Sixty Years of "Three Thousand Orphans Entering Inner Mongolia": Shanghai dolls, prairie children, national children
The Paper Journalist Gong Hanhua
"Why would my parents abandon me?"
Baode didn't know.
For more than 60 years, she often thought in her heart that she did not understand when she was a child. When she grew up, she began to approach that period of history, and then secretly made a choice in her heart, trying to reconcile with herself: it was the last resort of her parents in the famine years, and it was "too difficult to stay." The helpless move of "a way to survive".
Baode and Baode's Ranch
Around 1960, China was short of supplies, and the children in the Shanghai orphanage faced survival threats.
Under the arrangements of Premier Zhou Enlai and then Secretary of the Party Committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Chairman of the Government Ulanhu, the "three thousand orphans" went to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia and were raised by herdsmen. Among them, 28 Shanghai orphans were sent to Siziwang Banner, and Baode was one of them. .
When she saw Baode in the depths of the grassland, she went out to greet her. The year-round wind and sun made her skin yellowish brown. Baode could speak Mongolian and local Chinese dialects. During the conversation, she often laughed, exuding children belonging to the grassland. The hearty.
Having stayed in the grassland all his life and raised in a Mongolian family, Baode's appearance and demeanor have been completely a grassland herder.
"The place where I was raised is the prairie, but where is the place where I was born?" For a long time, this was a question shared by Baode and Sun Baowei, one of the 28 Shanghai orphans.
In early March, there were two snowfalls on the Durbert Grassland. In the ravines and ravines, the snow had not melted for a few days, and Baode began to think again in his heart when he did not need to go out to graze.
Regarding the question of "where do you come from", the 62-year-old Baode wanted to clarify.
Baode and Baode's Ranch
Shanghai doll
"Dad wants a kid, mom wants a girl, and finally I came." In 1961, Baode was three years old. As one of the "three thousand orphans", he came to Siziwangqi from Shanghai and became the daughter of a herder.
At the age of eight or nine, Baode knew for the first time that he was an orphan.
At that time, she had just started studying, and a few educated youths from the pastoral area came to the countryside.
They teased Baode, saying that she was a baby from Shanghai and was adopted.
At that time, Baode's Chinese was not good and he could understand a little bit, but he couldn't say anything in rebuttal. He was both angry and aggrieved in his heart. After school, he immediately ran home to "nagging" with his parents.
"At that time, my parents told me for the first time that I was an orphan in Shanghai." But the young Baode chose not to believe it, thinking that his parents were teasing her, and said angrily, "It's all nonsense."
During the same period, Sun Baowei at Sizi Wangqi No. 3 Primary School had a fight with his classmates because of the trivial matter. The other party was anxious and revealed that he was short, saying that he was an orphan that no one wanted. Sun Baowei became even more angry, and even fought fiercely. It's a bit.
"There are a lot of fights. Sometimes I tell my mother when I go home, but she seems to be particularly taboo about the'Shanghai Orphans'. Every time she says, she always finds someone's doorway, which makes me unsightly." Sun. Defending recalled that when he fought again later, he no longer dared to mention to his mother, "I can only try not to cause trouble.
When did you start to feel that you really are an orphan in Shanghai?
Baode and Sun Baowei recalled that after they were in middle school, people around them brought up that period of history to them one after another.
At that time, there were three or four orphans from Shanghai in Sun Baowei's class. "Although you can't speak or ask, everyone knows it well."
In the meantime, Baode's parents mentioned the situation several times and explained to her that they had adopted her because they were unable to have children. Baode slowly began to accept and believe in this special identity.
Baode said that at that time there was no such thing as a "national child". Except for deliberately sarcastic people, few people directly called them "Shanghai orphans", often called "Shanghai dolls."
Prairie children
In the eyes of adoptive parents, Shanghai dolls are their own dolls and children from the grassland when they come to their homes.
Parents love Baode very much.
In the grasslands of the 1960s, there were not many children who could go to school, but she went there for 8 years. When her father was arrested during the "Cultural Revolution", the worry was not about himself, but whether Baode would be because of himself. 'S identity was bullied at school...
When graduating from junior high school, Baode was preparing to take the technical secondary school.
"My grades have always been very good, and I can definitely pass the exam," Baode recalled. "It's just that something went wrong at the time and I gave up on my own, and then became a herdsman."
In the pastoral area, Baode's family conditions can be regarded as rich. Because she was reluctant to bear the only daughter in the family, when she was 20 years old, her parents decided to recruit her son-in-law.
On the day of marriage, floats and gifts were piled up at the door of the house. Relatives and friends stood in front of and behind the house. The young Baode was full of spirits riding a horse.
Baode and her parents when they were young
After that, life on the prairie was busy and tired.
In Siziwangqi Hanwula Gacha, Baode has more than 5,100 acres of pasture. When the flock is the largest, there are more than 500. They are fed sheep, cows, and grazing every day. After the big sheep give birth to lambs, raise the lambs for three or four months. A little bigger can be used to sell money, day after day.
When the sheep are eating grass obediently, Baode can stop and rest, "The grassland is big, you can't see the head at a glance, and there is no other person..." At that time, Baode will think of his adoptive parents who have passed away, although he is adopting She came, but her adoptive parents treated her closer to her than her biological daughter; she would also think that she was raised on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, but where was the place where she was born? She wanted to find out, but the family couldn’t walk away. Not realized.
