (IV)

Interviewee: New store manager

Interviewer and writer: Yi Zhang

Interview date: October 26, 2017

Interview place: Restaurant where H works

Q: Could you please tell me how long you have been working here?

Store manager: I came in February of this year. I used to work on Longyang Road.

Q: When you came, did you know that H is an employee being cared for?

Store manager: I did.

Q: At the beginning, could you see anything different about him?

Store manager: There’s nothing different about him and I actually see him as the same as other people, because I have met a lot of employees being cared for at Papa John’s and some of them were very cute precisely because of their disabilities. As for H, he can pass off as the average Joe. You can’t tell that he has a disability just by looking at him. But as you talk to him, he will trail off and not know what to say towards the end. Under normal circumstances, he is actually pretty smart.

Q: He is physically small. How is he at work?

Store manager: He is actually pretty fast at what he does. Most of the employees being cared for will do whatever they are asked to do and will never cross any lines. If I tell them that something has to be done a certain way, they will stick to it and never change. And if someone asks them to do it another way, they will reply that the store manager has instructed otherwise and they have to listen to the manager. H is different. Sometimes without anyone teaching him, he will figure out a fast way to get things done and he will choose that way. Sometimes I will tease him (laughing), asking why he does things a certain way and he will say that it is faster that way.

Q: As far as I can tell, he works very hard, and he has made dough for 20 pizzas so far today. Is that his normal workload?

Store manager: Twenty pizzas per day is nothing. The minimum number for Saturdays and Sundays is 100, without exaggeration. He will only make the dough and other people will finish making the pizzas.

Q: When I interviewed him last time, he worked both in the kitchen and the dining area. Now it seems that he doesn’t have to make deliveries outside the store.

Store manager: Because it’s different now. Now all of the deliveries are outsourced to teams and we don’t do it anymore ourselves.

Q: Teams? You mean teams from Meituan and ele.me?

Store manager: Right, Meituan, ele.me and Baidu. They come to the store to pick up. Under last year’s model, we were still making deliveries ourselves. The deliveries are outsourced this year to minimize risks for one thing and to enhance delivery efficiency for another thing.

Q: So H won’t have to go out for deliveries anymore.

Store manager: Right, he won’t have to and he can stay in the kitchen all the time. That’s better, because delivery is a tough job. For example, when it rains, you still had to go out whenever orders come in and the rain is no excuse for not delivering. And third-party delivery teams are more professional.

Q: I just saw that they moved all the cabinets. They must have been doing a thorough cleanup. Do they do it every day?

Store manager: We clean up every day, but thorough cleanup is not a daily thing. Everyone is responsible for cleaning up after himself or herself, and every week we will find time around noon for a thorough cleanup.

Q: I saw that he gets along very well with his co-workers.

Store manager: They don’t bully each other. I am the only one here who can bully H (laughing). I have always believed that they don’t willingly make mistakes. If they had known that something was wrong, they wouldn’t have done it.

Q: Do you eat together often?

Store manager: I will hold a town hall every month to review performance with them, and we will eat together afterwards.

Q: Can you tell me how his work schedule and time off are arranged?

Store manager: He can take time off as soon as he has worked 168 h every month.

Store manager: Does he take sick leave?

Store manager: Seldom. He actually enjoys better health than I do, as I have a cold right now. Usually he doesn’t ask for time off himself. His parents will call me to do that, explaining why he wants time off.

Q: Do the employees being cared for have pension after retirement?

Store manager: They do, and I have always wondered where they will go after retirement. Maybe they can only go to nursing homes. They probably won’t get married or have kids, and by the time they retire, their parents will have left them and they will have absolutely no one to take care of them. So they have their struggles.

Interview with Mr. H (I)

Interviewee: Mr. H

Interviewer: Qi Lin

Writer: Yi Zhang

Interview date: August 18, 2016

Interview place: Restaurant where H works

Q: You often got sick when you were young. Do you remember your parents taking you to see the doctor?

H: I do. I had asthma when I was young. I had asthma really bad, that’s why I never smoke now. My mom took care of me when I was young, and I had asthma all the time. My health had been poor ever since I was born, and I didn’t get better till I was seven.

Q: Was there anything that you remember really well?

