People often think stewardesses are all young and pretty. Shanghai Airlines, however, has a group of stewardesses who are nearly 40 years old and are recruited from a group of laid-off, female workers. The best among them is Wu Eryu, who has even had a stewardess team named after her.
Born in 1963, Wu Eryu was once an employee of the Shanghai Textile and Dying Machinery Plant. Seven years ago, she, along with many other women working in the plant, was laid off. At the time, the re-employment of these laid-off women became a problem that aroused the wide concern of the public. Breaking most airline companies' practice of only recruiting stewardesses below the age of 22, Shanghai Airlines decided to recruit a group of women who had been laid-off by the textile factory, aged between 28 and 36. After the decision had been announced, over 3,000 candidates registered. 18 candidates, including Wu Eryu who was 32 years old at the time, were lucky enough to pass all the examinations to become stewardesses.
What Wu Eryu had formerly dealt with were spinning machines in workshops. Today, on the other hand, she deals with passengers on airplanes. For a woman in her 30s, the road to being a qualified stewardess was not easy. She had to study hard from the very beginning. The vocational training program which consisted of 13 courses, including figure building, air-attendant theory, behavioral norms, Mandarin, and English, was the toughest task she had ever undertaken. For six months, Wu Eryu studied almost all day and night, and was eventually conferred a stewardess's license by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
August 1, 1995 marked Wu Eryu's first flight duty. Having never traveled by air, her first flight experience was not as romantic and amazing as she thought it would be. Hypoxia and the sudden jolts caused by turbulence greatly affected her, and she was continuously dizzy and nauseous. Despite the unfamiliarity of her new work, she insisted on serving passengers immediately after taking some medicine. On this, her first flight, a conditioned reflex was established: whenever she saw food and drinks on the airplane or entered the airplane's kitchen, she felt like vomiting. In order to relieve this situation, she ate as little as possible each time she flew. Although this period was one of the most difficult Wu Eryu had ever gone through, she managed to survive.
Wu Eryu suffered not only physically, but also mentally. Although sometimes exhausted, she would smilingly tend to every passenger. At first, because of her inexperience, she found herself caught in many embarrassing situations. She recorded the advice and requests of her passengers and colleagues in a notebook, and reminded herself of practicing them all the time. With the passage of time, Wu Eryu has realized that good service is an art that needs one's whole-hearted attention.
The key to the best service is the use of language-both spoken language and body language. She always greets passengers with the proper language, speaking in an amiable tone and at a mild speed. As soon as passengers board the plane, they feel welcomed because Wu Eryu is there to warmly greet them: "Hello! Good morning! Welcome aboard our plane! This way, please!" When she sees an old passenger, Wu Eryu gets near to help him or her and says: "Watch your step, please!" She also helps passengers who are carrying heavy luggage put their bags into the luggage racks. After all the passengers have taken their seats, she then patrols the aisle, ready to help passengers at any time. She usually pays more attention to passengers with special needs, such as the elderly and parents with small children.
Wu Eryu's warm and thoughtful service has moved countless passengers. In a few years, she has received over 4,000 letters that were written by passengers praising her service. In addition, she is reputed to be the Smiling Angel.
In 1999, she became an instructor for 21 stewardesses. These stewardesses were divided into three teams; and she led each team for one month, one after another. On the airplane, she taught them through personal demonstrations and discussed real life cases with them in their spare time. Nowadays, many of the 21 stewardesses have become executive managers.
In the first half of 2000, Wu Eryu, who was 38 years old at the time, was recommended by Shanghai Airlines to attend the International Stewardess Contest. Although she was the oldest among the contestants, she captured the Award for Best Appearance and the Personal Golden Prize for her optimistic spirit, mature and confident performance, humorous personal statement, and intelligent performance in the improvisational talk show.
So far, Wu Eryu has won many other prizes and titles, including the Model Laborer in Shanghai, the National "May 1st" Medal for Laborers, and the National Model Laborer. The stewardess team named after her was founded in 2002, and is known as the first of its kind in China. She has given lectures at many institutions and enterprises, including governmental departments, hotels, and hospitals, and a total of 100,000 people have been in her audience.
(China Pictorial March 18, 2003)
