(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.