The fading culture: one out of eight remaining shoe polishers

Liu Yong Min, the shoe polisher

The fading culture: one out of eight remaining shoe polishers

Liu Yong Ming is one of the unique shoe cleaners in Central, Hong Kong. The population of Hong Kong is about 7 millions, but there are only remaining 8 shoe polishers.

Liu works on the Jing Yi Li Street, where the shoe cleaning history started from 1930s. Liu joined the industry when he was about 40s and has wittiness the development of the Central area.

Before working as a shoe polisher, Liu has done numerous jobs like selling newspapers, working as a delivery man and transporting ingredients for restaurants.

Liu loves his current job as a shoe polisher and is happy when he sees people’s shoes shine again.

Liu is quite famous in the shoe-cleaning industry. He earns more tips than the other shoe polishers from the customers and had several celebrities customers like ABBA, Andy Lau, Jackie Chan and so on.

Indeed, the people who motivate and enlighten him are small children who walk with their parents. According to Liu, he can always find pure happiness in them.

In this video, Liu has described his distinctive job and personal life! Please have a look at the video if you would like to peep into his world!

*A Correction from the audio slide show:

Liu said ABBA is from UK but they are actually from Sweden.

No related posts.