37
THE SMALL KITCHEN
I
t’s a brand new residential estate in the
Qingpu district, a suburb of Shanghai,
the People’s Republic of China. The
street is spanking. The avenue up to the
houses is lined with newly planted trees.
‘We were so lucky to find this flat a few
months ago. Our old flat in the neigh-
bouring district had become too small,’
says Xiaohong with a constant smile on
her face.Her six-year-old son andparents
also live in the 100 square metre maison-
ette flat. ‘Everything’s just a fewminutes’
walk away, the market with fresh food,
the kindergarten, schools,’ she continues
enthusiastically. ‘But we did have a bit of
a discussion about our kitchen,’ she says,
giving her husband Wu a sly wink. He
is the sales manager of a large garden
landscaping business. ‘We wanted to
have everything just right so that we’d
enjoy our kitchen for many years to come.
After all, we do plan to grow old here.’
Xiaohong is very proud of her new kit-
chen. She had prepared herself well and
asked kitchen consultants how they
could make the most of the five square
metres thatwere available. ‘WhenI think
back to our old kitchen – well, we hadn’t
even had it for five years and the doors
fell off. If you compare it to the kitchen
we have now, it wasn’t really a kitchen.’
Xiaohong lovingly caresses the front and
adds, somewhat sheepishly, ‘I do love red.’
Which is quite obvious if you look around
the flat. It’s not only the kitchen that’s
red but most of her other furniture, too.
In China, red is a symbol of good luck
and happiness.
It’s a small storage space wonder that
nothing stands on the white stone work-
top aside for the rice cooker and the
microwave. ‘Everything fits into the
cabinets and drawers,’ she continues.
Even Wu is amazed. ‘The larder unit is
simply unbelievable,’ he adds. We can
‘It’s a small storage space
wonder – everything
fits into the cabinets
and drawers.’
THREE GENERATIONS
UNDER ONE ROOF
The Gao family lives in a 100-sq.-metre
flat in a suburb of Shanghai.
THIS IS WHERE THE
GAO FAMILY LIVE
The Qingpu district was developed
just a few years ago with many
modern residential estates.
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