A miniaturist in Shanghai has revived childhood memory of those born in the 1970s and 1980s by reproducing life scenes at that time with small models.

Zhao Peiyi, a 36-year-old, runs a workshop specialized in producing miniatures.

When he talked about the old days, breakfast food and snacks always struck him first. What impressed him most is the metal case, originally used to contain malted milk and then reused for biscuits and other snacks. And the mini-scale model of such a case is one of his works.

"When I opened the case, I could feel the smell. It was the smell of the summer when I was an elementary school student. At first, I made the models to please my elder family members as they were more interested in those items they used in the past. And then they just came up with a lot to share with me. They'd like to explain to me the procedures to light a coal stove and whether to put in old newspapers first or firewood as kindling," Zhao said.

The models are a tenth or even a twentieth of the real items in size, but they look similar to real ones and can be operated in the same way.

To make his works as real as possible, Zhao went to flea markets, asked his family members for help and watched old films to see what the old items look like.

"For my generation, born in the 1980s, we experience a time of rapid changes. For those born in the 1990s and 2000s, they have a lot of pictures or videos recording many the daily items. But my peers may only get two or three photos left. Maybe a small scale or a corn popper can bring back our memories of the old days," Zhao said.

Zhao also published videos online to share how he made the models. Over the past three years, he shared some 150 videos on Bilibili, a popular video sharing platform in China, attracting 42,000 followers and even more viewers. In 2022, He was selected as a master in a local craftsman program for vividly recording the old ordinary life by his miniatures.

"For some of the miniatures I made, I couldn't find any original items, even their photos. The video of the making process can be played tens of millions of times. Among the viewers, if only one of 10,000 can develop an interest and then learn about it, the total would reach thousands. I believe that means my efforts paid off," Zhao said.