Humans of China│人在中国（十二）

Humans of China   

人在中国

Exploring China one person at a time

一次探索一个中国人

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I was born in 1963 and life was hard.

For the first few years of my life I had never eaten meat and I didn't know what an egg was. We had no money for food my diet consisted mostly of weeds.

At a very young age I started a very simple but very important job as a wood collector to build fires during the winter as it was bitterly cold and at 7 years old I started working in the fields using a hoe to move the soil to help grow rice.

Back then everyone was the same we all had very hard lives and although we were all so poor everyone loved to help each other. No one was selfish unlike in today's sociality, there are too many selfish people.

Growing up I had no shoes and my clothes were full of holes during the long cold winters we'd stuff cotton in the holes in our trousers to try keep our legs warm. We just didn't have the money to buy shoes let alone new clothes. These days having clothes full of holes is fashion.

We lived in a mud house and we made beds with branches from trees covered in dead grass. If it was raining outside then it was raining inside.

I started school at the age of 7 but then my mum gave birth to my little bother and then to my little sister so I stopped school to help take care of them whilst my parents would work. At 10 years old I started school again.

At the age of 17 my mother died so from then on I acted as a mother figure for my siblings. If we had money my mother could have seen a doctor or bought some medicine but we had no money. Maybe she would have survived. 

In them days if you were sick there were two choices; survive or die. No one cared if we were sick. No one cared if we couldn't see a doctor. No one cared if we died.

1988 was the hardest year for us we had nothing and at this point I had two children. We had nothing to eat nothing to drink and nothing to wear but after that year things gradually got better.

My life today is the best it's been I still have two children along with grandchildren. My children are quite successful and we have managed to buy a house in Beijing. I love my job as a cleaner and general helper at a school which I started 3 years.I love children and my colleagues.

One  piece of advice I'd like to give to the next generation is to appreciate the freedom you had and take care of yourself,your family and friends.

Beijing

我出生于 1963年,那时候生活很艰难。

我刚出生的那几年, 从来没吃过肉, 也不知道鸡蛋是什么。我们没钱买吃的, 主要的粮食就是小麦。

在很小的时候, 我就开始干活了，活儿很简单，却相当重要，就是在冬天的时候捡木头生火，因为冬天特别的冷。7岁时，我开始下地干活，用锄头翻地，翻完种水稻。

那时候每个人都一样，日子很贫苦，尽管我们都很穷，但每个人都互帮互助，人都很无私，不像现在这个社会，人都比较自私。

长大后，我没鞋穿，衣服都是破洞。漫长的冬天，我们把棉花塞到裤子破洞的地方来保暖。我们没钱买鞋，更别说衣服。但是现在，衣服上满是破洞变成了一种时尚。

那时候我们住在泥巴房子里， 我们的床是用树枝做的，上面再铺些枯草。如果下雨，屋外在下，屋里也在下。

我7岁开始上学，但后来我妈妈生了我弟弟，接着又生了我妹妹。所以我辍学了，在家帮忙照顾他们，这样我父母可以出去工作。10岁的时候，我才又去上了学。

17岁的时候，我母亲去世了。从那时起，为了我的兄弟姐妹，我便扮演起了母亲的角色。如果当时我们有钱，我妈就可以去看医生，或者买点药吃，那样或许她还能多活两天，但是我们没钱。

那时候，如果你病了，就两个结果，要么活，要么死。没人管你是不是病了，没人管你能不能去看医生，没人管你的死活。

1988年，对我们来说是最艰难的一年，我们什么也没有。就在那个时候我有了两个孩子，我们没吃没喝没穿。但那之后生活还是慢慢好了起来。现在是我一生中最好的日子，我的两个孩子都有了自己的孩子，我的孩子们很成功，我们还在北京买了房。三年前，我开始在学校里做保洁，我很热爱我的工作，我喜欢孩子们和我的同事。

我想给下一代的建议就是要感恩你所拥有的自由，并且照顾好你自己、你的家人和朋友。

北京

                                                      Humans of China | 人在中国

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