Quest of a simple woman from the countryside

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By Eric Sommer (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-25 07:31

"Now I am seeing the world I could only see on TV in the past."

Those are the words of my wife's mother. It's tourist season - and my wife's parents are currently visiting Beijing. They are from a small village in Inner Mongolia, and this is the first time her mother has ever traveled out of the autonomous region.

Coming to Beijing is, for her, like traveling from one world to another. For one thing, it's the first time she ever traveled by train or entered a building more than seven stories high. It's a great adventure in which many things seen only on TV have now come vividly alive.

Born in another time

Wong Fan, my wife's mother, was born in early 1949 during the final period of China's revolution. In 1947, local people in her village had already confiscated the land of local predatory landlords, and divided it among the farmers. The poor had become "the owners of the land".

Members of her extended family lived together at that time in a big house, with a very large yard surrounded by a brick fence, and with house walls made of mud bricks. One of six children, she was raised by her parents with help from her paternal grandparents. There were nine people in the household.

"My father was progressive, and believed, unlike others at that time, that girls also should be educated."

She was, however, only able to complete grade five before she had to go to work full-time to help support the family at 12. She toiled at farm work, which was then performed in a large communal farm in the village. By age 15 she was performing nearly as much work as her father, and like other farmers in her village, worked from 4 in the morning to 7 at night with a two-hour break at noon.

In 1979 the new "household responsibility system" was introduced, and land was allocated to each family to farm on their own. "But," she adds, "my hard work continued full-time, in the house and the field, until I was married."

Despite these difficulties, Wong Fan says that since the liberation and land distribution in 1949 - and especially since the introduction of the socialist market economy - life in the village has become progressively easier and more convenient.

"Now," says Wong Fan, "we have mobile phones, TV; motor bikes are commonly seen, and village houses have changed from being made of mud to made of beautiful bricks - very modern."

Wong Fan says that sometimes local governments are corrupt. But she adds that the central government and local ones too have done a lot to improve village life in recent years.

We have buses now and the roads are much better. Donkey carriages are still common in the village, but cars are also often seen."

She also pointed out that the central government had made education in rural villages free up to grade nine as of two years ago; and that government medical insurance had come to her village in the past few years.

In the old days, she said, it was necessary to fetch water from only two or three wells in the entire village. "Now every family has a well, and pipes are used to bring the water into the house."

Trip to Beijing

Wong Fans' trip to Beijing was of course a chance for her to visit the emblematic symbols of Beijing - Tian'anmen square where New China was declared after the liberation in 1949, resulting in villagers like her receiving land rights for the first time, which they enjoy to this day; the Forbidden city, where the Chinese emperors "ruled the world"; the beautiful Summer Palace; and the like.

But the trip to Beijing was also the first time Wong Fan had seen or traveled on a train. "What impressed me the most at first was the tall buildings and the great length of the train."

It was also the first time she had seen or been in a building more than 7 stories high. "Just before I entered the building, I felt dizzy. But when we reached the 16th floor and got out it felt just like the first floor, so no problem!"

The trip was also the first time my mother-in-law had the opportunity to visit a Zoo. "I saw monkeys, giraffes, elephants, fox, wild pigs, bear, pandas, even a gorilla. It was just like on TV."

It was the first time she has eaten Western food or visited a McDonalds' restaurant. She found the taste of the McDonalds' food OK but not so delicious. And she said it was a little expensive. "But," she added, "the environment is great. I loved the music and big windows. I had seen it on TV but never before in real life. In one word, I was happy there."

Anyway, we cannot deny that so many firsts illustrate that a wide gap exists between rural and urban areas.

After going around in a taxi across Beijing for a night-time visit to the Beijing Birds' Nest stadium, where Olympics events will be held, and after seeing the bright lights illuminating the vast city, and then shopping at an all-night super-market, she exclaimed "Now I have seen the Beijing night!"

Asked what she felt after seeing us use the Internet, she answered: "Surprised!"

I couldn't have imagined all the uses of the Internet - watch TV, listen to music, buy products, read news, and so forth."

When she came to Beijing, she had no thought of owning a computer; now she wants one. "I have fallen in love with your notebook computer," she told me.

Wong Fan's trip to Beijing was like a revelatory journey, showing how far China has come. It has also awakened my

wife's mother's sense of adventure. My wife s mother is 60. And I thought she might be somehow overwhelmed by all the new experiences. But after just a few days in Beijing she told me: "Now that I've traveled on a train, let's fly somewhere on an airplane!"

The author is a Canadian teacher living in Beijing

(China Daily 07/25/2008 page9)