How we plug into the world evolves
Shanghai Radio Museum exhibits radio sets donated by Zheng Minglu.
Equipment on exhibit from the 1950s spans radio, phonograph and recorder.
Current events change rapidly, and so too the technology that determines how we connect with the world around us.
From newspapers, radio and television to computers and smartphones, media channels have expanded in the last 40 years to the point where we can now “live” the news in real-time coverage.
Back in the 1960s and the 1970s in China, radio was the most important medium for up-to-date information. Crystal radios, vacuum tube radios and transistor radios were popular during that era.
For Zhang Minglu, 74, the radio is still indispensable.
“When I can’t sleep, I wear earphones and listen to the radio,” he said. “Then, I quickly fall into a sound sleep.”
But radios for him go beyond ordinary household use. Nicknamed “Radio Zhang,” he has collected over 3,000 radios since the 1950s.
When he was in the third grade, Zhang assembled a crystal radio under the guidance of a neighbor who was studying radio engineering at Tsinghua University.
When he showed the work to his father, a Shanghai post office employee and amateur translator, Zhang was rewarded with a set of headphones costing 5 yuan (US$0.7), a considerable sum at that time.
According to Zhang, his father was fluent in English and Esperanto and once translated a book introducing television in its early stages.
Through his headphones, Zhang’s vision widened. On his “little box,” he listened to music, news, children’s programs, storytellers and even a live broadcast of the World Table Tennis Championships.
He was even a bit naughty and used his headphones to listen to radio during classes.
“I sat in the last row, and therefore it was easy for me to find a socket and difficult for my teacher to discover my distraction,” he said. “I even shared my headphones with my deskmate.”
The imitation of an Amateurs 1001 crystal radio made by Zhang Minglu
Zhang has donated his collection to the Shanghai Radio Museum in Xuhui District, including the self-made crystal radio imitating the style of Amateurs No.1001.
“I always want to exhibit my collection in a museum so that the public could appreciate the history of the radio era,” said Zhang.
The museum was established by Shanghai-based INESA (Group) Co, a state-owned enterprise involved in information, smart networking and energy saving. Zhang is a retired employee of the company’s semiconductor subsidiary.
“The museum also highlights the spirit of an older generation of workers who were hardworking and down-to-earth,” said Sun Difei, executive director of the museum.
Among its exhibits is the popular Hongdeng model 711 radio, which sold about 1.8 million sets. It was made in Shanghai in the 1970s and was quickly copied across China. The museum displays over 40 imitations of the iconic style.
Back in the days of China’s centralized economy, radios were considered one of the “four most-wanted items,” along with sewing machines, bicycles and watches. Newlyweds bought the four items with coupons given out with marriage certificates.
“Each of the four items cost about 100 yuan in the 1970s, when the average monthly salary was about 60 yuan,” said Zhang.
A Hongdeng model 711 radio set popular in the 1970s
After China initiated its reform and opening-up policies in 1978, living standards improved and the “four most-wanted” list shifted to televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and tape recorders.
With its doors opening to the outside world, China absorbed foreign technologies that helped develop better radios and televisions. Privately owned companies began springing up, some entering the expanding home electronics market.
With technology introduced from Japan, the Shanghai No.1 Television Factory began mass-producing color TVs under the brand Jinxing in 1982.
“Newlyweds were our main target,” said Yang Weilie, 55, a department director at Shanghai Radio Museum, who worked in a TV factory until it closed in 2006.
Yang said the emergence of private enterprise posed a huge challenge to his state-owned company. Working hours were longer and daily output higher in private factories.
Even when Yang’s factory tried to beat the competition with longer working hours, output remained low.
Shanghai Radio Museum also displays several television sets from the past. Among the exhibitions is a set with a 9-inch screen, covered with tricolor plastic film.
“The black-and-white Feiyue 9D3 TV was manufactured in the 1970s,” said Yang. “From top to bottom, the three colors are blue, yellow and green, implying sky, humans and Earth. Normally, a magnifying glass was placed in front of the television.”
The black-and-white Feiyue 9D3 TV covered with tricolor plastic film
As living standards continued to improve, televisions slowly became household fixtures.
“One of my relatives bought a small black-and-white set in 1976,” said Zhang Qing, a visitor to the museum, who was born in 1963 and recalls the early era of television.
“Every day, around 20 people crowded into the house to watch it,” he said. “The room couldn’t accommodate so many people, and some had to stand outside, watching through the window.”
Albanian films were his favorites, but what created a lasting memory was the 1978 broadcast of the World Cup on China Central Television.
“I still remember that Argentina won the title,” said Zhang.
As he grew up, he became more obsessed with emerging technology. Entering Nanjing University in 1980, Zhang was exposed to early computers, which he described as the size of “big wardrobes.”
From the Sharp PC-1500 pocket computer in 1983 to Apple and IBM computers a few years later, he used computers to program or calculate. The Internet, email and office software were still in research and development phases.
Actually, as early as 1987, China’s first email, saying “across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner in the world,” was sent from Beijing to the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the Internet started to penetrate China.
“Computers were imported from foreign countries in the 1980s,” said Zhang. “They were considered extravagant. For example, an IBM computer cost 30,000 yuan — a sum of money that would have bought several houses at that time. In 1997, I spent around 10,000 yuan on parts and assembled a desktop PC by myself.”
As the first generation of Chinese netizens, Zhang read online news through a platform operated by China InfoHighway, the first Internet firm in China. It closed in 2004 but is still remembered by older users.
“As I searched for information about the company, I found a website (www. oihw.com) where many people left messages about their memories of the platform,” Zhang said.
“Paying tribute to the previous bellwether,” a netizen named “Hulu Xiaojingang” commented in a recent posting.
“In the very beginning, the Internet speed was extremely slow, less than 10 kilobytes per second,” Zhang said. “We accessed the Internet through a dial-up connection. Nowadays, Internet speeds reach up to 1,000 megabytes per second, more than 100,000 times faster.”
Radio, television and computers prevail in modern times but they no longer dominate the way we access information. The smartphone has become a convenient tool for access anytime, anywhere.
“I’m the only one in my family who still watches television on a set,” said Yang. “My daughter and my wife prefer to watch TV programs or videos on their smartphones.”
But for Radio Zhang, nothing beats the wireless. For him, the font size on mobile phones is too small.
It probably won’t be long before smartphones become memorabilia exhibits at museums. And who knows what technology may come to dominate?
Shanghai Radio Museum offers visitors interactive facilities.
Shanghai Radio Museum
Address: Block B, 200 Tianlin Rd
Open: 9:30am-4:30pm (closed on Mondays)
Admission: Free
Tel: 5465-0828
