My First Research Project

I did get my wish to work at the ecology department’s subalpine forest ecosystem division. Everyone in the institute including my director was surprised it was something that I wanted to do. The research site was going to be in the remote, harsh minority region, so it would be especially difficult for women. Those places had only forests and mountains. The unique environment with many rare plants and animals exists only in the subalpine habitats. Other research sites were small patches here and there surrounded by agricultural fields and much human interference.
     The first project that I worked on was to create a standard for spruce seed distribution for nurseries. Sometimes even seeds of the same species of trees could prefer different habitats. First, we needed to collect information on how the trees were doing in their natural habitat and in the existing nursery. Two other senior forest engineers worked on the project. Mr. Zhou (周) graduated from our college in the 1950’s; he was 58 years old. Liang (梁) had an associate’s degree and was about 45 years old. So altogether, three of us worked on the project. Mr. Liang was also involved with another project. So most of the time, I went with Mr. Zhou to do the work. I was an assistant engineer.
   In the summer, usually we went out for our field trips.  The area was where almost 10,000 people died during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.  Mr. Zhou and I took a public bus to the local places we needed to visit. From there, we went to the local forest bureau, forest station, or local county government with a paper of introduction from the provincial forestry department and then we received their full assistance and support, a place to stay, meals, transportation, and guides or helpers. They dropped whatever they were doing, since one of their duties was to assist us. It was also a very good opportunity for local leaders to get news from the outside, and to treat us with the best of their local foods and so on.
   Most of the time, the trouble was the long time it took to get there and back because of the roads. Summer was the growing season, field season, and the rainy season with landslides and falling rocks because of the fragile mountainsides. We often heard stories about people who died from road clearing and building. Every now and then, you could see a tomb or monument alongside the road in memory of the road builders. I don’t think that we ever had one trip that was on time. Usually we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with miles of cars, buses, and trucks all waiting for the road to be cleared of debris from landslides or falling rocks. Four hours waiting was a short time; one day was long. We usually prepared one meal snack, so waiting for the entire day really made everyone hungry and thirsty.
    Sometimes, I went ahead to watch the workers. They all wore helmets, but sometimes the rocks continued to fall while they worked. There was one, supposedly very experienced, man who would just stand aside and watch the rocks fall. If he whistled, every worker ran away from the site. Then they waited for awhile, and then went back to work again. It was very scary just to watch those poor men working like that. When the road was cleared, the empty bus would drive through, then all the passengers ran through and that took a lot of courage. I felt my legs shaking. The roadside workers encouraged me to run through. It was not really a big deal for me once in awhile. Everyday, they risked their lives to clear the road for us.
      Life was very hard for the people, both the Han and the Tibetan people. Han people usually built their houses along the valley near rivers or streams so they could grow crops easily and had easy access to water and transportation. However, they were often victims of landslides. Every now and then, local foresters pointed out a place on the other side of the valley. It didn’t look unusual except for a huge pile of rocks. Beneath, a family was buried alive in their house. Sometimes, even when they worked in their field or walked along, a tiny stone rolling down from high above could kill them. Every year, there were cases like these.
      When we worked in the field in western Sichuan province, there were usually at least three people plus a driver helping us. It was really easy for us. They did most of the manual labor and we needed to do the paperwork and calculations. We always met wonderful people who offered their best meals to us. They always told us how glad they were to see guests from the outside. In the wild, I didn’t encounter any wild animals, although we saw their droppings. Once we saw a giant panda wandering on the other side of the creek. It was exciting to watch!
      I volunteered once to give a seminar about sampling techniques and simple statistics for the local forest station. I was teaching all men, most of the people there were young men and most of them listened attentively and quietly. One young man, though, tried to give me a hard time by asking me tough questions, but he did not make me fail. I was prepared for their questions, and I had fun with them.

