My story -- my 'background' related to Vietnam

My hometown is a farm where the majority of residents are overseas Chinese sent to China in the 1970's. There are people and their families that were born in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
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.iX[|bNx In 1978 my mom and dad and their families were repatriated to China as "refugees of Chinese origin". They were introduced to each other by match-maker in 1981 and soon got married. The next year I was born in this little poor family on the farm located in the western part of Guangdong -- Zhanjiang.2mhwU+cD
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My parents and their parents were all born in Vietnam, grew up there, and worked there before 1978, they couldn't recall from which year their grandparents or great grandparents came to Vietnam from China and for what reasons.d)Z#?w3l b6O3['co

,P$PW/ye(p Anyway, when they were in Vietnam and can speak both Vietnamese and Chinese (actually it's Cantonese dialects with accents), they did not learn to write or read Vietnamese. My grandpa used to teach Chinese in a small private school, while my grandma sold some salted vegetable with local special flavor.
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/M)f$v0AOH{ TO BE CONTINUED...(Depending on when I am available and in the mood of writing more about it):P2K[!M)[r*fO

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O_U [[i] Last edited by  Echo-Wu at 2007-4-19 10:22 [/i]]

I'm very glad to see you here, echo-wu.:hug: :W9r5`[8K xV3H x]u
Thanks for your share.{0{imiWFe
Looking forward to sth more about your hometowns and any other interesting things....:$

waitting for more information about of your family and your hometown

[quote]Originally posted by [i]mazy[/i] at 2007-4-19 10:25
/Oti[\(`t*a3m I'm very glad to see you here, echo-wu.:hug: LCbpK
Thanks for your share.JZAR]uZC
Looking forward to sth more about your hometowns and any other interesting things....:$ [/quote]
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:hug:
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~^[CX5E"k I'll try to visit here more often. This is my first post here and is like a warm up. I will write more, share more. Definitely~

Tough jobs, tough moeny

Speaking of a farm, you might relate it to green grass, crowds of sheep and cows, fat pigs and chickens, etc. Oh no, the farm where I was born and grew up is not exactly that way. Most of the people there grow mulberries, oak trees, sugarcanes, peppers, ect.to make a living. Mulberries and oak trees are the two major economic plants: Muberry leaves are taken to feed silkworms, which will weave into cocoons to be processed for silk; oak trees are cut on the bark for the milky extract to be processed as rubber.
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B+V6cV0X/Nql Most of the people there are engaged in either or both of these two jobs. They have to wake up at around 2:00 AM (yes it means two o'clock in the MORNING or let's call it late at night), since that is time of the day when they can get most volume of milky juice from the oak trees. Bowls are put in the right place to hold the slowly dropping juice. By 5:00 or 6:00 AM (depending how many oak trees each family owns) they are almost done. Not really yet. At about 10:00 AM they go the the oak trees again -- time to collect the juice from the bowls into barrels. On average each family would get 30~50kg of the juice daily. People take the juice to have it weighed. This job brings about 700~1500RMB per month to each family (or, let's say, for each couple). I2w;r9y"Y!] o

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%o(t)u*H y5P:c To raise silkworms for money, it is no easier. Silkworms eat five meals a day. The bigger they become, the more muberries have to be fetched for each meal. When the silkworms are 3 days old, people would not take mulberry leaves by hand because that takes luxurious amount of time. Instead people cut the mulberries about 20cm from the earth. It usually takes a couple 0.5~1 hours to cut enough muberries for the silkworms' ONE meal, depending on how 'old' the silkworms are. Doesn't it sound incredible? From buying the silkworm eggs to feed them until they become cocoons, it takes about 12 days. The 'eggs' cost 80~120RMB -- really tiny eggs, smaller than a full stop on the book but they sticked to a sheet of paper. 100RMB of the eggs is about a A4 paper's size and will turn out to be silkworms occupying a 20 sqm house. [People build or rent a separate house for that purpose.] The 80~120RMB worth of silkworm eggs will finally become cocoons worth 700~1500RMB. Literally if a family in the meantime take care of oak trees and raise silkworms, they would make 1400~3000RMB a month. But, only a couple or a family who are below 40 years old will be able and energetic enough to sleep least and do all the detailed hard work, to earn a total of (not individually) 2000RMB+ a month. "?U?o6\Fgpc7i
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By the way, the oak tree juice really stinks.
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Tough jobs, tough money.
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RTL zoy]$Y@ Since last year my mom and dad have quitted the oak tree job. They are both above 50 years old. Their eyesight is failing and most importantly my mom is really scared of the chilly wild birdcalls and "unknown creatures" flash somewhere around.
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8f-@6~W-IA(gr;V^)u K Little sleep, endless detailed farmwork...Tough job, tough money. I wish I could make more moeny to let them enjoy a carefree life without those hard hours...

