Bidding farewell to her trusted treadle sewing machine was a difficult decision for an 85-year-old woman surnamed Hou in Korla City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.
Almost like a family member, the machine had been a companion in her life for nearly six decades. Earlier this year, when she needed to move to a new home to be closer to her children, she decided the time had come to let it go.
For Hou, this goodbye also marked the end of a lifestyle. Waking up early in the morning and working late into the night to make shoe insoles, her days went by to the accompaniment of the machine’s rhythmic humming. With the ticking
