How 50-year-old “cleaning auntie” Wang Liuyun discovered freedom in painting
Our narrator today is Wang Liuyun, a janitor working in an office building in central Beijing. Her daily shift starts at 6 in the morning, and sees her scrubbing down everything—from toilets to stairs, conference rooms to sinks, railings, and windowsills—before the end of the day.
But this is not Ms. Wang’s only identity: She is also a painter. In her spare time, she picks up her brush, dips it in her palette and creates a whole new world. Mountains, rivers and lakes, birds and beasts—all these subjects flow out, one brushstroke at a time.
It all started with a decision she made when she was 50 years old.
Wang Liuyun was born to a peasant family in 1967 in Xinhua county, Hunan province. She was a smart girl who was fond of books. However, her father had a disability and the family was in dire straits, so Wang had to drop out of high school.
Her marriage was not any easier. Her first husband was abusive and cheated on her. She escaped, but her second marriage was just as unfortunate. Wang’s second husband was a weak, apathetic man who never contributed anything to their household. She worked on a factory’s assembly line, then in a hotel, and in a restaurant. Now, she cleans offices. Wang has worked in some capacity pretty much every day of her life, but she remains poor.
She felt as though she was trapped in a cage.
So how did an inexperienced janitor, without any art education, discover painting? Did it really free her from her prison and help her find fulfillment? This is Wang Liuyun’s story.
Founded in 2017 by Kou Aizhe, Story FM is one of the most renowned podcast in China. Each episode focuses on ordinary people’s lives and viewpoints, including the difficulties of marginalized people. Through intimate and private interviews, Story FM digs out first-person experiences and lets listeners immerse themselves in another person’s voice and feelings. You can listen to their podcast in Chinese on Ximalaya, Qingting FM, Apple Podcasts, and the 故事FM mini-app on WeChat.
Translated By
Ana Padilla Fornieles is a Spanish translator, writer and creative currently based in Beijing, where she is part of Spittoon International Arts Collective and a regular contributor to The Beijinger. You can find her prose and poetry featured in The Shanghai Literary Review, Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, Womanhood, Sledgehammer and more. Her comics and linocut prints have appeared in Shaving in the Dark, F*EMS and Celestite Poetry. Her literary translation work has been published or is forthcoming with a series of publishing houses and magazines, such as Penguin, De Gruyter, Spittoon Magazine and Books from Taiwan.
