I returned to my hometown Xiaogan, a small town 70km from Wuhan, before the lunar New Year. Now:

• Coronavirus sickens 24,363; 491 have died in China

• All the major roads around have been blocked for over 10 days; my families didn’t leave the house

• The official report of infectious disease suggested that it’s still out of control within Hubei

• Supplies will last another 2wk;

• I’m scheduling my work at home

• 

I grew up at countryside along the Hanjiang River, a main branch of Yangtzi River at Hubei, China. My parents met each other under an arranged date. Dad bought a single apple as a first-date gift for mom. Mom often said that it was kinda embarrassing since the unmentionable poverty in both families. But I see it a pretty precious and romantic memory for them: He only can afforded one apple and he chose to give it to his first love. I always admire that. They decided to constitute a family soon after the early meetings. The outcomes is definitely two noisy kids, my younger brother and me while nothing else. 

The clock-around farming couldn’t even paid us a registration fee of my kindergarten and of course of the primary school. I was put into the primary school earlier than the rules luckily since my ant was a teacher in that school. I suddenly realized that everyone else was two years older than that tiny me. I had to use shared textbooks from my desk mates, making me firstly taste the delightful experience with some companies although with a little bit embarrassment.

Dad wanted change. He then decided to take some business to increase the economic incomes of the weather-shaken family, basically raising the two little brothers.

Cooking and selling braised food (中式卤菜) on a bicycle. I could not tell how he learned the expertise but he seemed to suddenly harvest the cooking experience. Then a joyful and lousy young man started to cycle around the village every afternoon with the farm-work finished. 

Yo-heave-ho: Fresh braised food! 

The food was so welcome, he was back early home all the time. The villagers whispered ‘This good looking young man must have a very kind wife. The always-pure-white shirts tells’. Mom saw it a kind compromise and alway felt proud of it. She is a perfect wife to my father.

We normally count the business money he got at nightfalls. It was so happy whether it was a profit or loss in the end, at least for brother and me. Interestingly, the amazing memories seems to always be in the summer, followed by the off power but so starry nights in the bamboo bed.

I sometimes felt dizzy and being moved into our own bed in the house, in their arms. The nights were peaceful and even the frogs might were sleep.

Time flies.

As I intended to middle school, the higher fee pushed my parents to change again.

Six neighbors decided to initiated a ‘military band’, even without any professional music training before. They were basically farmers, with part-time driver, carpenter, wireman, etc. As for dad, he carried nothing about music except a little knowledge from the flute of mine. I clearly recalled that they collected the startup money for the first instruments. They went to WH for that totally new instruments and uniforms for the members. It was heavily rained that day. They were so excited to try their uniforms on! 

Thereafter, I ultimately understood how they chose their core members of the band. The startup package money only could afford the major compartments of the sound system. So it was the time that the carpenter and the wireman showed up. Without any expertise or even a lesson in engineering, they just built a self-organized sound system at my home!

The next challenge was they needed a basic training for the distinct instruments, including the three trumpets, one trombone, one horn, one keyboard and one jazz drum! Seven instruments with only six men. They all thought the keyboard could be the hardest to learn, but it was the coolest. So they finally achieved an agreement that they competed for the keyboard position. The wireman got a huge loudspeaker at his home-normally a equipment belonging to village government, to inform the band members to be together for practicing the play. The second floor of our home was named the practice center. Dad got an incredible benefit, touching the instruments whenever he wanted. 

Like everyone else, he chose the trombone and also thought the keyboard was the coolest. I still remember he spend uncounted nights, candles and batteries (the village often stop the power supply during the night) for that thing although mom actually did not understand him until he gave the first show and earned an extra money for the family.

Some day I got informed that the band would give a show around the home for the employer’s marriage ceremony. So I walked to the place and secretly saw they played. That is the first time that I understood that he just loved it. 

I mean the music and the band. He did it not just for payment. From now, it could be the first time he found himself something belonging to his heart but not just the families.

Time went on. The tuition of the brothers became larger as the our middle-school age.

Dad decided to go outside to find a living, selling soybean curd in the northeast, basically in the hope of raising and educating the two little brothers further. I clearly remembered dad told me, 

“When I got off the train at DL alone, the taxi driver asked me where to. I didn’t know what to say, but just took me somewhere I can rent a cheap place to live.”

I was the one witnessed that mom got through the days without a backbone at home. She was expecting the monthly phone calls from dad and strongly faced the upset situation in the village alone. Once in a while, I happened to know some suicides did occurred around because of the hopeless life. Dad barley posted some money although he desperately wished. 