[quote]Originally posted by [i]Echo-Wu[/i] at 2007-4-19 14:15
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I'll try to visit here more often. This is my first post here and is like a warm up. I will write more, share more. Definitely~ [/quote]1w;B2G.o.g+D3H
I am also waiting for your posts...:P {tJ$Q+pl6f
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Nice to meet you here..:victory:

[quote]Originally posted by [i]Qiseviolet[/i] at 2007-4-19 15:45,E~$V&x)O

dzc D+P1Z-? I am also waiting for your posts...:P
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U9l NW9rI Nice to meet you here..:victory: [/quote]
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5@Z!C-h~ :hug: :P  See today's post update at #5.

Reply #1 Echo-Wu's post

So your parents are holding Vietnamese passport?

[quote]Originally posted by [i]bbee[/i] at 2007-4-19 20:20hqr,K|Em#vR
So your parents are holding Vietnamese passport? [/quote]4Hl!^_#?&VG w

9d+K1K0t.Y_ @ I never thought about that question and they never mentioned about it. :P  Guess they don't have it. They were "returned" to China as refugees coz Vietnam had a poor relationship with China at that time. I don't think refugees would be given passports.

good story, hope to see your next..

Reply #9 Echo-Wu's post

Oh,yep.
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It reminds of sth.It was a border war between China and Vietnam at that time.

My parents' childhood in Vietnam

The Chinese charactors that my parents can read add up to no more than 100. Let me see what words they can identify: ?? ?? ?? ??¡ì???? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?¡§???? ?¡§? ?? ?¡§¡è ?? ?? ?? ?? ??¡§? ?? ?? ???????????¡§?????????? ?????¨¬?¡§¡ã ?? ?¡§¡ã ???? ???? ???¡§? ???? ??? ?? ???? ???? And they can write much fewer of these chactors. They both can write the whole families' names though.:victory:
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I4tq+X%R\ When I was a little child I asked them why they were taught Chinese rather than Vietnamese. My mom said her family was too poor to pay for her schooling so she only went to school for a few days. Most part of her childhood was about taking care of bulls and doing the farmwork in the paddyfield. As the 3rd of the 10 children in her family, she also had to take care of her one younger sister and 6 brothers. My dad was from a comparatively better-off family in Vietnam so he spent more days in the school there. I think he told me he had been to school for about 2 or 3 months. Dad said during his childhood learning Chinese was very popular. They had Chinese language lesson and maths lesson in Chinese. You wouldn't believe it, but in the late 1960s or early 1970s, my dad was taught the same Chinese texts as I was taught in (China) grade 1 or 2 (?????¡§???): ?????????????????¡§????????????¡§??????????????????????????????¡§??¡§????????¡ì?????????¡è¡§??????¡§¡§?¡§??????????¡§¡ã??????????????;P ;P

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Why I'm not familiar with the texts you posted here?
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so actually echo-wu is from vietnam, right???:lol :lol

Reply #14 mindy's post

:lol Not really, I think.\%OZA"T-\4Le
She's Chinese indeed.:lol

it is not easy for farmer to earn money for survive

Reply #16 graceulove's post

nodding~'I m%]c4nVW
i also from the less-developed countryside, )C;z K\zK0k w0o%~i
poor as it may, it's still a warm place in my mind~:) :)

Informative post, we all know more about zhanjiang:)