(Written by Hu Ao)

          Two years ago, my father was forced by economic pressures to move to the municipality of CX in ZJ Province.  He was somewhat familiar with that area as my grandfather had had his original home there.

          My mother and I visited him during our last vacation, and as we expected, CX is much smaller than Beijing, but the economic conditions there are pretty good.  A growing number of people have private cars and motorcycles so we saw very few bicycles on the road.

          During the first week, my father introduced us to workmates, friends, and relatives we hadn't met before, and the one who impressed me the most was his cousin Ar Shen, a businessman.  My father told me that 10 years ago he was a carpenter with little business experience, but today he heads a one hundred million yuan public traded company.  His success is shaking up the family.

          It was an amazing story for an inexperienced high school student to hear.  The man is so successful that one wonders how he did it. 

          "It must have been based on excellence", I said excitedly.  "I never thought anything like that would happen in our family."

          "You've misjudged him", my father said calmly.  "I don't think he is good at some of the things he should be concerned about."

          That afternoon, my father took me outside the city to an impoverished place in the country.

          He directed my attention to a river that looked green as it was so dirty, and he said, "Decades ago, it used to be clean and very beautiful.  We could see fish and shrimp swimming in it then, but when I got here, it gave off an unbearable stink to welcome me."

          "'Oh, that's awful", I lamented with lowered eyebrows.

          "Come on - follow me."

          We walked down a path to see some of the houses.  Gray smoke was blowing out of a small chimneyi.

          "What do they drink?" I asked.

          "I don't know; maybe they buy water from the city.  The water here is poluted. 

          My father slowed his steps and said in a low voice, "Can you see the old woman sitting in the yard?"

          "Yes."

          "Do you know what she is doing?  She is assembling lighters.  After finishing her work, she will be given a little money.  It's very poor here.  Using a washing machine to wash clothes is routine for us, but here it is only a dream.  She is 80 years old, but she has to wash clothes by hand."

          We stood there silently for a few seconds, and then father said, "When I was small, this house had lots of land around it with trees and flowers, but today most of the land has been sold.  The woman is a great mother.  She has two sons - one of them disabled.  Her husband died a yiear ago, and now she has to do all the work for her disabled son with her own hands.

          My feelings of concern for her were growing.

          "But what about the other son?"

          "He is the man you admired - the millionaire."

                    MENU

          Wheat gluten puffs with jellyfish and pidan (preserved eggs)

          Whole yellow fish prepared with sugar and vinegar

          You bao shrimp

          Chinese cabbage and mushrooms

          Big gluten ball stuffed with roasted meat flavored with soy sauce 

          Sauteed rice cakes

          Jiaozhi (dumplings)

          Chicken and ham soup including:

                    An chun dan (quail eggs)

                    Bamboo

                    Fish balls

                    Danjiao (egg dumplings)

                    Hei muer (black wood ear)

                    Spinach

          Red ean, date, and lotus seed sweet soup

          Red grapes

          Navel oranges

          Green tea          

(Written by Hu Ao, a high school student in Beijing)

          There are many collectors in the world, none of them quite satisfied with what they've been able to hoard.  They may do it as a hobby, as a means to acquire wealth, or just to satisfy an inner urge, but there are never enough stamps or famous paintings or personal items celebrities have discarded.

          I don't think of myself as a collector.  There's no appeal in putting old things under my bed, hiding them in a wardrobe, or locking them into drawers.  I don't have that inclination nor would I want to spend the time or money that is inevitably involved.  I like things that make my life easy, as I believe in the old adage that simplicity is the key to a good life.

          There are things in my life, however, that have become old and no longer work properly, and I say to myself that I'll throw them away some day.  I'm just like other people in that regard.  There are some things that we just don't want to give up.  We keep them because they remind us of an experience we've had or a special emotion.  Regardless of what the things are, we find them valuable and feel that they should continue to exist - just for us.  They can be quite common, but for us, they're priceless treasures.

          In my grandfather's home, there is an old small table that I used for nearly ten years during my childhood.  Adults in my life have wanted to throw it away several times, but each time I managed to keep it.  Although it is not as useful as a new one would be, I still like to spend time with it.  When I sit on it, I feel that I'm with an old friend, the kind you don't have to say anything to because everything you know is already understood.  For ten years, I wrote articles on it.  It held my books when I first started reading.  The two of us have shared many secrets. 

          In one of the drawers, there is an old calculating machine.  My grandfather gave it to me when I left to live with my parents.  It had been with him for decades so I treat it as my elder generation.

          People's lives keep moving ahead.  As more time passes, we have more rich experiences, but the remnants of past glories are worth keeping.  They make our lives shine.

          (Written by a former physics teacher in Shanghai)

          Those of us who live abroad miss relatives and friends who live in the homeland, especially on festival days.  It is a Chinese tradition to greet each other during the Spring Festival, and we send email or place phone calls even though long distance calls from China to America are veryi expensive.  As a result, I have been busy greeting my brothers, relatives, colleagues, friends, and former students.  All of them seem to be fine and in the midst of preparing to travel to reunions to celebrate the festival.

          Yesterday I attended a Chinese New Year's Eve party and got back home about 10:30.  This morning, I received a phone call from a former student in Washington, D.C. who said he had called me several times yesterday when I wasn't home, as he wanted to wish me a Happy New Year.