On the roadside to the Tibetan autonomous region in western Sichuan

My First Kiss

Not long after, I did notice one boy from a different college. I did not know anything about him. At the same time, another girlfriend was asking me to patch them together. I did become a sort of the third person tagging along as a chaperone before she felt comfortable with him alone. Soon she told me that upon asking him, he said he was not interested in her. I laughed, “he really rejected you? You must be kidding.” She said, “maybe he likes you, you try.” I almost felt she was challenging me. I joked with her that I could get him and then dump him just to make things even for her. She laughed. 
     I was very confident that he would come to me if I let him. So I invited him to the garden nearby our parents’ apartment where we talked about our college lives and everything we could think about. The second time, he came and told me he found out this neat place near my home that he wanted to show me. I was a little surprised since I never wandered outside of my parent’s oil complex. We went to the agricultural field outside of my parents’ oil company where I had never been. I was a little scared because I could see the wall far away where my home was. I had never been out this late in the dark with anyone. There he asked me in English, “May I kiss you?” I had my first kiss from a boy. Then I asked him to stop smoking because I could never imagine myself marrying someone who smoked. He said yes, he would give it up. But I did catch him a few times smoking alone somewhere.
     Later on he started to miss our dates which made me wonder whether I pushed him too hard to give up smoking. Then he told me that he had a girlfriend in his hometown about 30 miles from our institute. They have been preparing to get married.  I was humiliated and upset.  He explained that he grew up with her since their parents were good friends. Life with me would be much happier but he was afraid to upset his parents, his girlfriend, her parents. That would surely put him in the immoral category and affect his future. His dream to go abroad would all wash down the drain. I knew what that meant since we had a few from the 1977 class who were sent to remote places as punishment. I blamed him that he should have told me first and shouldn’t have kissed me when he knew he was kissing someone else. And it was unfair to his girlfriend and me not knowing that his feet were “standing in two boats at once.”
     Then few days later, another boy came to my institute to see me. He told me that his unhappy marriage ended in divorce. I told him that I was sorry to hear that. Then he said that he had that quick marriage because of my rejection. He thought she might help him forget about me. He was wrong, now he came back for me. I told him that I was very sorry that I might have been the reason for his failed marriage. My heart went out to the poor innocent girl who I didn’t know, but that still didn’t change anything between us. We were just friends now and in the future. I told him that he should be strong and shouldn’t get into any relationship if he was not ready. He knew how much that could hurt others.
     Most people in my institute thought that my standards for a boyfriend were too high and I was too proud of myself. I knew that sometimes they were talking about me. I just simply passed them by and held my head high. I never paid any attention to girl gossip.

Every March 8th(International Woman's Day), the girls in my institute get the day off.  We still come into the office to get our gifts such as free movie tickets, so we could all go to a movie or go shopping.  The men in the office have to work, so they usually say they have the rest of the 364 days for themselves.

First Job in the Real World

I went to the Sichuan Forest Research Institute in May 1982, when I was almost 21. It was my first job in life. Together, with students from other schools and colleges, we had seven or eight students from different majors. The director of the institute gave us a tour of the institute and introduced us to the staff.
     Later on, the party secretary took over the rest of the matters. Besides political activities, the new thing we had never heard from above was “you are all young and going to fall in love, get married, and have a child.” “Let me warn you first, it is going to be difficult for us to take your future spouse into the capital city. A number of scientists and engineers waited for more than ten years before they and their wife and kids were reunited in one place. Unless you want to give up this institute for a smaller one, otherwise, look around, not far away; you will be happy and I will be happy.” I knew the fact that my own parents didn’t get together for 13 years was because they worked in different places. But you can’t start a marriage around without love. I felt offended. No one could control how and where love comes anyway.
      The second point the party secretary made was that if any of us wanted to get married, not to even try if the boy hasn’t reached 25 years old, or if the girl is not yet 23, even though the marriage law indicated 23 for boys and 20 for girls. The institute wanted to guarantee that every couple followed the late marriage guideline. If the institute didn’t give you a permit, you couldn’t get married.
      The third point made was for one older boy who was just married. We all listened anyway. When you are married, you couldn’t just want a child at any time. Even then, you could only have one. Each year, the entire institute’s birth rate was fixed or the mother who already had one child and became pregnant with another was required to abort the baby. For married people who wanted to have a child, you had to apply first. Then after the institute gave a green light, you could try, or else wait for the next year. If you were already pregnant without permission, you were required to have an abortion. We were all outraged by what she said. I was sure this was the real world; I wanted to go back to college with walls protecting us inside.
     The first I was paid, I gave the money to my mom to show my appreciation. It was over 50 yuan, 2.5 times more than a high school kid could make. My mom brought me a new girl's phoenix bike with a golden phoenix painted on the black bar. This was the best bike in China. It was made in Shanghai where most of the best goods were made at that time. I had dreamed to have this kind of bike since high school. Even with the money, it would be difficult to find one to buy. I had to carry this bike upstairs and downstairs from the third floor everyday before and after work since I did not want to lose it. My brother and my father also helped me carry this bike while carrying their men's phoenix bike.

