When I had my first memories, my family was living in a remote and small village. I couldn’t see beyond the closely surrounding mountains that were no more than a few miles away at all sides.

 

I didn’t know the word poverty at that time. But I perceived, with a child’s eye, that my family was different from many other families. For example, when in the Spring Festival, my family could afford to eat only corn breads. Many people today may say that they love to eat it. So I don’t expect them to understand this one. It is one thing to try a change of diet and eat some corn bread, and it is quite another if you have no alternative. Today it is common for city dwellers to eat wild vegetable for a change. What if they have to use wild vegetable main food?

 

But what was worse, my family couldn’t afford to have enough of corn bread all year round. Often in spring, when the old foodstuffs got from the last autumn were exhausted, we had to eat a mixture of a lot of wild vegetables and meager corn flour. The mixture was rough and hard to swallow.

 

My father worked as a feeder of the horses and cattles in the production team. Sometimes he took back home some of the bean cake and then we could have a great meal of stir-fried bean cake. It was delicious, at least at that time.

(To be continued)