What *do* they use to cut grass in China?

December 24, 2008 8:50 PM

AnswerAnOngoingFamilyArgument-Filter: My sister says one of her highschool history teachers mentioned in class a month or two ago that in China, people use scissors to cut their lawns instead of lawn mowers. Obviously, this is pretty crazy (right?), but my sister says that's what he said. Is there anything reasonable along these lines that could have been what he really said?
posted by niles to grab bag (31 comments total)

Some areas of the world have economic pressures that require that people's yards be used for agriculture instead of wasted on a lawn. I would guess that people in these areas might view a small lawn as a luxury and that it might be small enough to cut with some large grass shears, which are basically scissors.
posted by 517 at 9:04 PM on December 24, 2008

Okay I haven't been to Asia, but I've traveled in a few very rural, isolated areas in developing countries (eg, various parts of Africa, South America).

Could your sister be referring to a machete? Machetes are ubiquitous tools that can be used for digging soil to plant, removing trees, weeding, even killing snakes, etc. I would imagine that this type of tool can and has been used throughout the world.
posted by Wolfster at 9:08 PM on December 24, 2008

Perhaps he said or meant "scythe."
posted by kindall at 9:13 PM on December 24, 2008

Possibly it was some throw-away comment that was misinterpreted such as the idea that there's so much cheap labour that one could have their lawn done with scissors if they wanted to.

China mows its lawns like the rest of us, although poorer areas would either not have a lawn or would cut their grass by hand, mostly with a scythe or sickle.
posted by ninazer0 at 9:18 PM on December 24, 2008

On preview: kindall is probably correct and your sister misheard either "scythe" or sickle". They do sound sorta like "scissors".
posted by ninazer0 at 9:20 PM on December 24, 2008

Well, I was looking to rent a townhome in Shanghai and while my wife and I were viewing it, a gardner was in the back yard (a 3 meter squared fenced-in area) cutting the lawn with clippers which were the size of large scissors.

So, there is at least one data point that a Chinese person in China was indeed cutting a lawn with a pair of "scissors".
posted by qwip at 9:34 PM on December 24, 2008

I spent seven weeks in China over this summer. I saw many weird things including about 100 people hand pulling weeds on the highway median. Did I specifically see people cutting grass with scissors? No, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:34 PM on December 24, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I'm going with 517 on garden shears misrepresented as "scissors."

They actually work a little better than scythes/sickles on green grass (as opposed to dried grasses) whereas the scythe/sickle has to be kept unpractically sharp to work well on green grass.
posted by porpoise at 9:35 PM on December 24, 2008

I once saw a woman in India cutting a large expanse of grass, by hand, with what looked like a curved knife, which she held in her hand, not at the end of a long pole. So sometimes, yes, labour is so cheap that it's not worth any mechanization.

Having said that, it's hard to generalize about a whole country. First of all, I'm not sure what Chinese aesthetics thinks of lawns in the first place - it's my impression that when rich Chinese move from Hong Kong to parts of Canada, they tend to get rid of a lot of the green space in the lots they buy (yes, a generalization, but true nonetheless), so it's possible that we're talking about small lawns.

Secondly, would the new Chinese middle class cut the grass themselves, or hire some migrant worker to do it (if they have a lawn, that is - in cities as crowded as Chinese ones, I don't think that middle class=lawn)? I've no idea, but maybe if they hire cheap migrant labour, they come with lawn shears (not literally scissors, that's insane) rather than push mowers (and probably not gas mowers - what's the point if labour is so cheap).
posted by Dasein at 9:36 PM on December 24, 2008

And, lo, a picture of the gardner.
posted by qwip at 9:40 PM on December 24, 2008

Oh, and on really late preview, garden shears would be most accurate.
posted by qwip at 9:43 PM on December 24, 2008

When my family lived in Indonesia, our gardener would cut the lawn using shears.
posted by sid at 10:01 PM on December 24, 2008

Im not in China, but I am in Vancouver.
I have twice seen elderly chinese ladies cutting their lawns with garden shears, which look pretty much like scissors but a bit bigger.
These were regular sized yards for those ugly pinkish houses.
posted by Iax at 10:22 PM on December 24, 2008

So, it would seem the consensus is garden sheers, which I guess makes sense, especially if one didn't have a very big yard in the first place. Her history teacher is a bit of a goof, so I can totally see him using the term "scissors", (implying small, handheld tools) to mean "huge, giant sheers." Thanks, everyone.

Also, qwip, thanks for the picture! That's awesome.
posted by niles at 10:26 PM on December 24, 2008

I used to live in Asia, and used garden shears (almost like small, hand-sized scissors... just a little more heavyweight, with springs and whatnot) to cut the bits of grass that would grow over concrete. But the main stuff was cut with a mower. Or by the passing water buffaloes - they tended to make a mess, though.
posted by Xere at 10:35 PM on December 24, 2008

When I lived in China I absolutely saw people cutting grass with very small handheld scissors -- not shears.
posted by kate blank at 10:43 PM on December 24, 2008

Suddenly he stopped as if listening. Frodo became aware that all was very quiet, inside and outside. Gandalf crept to one side of the window. Then with a dart he sprang to the sill, and thrust a long arm out and downwards. There was a squawk, and up came Sam Gamgee's curly head hauled by one ear.

'Well, well, bless my beard!' said Gandalf. 'Sam Gamgee is it? Now what may you be doing?'