H: Yes. We used to live in Dahua community on Langao Road. I visited the hospital a lot, and my grandma and her side of the family often took me. I was about four or five and was a lot of work. Whenever I started coughing, I needed two people to take care of me. I was on a lot of medication. Actually, I took everything that was available for treating the cough.

Q: Do you remember anything from preschool?

H: I received certificates of merit at preschool and there are three or four kept in the house that I can show you. The teachers were all nice as far as I can remember.

Q: Are there any classmates or teachers that you remember particularly well?

H: There’s a homeroom teacher with the last name Wang.

Q: Why do you remember her well?

H: She was nice to me. She didn’t wear glasses, which I liked. I got along well with everyone.

Q: Did Ms Wang show special care to you in anything in particular?

H: In drawing. I didn’t draw well, so she would allow me to do it again. I always had trouble with three subjects: drawing, English, and math. It was English that dragged me down. I was doing okay in math. Ms. Wang was gentler.

Q: Did you ever not get along with anyone at school?

H: Everything was okay in first grade and second grade. In third grade, my parents didn’t have much time to help me, so my grades dropped to 59 or 58. So the classmates who used to be close started staying away from me because my grades were too bad and dragging down the average grades and they weren’t proud of it. We used to be close, but because my grades dropped too low, they figured that I wasn’t that brainy, and those with good grades started keeping their distance. I was too slow and couldn’t keep up with them. I was pretty upset about it at first, but I just couldn’t get my grades up. The teacher tried to help by keeping me after class, but it was exhausting for me. My mom went back to work which made it even harder for me to catch up. Back then, the teacher would keep me in her office to work on problems till 6 or 7 p.m. each time.

Q: When was school out normally?

H: Normally at 4 p.m.

Q: Did you ever ask them why they started staying away from you?

H: I did, and they told me that my grades were dropping too fast. They were all scoring above 70 or 60 at least. I was scoring 59 and sometimes just over 40 towards the end, because I just couldn’t keep up in math. The teachers gave up on me too because they thought my reactions were too slow. They would only teach once but I couldn’t get it. My grades were too bad and my classmates didn’t feel like hanging out with me anymore. They were okay with me previously, like in first grade and second grade. Then the curriculum became overwhelming in third grade. There was so much to learn in English, for example, so I just couldn’t take everything in.

Q: Did you tell your parents about it?

H: My mom would help me at first, but then she had no time for me when she went back to work. My dad wasn’t much help either.

Q: Growing up, did you ever have any physical fights with classmates?

H: No. I had several classmates who were close to me, and I got along particularly well with girls.

Q: Why?

H: They were all nice to me from the very beginning. One of them even had a crush on me and everyone said she was my puppy love.

Q: Can you tell me more about it?

H: She was my puppy love in first grade and second grade. And by the time we were in third grade, she realized that I was really not smart since my grades were awful. At that time, the teacher was trying really hard to help me and yelling at me all the time. But then it was no use, and fourth grade was just impossible for me. The math teacher was scary, and when I couldn’t keep up, they just sent me to the back of the classroom. The girl was close to me all through first grade and second grade, and in the second half of third grade, she would still try to be there for me at the beginning, but towards the end, she went back to just being a classmate. Everyone saw her as my puppy love.

Q: Are you still in contact with her?

H: I am, through WeChat.

Q: Oh, what’s she doing now?

H: She is doing great, working in a company.

Q: How did the teachers treat you at elementary school?

H: One of the third-grade teachers was too scary and too much. She taught math, I still remember. I couldn’t understand anything she said because she spoke very fast, and she would yell at me and look down on me, saying that I couldn’t keep up at all and was dragging everyone down. No matter how high everyone else scored on a test, I would single-handedly lower the average grade within my grade.

Q: Would you get upset when she said those things to you?

H: I would go out and cry when no one was watching, on the blacktop. I had a very good PE teacher then. At the special education school, the PE teachers were not that good. The PE teacher at the regular school was actually better. He would take me to his office and take his time communicating with me, because I was upset over not keeping my grades up and the math teacher saying that I was dumb.

Q: So the PE teacher would try to comfort you.

H: Right, the PE teacher was nicer. The PE teacher, Chinese teacher, and homeroom teacher were nicer. The math teacher and English teacher were like drill sergeants.

Q: Do you remember the PE teacher’s last name?

H: Zhao.

Q: Male or female?

H: Male.