He grew up a lot at DL and he even encouraged and led some relatives to explore the same business the next year. Some of them could not bear the crazy freezing weather there and chose to give up soon. Only dad knew the business opening needed patience and courage.

Dad and mom lived there in the most of the years. They came back home and we stayed together for four weeks near Chinese New Year, making us probably the first generation of stay-at-home children(留守儿童) in modern China.

We did not even get a chance to fight with the parents in our adolescent rebellion. Some of my classmates dropped the school and got training to be tailors since the poverty, while the parents did actually think the education was useless and the payment was so real. Some of them fight with the teachers in class, ultimately forced to leave the school. I supposed that maybe we can just find some derivation on these upset trajectory because the lack of parents’ supervision.

My brothers and I didn’t go that way probably since dad and mom already built a righteous framework of our personal characters, which will never been trained from the book or even a  early teacher. We were indeed naughty from time to time in the benefit of parents’ absence. Such as stealing sugar canes, fishing and unprotected swimming… Some of them were pretty dangerous but we did feel so damn happy with our little companies. 

They were there for a living in the next ten years until I entered the college.

They changed again. This time I guess probably because they really missed the weather in hometown. They were opening a scrap yard at WH for years until he got very sick.

Like the other families in the similar situation, mom and we never accepted his unhealthily until he got two huge surgeries. The chemotherapy ultimately crunched his last hope. We four stayed together at our home until he finally released himself in that peaceful afternoon.

The real life made him a true adventurer and fighter. He shouldered the families and his own little hope.

You’ve been a great father, dad. Miss you much and happy new year.

Fan

• 

2010-2019:

A PhD,

A almost ending postdoc,

Two major scientific works,

An incredible wife.

2020:

Get the upcoming lab/research on track,

Complete the wedding and family.

• 

The past 2019 was unforgettable. I’m gonna miss it. Well, 2020 is coming!
I wish a happy new year to you and families!

And the beautiful ‘Forever young’ from Joan Baez, for all of you in the coming new year:

Forever Young
Joan Baez, Greatest Hits

May God bless and keep you always.
愿神灵保佑你
May your wishes all come true.
愿你的美梦都能成真
May you always do for others
愿你无私助人
And let others do for you.
也接受他人馈赠
May you build a ladder to the stars
愿你筑梯摘星
And climb on every rung
步步拾级
And may you stay
愿你
Forever young.
永远年轻
May you grow up to be rightous.
愿你长成正直之人
May you grow up to be true.
愿你保持真诚
May you always know the truth
愿你世事洞彻
And see the light surrounding you.
亦不摒弃光明
May you always be courageous,
愿你勇往直前
Stand upright, and be strong
昂首挺立不惧风险
And may you stay
愿你
Forever young.
永远年轻
Forever young.
永远年轻
Forever young.
永远年轻
May you stay
愿你
Forever young.
永远年轻

May your hands always be busy.
愿你的双手永远充实
May your feet always be swift.
愿你的步伐永远轻快
May you have a strong foundation
愿你踏实坚强
When the winter changes shift.
即使世事无常
May your heart always be joyful.
愿你的心中欢乐满溢
May your song always be sung
你的歌谣能永远唱响
And may you stay
愿你
Forever young.
永远年轻
Forever young.
永远年轻
Forever young.
永远年轻
May you stay
愿你
Forever young.
永远年轻

• 

During my high school around 2000, besides a one-day break, we celebrated the coming new year (元旦) by the calligraphy competition, the new-year parties, maybe drinking secretly, etc. Like probably everyone else, I sometimes felt depressed under the long-term cramming class and endless examinations.
That made the sequential college time evolute into an entirely opposite direction, one of the output could be that we celebrated almost any festivals from inside/outside the nation. The Christmas Day exactly took us a hilarious plus super happy memories. Normally we prepared gifts for the friends, always with a apple (by pronunciation with 苹=平安). All the roommates climbed across the wall of school gate for a whole-night web bar, to play noisy video games, chat with online target girls, watch regular or non-regular movies (do not even ask me what kind of movies, we all were young once), etc.
In the near Christmas days I normally sent wishes to my families, friends and be-loved ones, in the hope of their long lasting health and happiness. Apparently the parents around would prepare carefully chosen gifts and spending the time with the kids, making this a big day for them. Indeed, although some of us even don’t know the detailed derivation of this festival, this exact day did creat an unique opportunity to show warm wishes and love to each other. To this meaning, do we really need boycott the festivals from outside like Christmas? In the name of supporting our native and traditional ones?
Maybe what we really should do is promoting the fundamental education about our historical culture and conventional special festivals, encouraging more public break in legal with payments…

Merry Christmas to you and the families!