My father started work when he was 16 years old. He worked as an accountant in a regional handicraft co-operative for 3 years, as a carpenter and painter for 12 years separately. Before working as a business accountant for 7 years, he owned a furniture factory for 16 years. Although he is 72 years old now, he never stops finding something to do and enjoys the rest of his life.

In the process of making a living, the tools my father used are countless. However, there are not many tools left and most of them are full of rusts and decays, primitive simplicity and ages of vicissitudes for without being used for many years, engraving the traces of time and life.

These tools and their rich details include my father’s tough life and contain my precious family memories -- my father was making wooden toys for me when I was a child, carrying toolboxes on his shoulder from one village to the other to do furniture for the villagers, repairing the machine with repairmen in factory late at night, and keeping accounts on the table wearing reading glasses...... They are not only tools for my father to make a living, but also contain my father’s hard-working, persistent character as well as his responsibility and dedication for the family.

This is to honor my father by the tools I photographed!