Q: Do you remember how he tried to comfort you?

H: He would tell me every time, “You can keep up—ask your parents to help you.” My mom was really busy then, getting home from work at 10 p.m. every day, by which time I was already in bed. I would start on my homework at 7 p.m., and if I had difficulty with it, I would just stop and go to bed. My mom said that anything that the teachers taught only once at school, I would have to be taught three times at home. The teachers would go over everything only once, and it was too fast for me. I couldn’t catch all of it and by the time I did the homework after school, I had forgotten everything. My mom would drag me out of bed at midnight sometimes. At first it worked, till the first half of third grade. Then the studies became too heavy in the second half of third grade, and there was so much to learn and to do in English, so my mind just stalled. My mom started to despair. She and my dad would still try to help, even though they both had to work, but I couldn’t comprehend a lot of things. It was just getting more and more difficult, and my parents had to work selling books, so there was not much that could be done.

Q: Would you ask the teachers for help yourself?

H: I was too afraid to do that, because I felt bad about myself and about failing the tests. So, I would just cry and the PE teacher would just take me to his office.

Q: How did you feel when you took the IQ test for the first time?

H: I didn’t know what to think because the teacher requested it.

Q: Did your mom think it was your fault? Or did she tell you directly that you were going to take the test?

H: She told me directly.

Q: And you knew the test results.

H: For the test the first time round, someone asked me questions like squares and multiplications which I had no idea about. I just looked at him and he just wrote a score for me which was 46.

Q: How did you feel after the test?

H: I didn’t understand anything the first time and didn’t understand anything he said. He opened up a puzzle and asked me to do it. I was too young to understand everything, so I did the puzzle wrong.

Q: How old were you then?

H: I was in my teens back then, because we hadn’t moved to the new place yet.

Q: If I recall correctly, you were a student leader at the special education school?

H: I wasn’t exactly a student leader. I just did most of everything at school. I was more of a class president than student leader, and my teacher recommended me for that position.

Q: What did you do most of the time?

H: I checked homework for the teacher. Sometimes the homeroom teacher would take a break in her office, so I would check homework for her. It was pretty simple work.

Q: It was simple for you. What else did you do?

H: I was in charge of cleaning up. We did all the cleaning up ourselves back then and everyone had to help.

Q: So you would assign jobs to everyone?

H: Right, I would assign jobs.

Q: How did you do it?

H: I gave each person a different job.

Q: Did they all follow instructions?

H: Some of them didn’t.

Q: What did you do when they didn’t?

H: I would tell the teacher.

Q: Did you have a favorite teacher at the special education school?

H: I did, the homeroom teacher.

Q: What’s the teacher’s last name?

H: Zhu, and it’s a female teacher. Ms. Zhu was actually in the same class as my mom in elementary school.

Q: What did you like about her?

H: She was nice to me and made me class president, and she left me in charge of everything.

Q: Were you the class president at the primary vocational school too?

H: I was for 2 years. I wasn’t in the third year because I left for Papa John’s.

Q: What were your responsibilities as the class president?

H: I was in charge of having everyone make cakes every day. We learnt making appetizers like matching dumplings and steamed buns. The processes were all pretty simple. You just wrapped everything up and squeezed it tight.

Q: When did you start working here?

H: I came in 2014, more than 2 years ago.

Q: I saw just now that you work both in the kitchen and dining area, is that right?

H: Right, I work in both areas.

Q: How many deliveries have you made today?

H: Three.

Q: Were they far?

H: Not far. They were all close to South Punan Road.

Q: How long did it take for you to get back?

H: About half an hour.

Q: Were the customers nice?

H: I think so.

Q: Have you ever encountered any difficult customers?

H: I have, but not often.

Q: Can you give me some examples?

H: Some of them were picky, like a lady at a company ordering deliveries. On the whole, the customers are pretty nice. Sometimes they will have something to say when I am late. Like one day when it was raining, I couldn’t drive very fast and had to wait at all the traffic lights. Some picky customers will complain if they are kept waiting for just a couple of minutes. But overall, they are nice.

Q: Would you get upset? Like when you made a delivery on a rainy day and the customer still complained.

H: I am okay with that, because the store manager is always reminding us to be courteous towards the customers. The store manager will call whoever complains.

Q: Will the store manager get mad at you if some customer complains?

