China News Service, Hangzhou, February 17 (Guo Qiyu) Perhaps every family is a small history book.
Grandma, mother, and I are the three most ordinary generations of women in New China. We are so different, yet so similar, carrying the hopes and regrets of our respective eras, marching in the footsteps of this country's 75 years of progress.
The Shanxi Merchant Courtyard in my hometown of Shanxi. Photo by Guo Qiyu
Grandma’s “Reading” Dream
If it hadn't been for the arrival of 1949, grandma might never have the chance to go to school again in her life. She was born in a village in Yuci, Shanxi Province in 1932. Like most girls of the same age at that time, her parents did not allow her to continue schooling after graduating from elementary school.
Grandma, who loves reading, cried and made trouble about it, and even jumped into the river when harvesting corn in the autumn. But her parents never gave her any help or support.
In this year, New China was founded. Joint Normal Schools were established in four places in Shanxi Province, with free tuition, board and lodging. From then on, the gears of grandma's destiny began to turn.
"When I learned the news, I no longer ignored my parents' obstruction and walked more than ten miles to take the exam. My teachers and classmates were also very helpful to me." In this way, my grandma was "lucky" to be admitted to a normal school.
After graduation, she was assigned to be a teacher in her hometown primary school, but no one in the village believed she could do a good job. "The less others believe in me, the more I will do my job well." This is my grandma's character that continues to this day. So after half a year of working, she was rated as a "model teacher" by the school.
A year later, grandma was selected to study at Shanxi Taiyuan No. 1 Normal School, which was the only place available in Yuci County at the time. But when she graduated, she did not choose to stay in the provincial capital. Instead, she packed up her backpack and went to a primary school for children of coal mines. Faced with all kinds of students and parents, she still did well.
Later, my grandma was transferred back to a school in Taiyuan because of her outstanding work. She worked there for more than thirty years and is now a prosperous person.
My grandma is 92 years old this year. I wish her good health and long life.
Mom’s “High Speed Rail” Dream
In 1985, the 22-year-old mother joined the Taiyuan Railway Bureau after graduation, and began a "railroad love" of more than thirty years.
"When I first started working, diesel locomotives were still the mainstay. By the 1990s, electric locomotives gradually replaced diesel locomotives, which were fast, powerful and clean." It was a prosperous era of reform and opening up. The demand for transportation has increased, and coal trains are like "steel dragons" traveling through the 800-mile Taihang Mountains.
My mother was also wrapped up in this desire to make a difference. She was one of countless working women in this country. At that time, the hot topic in society was: "How do women balance work and life in the new era?"
Year after year, my mother escorts thousands of passengers to depart and arrive, guarding the Daqin Railway to write a miracle of heavy-haul railway transportation in the world...
In 2009, Shanxi's first high-speed rail EMU was opened to traffic. My mother still remembers the enthusiastic scene and mood at that time: "We knew that a new railway era was coming."
Nowadays, her favorite thing to do after retirement is to travel around the country on the high-speed train and look out the window at the "mobile China" like she did when she was young.
From diesel locomotives to electric locomotives, to high-speed rail EMUs, my mother’s youth bloomed on thousands of miles of railway lines. She carefully guarded every train and witnessed the development and changes of China’s railways.
The green waters and green mountains of Huzhou, Zhejiang. Photo by Guo Qiyu
My dream of "shared wealth"
In 2018, I walked through the school gate and walked into the door of the Zhejiang Branch of China News Service. Here, I heard the inspirational story of a "poor boy" who counterattacked and became an "top student", and saw that common prosperity embellishes everyone's dream.
Hengdian Town, Dongyang, Jinhua, was once a small town lacking resources in central Zhejiang. Before the reform and opening up, the per capita annual income was only 75 yuan.
In 1975, Xu Wenrong, then Secretary of the Party Branch of the Hengdian Brigade, had a "dream of getting rich" and led local farmers to start a business through hard work and founded the Hengdian Silk Factory. After that, he used the profits from one factory to run another enterprise, gradually growing into China's Hengdian Group, a very large private enterprise.
The past poverty inspired the people of Zhejiang to have the courage to be the first. They have a keen sense of smell and "beg for food" from the market. Since the reform and opening up, they have created huge social wealth and provided development wisdom in dealing with the relationship between economy and ecology.
In Anji Yu Village, Huzhou, when the villagers were hesitating between the "golden rice bowl" of mining in the mountains and the good ecology of clear waters and lush mountains, the conclusion that "clear waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" pointed out the direction for them. Under the guidance of the "Two Mountains" concept, one village after another has switched from "selling resources" to "selling scenery" and embarked on the road of green development and ecological enrichment.
With green waters and green mountains as its background and "solid family foundation" as its foundation, Zhejiang is tracing a bigger dream - high-quality development and construction of a demonstration zone for common prosperity.
Nowadays, material prosperity, spiritual wealth, beautiful mountains and clear waters, balanced development...the myriad phenomena of common prosperity are spreading from Zhejiang to the land of China. (over)