Essay written by migrant worker goes viral

Fan Yusu, 44, from a village in Xiangyang, Central China's Hubei province now does housekeeping work in Beijing. [Photo/Beijing Youth Daily]

An essay written by a migrant worker about her family went viral on Chinese social media with her plain, vivid and humorous words resonating with many readers.

Fan Yusu, 44, from a village in Xiangyang, Central China's Hubei province, now does housekeeping work in Beijing. In an article named I'm Fan Yusu published on Monday on WeChat, one of China's most popular social media platforms, Fan tells her and her family's story.

"My mother was elected village official of women affairs in 1950 and stayed in power for 40 years, even exceeding the reigning time of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi," Fan wrote.

However, the life of the woman did not sound as easy as the way she wrote it. A high fever left Fan's elder sister with a mental impairment and her other sister contracted polio.

She moved to Beijing to work at 20 and married a man five years later, but they got divorced soon due to his alcohol abuse and domestic violence. Fan now takes care of her two daughters alone.

The story instantly attracted over 100,000 viewers in a day and over 20,000 of them posted comments.

"I see an extreme strong mind behind the small body of a mother," a reader said.

"Generally, the most touching words in life are not the rhetorical ones, but the plain ones refined by life," one reader commented.

"The article exposed many social problems in China, but stopped where it should," was one comment.

Fan has kept up her habit of reading and writing ever since she went to school, and this probably laid a solid foundation for her writing skills.

In an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, Fan said she used to read masterworks of world renowned writers from China and other countries.

The woman said she did not expect the article to be that popular as she only wanted to earn some extra money to support her family in the first place.

"What happened to me after the story is published is beyond my imagination. Anyway, I make a living through manual labor, not with writing," she said. " I could barely use a computer to write."

Fan said she felt sorry for her two daughters as she failed to offer them good conditions for study and she hoped her daughters would be able to get a good education at universities in the future.