The day begins for Pingyao's small businesses with a scrubdown. This woman is ready to go to work. This image asks us more questions than it answers. What does the Chinese words chalked on the door panels mean? What are the garments hanging on those racks? And what kind of business goes on within? The body language of the young woman speaks eloquently. She takes a firm stance, her red shoes complementing her red jacket. She is wary of the camera, not sure how to respond. She neither smiles nor frowns but seems to wait for me to make my picture and move on, leaving the viewer to answer the questions raised by this image.

(After I posted this image, Kal Khogali linked me to an image he made in Shanghai two years earlier. You can see
it at http://upload.pbase.com/image/86634619 The two women may be separated by both generation and geography, yet
they share a task and a culture that makes a remarkable comparison.)