Senior

We started the final project for our graduation. Most students went to one forest station for three months to work on a comprehensive project for graduation. Few could join the professor’s project as research assistants. The professor was the chair of the department. Her surname was Long (龍), which means “dragon.” People would call her “xianshen先生” which means “student head,” usually used for men, but also for strong women and is translated into “Mr.” in English. I was one of eight students in our two classes chosen by the head of the department to join her research. I was the only female out of eight students. I was proud of myself. I had a number of opportunities to travel within the province and outside. After the first few field trips, we divided into four groups, two in each group so as to cover more sites. I was with a boy from the other class. I didn’t know him much at all before the project. Now, we were going to do everything together. I was not comfortable with the arrangement because I always had more than two workers with me in the field.

I was one of eight students who joined Prof. Long 龍 (middle) for her research.

    Our project was to study the cell morphology of Toxicodendron vernicifluum (formerly Rhus verniciflua, the Chinese lacquer tree). On our field trips (most at the epicenter of the future 2008 earthquake), we were to collect bark samples and store them in a small bottle filled with preservative to keep them fresh. The bark of this tree is very much like that of the rubber tree. Farmers collected the toxic sap from the bark of the trees to make the finest natural paint for wood furniture and highly durable varnish for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean lacquer-ware.The varnish is applied with a brush and is cured in a warm and humid environment. Most people are allergic to this tree. It was similar to poison ivy or sumac here in the United States. The plants are in the same family. We had nine in our research group altogether. I was one of three who was not allergic to the tree. Fortunately, my partner Huang was not allergic to the tree either. Chinese Lacquerwar
     We cooperated and finished the entire sample collecting first. Then we went to Xian, Shanxi Province (my father’s hometown), north of my province, for lab work. We worked together for a whole month. We went sightseeing on weekends since both of us had never been to that city. We went to see Emperor Qin’s Terracotta buried army. I was more interested in Huaqing_Pool; Tang Emperor Li Longji (李隆基) built it for his favorite consort Yang Guifei(杨贵妃) who he stole from his own son. He loved her and did everything in his power to please her. She loved fresh lychee fruit from her hometown Chengdu where I was born. The emperor used the fastest horses to relay the fruit, without stopping for a week from a thousand kilometers away. She was a victim of power struggles. You would think the Emperor had all the power, when all his soldiers and his commanders surrounded Emperor Li Longji’s (李隆基) pavilion, kneeling down and forcing him to put consort Yang to death. He did not really have many options. He refused first, so they killed her brother and his whole family. Consort Yang was hanged on a pear tree in a buddhist shrine in Mawei. She was buried there with a bag of her favorite perfume. A year later, Emperor Li Longji (李隆基) secretly sent eunuchs to rebury her in a coffin. When they found the body, the perfume bag buried with her was still fresh. The eunuchs returned with the fragrance bag to Emperor Li Longji (李隆基) who wept and was lonely ever after. The commander apologized to the retired Emperor since he saw that he missed Yang so much, and told him that was the most regretful thing he ever did. Li Longji (李隆基) killed our Shangguan Wan’er before he took over the power, then regretted it later. He regretted again at the end not being able to protect his love. “Song of the Everlasting Sorrow” (長恨歌), was written by the poet Bai Juyi describing the Emperor’s love for her and perpetual grief at her loss became an instant classic.

