Ma Jiqiu shows off table lamps he built from recycled objects at his booth at the Shanghai International Hobbycraft Expo. [PHOTO BY GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY]

At another part of the Shanghai International Hobbycraft Expo, Ma Jiqiu's booth containing an eclectic range of items such as lamps, wall hooks and objects that he made from old fans, telephones, machinery parts and thermos drew a horde of curious visitors.

"I would like to buy a lamp for my new cafeteria," says a woman after consulting about the price and delivery conditions. "His design is unique and nostalgic at the same time. It will surely catch the eyes of some people at my cafe."

The 40-year-old Ma is, in his own words, a "waste collector" who got into the business of repurposing objects after his company went bankrupt years ago.

But he didn't just collect whatever people discarded-every object needed to be aesthetically pleasing by his standards.

"I didn't care how old an object was. I was more interested in the form and design than the age," he says.

When Ma first started, he would repair some of the items he picked up just to make them functional so that he could sell them at a better price, but he soon realized that too many of the items he collected could not be repaired. Reluctant to discard them, he decided to give them a new lease of life-as something else.

"I like to make lamps the most, because they make you feel warm, safe and they create an intimate ambience," Ma says.

Ma, who also works as a prop designer for films, named his workshop Save the Waste Studio, and himself "the savior of waste", because he believes it is his mission in life to give used objects a new purpose.

The most important objects that he has salvaged are electric meters. He even founded a private museum for them, the first of its kind in China.

Located at No 99 Donglin Street in the Sanlin old town in suburban Shanghai, the museum showcases 1,000 vintage electricity meters, which is only one-fifth of Ma's whole collection.

Ma says that these meters tell about the story of how electricity was developed, not just in Shanghai, but in human civilization, because they were made in 16 different countries. The first electricity meter he found was a delicate item that was covered in glass and made in the 1940s in Canada.