H: Not really.

Q: Besides making deliveries, you also work in the kitchen, right?

H: Besides making deliveries, I work in the kitchen making dough. I can also work as a cashier. I can work in both the kitchen and the dining area.

Q: You can make a pizza from beginning to end. Can you tell me which steps are involved?

H: I will make the dough first, then cut the dough, then sprinkle some corn starch.

Q: Why do you need to sprinkle corn starch?

H: Because I don’t want the dough to get sticky. Then I will press it.

Q: What’s next?

H: I will knead and toss the dough. Then I will spread ketchup and other sauces before putting it in the oven.

Q: Do you set up the oven too? Or is there someone designated to that?

H: The oven is right next to me, so I will just stick the pizza in.

Q: Basically you make the pizzas all on your own. Do you keep count of the number of pizzas you make on an average day?

H: Seventeen or 18. I don’t make too many in the morning because lunch hours are mainly from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Q: What else did you do today besides making pizzas?

H: I did everything including making appetizers.

Q: What appetizers did you make?

H: I boiled spaghetti. Our appetizers are mainly spaghetti, rice, and baked chicken wings.

Q: And you know how to make all of them?

H: I know how to make almost everything here.

Q: How do you make baked rice, for example?

H: I use rice that’s already cooked and add ingredients ordered by the customers.

Q: So the rice is cooked fresh every morning?

H: Right, cooked fresh.

Q: You said that you can do everything here in the store. What do you think you are best at?

H: I mainly make dough. Making appetizers is almost like a side job.

Q: Who else makes dough besides you?

H: The older guy.

Q: Does it make you tired? You were busy throughout the lunch rush.

H: It gets a little tiring during busy lunch hours. Things are not too bad when the store manager is here, because we have a good manager.

Q: What’s good about him? Can you give me an example?

H: He trusts me on a lot of things, which is good. And the older guy will help me when he is here.

Q: How does he help you?

H: He helps me make dough. He will ask me to take a break when I get tired making dough. Both the manager and the older guy know how to make dough. That girl you just saw, she knows how to do it, too.

Q: I saw you guys taking your lunch break. Did you bring your own lunch? Did your mom make it for you? What did you have today?

H: I had meat today, braised duck.

Q: What else?

H: Veg, leafy veg. Also rice and fried dumplings. Sometimes it gets so busy at night that I won’t punch out till 10 p.m. Like tomorrow, I will have to work till 10 p.m., and I will get hungry at that time and eat what I have brought in the morning.

Q: If you start working at 9 a.m., will you arrive early?

H: I always do.

Q: How early will you be?

H: I will arrive 5 or 6 min early and never be late.

Q: How long does it take for you to commute to work?

H: I take the bus and the ride takes about 30 min. So, if I leave at 8:20 a.m., I can get to work at around 8:50 a.m.

Q: Which bus line do you take?

H: Line 970 and line 583. I go to the bus station myself now.

Q: Once you get to the store, how do you get set up for the day’s work?

H: I will punch in first since there has to be a record of me working. Then I will change into my uniform before preparing the ingredients. I have to have everything taken out and laid out first thing in the morning.

Q: How long does that process take?

H: About 30 min in the morning. If the store manager is here, I will also go to the bank to deposit money.

Q: Do you do that every day?

H: I do it when I work all-day shift.

Q: Do you go by yourself or with the store manager?

H: The store manager doesn’t go.

Q: So one of your responsibilities in the morning is to deposit money at the bank.

H: Yes, I will deposit money from the night before, at China Merchants’ Bank. I do it every other day. If I am here for morning shift, I will do it. Otherwise I won’t.

Q: When will you get back to the store if you go to deposit money at the bank?

H: I will get to the store at 9 a.m., go to the bank at 9:10 a.m., and get back at 9:25 or 9:30 a.m. It takes 20 min because there’s a line sometimes. I will get back sooner when there is no line. Once I am back, I will push all the delivery vehicles outside.

Q: The vehicles will have been pushed inside the night before?

H: I will do it if I am here for evening shift, but the delivery people will do it as well.

Q: How many vehicles are there?

H: Four.

Q: Do you do that together or do you do it yourself?

H: In the morning, I will do it myself. At night, the delivery people will do it.

Q: You have been working for a long time, from 2009 till now. Does the company have some kind of internal assessment?