Although it was the first time I was ever on a horse, it was as if I knew the horse all my life.   I was on the vast grassland, speeding along, feeling the wind on my ears

     We did not need to look for jobs after college back then, it was the assignment. There was a open list showing where the jobs were and how many in each place. We filled out where we like to go, most go back to where they came from except the good kids whom could go to good places. It was up to your department include all the professors and political leaders to make the final decisions. I was confident that I should get into the Sichuan Forest Research Institute, the subalpine forest ecosystem research station in western Sichuan Province (Tibet region). I kept my fingers crossed. I also took the graduate school entry exam for Nanjing Forestry University. I had two choices, the provincial research institute or graduate school. I was deeply influenced by our department chairperson Long. She taught us Forest Ecology, and she had guided eight of us in finishing our graduation project. There was a lot of politics involved. She actually left our university and went to another forestry college after we graduated. Today, college graduates have to find a job on their own just like here in US.
    Our graduation was a great experience although it was different than here in the U.S. The students celebrated together. Parents or relatives did not come even though we didn’t know who was going where. We just wanted to enjoy our last time together. The college had a big ceremony for graduation followed by a free banquet for all the college students. Then our departments gave banquets for us also. I still remember most of my department chairperson’s farewell speech. Since she taught forest ecology, she applied ecology to our near future. Our large country is an ecosystem full of different kinds of people who use different strategies to survive or live just like a “forest ecosystem.” Some work itself from a little seed breaking through rocks and soil, grow and through fair competition become a big strong tree reaching the canopy that functions in its duty within the population and communicates. Some decide to take a free ride from a trunk or large branch of a tall tree. Some cooperate and are beneficial to each other. Some are dedicated to taking advantage of others, becoming parasites. Some decide to use the big tree as a support and climb all the way to the top and kill the tree. And worst of all, some will never get a chance to grow due to some accidental reasons.
      Now, the most important thing for all of us in entering that real world was how to find our own “niche” and keeping that “niche” balanced by adjusting ourselves throughout life. A healthy forest ecosystem allows the best composition of life to fill all the possible “niches” along with “time.” And most live either self-supported or in cooperation. Too many “parasites” or pests, herbivores, or carnivores would result in none surviving and the whole forest ecosystem could collapse.
          She asked us to apply our knowledge and think before we did anything. Life is a work in progress; learning does not stop after we graduate. Those who know how to balance relationships between themselves and their surroundings and take the opportunity to grow will reach the canopy. Others might have to take whatever they can get along the way. But remember killing others is equal to killing oneself.
     We were so focused on her speech that we forgot to clap our hands after she finished. Everyone was in deep thought for a moment.
     After, it was our turn for celebrations. We had a party every night. We either went out to eat and drink or stayed in our dorm. One thing that I did find out for myself was that I couldn’t deal with drinks just like my father. A few glasses of champagne already made me hot and I had a pain in my joints that night and could not go to sleep. Later on, I just made sure to do my share of eating and listening to others’ romantic stories. In the daytime, we went to the parks, all the corners of the college, and the college farms to take our last pictures.  Finally, I was sent as I had wished to the Sichuan Forest Research Institute

Field Trips

Everyone put his or her full engine into studying especially the students of year 1977. They were generally older and knew how fortunate it was to come to college. For me, I did not find it was difficult and I actually enjoyed studying compared to the last year of my high school. My average wasn’t the highest in class, but with high grades in a few subjects, English was one of them, then math, statistics, botany, and a few others. My weakest subject was physical education, which I just passed. I just couldn’t get interested in political subjects and some other classes. Almost every teacher liked me as a student because I raised good questions, especially on class field trips. I was known to notice small details that most others ignored. I always found some mushrooms or plants I did not know, so we had to ask teacher for identification. They were my contribution to the collection. I was also a good mountain climber, always within the first three with all boys. Especially down hills, I was able to run down so I would be the first one at the bottom. My classmates said I flew down like a bird.

I asked my professor, “how about this one?”

     Because of our major, students from other departments admired our adventurous field trips. We took field trips to MT Emei (峨嵋山) starting at 500 meters elevation and reaching over 3000 meters elevation, the highest of the four sacred buddhist mountains in China. The name (秀甲天下) means the most beautiful place under the sky. It has over 3000 plant species and 2500 animal species in subtropical, temperate, and subalpine zones. It usually takes three days to climb from the bottom to the top, from summer shorts at the base to winter coats at the summit.

