:An Wei's Educational Journey:​Post #4: An Wei’s Senior High School Years

Above and below photos are school activities similar to those at
Fufeng High School until the early years of starvation. About 1960.

The last episode of An Wei's story ended with the following: As the school food supply shrank, study continued despite growing hunger pains. Sports were cancelled and rest periods instated. Although his energy weakened, An Wei pushed himself. He was determined to continue high school, no matter what, and to escape this awful poverty.
 
From 1960 on, each season yielded worse crops. Lack of rain left the stalks stunted. Many did not develop grain heads, and those that did, held few kernels. Meals became skimpier, especially since a large portion of the grain the An Shang villagers harvested had to be given to the government.
 
At Fufeng High School, food allotments continuously decreased. Terrible stomach pains, gas and diarrhea tormented students and staff. Teacher Bao, An Wei’s head teacher, said they had to tighten their belts as they survived on meals of one steamed bun and thin soup. But from one year to the next, the amount of straw and cornhusks in the buns increased, and the soup became mostly water. The students were told to eat every crumb for nourishment, but it was hard to imagine there was much nutrition in what they were getting.

As the months went on, An Wei could barely stand his trips home. Everyone was numb from hunger. His parents and grandparents increasingly found their bodies swollen from edema, and his brothers’ bellies were distended. Yet his parents still gave him grain for school. It was half as much as the school had required in normal times, but enough to provide him a bit of food. He knew, however, they were keeping less for themselves, and that every month their allotment from the commune was smaller. It seemed that starvation would never end.


The teenagers continued to weaken, but An Wei’s stubborn nature pushed him to work even harder. He was determined to pass the college entrance exam with a perfect score if he possibly could. He did not want to live through this debilitating poverty again.


One trip home he discovered his mother had found out that the village brigade chief was stealing from the commune. When An Wei learned this, he was furious. Villagers were starving. Although painfully weak, An Wei wrote a letter to the county government. He reported everything and asked them to sue the brigade chief.


The county forwarded his letter to the authorities of the People's Commune. They, in turn, sent inspectors to An Shang, who showed the letter to the village brigade leader. An Wei had not signed it, but it was easy to figure out who wrote it. He was the only one in An Shang who was that literate. The leader was furious, but he bided his time. A year later, he got back at An Wei.


At school, despite starvation, the college entrance exam loomed. Before taking the exam, students had to declare a college major. Their choice would determine some of their exam content and the grading of their exams. Teachers were invaluable in guiding them through this complicated thicket. Once again Teacher Bao stepped in. He convinced An Wei his best chance would be to select English as his major.
 
He said that because most high schools in Shaanxi Province taught Russian, and only a few, including theirs, taught English, An Wei would have much less competition if he took the exam for English majors.


“Just memorize the three years of English textbooks before the exam,” Teacher Bao told him.


But memorizing those English textbooks plus all the other subjects took energy An Wei and the other students did not have. They pushed on as best they could. When not searching for edible weeds in fields beyond the school, An Wei sometimes sat by the nearby river to study. He found that being a little distance from the other struggling students helped him concentrate even though stomach pains gnawed at him.

High school students studying before their classes
begin in a high school near Baoji, China. 2006.

One Saturday in late spring, An Wei made his difficult ten-kilometer trip home to help with chores and collect his meager grain ration for school because he had no more food coupons. Though weak, his spirits rose as he walked past fields of healthy crops, the grain heads full. Finally they were having a good crop that would ripen by the end of summer.

A farmer in An Shang village mid-way through a
productive growing season. April 2006.

When he got home, however, he discovered that his large family had used all of its rations from the meager commune supplies and had borrowed as much grain as they were allowed from the brigade emergency reserve. They could borrow no more. Even if the June harvest was going to be better than previous ones, they would have to pay back what they owed immediately. Their food supply would not change dramatically even after the summer harvest.
 
The crushing truth slowly became clear to An Wei. There was no food.


His parents insisted on giving him their hopelessly small amount of rations, but there was no way he could take it. They and his brothers would starve. He grew numb with the realization that he must stay home to help forage for food. He could not abandon his family.


On Sunday afternoon, instead of heading for Fufeng High School to study, An Wei walked slowly into the gullies near their homestead to help hunt for bark and wild plants. But every edible plant and most tree leaves and bark near the village had been eaten. He needed to walk farther and farther.


When he returned to the homestead, he used what little energy he had for farm chores, trying to erase his disappointment at giving up a life’s dream of a college education. At night, thoughts of all his wasted study haunted him, as hunger pains racked his body.


Back at school, Teacher Bao noticed that An Wei, one of the few students who might have a chance at passing the college entrance exams, had not returned. He must be having difficulty. If An Wei was going to get a high enough score to be admitted to university, he had to be studying day and night.


After a few days, Teacher Bao pointed his battered bicycle up the dirt track toward An Shang, the steep, rutted path forcing him to carry it part way. Several hours later, the teacher arrived dusty and exhausted, for he too was starving.

Teacher Bao, head teacher for An Wei’s class at Fufeng
High School. 2007, during a visit to An Wei’s village in
2007. They had not seen each other for 30 years.

An Wei was sitting in the courtyard when his teacher came through their gate.


It was like seeing a mirage. Why was he here?
 
An Wei’s father and mother emerged from their room, barely able to walk. They greeted him cordially and shyly as Teacher Bao introduced himself.
 
He got to the point quickly.


“Why hasn’t your son returned to school?”


They explained their hopeless situation and their inability to send grain back to school with An Wei. The disappointment showed on their tired, gaunt faces.


Teacher Bao knew peasant life was difficult in the extreme, especially now. Yet he also believed deeply in the importance of farmers’ children getting the education their parents and grandparents never dreamed of. He persisted.


“Well, it doesn't matter.” He would find food for An Wei at the high school. He would borrow food coupons from the students from the north, where food was not as scarce. They could pay them back later.


Although uneasy about the debt, his mother and father agreed to the arrangement. 
They were intensely proud of An Wei’s school accomplishments.


Without wasting a minute, An Wei gathered what he needed and followed Teacher Bao down the dirt track leading back to school to continue his exam preparation, incredulous that life had taken yet another dramatic turn.

An Wei’s Fufeng Senior High School class, May 1962.
An Wei is in the last row, third from the left.

As soon as An Wei reached school, he went right to his books. He was driven now—not just by his teacher’s commitment and his parents’ belief in him, but by a raw determination to escape a Chinese farmer’s poverty and starvation. His jaw tightened as he set himself a rigid schedule for the rest of the weeks. Time was short and they still needed to take a break for the June harvest.
 
He began each study session with English, since it would count the most. He still had a book and a half of English to memorize, plus math, physics, chemistry, history, and Chinese.


Each morning he got up from the wooden slats as the first light crept into the big dormitory. He straightened his clothes, slipped on his shoes, and headed outside to exercise a little, but not so much that he would wear himself out. He needed to keep his brain clear in order to get a perfect score on the exam. If he aimed lower than 100, others might beat him, and he would end up a poor farmer for life.

Submitted by Nancy Pine


Future posts will describe An Wei’s later educational experiences
 
"Coming next – An Wei’s experience with the grueling college entrance exam." 


This short story was adapted from Pine's book, One in a Billion: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey through Modern-Day China, for which she interviewed An Wei over a period of 10 years.