Selling junk is far from a rubbish career

Wu has changed the name of his shop, which is more like an exhibition space, several times, which seems apt for a secondhand shop. "I really like the current name, Yongxu, meaning 'lasting for a long time'," he says.

Among his collection, a packet of handwritten letters that he found at a flea market in Guangzhou has left a deep impression on him.

"I could tell from their content that they belonged to a woman who studied at Sun Yatsen University, graduated in 1986, and later worked in a hotel," Wu says.

"The letters tell almost her entire life story, from when she was 8 years old to her adulthood."

After Wu talked about the letters on Xiaohongshu, a social media platform, the family of their author approached him, saying that they had lost the letters by accident and were willing to pay him to get them back.

Wu, understanding the sentimental importance of the letters to the family, was happy to hand them over for free.

In his secondhand shop, there seems to be little logic applied to the way the items are displayed. "I sometimes arrange stuff in a way that is meant to have a visual impact," he says.