Field trips on Mount E’mei (峨嵋山)

     The school bus took us to the upper part of the mountain. Fortunately, there was a forest station there for our stay. On some of our field trips, there were no stations because there was no transportation by car. In those cases, we had to carry everything from our personal luggage to things we needed for our community. For girls in the class, the school hired a few local young farmers to carry our luggage for us. Boys had to carry their own luggage. Some boys complained that we girls received too much special treatment. Actually, none of the girls were empty-handed. We just carried less or just helped the boys.
     The only special treatment that we had was whenever one girl had a period; she could stay in, instead of going out to work for a few days. So it looked like girls took breaks by turns, and boys were always out doing fieldwork. The reality was that 90% of the girls had bad cramps during their periods. Some of the girls had to stay in bed for a day because of the pain. I usually had four hours of bad pain at the beginning of a period. My pain was so bad that I became nauseous, couldn’t eat, and my face became pale. I had to stay in bed during that time. After the pain was gone, I took a nap, and then I was back to normal again. My mom always told me that after I got married it would be better. Every time that I had pain associated with my periods, I wish I were married.
    After we settled down at a forestry station, our school bus drove us up or down the road. We walked around to the other side of the mountain to see the changes in vegetation with elevation changes, set up plots, and collected plant specimens. We walked more than 30 miles for most of the day. We had a tight schedule everyday.
      On one of the temples on Mt. Emei (峨嵋山), we took a little break. One day though, we planned to climb to the peak. We were up very early that morning before 5 AM. We had an early breakfast. The school bus was going to take us to the highest point that the car could reach (about 2700 meters). Then, we would climb the rest by ourselves to 3000 meters. We had just driven a few miles, when we saw policemen and police cars everywhere. We were stopped and told that we couldn’t use the road nor climb the peak that day. We could only stay within five kilometers of the forest station, and not beyond or there would be consequences. We angrily called them “government dogs” because they refused to tell us anything more. Our teacher said, “let’s go back.”
     Finally, around noon that day, we first saw a group of police cars, then two or three fancy minivans driving up the hill. A few boys ran to the site where they learned that Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) and his wife and daughter had come to see Mt. Emei because they stopped and actually got out of the car to talk to them. So, we went out by the road to wait until they drove down. It wasn’t long. They probably drove as high as they could and then they turned around. When they came down, we expected to be able to talk with him. But the cars didn’t stop this time. They slowed down and waved at us. Oh well, their two hours ruined our whole day, but because it was Deng Xiaoping, we weren’t angry after all. This was his hometown. We were glad that he went out of his way to come here.
     At evening before dark, we usually went out for a walk. I met a few local farmers’ boys. They were about seven or eight years old. I knew that orchids were very famous but I couldn’t ever find them anywhere. I asked one of the boys whether he knew where orchids grew there and he brought us to this wet, shaded valley. There were patches of blooming orchids. I was amazed how much the local boys knew. I took a few orchids home, but they did not survive.
     When we did fieldwork in the remote forest stations, our rules were very strict. On the college campus, we had to return before 11 PM or the college gates would be closed. The whole college is enclosed with a high wall on the outside. Since we were at the forest station, we had to be in our rooms before 9 PM. Each night, the head of the class counted all of the students. One night though, one boy and one girl were missing. They didn’t come back after 10 PM, so everyone started to worry. Our teachers and the students divided into several groups to look for them with flashlights. Finally about 11 PM, one group found them in a shelter. From that moment, we knew that they would be sent to some remote place where they wouldn’t want to be after graduation. They were sent to the Far West Tibetan region in my province. It was like the school did them a favor so they could stay in no man’s land forever and do whatever they want. They did get married and they are still married today.
      Sister Liu had asked a blind fortuneteller on Mt. Emei to tell her about her future. The fortuneteller told her that she would get the man she wanted very soon and they would marry and have a son. I didn’t pay any attention to her predicted fortune at that time. “What fortune teller?, I did not see any on Mt. Emei.” She said, “you were skipping ahead so fast; of course, you did not notice anything, temples just passed you one by one.” She was right, I passed temples one by one, did not pay much attention since they looked more or less the same. I was outside in the woods observing the plants and trees as we were expected. I told her that the fortuneteller just told her what she wanted to hear, but she was very serious about it. She said that everything that the fortuneteller told her about her past was true. Not long after the field trip, she got her wish to date the boy she liked. They were married after graduation and soon had a little boy and lived a happy life together. The fortune telling incident made me think about the supernatural.
     One thing I did notice was that the people were very friendly. As we passed by one, one would stand aside, let us go ahead and always say “God bless you.” Inside temples, people crowded, waiting in line to take turns to kneel in front of the Buddha statue and bow three times. Then they put so much cash into the collection box. For me, I could not do it and I might just laugh if I had to kneel down and bow before a Buddha statue. That much money looked like it was the poor person’s life savings. I did not understand, but it certainly impressed me.
     During our entomology field trip to Baoxing (宝兴), we were high in the mountains (夹金山) west of Sichuan province. We stayed in a temporary shelter where a logging company had just finished wiring for electricity. That night we just settled down and first turned on the light. Suddenly, we smelled smoke and looking up, the electric wires started a short and the wire above us went from smoke to a little flame running so fast along. We were “freaked out” to watch. Suddenly, I remembered the switch. I ran to the switch and turned it off. The wood around the burning wire was so damp that it did not catch fire and all the girls thanked me for my fast thinking and action.

