From Our Readers

Life's change seen in old hut

By zhoupu
Updated: 2009-09-11 15:20

I am a post-1980 chap who has not much to say about China's reform. I didn't really understand the huge change happened around when elders exclaimed it, because I never saw it and felt it in shape, till I went back to my old hut.

It is my parents' hut exactly, where I was born and spent my babyhood. Several rows of hut there built in 1970s were assigned to married workers of the nearby chemical factory like my parents. Every two huts share one washroom and one kitchen which were indistinctive tattered huts in my eyes.

My scant memory about my life in that age are: briquet stove, lollipop, and a big pile of garbage. The lollipop was a big flat one in old style, not like Alps candy. My mother bought it for me after my begging for days, but I didn't indulge myself to eat it.

Recently, to the two retired workers' joyance, their bankrupted factory will assign new house to them. Dealing with old furniture, they asked me if I want to take a last look at the old hut before it is demolished. I wondered whether my lollipop is still there and thought that would be an interesting sight, so I went.

We got out of the subway station, to see new buildings standing around. From the unfinished constructing scene, I could see the rudiment of a modern residential area. But it turned to be a completely differed view when we got into the rows of huts, like a rural village. The huts and shacks we passed by are mostly cracked. You could see poles and lines for drying clothes everywhere.

Following parents into a devious path, I gradually smelled the smell of my childhood which turned out to be emitted from the aged pile of garbage. It doesn't change a lot except for a cement cell that can even not contain all garbage within. I privately felicitated that these would be removed.

Through anfractuous paths and doors, I returned to where I came to the world. Most furniture have been cleared. The first stuff greeted me was the briquet stove. The cold dusty stuff used to be the only tool for cook and warmth. It has been eliminated from urban life since central heating system was popularized.

An ancient marriage certificate with a black-and-white couple photograph was found in drawer; apparently it's elder than me. A brand-new thermos bottle and a couple of tea set has been packaged and tied for transfer. They were classical gifts for newlyweds in old time, presentable and available.

Finally I didn't find my lollipop, but I found some comic books as evidence of my habitation. A series of Tale of Lena Fox is my favorite entertainment in childhood. I can still tell some stories in these books now after almost twenty years.

As we were leaving, some workers still live there began to cook for lunch with a new barbecue oven instead of fire in kitchen. The kitchen that used to be my bedroom also, has been locked and discarded.

I lived here until I started my compulsory education at age of six. As most Chinese students, during the twelve-year basic education I care little about the outside world and our life, so I hardly perceive the changes which have benefited us for twenty years. Time passes and the situation has developed, today we needn't find changes, but learn to get used to them.