          He mentioned that he had attended a reunion for the class of 1965 when he was in Shanghai last October.  It was unlucky that we didn't see each other then, as I was in the city during that month, too.  He told me about the happy time they'd had.  All of the female students have retired, and some of the males are planning to.  As we talked, I remembered him as an excellent student.  He is now a professor at an American university.  He said that all of his classmates missed me.  Even though I hadn't been head teacher of their class, we worked together for three years.  He hopes that there will be another reunion this year.

          During our conversation, I learned that I'd lost an opportunity to see him during the last Christmas holiday season.  I'd been in New Jersey at my daughter's home and he lived close by.  We decided that we should tell each other as early as possible the next time I plan to visit my daughter or we both plan to return to Shanghai.

          When he learned that I'm not reading physics, but spending most of my time studying and writing English, he said, "I'm sorry to hear that.  It's a loss for physics.  Through your help, I was able to answer 100% of the questions on my entrance examination to the university.  You were a very successful teacher and all the students liked you."

          I responded that I was proud of them, too, that it isn't easy to get a perfect score in examinations.  I told him that I'd liked physics very much and that my daughter had encouraged me many times to write about my experiences teaching it, but I'd felt that I had to study English, as it's important in conversing with Americans.

          Four days before that phone call, another interesting thing had occurred.  I'd been busy preparing for a party, had a class in the morning, and was getting many phone calls.  It was starting to bother me so when I got another, and it was a man's voice on the other end of the line saying, "I'm David", I felt frustrated, as I didn't know any Davids.  He went on speaking, but I really wasn't listening, and when he stopped to take a breath, I told him that he must have a wrong number.  He then switched to Chinese, and it turned out that he was a former student named Ge who had graduated in 1962.  We hadn't seen each other in 43 years.  He had obtained my phone number from a classmate and wanted to talk about what I'd been doing all those years.

          He explained that he was now referring to himself as David for he'd been given that name when he was born into a Christian family.  He was calling to tell me that he couldn't forget how much I'd helped him.  I had no idea what I'd done so he told me this story:

          "My parents studied law at a Christian university and were both lawyers.  They both spoke English well, but my father's Russian was better than his English.  That was because in the 50's, the second language in the schools changed from English to Russian.  My father then became a teacher of Russian in a high school, and in the 60's the family's troubles started to mount as he was diagnosed with cancer and mother lost her job.

           "One day I didn't got to school, and you came to my home afterwards as you thought I must be sick, as I'd never been absent before.  I was ashamed to see you so I got in bed and faced the wall pretending to be sick.  My mother couldn't bear being dishonest and told you the truty - that we had no money to buy food, and you immediately gave her 5 yuan (500 Chinese cents) to solve the problem."

          He paused in his narrative to explain how much that money was worth to them then.

          "At that time, 17 cents could  buy 1 jin of rice (1 jin + 500 grams = 1.1 lbs) so we could get almost 30 pounds of rice.  It was as if fuel had been offered in snowy weather."

          I told him that I'd completely forgotten having helped his family, and that we were all fortunate that those troublesome times were long ago.  While he had told me the story, I had begun to remember him.  He had always been a very good student.

          He then went on to tell me that after graduation from a university, he had been assigned to work in a town for 11 years where he received a stack of certificates of merit as thick as a Bible.  He had worked his fingers to the bone, and his boss wanted him to stay, but he wanted to return to Shanghai with his wife.  

          After the Cultural Revolution, universities reopened to those who could qualify by examination.  He knew that if he obtained a master's degree he would have a job when he returned.  He needed a permit to register for the examination and because he was a good worker, his boss avoided giving it to him   Getting further education was such a golden opportunity that he begged the boss for the permit - almost kneeling down - but the boss resisted his pleas and started to avoid meeting him  Even at night, when he'd knock on the boss's door, the light woulde be turned off and no one would answer.  His luck turned, however, on the last day for registration when the boss finally yielded.

          With the permit in hand, he borrowed a bicycle and rode quickly to the city.  When he arrived in the office, the clerk wondered why he was there at the last minute, but it was such a long story that he didn't bother telling it.

          There were only two students in his major.  He passed the first examination, but was worried about the second one.  He had studied hard, but during that time, his wife was pregnant and was nearing term.  It would be their first child.

          His wife was a very thoughtful person, and when her time came, she encouraged him to stay home and study rather than accompanying her to the hospital.  She said that it was better for him to work toward getting them out of a bad situation, that they'd be together a long time in Shanghai after he passed the exsamination.  She didn't need to have him with her during that very short time.  She urged him to stay home and study hard.

          He was very proud of her.  The two of them weren't concerned that of the nine wives who were having babies at that time, he was the only father that wasn't present.

          Through his hard work, he passed the examination and they returned to Shanghai.  Later, he had an opportunity to study abroad and the family has now been in Canada for 15 years.

          I'm pleased that he had such success and that he now has a happy and very fortunate life.

          When he learned that my children live in other cities and I live alone, he wanted to visit me and asked for my address.  He said that if I have any problems, he will always come to help me.  The sound of that made me very happy even though we live far apart.  I thanked him for his concern.

          It was pleasant to remember that I'd heard some of my other students say the same words during my recent visit to Shanghai.  I'm fortunate to have so many good friends.  It's obvious from this account that most of them are former students, and I apologize to them nowfor using that term for in fact they're all my very good friends.