 夹金山

    We were far from the nearest town. We could see the big shiny gold dome atop the town hall down in the village. We had to go down to the town to go shopping but we were not supposed to go. We craved sugar and candy because our meals were very poor. One sunny day, we went down the hill while we were supposed to be collecting insects nearby. The town was very small with only very basic items for sale. There was no candy, only loose sugar for baking. We bought some anyway. It did not take us long to explore the whole town. We did find some moss and butterflies that we couldn’t find on top of the mountains.
     The way back was uphill. We were soon very tired and hungry. We knew we had to make it in time for dinner so we would not have to explain our tardiness. So we encouraged each other to keep up the pace. Suddenly, we saw this giant white horse flying down towards us. We could not believe our eyes; it was like we entered the heavens or something from an elevational effect. Soon the horse was close by. We woke up. One yelled, “Get out of its way.” We all stood against the hillside and watched the white horse gently stride by. The horse did not have anything on him. It looked like a wild one; yet, it seemed to know how to follow the road down hill by itself. Finally we understood the famous Chinese idiom by Han Fei (韩非). The 老马识途 means “an old horse knows the way.”
     When we finally made it back, it was almost too late for dinner. It was very kind for our teacher to not blame us for anything, although we expected to be in trouble because the insect we collected would tell the teacher we went downtown. It turned out that the sugar would save us for the next day’s climbing.
     We stayed at an elevation of about 2700 meters. We had to climb to one of the highest peaks around, which was at 3500 meters. We didn’t take lunch with us; we usually didn’t bring lunch on these trips. We started our climb after breakfast. In the beginning, it wasn’t too hard. We followed the trails.
     After 3000 meters, we passed the tree line, which meant no more trees. There were some rhododendrons there. It felt windy and difficult to breathe even though some slopes were not even steep. Students scattered further apart. I was in the lead with the first ten students. I felt that my ears were ringing, besides I was becoming very tired. The top of the peak looked so close; nothing blocked our view of the top; yet, it was so difficult to reach the summit. When we finally reached the top, we felt like we were in the clouds. A harsh wind was blowing. We could see that the southern slope was dry, without trees, and with only scattered shrubs. The northern slope was moist and green, with spruce, firs, and rhododendrons. Close to the summit, there was a field of purple lady’s slippers that I had never seen anywhere before. For awhile, we all felt like we were in another world, like angels or something looking down on the world.
     Very soon, our stomachs growled and we realized that it was way after lunchtime. It would be lucky if we could make it back home by 4 PM. We all sat there and felt like we couldn’t get up. We had that sugar we had bought the day before, so we divided it up into a teaspoon for each person. Some of our classmates begged us for more, calling us by whatever we wanted to hear, even those who considered themselves the strong, proud men of the class. I had been to 4000-m elevation by bus, but 3500-m elevation was the highest peak that I ever climbed.
     The most difficult field trip was the whole month before college graduation; our job was to survey the whole county’s forests while walking. Our two classes of 78 were divided into groups of three or four. Boys were assigned the more remote and tough terrain. We girls were assigned areas closer to the town. We followed the county map, set up plots in the forests, measured the diameters of the trees and using a hand-held instrument measured the heights of the trees. Every now and then, we ran into our adjacent boy group on the road. We actually walked together for awhile. They were by their nature challenging us by testing our estimates. I was always up to the challenge. I would say that a tree’s diameter was 25 cm. Then a boy would actually measure that tree with his tape. It was the same way with the height of the trees. I was one of the best estimators in class.
     We had to basically beg for our lunch and dinner from farmers’ houses since there were no restaurants. Usually we planned ahead by asking the farmers in the field, “can we come to your house for lunch?” Most of the time we were successful at the first try. Sometimes, a farmer would say that they didn’t have anything good to offer, even though we said that was okay. We would eat whatever they ate. They declined and suggested that we try better ones.
     It was the same for dinner and a place to stay overnight. The meals were one thing, staying overnight was another. We were all scared even though the village leader had recommended a place. We usually had one room and one bed. But either there was no door or we could not close it. Once we stayed in this farmer’s house, they actually slaughtered a pig for us. But we were very tired from our fieldwork and were in no mood for a party with the farmers. We had dinner and were ready to go to bed. But the husband kept drinking and talking. Finally, we excused ourselves to go to bed. We could still hear him mumbling to himself in the other room. He kept trying to come to our room, which was usually his bedroom. We were so scared that we thought he was drunk. Fortunately, his wife yelled at him to stop him from walking into our room. She kept asking him be quiet so we could get rest and he kept saying, “I know, I know.”
     Our team of three girls actually finished our assignment a day early. We went back to town and helped the other group finish theirs. We stayed a few more days to map the county’s New Forest map with all the summary data. The county official thanked us and gave us a big banquet as payment. We were so hungry like we had not eaten that well for years. One of the boys got drunk and ended up in the local hospital for a few days with a stomach ulcer.

