part 1
When I was six years old, my uncle from my mother's side, fell from some scaffolding in a construction site, and died.
(一)
I work as a hairdresser in Beijing in a hair salon. I'm from the northeast of China, therefore, I'm considered a migrant worker in this city.
My parents are peasant farmers, all of their income comes from 200 pigs. They've been raising pigs for 20 years now. I am their everything. I remember when I was in primary school, they hired a private tutor for me. Normally only the rich can afford this kind of privacy. One class lasts for 40 minutes and cost 20 yuan, and I took two classes. Back then, my family's total annual income was a maximum of 10,000. My brother is 7 years older than me. My parents hated my brother for being naughty, so they wouldn't let him have tutoring classes. Looking back, I know that classes for two of us are just too expensive. The money for my tutoring comes from any money that my mum makes from selling sweetcorn. She puts it all under her bedding. It's not too much extra green paper*. When I think about it, I really don't know how much money she must have spent on me - from primary school up to high school.
Dad and mum always say that I'm really a lucky girl. When I was three years old, I caught pneumonia, it was serious. A barefoot doctor** gave me some medicine to last for a few days. But I kept coughing with a high fever. Dad felt really anxious, so he told my mum that they should take me to the county hospital.
Here was the problem: all of our 70 fertile chicken eggs were sitting on the kang bed-stove° waiting to hatch. Who was going to take care of them whilst we’re away?
The answer, dad said, was that nobody would to take care of them. But I was worth more to them than any money. He told my mum to take some more money, the big hospital would be expensive, and to send Shuanzi to your mum's. Shuanzi is my big brother. After four days in the hospital, I was cured, but the entire clutch of eggs was ruined. That meant my family was going to face an entire year with no source of income at all.
(二)
Honestly, I think that I am really unlucky. When I was nine I developed encephalitis°°. At the time, we didn't know what it was. We needed help. Our village's official is named Uncle Wei. He and my dad were like brothers. Every time he sees me he would say how lucky I am. One autumn's night at 11 pm, when I was nine, my dad banged frantically on the official's door. The dogs barked and barked. My dad told Uncle Wei that I'd been feverish for the entire day. I was now starting to throw up and talk in gibberish. My mum thought I was dying. So, dad grabbed a coat, ran to Uncle Wei's house, and asked to borrow his motorcycle.
After hearing about my state, Uncle Wei put a green one hundred yuan note into my dad's pocket, and said, "just do whatever the doctor suggests, don't worry about the money. If it's not enough, then let me know. I will tell my son to send to you whatever you need".
Dad simply said nothing. He took the money before vanishing into the night. This time my entire family stayed in the hospital with me. Leaving behind our farm for twenty days. It just so happened to rain torrentially during those days. Our stock of sweetcorn on the roof and in the yard went moldy. Before my parents were saving up for my brother to attend university - they didn't dare waste a single penny. After I was cured, my family didn't even talk earning money anymore, they started to borrow money instead.
*Green paper refers to the former Chinese 2 Yuan bank note. This is no longer in circulation.
** A kang bed-stove is a traditional long heated bed used for general living, working, entertaining and sleeping during the winters in Northern China. It is made of bricks. The heat from a stove is directed under the bed and the smoke is released through a chimney.
° Barefoot doctors are farmers who received minimal basic medical and emergency response training. They worked in rural Chinese villages. Their purpose was to bring health care to rural areas where urban-trained doctors would not settle. The system formally ended in 1981. Many barefoot doctors then went on to pass a ‘national exam' to become village doctors.
°° Encephalitis is an uncommon but serious condition in which the brain becomes inflamed (swollen). It can be life-threatening. Its cause is unknown but is thought to be from a virus spreading to the brain, or from a problem with one's immune system.
Follow our account for more interesting stories about the lives of those who live and work in China.