H: No, except that there’s a “five-star rating” every month.

Q: Have you ever got it?

H: The five-star rating is given to those working in both the kitchen and dining area and I got it before, when I was working at the store in Yaohan making dough. (Mimicking making dough) I am very good at making dough. The rating isn’t given at the store on Ershan Road.

Q: How did you get picked for the rating?

H: I was given a star.

Q: Was there any extra bonus for getting the rating?

H: I just got a star.

Q: Has anything memorable happened at work here?

H: When I was making deliveries, sometimes the customer would ask for a receipt and complain when I couldn’t produce one. It was a headache, because I had to go back to the store to get it.

Q: How many times did that happen?

H: Two or three times.

Q: Okay, thank you. That’s all for today.

Interview with Mr. H (II)

Interviewee: Mr. H

Interviewer and writer: Yi Zhang

Interview date: October 26, 2017

Interview place: Restaurant where H work

Q: I heard from the store manager that you can take time off every month after you have worked a certain number of hours. So how do you arrange your schedule? Do you wait till you have fulfilled the hours before taking time off, or do you take some time off every week?

H: I take 1 or 2 days off every week.

Q: You used to make deliveries. Now it looks like the store doesn’t have to make deliveries itself.

H: Deliveries have been outsourced to third parties like ele.me, Meituan, and Baidu. We don’t deliver anymore ourselves unless the customers pay with a credit card.

Q: How long have the deliveries been outsourced?

H: For a long time. We are only responsible for making the food, and the third parties are responsible for delivering and they are very fast. It gets busy on Saturdays and Sundays.

Q: So you don’t have to leave the store now?

H: I still do. I have to go to the bank to deposit money in the morning.

Q: Do you like it better when they make the deliveries or when you did it?

H: It’s better that they do it. That way I don’t have to go out, because it’s cold out there, especially in winter.

Q: I just counted and you probably made dough for 20 pizzas. Were you tired from that much work?

H: I am used to it. It wasn’t that bad today, because I make even more dough when it gets busier. We don’t get busy when there are no group activities. When someone organizes something, then we will get a lot of orders.

Q: Will you know about the activities?

H: They are specified in the orders because volume discounts could apply.

Q: I see that you got a cut on your hand. Making dough can hurt your hand?

H: I got it opening the ketchup. The cap was very, very sharp.

Q: Did you get stitches?

H: No, no. It was nothing serious and I took a break for several days.

Q: I saw that you could make all the pizzas that were ordered. You alone carry half of the workload in the kitchen. You know how to do everything, don’t you?

H: I know how to do everything, since I have been working for 8 years. I was transferred from the store in Yaohan where I did everything. My job here is actually easier. Work at the store in Yaohan was so heavy and there was just so much to do. And when you got busy, you made more mistakes. I feel that the workload here is lighter and I don’t have too many responsibilities.

Q: So, you find it easier to work here?

H: Right, because we are located close to the software park. A lot more needed to be done at the previous store. That’s our signature dried pork pizza (pointing at the advertisement on the front door of the store).

Q: Is it difficult to make that pizza?

H: It’s the hardest to make. The pizza itself is the same as others, but once it’s out of the oven, you will have to sprinkle dried pork on it.

Q: I saw that when you were making pizza, you laid out the ingredients on top of the dough. Did you learn that at school or here?

H: I learnt it all here.

Q: How do you learn how to make new products? Will you get any training?

H: I will. The trainer will demonstrate and everyone will follow along.

Q: Will you go somewhere for the training or will the trainer come onsite?

H: The store manager will go for the training. The current store manager is very nice, not giving me too many things to do.

Q: Since you have to make so many pizzas on the weekends, will any co-workers help you?

H: They do help me, even on weekdays.

Q: I saw you guys doing a thorough cleanup today. Is that a weekly thing?

H: We do it twice every 2 weeks, which means three or four times per month.

Q: Do you bring your own lunch?

H: I do.

Q: Is it prepared in the morning?

H: It’s prepared the night before and saved in the fridge. I will take it with me the next morning. There’s no time to prepare it in the morning. We are not provided lunch here, so we bring our own.

Q: When do you close at night?

H: At 11:50 p.m. Whoever works evening shift will have to clean up.

Q: You get off work at close to midnight if you are on evening shift. How do you get home then?