Junior - Dating the Wrong Boys

Dating was not encouraged in college even though there were no regulations about this. One astonishing event involved a girl in our class. She came from a small town in my province and was the youngest girl in our class. Boys in our class said that she was a classic Chinese beauty. We used to call her Lin Mei Mei which was Lin Daiyu (林黛玉). Things started in English class. Just for English, the college set up one so-called fast class and collected all the top English students to form one class regardless of their majors. This girl and I were two of those chosen from our class because of our high-test scores. We were not at the top of the fast class even though we were top in our own class. In our fast class, there was an older boy, we called him “big old brother” because he was older and in his thirty’s. He was one of the top students in the class and was always willing to help people. One night after class (we usually had class at night to fit it into everyone’s schedules), we talked with him. By chance, this girl and he realized that they had a common ancestor who came from the same province in northern China. Even though he was married and having a child in the same town where our university was, after that, he treated this girl very well and invited her to his house for dinner on the weekend. His wife was also very nice to her, treating her as a little sister far from home.
     Before we knew it, one day, this man’s wife came to college looking for the girl. They had a serious fight that shocked the whole college. His wife used all the bad words you could find. I guess my classmate had an affair with the big brother, and the big brother was ready to divorce his wife. However, at that time, divorce required that both sides agree. His wife refused to sign the papers. Then a long political and philosophical consultation began involving the person in charge of student affairs called a political guide who usually was a party member. She started to talk to the girl several hours at a time. We don’t know what she said. We only heard the political guide complain that she talked with her, heart to heart, woman to woman, trying to talk her out of the biggest mistake that she could ever make. For hours and hours, she didn’t even say a word. At the end of each session, the only thing she said was “are you done?” then walked away. For her in our dorm, she just came back to sleep. She became very quiet and avoided talking with anyone. Compared to how she was before, she used to like talking, laughing, and singing, she became a different person.
      Every now and then, the big brother’s wife would come to our dorm and say how she sacrificed herself to help her husband go to college by doing everything inside and out, and working full time. We gave her varied advice. “For me, I always told her, this kind of man is not worth your sacrifice. If I were you, I would divorce him instead.” She wanted to stop her husband so he could not marry her.
      I guess the school did everything that it could to stop her and him. Finally, they notified her parents at home. They came to school right away and tried to do the same thing, but nothing helped. Finally, they decided to threaten her with cutting off all financial help and relationship with her. We all tried to stop her parents, “you are pushing her to him by doing that” but they did. Her parents even took most of her personal belongings and signed a paper in school that her daughter didn’t need any financial and material help from the school.
        From then on, they started a very hard life. The big brother’s parents also objected and disapproved of the relationship. But they moved their secret life into public. They didn’t care that they walked like a couple anymore. He was supporting her with his limited savings from his work before he came to college. His company continued to pay his full salary while he studied so he could go back to the company after graduation. He still had to support his daughter. Her lifestyle became very simple. She couldn’t buy anything. She ate the cheapest food in the dining hall. Especially when we went out for our fieldwork, we noticed that the big brother sent her a letter with a stamped envelope. We were impressed to say that they might actually belong to each other. They broke up after college. He went back to his wife and daughter. She married a veterinarian and had a son; however, sadly, she died a few years later from cancer.
      Another event also involved a girl in our department, the other class of our year 1978. She came from the capital city that I came from. Others called us “big city girls.” She was madly in love with a boy in the orchard department. The problem was that her parents informed the college that they didn’t want their daughter seeing any boys in school. If so, they were to be told immediately. Therefore, the college political guide did what she had to do and told her parents. We were told that her mother was a very powerful woman. She didn’t show up at school right away like the others did. But through letters to her daughter and her daughter’s close friends, she threatened to cut off her financial support and mother/daughter relationship. One day, the girl just couldn’t take it any more. She took a lot of sleeping pills and left her boyfriend a note. Fortunately, her boyfriend found the note right away, hurried to her dorm bed, and rushed her to the hospital in time to save her. This action of course brought her mother to college right away. She was forced to agree with whatever her daughter wished. For her, she simply didn’t want her daughter to marry someone without a name or high occupation or high power. She didn’t even like her boyfriend’s small town accent. They did have a few months of marriage after our graduation, where she was sent back to the capital where she came from. But, the boy was sent back to his small town. She invited a few others and me to celebrate without her parents around. They had problems shortly after their marriage and divorced a year later. But her mother told everyone that they never got married. A few years later, she married another man and moved to Australia.