60-year-old Sun Baowei runs a veterinary drug store in Siziwangqi
Compared with Baode's stability in the pastoral area, Sun Baowei's life has been ups and downs, "there are many stories."
After the "Cultural Revolution" was over, the policy was implemented after rehabilitated. Sun Baowei, who was an educated youth, was assigned to Siziwangqi Food Company. “At that time, there was no Sunday, so he kept doing it.” After the reform of state-owned enterprises, Sun Baowei became a laid-off worker, thinking about harmony. They opened a cold storage and built a slaughterhouse together; they got older and couldn't do it anymore. In recent years, Sun Baowei ran a veterinary drug store on the banner.
"If you didn't come to the grassland, what kind of life would you have, and what kind of destiny would you have?" Over the past 60 years, Sun Baowei has thought about this problem countless times. It is like a game, with many possibilities in his heart.
"There are many turning points in a person's life. If it weren't for a natural disaster, I might be in Shanghai, but if it wasn't for the great migration, I might even have no people."
But in any case, Baode and Sun Baowei felt that the grassland nurtured them, and they were the children of the grassland.
Hope for relatives
It was not until the death of his parents that Sun Baowei dared to face the identity of the "Shanghai Orphan".
From an early age, Sun Baowei was in a superior family situation and enjoyed "quite good treatment."
His father worked in the court of Siziwangqi and belonged to a senior executive. At that time, there were very few children who could go to nursery schools, and he was one of them.
After graduating from high school, according to the policy at the time, Sun Baowei was an educated youth and should be sent to the pastoral area, but the family worried that he would suffer and tried every means to transfer him to the "vegetable team" next to the banner.
In such a family, finding relatives is taboo.
When he was young, Sun Baowei came to Shanghai and stopped for a long time at the gate of the former "Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute".
Many years ago, he went north to the Inner Mongolia prairie from here. Since then, his fate has changed, and everything related to him before this has been left blank.
He was also curious about what was hidden behind this blank space, but that time, he did not enter the orphanage for a long time, and his adoptive parents were still there, and he was kind to him. For him, seeking relatives meant ungratefulness and hurt.
In 2006, on the 100th anniversary of Ulanhu’s birth, many of the "Three Thousand Orphans" were invited to participate. There were more than 20 children from 28 children of the Four Sons King Banner. The activity lasted three days and was very lively.
Sun Baowei also participated in this event. At that time, his adoptive parents had passed away, and he began to connect with other children one after another.
Many Shanghai orphans were invited to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ulanhu’s birth, including Baode and Sun Baowei.
"Everyone has the desire to go back and find relatives, especially after the age of 60, when life is stabilized, there will be questions. Where is our root?" The answer is still unknown. Sun Baowei feels "At this age, there is no hope. Up".
In the same way, Baode has heard it many times from his family, relatives and friends, and other orphans, and the thought of seeking relatives has therefore been pressed down a little bit.
Until 2017, Xilinhot came to a few southerners looking for relatives. One of them was an older brother who lost his sister in the Great Famine. After that, he looked for his sister for 50 years.
"He tested his DNA in Xilinhot, and he actually found his sister." That year, her sister was 64 years old.
Hearing this news, Baode's heart rekindled hope, thinking "whatever you say this time you have to do DNA."
Later Baode went, but the fellow persuaded her: "There may be opportunities when we are young, it is not necessary at our age..." At that time, Baode hesitated for a long time and finally failed to test DNA.
In recent years, children have grown up and married, and Baode also entrusted most of the ranch to his son. The burden on him for most of his life suddenly became lighter.
In his spare time, Baode wants to visit Shanghai more and more.
"It's not necessarily looking for relatives. It is also possible to step on the land where I was born." However, Baode's idea has not been supported by his family so far, so he can only shelve it.
Country child
In fact, in 2002, more than 10 of the 28 children returned to Shanghai to seek root visits.
At that time, they were middle-aged, including doctors, teachers, herders, senior engineers, and local government officials.
Now they are all over 60 years old, most of them have retired, but they still haven't found their relatives back then.
Regarding the question of "where do they come from", none of the 28 children of Siziwangqi have figured it out. What's more regrettable is that three of them have passed away.
But it is worth mentioning that the "three thousand orphans" of the year have now become relatives of each other, sharing a common name-"child of the country".
"About the popularization of smartphones, both the children of Siziwangqi and the "three thousand orphans" in Inner Mongolia have established contacts." Sun Baowei said that their "national children" have a WeChat group of nearly 500 people, and they will have a WeChat group every year. Gathered several times, and got in touch with Siziwangqi's "national children" more closely, often eating and chatting together, and forgetting the time when I had a lot of fun.
Sun Baowei remembered that in recent years, many big gatherings have been organized among the "children of the country". The previous year in Hulunbuir, many people came. The "three thousand orphans" once are the Mongolian, Han, Hui, Daur, The Wa nationality...different appearances and costumes. Some speak Chinese and some speak Mongolian. The topics range from famine years to current affairs, and short talks from parents to the future of the country. The south, the north, the snow, and the grasslands are like "everything." Interested, I can say anything".
Sun Baowei feels that this may be the largest family in the world with the most relatives.
The pictures in this article are all taken by The Paper journalist Gong Hanwen