The Lao Zhai Medicinal Candy Hidden in the City of Tianjin

In the course of time, the centuries-old food and the incessant hawking of the folks depict the most vivid scenes of life and the most ancient and simple culture in the city of Tianjin.

Lao Zhai and his "Lao Zhai Medicinal Candy老翟药糖" is one of the scenes hidden in the city of Tianjin.  

Lao Zhai, whose real name is Zhai Peiyu, is 68 years old, and his ancestors run the medicinal candy business, which has been passed down to his generation for the fourth generation. Lao Zhai said: "My grandfather was in Beijing and had an ancestral recipe for medicinal sugar, so he had been making and selling medicinal sugar in Beijing, and his family moved to Tianjin in my grandfather's generation. My eldest uncle is a Chinese medicine doctor, who made a little adjustment to the ancestral recipe, which has been passed down to this day. For symptoms like sore throat, motion sickness, heat stroke or something, taking a piece of the medicinal candy can relieve a little, cool and moisten the throat, refreshing and soothing, though it still cannot be taken as medicine. Those who are really sick still best go to see the doctor." Because of the fast selling, Lao Zhai has to do medicinal sugar almost every day: with a pot of sugar, a pot of medicine, he boils and mixes them together, pours on the stone plate to cool, and then rolls them into strips, cut into small pieces and put into plastic bags. The seemingly simple production procedure of medicinal sugar is actually a hard job. "The boiling technique, the time invested, the mastery of size of the fire, how much bubbling to have, how high the temperature to reach, what moisture degree to maintain at ...... all these are delicate. Among several generations of our family members, few are willing to do this ancestral business. I am a person who can bear hardships since childhood. No matter how tiring the work is, I am not afraid to do it. When I first learned how to make the sugar, I couldn't grasp the strength of my hands, so always splashed the sugar on my hands, which burned big blisters on my hands because the sugar was hot and boiling. To make the candy well, you have to keep repeating – you are definitely better at it after making a hundred pots than only after making ten pots, and even better after making a thousand pots." Lao Zhai said so.

The famous writer Jicai Feng wrote in his book "The Commonplace Wonders": “Tianjin is a city where all that the people have in their minds is life - eating, drinking, playing and having fun. They not only love the gourmet food, tasty drink, fun and fun things, but also love to see the masterpieces. The techniques to sell medicinal candy come in all varieties, such as telling jokes, allegros, 快板Kuaiban, juggling, martial arts performance, unicycle performance and slingshot play. Even yelling up comes in a cadence with different tones.” These words prove what Lao Zhai often said "Thirty percent of success is credited to the medicinal sugar, while seventy percent to the yelling."

"Come to buy what you want. Take some for your friends and family. The medicinal candy is here again! As you eat it, you can have the authentic taste of medicinal candy, with cool air coming with flavor of the mint and Ren Dan仁丹. For the family's trivial matters, the old man best leaves it to the wife to handle, as it will only get you to be angry if you intervene with it. Whether you are suffering from indigestion sour regurgitation, burping, sore throat or any pain from anger, you will feel better after having my medicinal candy. You can have two only at fifteen yuan, then you will feel smooth both inside and outside.” Day after day, year after year, Lao Zhai became popular in Jincheng with more than 20 years of yelling selling medicinal candies. Do not underestimate this yelling because it recorded the history and embodies culture.

Lao Zhai, who has been singing since he was a child, is particularly fond of the old-time yells for selling medicinal candies, while inheriting the techniques of his ancestors' medicinal candies production. He said, "In the past, those who sold candies walked the streets, selling candies while shouting, but now these are basically lost." In order to find the "old voice" of the yelling of selling candies, Lao Zhai organized the yelling in his memory while searching for old people who could yell. Once he happened to hear an old man singing a few words new to him, he hurriedly asked for contact information and ran more than ten kilometers away with a tape recorder to find the old man to learn from him. Hard work pays off! In 2014, Lao Zhai collected and compiled two complete sets of traditional yells for selling medicinal candies, which were archived by the Tianjin Municipal Archives and Lao Zhai was named the "Tianjin Dialect Voice Archiving Project Spokesman". At the award ceremony, Lao Zhai said firmly: "I want to be a guardian of Lao Zhai's yells!

While passing down traditional culture, Lao Zhai keeps up with the times, constantly studying and adapting new lyrics for his yells. He has a special skill, which is, wherever the customer is from, as long as he knows the province, he can improvise a jingle for his unique skill: "Based on province names, I can cover all provinces in the whole country. Should I fail, the candy is on me!" Once, a young man challenged him, "If you fail, I will really take the medicinal candy and walk away right now." Lao Zhai promised, "Okay! And what if I can sing?" The young man said, "Based on how many provinces you can sing with, I will buy as much medicinal candy." Then, the young man named a dozen provinces and Lao Zhai improvised a jingle for everyone of them. Finally, the young man gave up: "Good me! You are really good at this! I can’t afford it!" Therefore, it’s believed that Lao Zhai medicinal candy is more sold out because of yelling rather than selling.

Some people curiously asked Lao Zhai how he had acquired this skill, and Lao Zhai got turned on: "Nothing special! Whenever I encountered anything new, I searched online, chatted with friends, or looked up the old songbooks ...... and practiced some times myself, then I would come here to perform. As the old saying goes, 'those who love it are better than those who know it, and those who have fun in it are better than those who love it. In spite of the age, once I stand here and start singing, my spirits are immediately lifted. I do not sell candy for money or for fame, but for fun. As long as people love to hear me sing, I will sing for them, regardless if they buy my candy or not. I would continue to sing only for people’s recognition." In addition to yelling, he can sing Jingdong drums or pop songs once he opens his mouth. Many tourists from home and abroad made a special trip to "Lao Zhai medicine candy" shop in the ancient culture street of Tianjin here, only to listen to a piece of Lao Zhai's simple and unpretentious yelling full of the rhyme of Tianjin. Lao Zhai also never hesitates to share the full set of yells he created whenever young people come to him looking for to learn from him. Instead of hiding anything, he generously and seriously taught them: " I am particularly happy seeing people inherit this skill and pass it on."

The TV series "King of the Grassroots" starred by the famous actor Guoli Zhang invited Lao Zhai to make a cameo appearance as a medicinal candy vendor in order to expose the national audience to the characteristics of the old Tianjin City with the original sound of yelling. The famous comic master Degang Guo remarked: "Lao Zhai's singing is based on the actual situation of his own medicinal candy vending, so the taste of life is very strong. It is good practice to bring the old art form back to the real life. When I go back to Tianjin in future, I must go to the ancient cultural street and listen to the Lao Zhai yell personally." The Comedian Junjie Liu also shared this opinion, saying, "The hawking yell is originally part of the traditional folk culture of old Tianjin, and it should grow and prosper in folk life instead of simply appearing on the stage of comic performances."

Whenever Lao Zhai heard his own adapted yell was recognized by the artists, he always modestly said that he did not deserve it and but would definitely carry on singing this old ditty in the future. Whenever he heard people praise his yelling skills, he always modestly said that he had not received much education, just liked to sing these folk tunes and ditties. In fact, it is these small cultures that are hidden in the city's streets and alleyways and passed down from generation to generation by countless "Lao Zhai" that constitute the foundation of Tianjin's urban culture, making people feel friendly and warm, real and cozy, remaining in people's memories for a long time and being sung by generations of people.

Lao Zhai and his "Lao Zhai Medicinal Candy", as a miniature of folk artists, shows the future of Chinese traditional culture being carried forward and passed on from generation to generation ......

Photography by Peiyu Zhai