Natural Disaster - A Landslide

Besides the two drowned tragedies, there was a local storm that claimed hundreds of lives a few miles away in the mountains. The hail and the thunderstorm that night were scary. The next day we heard that there was a landslide not far from us on the mountains. Houses were buried or washed away. The whole event took place in about one hour. Girls in our class decided to collect some money, clothes, and grain coupons to help the local community; a few boys joined us too. It happened that we didn’t have any classes the next morning, just physical education in the afternoon. So we got up early in the morning, packed up everything, and started to walk toward the village.
     I had never seen anything like that before. The boulders were as big as trucks and had come out of nowhere. The whole place was a huge mess of rocks and dirt. It was hard to imagine that it used to be a village with houses. They were all underneath our feet. A few houses scattered around luckily remained, just missed by a few feet. Rivers of water ran through the homes from back to front. The survivors we met emotionlessly described how their neighbors’ houses and families washed away in the dark around 11 PM.
     We visited a few more houses and left our donations with the local community leader and asked him to distribute them to the needy. On the way back, we saw some geologists on their way to investigate. I was hoping to have more time so I could talk to them but we had to rush back for our physical education class in the steamy summer sun before 2 PM. We did make it to the class, although we felt like we already had the class all morning. We told our teacher the story and she let us take it easy without running.
     When I was in college 1981, my city Chengdu back home had a big flood. I heard that hundreds of people died in the villages around. Since my city was the capital of the province, the major goal was to protect the big city and give up the little ones by diverting water away from my city by an agricultural irrigation system. No one died in my city while others died not far away. One of the dam controllers decided to open a few dams toward my city to save lives in a small town. So, the channels around the city were filled all the way above bridges and even the city was flooded by 1-meter high water. Fortunately, the flood ended there.
     We had a number of little earthquakes while I was in college. Most of these, I didn’t even feel; however, there were tremors felt in our dorm in the middle of the night. Someone felt a small one and started to shout, “earthquake, earthquake” and everyone rushed out. Some tripped over each other on the way down the stairs, and one student even jumped from his second floor window and broke something. After that incident, we did not get excited anymore, especially at night. Only a few ran outside. We thought that it was not worth it because if it was a big earthquake, we didn’t have time to run anyway even if we ran downstairs.