May 9, 2010Mom’s are touching lives around the world
Connie WieckSpecial to the Tribune-Star
Guangxi Province, Longzhou, China — A writing assignment given to my first-year college students in China had them writing about women. They were to write a 200-word essay about any woman, alive or dead, famous or not, who they respected and admired as a good role model in their lives.
When the appointed day came, my 250 freshmen turned in their papers filled with carefully written English words, neatly organized paragraphs and word counts that in many cases topped 400.
Obviously, this topic really hit home.
And seeing just how much it hit home was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life.
Sure, there were those who copied biographies of Helen Keller, Oprah Winfrey or Madame Curie from previously found English materials. These are women they have studied in their high school English books or pulled off the Internet as a quick way to finish the assignment.
But a majority wrote about women who touched their lives in a more personal way. Stories about mothers, grandmothers, cousins, aunts, neighbors and teachers piled high on my desk.
I read every one, sometimes even twice.
What was shared with me was remarkable and amazing. Each essay was an intimate glimpse into the lives of Chinese women, many uneducated, who have overcome incredible difficulties to raise families and struggle through the poverty of a China we don’t often see or hear about in the West.
In America, we have so many programs and government aid projects to help women struggling to raise their children. In China, these programs are still few and far between.
Women from the countryside are left to fend for themselves, especially when husbands die or have to travel across country to get city factory or construction jobs in order for their families to survive financially. Unless we’ve experienced similar difficulties, it’s hard for us Americans to comprehend such a hard life.
Seeing such courageous, kind-hearted and generous women bare themselves before me, page after page, is probably the greatest gift my students ever could have given me.
In honor of Mother’s Day, here are a few excerpts I now share with you, as written by my English major freshmen here at Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities in Guangxi Province, Longzhou. (Students’ chosen English names and Chinese names have been given; the submissions are being published as written.)
Jill (Qin Tong): When I was little, I must live with my grandmother because my mother and father are going to work for our family. One day, I came back from school, crying. My classmates were making fun of me because of my old clothes. For Children’s Day, I must participate in a performance but my family was too poor to buy the necessary dancing clothes for me. I felt very sad. On hearing this, my grandmother immediately didn’t think twice. She went to sell her only chicken so she can buy the special clothes for me. At that time, I really loved my grandmother’s sacrifice. I miss her so much.
Lani (Ye Wenlan): When I was young, my father left our family to find work. My mother had to work also so we would have money for our daily living. She must leave my older brother to take care of me. He was only 8 years old. He couldn’t look after me well because he was only a child, like me. One time, I caught a bad cold because I fell to sleep on the dirt floor in our home. My elder brother was outside, playing with other children. He was so careless that he didn’t pay attention to me. At night, my mother took me to the hospital. There was no car or bus so she must walk for almost six hours with me on her back. The country road was dark and dangerous. There was no light and after midnight but her strong spirit brought me to safety. She stayed in the hospital with me for 3 days. When I was healthy, she cried. She thought she wasn’t a good mother but I don’t think so. I know she loved me more than herself. I know this all the time.
Cherry (Lu Chuyan): She is just a common woman, named Fu Youyin, my best friend’s mother. When I prepared to go to college, she realized that my family is poor so she gave me some money and asked me to study hard. In this while, tears filled my eyes. She was just a common worker. Every day she got up early to go to our town far from her home to work. She worked long hours and her pay was very low. Even though she had hard work and low pay, she gave me this money. I believe in her. She will listen to the voice in your heart with all her ears. Her action is like a bright lamp in my life.
Rita (Nong Juanmei): I am so thankful for my grandmother. Although she is 70 years old now, she never stops working. She is also considerate of others. There is a boy in our village called Li Hua. He is my neighbor’s boy. His parents died in a traffic accident. Li Hua was only 5 years old at that time. He had no one to take care of him. He had to hunt for food by himself without any adults to help him. At that time, my grandmother made a decision to feed him and take care of him until he grew up. All the people in my village were very touched when they heard about her decision. They really admired her for taking on such a big responsibility.
Bunny (Wang Xiaofei): My grandfather’s mother has been dead for 3 years. She was 93 years old and I miss her. I often talked with her and asked her to tell a lot about her past. My grandpa’s mother had 8 children. Six of them were boys and two of them were girls. It was a really big family and the life was very, very tough. My grandpa said that he was always in a starving situation. He never tasted steamed bread, which was made of expensive flour, until he went to work on his own. When my grandpa’s mother was 28 years old, her husband died of a simple disease which we can easily cure today. She told me that she was in a mixture of fear and hopeless situation at that time. She wanted to die. But seeing her lovely children, she told herself that she must cheer up and work harder to bring her children up. What a great mother! My grandpa’s mother was friendly, no matter how difficult her life was. When she saw that someone needed help, she would help him. One day, a beggar went to our house for some food. I didn’t like beggars who could use their strength to make money and get a job so I didn’t give anything to him. But my grandpa’s mother saw this. She went out from her own room and went into the kitchen to get some food for him. I was confused about her doing this. So I asked her, “Grandma, why do you help him? He is strong enough to find a job.” She replied, “Everyone has his own trouble. We should help him now. Maybe we can change his attitude toward life.”
Sophie (Su Feifei): My father died when I was 7 and my mother was only 28. She was quite a beauty. She had several seekers. I have one elder sister and two younger sisters. There were no boys in our family so people looked down on us in the countryside. For most women, if they face such circumstances, they would abandon their homes, send the children to another relatives and marry again. But my mother didn’t do that. She said she would never abandon us. She would try her best to earn more money to bring us up to afford the tuition fees for school. So she moved far away, to Canton, to work in a small factory. We only see her once a year, Chinese New Year. At that time, she buys clothes for us. Her clothes are old and not very beautiful but she gives us the best things. She loves us so much.
White (Shi Xinmei): When I was only a child, one day my mother and I went to the fair. This was my first time to leave my village and see the fair. It was so exciting! There were many different beautiful toys I wanted to buy, but my mother said we are too poor to buy toys. Then we met a beggar who looked very pitiful. My mother gave him money. I can’t believe she does this! At that time, I hated her. I thought she is kind to the beggar and didn’t love me. Now I admire her actions. A toy is a very small thing and will soon be forgotten. Her actions to the beggar were bigger than my small toy. I really think she is so great.
Buffy (Liang Miaohua): My mother is a farmer. I remember when I was a child, my mother told me that my grandmother was a traditional Chinese woman. She didn’t agree that girls go to school to learn so my mother knows very little. In her lifetime, she just had to work in the fields. My mother told me that farming is a very hard and tired life. She didn’t want to see that in my future so she let me go to school. She believes that knowledge can change one’s life. I remember that when I was a child, my family was very poor. In order to let me and my sister go to school, my mother had to leave for work when it was very dark outside and didn’t come home until it was dark in the evening. When I did my homework, my mother liked to sit beside me to watch me do my work. Although she didn’t know what I was writing, she said to see me do homework was the happiest thing in her life. Now I am grown and am a college student. I understand my mother’s intentions for me. I always call her to tell her about my studies and life at school. She is proud of me and I am proud of her.
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