H: I ride a yellow rental bike. I pay the deposit, scan the code and ride the yellow bike home. But I do need to secure one at 11:30 p.m. and bring it to outside the store, as it might be difficult to get one on the street if I wait till 12 a.m.

Q: Do you have to take public transportation after the ride on the yellow bike?

H: No.

Q: So you can ride the bike straight home.

H: Right, I can make it home in 20 min if I ride fast.

Q: You were on the evening shift yesterday. When did you get home?

H: I got home after 1 a.m. after the evening shift and went to bed at 1:40 a.m. Sometimes I get home as late as 2 a.m. If I work evening shift, I normally get home in the middle of the night and will still have to work the next day. And it’s pretty tiring making dough.

Q: Do you get scared riding the bike all by yourself so late at night?

H: I am used to working evening shift and this has been adjusted to make it easier for me. Evening shift is tiring because you work so late and need to help clean up afterwards, like wiping the tables and lifting the chairs to on top of the tables. But the store manager is very nice and gives me decent shifts to work.

Observation of H at Work

Observation date: 9:00–17:00, October 26, 2017

Observation place: Restaurant where H works

Observer and writer: Yi Zhang

Time	What H did	Remarks
9:15	Entered the store, went to the kitchen to punch card	Ate while entering the store
9:17	Went to the dressing room to change into uniform and put on hat	Greeted co-workers while changing clothes
9:22	Organized ingredients	Used a cart to transport ingredients, laid out all the ingredients that would be needed in a neat fashion
9:26	Put on apron
9:35	Organized tools needed for work	Made preparations on his own while co-workers chatted
9:45	Walked back and forth to wipe and organize	Completed preparations
10:08	Went to the storage room for to-go boxes	Was quick at moving boxes around, and put everything back in place after taking what he needed
10:12	Folded to-go boxes	Was quick at folding boxes and put the folded boxes neatly on the shelf
10:22	Followed the reminders on the screen hanging from the ceiling of the kitchen, kneaded and tossed dough, spread sauce and added ingredients	Did an even job spreading the ingredients
10:28	Finished one pizza, handed it over to another person and washed hands
10:30	Chatted with co-workers	Checked that everything was in place while chatting
10:52	Made 2nd pizza
10:56	Made 3rd pizza
11:00	Made 4th pizza
11:06	Made 5th pizza	Customers started arriving for lunch, and H continued to make appetizers
11:10	Made 6th pizza
11:22	Made 7th pizza and helped co-workers pack takeout orders
11:24	Made 8th pizza
11:41	Made 9th pizza
11:45	Made 10th pizza
11:47	Washed and wiped hands, and chatted
11:52	Made 11th pizza
11:56	Chatted	More customers arrived for lunch
12:00	Made 12th pizza
12:03	Made 13th pizza
12:09	Made 14th pizza
12:13	Made 15th pizza
12:19	Made 16th pizza
12:23	Made 17th pizza
12:33	Made 18th pizza
12:38	Washed hands
12:41	Cleaned up a big plate	Chatted with co-workers while working
12:45	Took a break
12:49	Made 19th pizza
13:00	Made 20th pizza
13:10	Hung up apron and sat down to rest
13:25	Dragged out the cabinet holding ingredients and swept behind the cabinet	Thorough cleanup of the kitchen
13:35	Left the store with his phone to buy a drink	Lunch break started
13:40	Returned to the kitchen and microwaved packed lunch
13:43	Put lunch on the counter and ate with a co-worker while finishing his drink	H’s lunch included rice, meat, and veg. He ate with gusto while drinking
14:07	Finished lunch, put the lid back on and put the lunch box back in the bag
14:10	Left the kitchen to be interviewed
15:55	Entered the kitchen, put on apron and got ready to make food following orders	Lunch break ended
16:00	Made two pizzas for a takeout order
16:05	Boxed the baked pizzas and put them in a bag
16:18	New orders came in, so H kneaded and tossed dough and added ingredients
16:24	Boxed the baked pizzas and put them in a bag
16:35	Walked back and forth to wipe and organize
16:45	Organized work area
16:55	Removed apron and entered the dressing room to change
17:00	Punched out and left the kitchen	Was done for the day

Translated by Cissy Zhao

Edited by Andy Boreham and Zijian Chen