Trackers
In the old days, men spent their lives as beasts of burden along many of the rivers around the world, such as the Yangtze and the Volga. We call them ‘trackers’ and maybe that is a translation of what the Chinese call them. The men in the photo above pulled boats along difficult stretches of a tributary of the Yangtze. It’s not a job you aspire to, but it might be ok if you were young and strong and wanted to get stronger during your summer vacation. I don’t think that is the case here. These are most likely village men who do this when there is an opportunity to earn money.
Have you read the book, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell? I recommend it. It has many theories that you’ve never thought about. At least, I’d never thought about them. I had observed that the Chinese are hard workers, that they strive for perfection but I didn’t realize that cultivating rice gave them this culture. That their language gave them an advantage for learning math. I don’t know about that last theory, but the hard working part, I can vouch for.
When I was in the hinterlands of China, I used to wonder what the farmers thought as they went through each year doing the never ending tasks over and over. Did they not think about what they were doing unless they noticed something unusual? Was going to the fields after breakfast as natural as breathing? Did they look forward to working near family and friends? Were they working to buy something special, like a television, and that made the work less onerous? I had no idea. The only thing I knew for certain was that I did not envy them.