Nowadays, many traditional skills such as clothes making and repair work are vanishing from people’s daily life.
In the past, the ordinary people had to learn several traditional skills from their parents to maintain their daily life. If they didn’t acquire any survival skills, there was no one to ask for help when they encountered housework troubles. With the development of society, the service industry has become more and more professional, which makes it possible to release people from their trivial life. On the other hand, the rapid life pace deteriorates people’s time and energy, thus the appearance of service workers comes to their help. More and more rich families also tend to take full advantage of the social service system to improve their living standard. They spend less time on their daily routine, and have more time to do what they are interested in. As a result, the traditional skills are disappearing.
In China, the situation is even more evident. The elder generation generally acquired several traditional skills. For example, my uncle does good carpentry. The old furniture still under use in my parents’ flat was made by my uncle. However, these skills are almost lost in my generation. Our daily life relies greatly on the commodity economy and social service system.
In conclusion, this change reflects the improvement of people’s living standard. People today have more free time to do leisure activities and enjoy their life.