"I Have No Regrets, but My Life Has Been Very, Very Tough"
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This article comes from Humans of China (WeChat ID: humans-of-china), which aims to document and tell the stories of the many varied people of this vast country, one individual at a time. This time, Hack interviews a woman from the She minority in Jiangxi.
I have no regrets, but my life has been very, very tough. At the age of eight, I was taking a shower and the Japanese were fast approaching my village. I had no choice to grab a small dress and run into the mountains. After running, my feet, legs, and arms were all cut up from the trees, bushes, and the rocky floor. They didn’t kill anyone; they mostly took the food we had at home.My husband died at the age of 39. He was a soldier and he fought against the Japanese and survived. He was killed whilst taking a phone call on a rainy day, when lightning struck. He was electrocuted and died instantly. When he died I was pregnant with our third child. I was left to bring up three children alone and I said I’d never marry again because I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.
I came from a family of nine children. My parents were very hardworking, but very poor. In those days you could sell children to make money, but they didn’t sell any of their kids, and I also didn’t want to sell mine to make money. My parents were farmers and born during the Qing dynasty. They taught me to farm, mainly growing rice and during the Cultural Revolution, and I led a team of ladies from our village to grow rice. Although we ladies worked very hard from dawn till dusk and couldn’t eat well, we enjoyed what we did and knew it was for a good cause.
I love Chairman Mao and think the government is great. They give me some money each month and they recently helped me build a new house. Although I haven’t had many happy times during my life, I do feel happy recently. My neighbors take good care of me and my kids also care about me a lot. I live with my cat who keeps me company and I can eat well, but I don’t want to live too much longer. I certainly don’t want to live until I’m 100 years old.READ: "As I’ve Grown Older, Life Has Become Much Better"
Photos: Cameron Hack
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