I really want to beat the driver. Does he not realize how badly I want to go home?”
complained Li.
Nanzhou is famous for its marble sculptures. Masonry shops line the streets of townsthroughout the county, including Nanhedian. The roads, damaged by heavy-duty trucks,are badly worn and it was a bumpy bus ride. Despite his attempts to appear fresh andenergetic, Li was clearly fatigued as he neared his final destination. He had enjoyed littlesleep since he left Beijing almost 20 hours before.
“I am almost there,” he whispered to himself as he stared blankly through the window.
The driver had barely applied the brakes when Li was rushing to a woman in a thick,green jacket cradling a cute baby in her arms. All the tiredness seemed to drain from hisface. The brightness returned to his eyes and a huge smile spread across his face. “Thedammed driver drove so slowly,” Li complained to his wife, then immediately cooed to hischild: “Oh, my son, you must have waited for a long time? Do you feel cold?”
With his heavy bags on the ground, Li tried to take 2-year-old Li Chenchen in hisarms but the boy clutched his mother tightly and buried his face in her shoulder. Li hid hissorrow with joviality: “He’s just like a girl, shy with strangers. He’s really grown a lot since Ilast saw him.”
His wife, Zhang Zhe, said the couple’s 9-year-old daughter, Jingjing, was at schooland would rejoin the family for lunch. Under China’s family-planning policy, farmers inthe countryside can have a second child if their firstborn is a girl.
After much effort, Li’s bulky luggage was finally strapped onto the back of the family’smotorbike with a long rope. The father drove and the wife sat behind holding their baby.
Temperatures in Central China, including Henan, regularly drop below zero inwinter. On the day of Li’s return, the area was experiencing a strong, icy wind. On thebumpy country roads, the ride took about 20 minutes.
Li and Zhang, both farmers from Henan, first met in Beijing in 1999. “I was workingas a waitress in a restaurant, while he was on a construction site nearby,” said Zhang, 33, asthe couple relaxed back at home.
They fell in love, married and had Jingjing before saving enough money to return totheir native province in 2007 and build a simple, two-bedroom home. Chenchen was bornlater that year.
“The house is almost the same as when I left in June,” said Li after wanderingthe house for a few minutes. “I have dreamed of coming back. In Beijing, I lived in aprefabricated hut and slept on a wide bed with a number of other people. The hut isstifling hot in summer and extremely cold in winter.”
Back in his familiar environment, Chenchen was much more relaxed but still hid behindhis mother when Li reached out to grab him. However, the ice was not so much broken assmashed to pieces when Li unpacked the skateboard he had bought his son in the capital.
“I saw many kids playing with skateboards in Beijing, so I bought one for my son for45 yuan (6) in a market next to my construction site,” said the father as he showed hisson how to use his new toy. “I also got him a plastic toy gun and a jacket that I saw a lot ofBeijing kids wearing.”
Li then passed a bulging bag to his wife. Inside were colorful clothes, sweaters andtrousers. “He always brings lots of things for me, but besides cigarettes he never spends apenny on new clothes for himself,” Zhang said of her husband.
“She often complains that the clothes I bring are out of date,” joked Li with a smile.
“Life is not easy for a woman with two kids. I planned to give her a tight hug when I gotoff the bus, but this is not Beijing and people would have probably laughed at us.”
Li’s parents are dead and Zhang stays at home fulltime to care for their children. Hismonthly salary of 1,500 yuan is the family’s only source of income. Li said he gets only200 yuan in “pocket money” and spends about 600 on gifts. The rest he saves.
Spring Festival is an expensive time for Chinese. Each person should have a new setof clothes for the occasion, while families often splash out on large banquets. But the visitsthat must be paid to relatives are the most costly part of the holidays.
“You will be shamed if you visit someone’s house without taking a gift,” said Li, whoput aside about 4,000 yuan for the New Year budget in 2010. “The rest of the money willgo towards my family’s living expenses and my travel back to Beijing after Spring Festival.”
To welcome her husband home, Zhang began to prepare four dishes for lunch. Whilehis wife does this, Li walked 10 minutes to wait outside the village school gates for Jingjing.
But when the bell ran and children began to pour out of the school, Li strained to scan thecrowd and cursed himself for forgetting to ask what clothes his daughter was wearing.
Soon a girl dressed in yellow with pigtails in her hair stopped in front of him andstared up at his face. “Jingjing, it’s you. I’m back. Your father is back from Beijing,” Li criedexcitedly, holding out the doll he had brought her as a gift.
His daughter’s face turned red and she squeezed out the quietest “Dad?” beforelowering her head, tears dripping onto her shoes. They walked home in silence, Jingjing afew steps behind her father with her hands tightly clutching her new doll.
“My father calls home twice a week. He asks me about my studies and if I have beenlistening to my mother,” said the girl in a strong Henan accent. “I have several classmateswhose fathers also work far away. I am used to this life, and I prefer this to those kidswhose parents both work outside the town. I am much happier.”
Jingjing’s certificates of merit line the walls in the family home. “She studies verywell and I hope to send her to the university in the future,” said Li. The girl also helps hermother in the kitchen and with cleaning after class. “My mother is too tired. I like fathercoming back because he can help her with the housework,” she added.