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Pedicurist goes from 'stinky feet' to success

By Lin Qi (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-05 09:19

Lu was well-versed in the pedicurist's blade by practicing on bamboo sticks, but she could not avoid getting nervous and perspired as she worked on a customer's foot.

She was usually worn out after a day's work.

Lu also had to put up with more gender discrimination from time to time.

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"Yangzhou was not a big city," Lu said. "You were easily spotted and pointed out on the street as a rare woman pedicurist."

"People would come to the bathhouse to see us work. And when we went to the market to buy snacks, we heard people mocking us as 'girls who play with stinky feet', " she said.

Lu avoided looking at people and did not dare go outside after work as a result of all the unwanted attention.

"A number of young pedicurists managed to get transferred to more 'graceful' posts in offices, restaurants and shops. But my parents were far away in Xinjiang. I didn't have any 'guanxi', or connections, that could help me out. I had to persist in the job," Lu said.

Lu's perseverance paid off when she received a State award for her refined craft and good service in 1992.

She became well-known as a model of Yangzhou's traditional pedicure industry.

Lu also worked temporary shifts at hotels and private-run bathhouses for better pay. She earned as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,460) a month, before her life took a different turn in 2000.

She headed to Hong Kong on an official assignment to perform a pedicure for Run Run Shaw, the media mogul. During Lu's stay there, Shaw introduced her to other celebrity customers.

Lu started thinking about setting up her own business.

She registered the first pedicure trademark nationwide in her own name in 2003. She subsequently opened 60 pedicure salons across the country, including two in Beijing.

Lu also set up a pedicure school in 2002 to set high service and skill standards for young practitioners of the craft.

She has not looked back since.

"When I was 20 years old, I thought about leaving the business in five years; when I reached 25, I swore that another five years were enough for me to retire," Lu said.

"On the day I turned 30, I knew that I could never put down the pedicurist's blade."

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