'Lor bless you, Mr Gandalf sir!' said Sam. 'Nothing! Leastways I was just trimming the grass-border under the window, if you follow me.' He picked up his shears and exhibited them as evidence.

'I don't,' said Gandalf grimly. 'It is some time since I last heard the sound of your shears. How long have you been eavesdropping?'

'Eavesdropping, sir? I don't follow you, begging your pardon. There ain't no eaves at Bag End, and that's a fact.'

Possibly the most significant literary appearance of garden shears. (They have also been murder weapons in mystery novels, and real-life -- especially where guns are strictly controlled.)
posted by dhartung at 12:00 AM on December 25, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

You know, I was reading a comic about visiting Northern Korea, and I remember seeing workers cutting tall grass with large shears.
posted by redsparkler at 12:06 AM on December 25, 2008

People in North Korea clip grass with scissors. Some of them these days need to eat it.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:07 AM on December 25, 2008

When i was a kid, I lived across the street from a lovely Chinese family. Grandma spent the entire time from spring to fall seated on the front lawn, patiently cutting it with scissors and toasting in the sun. Anecdotal, yes.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:19 AM on December 25, 2008

I am so glad you asked this question.

I used to have a neighbour who was an elderly chinese lady who lived alone, and most days in the summertime she would be in her yard with a pair of scissors, cutting the grass.

Not garden shears, not even particularly big scissors [maybe 4" long], but scissors. It was a pretty big lawn, too.

I thought she was the only person who did this. She had shears for trimming hedges, and she saw other people using various kinds of lawnmowers, but she seemed happy with the scissors.
posted by Acari at 12:27 AM on December 25, 2008

Seconding the small lawn theory. In Japan, it's not uncommon for a lawn to be about 4'x4', if you're lucky. Given the size (or lack thereof) of the house, the yard, and storage for large objects, there aren't many lawnmowers around here. I've never, to my recollection, seen a lawn mower for sale in a home and garden center here, though I have seen people on hands and knees trimming the grass with shears/scissors. Then again, a lot of people just put gravel around their houses, or plant trees or shrubs, and just have dirt underneath it, to save themselves the trouble.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:54 AM on December 25, 2008

I saw a show on A&E about prisons around the world and they showed Chinese prisoners cutting grass with small shears - about the size of scissors you would cut hair with.
posted by mattholomew at 3:17 AM on December 25, 2008

Definitely grass shears.
And a big deduction in points, please, to the history teacher, who apparently neglected to give the students a bit of perspective by not disclosing just how teeny-tiny the "lawns" are in China. You say the word "lawn" to most US kids and they envision a huge swath of grass that takes Dad an hour to cut with the riding mower. Makes one wonder just what the point of the lesson was.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:40 AM on December 25, 2008

I've heard lawn shears referred to as grass scissors or lawn scissors, though I have the idea that this is perhaps a slightly archaic British usage? (I think I'm remembering this from books read as a child.)
posted by desuetude at 9:11 AM on December 25, 2008

I don't live in China (nor am I from a Chinese gardening background), but I cut my small lawn with garden shears. It's much better for the lawn since my shears are sharp, and don't shred the grass like the maintenance guy's ancient lawnmower. Plus, I don't have anywhere to keep a lawnmower, and have never seen the point of lugging around a machine filled with gas to cut 20 square feet of grass (this really annoyed one of my previous bosses who insisted I drag a giant mower upstairs and through hallways in every one of my San Francisco clients' flats to mow their tiny lawns. I just used the weed whip). Also, what Thorzdad said. Just because some people use hand tools to manicure their lawns, doesn't mean there are no people mowing lawns with lawnmowers in China. It just means they haven't been conditioned to believe that every one who has a patch of grass, no matter how tiny, needs to purchase a lawnmower.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:42 AM on December 25, 2008

As another point, hay was cut for many years by sickle bar mowers, which were originally pulled by horses, later by tractors, and cut like scissors. Some models can cut a swath 9 feet wide. Older mower conditioners (also called haybines) used a sickle to cut with as well.
posted by rfs at 12:03 PM on December 25, 2008

While I never cut our whole lawn with shears, as a kid I did wind up using them extensively to cut areas where the lawnmower didn't fit.

If I only had a 4x4 "lawn", I'd consider using shears. Just the work of fiddling with a lawnmower and getting it started would take more time than clipping it by hand.
posted by Netzapper at 12:26 PM on December 25, 2008

Warning: anecdotal 'evidence' ahead!

When I lived in Hong Kong with my parents, we had a lawn that was probably two square metres big, and yes, we cut it with scissors. Not even shears, just kitchen scissors.
posted by Brother Dysk at 2:47 PM on December 25, 2008

Wow... new developments. It would seem, then, that with a small enough yard^H^H^H^H patch of grass, regular small scissors do the trick. It would also then seem that some people just use scissors, and that's that.

Thorzdad: Yeah, that was a point that several of us made - we had no idea how big a typical lawn in China was. When we asked about it, my sister couldn't provide any context to the quote, so I think she just picked up on a minor statement in whatever bigger point her teacher was making. Regardless, the statement is definitely less absurd when it's understood to be talking about rather small plot of grass.
posted by niles at 6:48 PM on December 25, 2008

I saw people in India cutting grass with kitchen/office/desk scissors. Highway medians, stuff like that.

Also saw people cutting huge yards of grass with scissors and with the small hand knife mentioned above, with some people in the group using one and some using the other.
posted by paisley henosis at 6:29 AM on December 27, 2008