An elderly Pingtan county man recently reconnected with a primary school teacher who completely changed his life by giving the poor peasant child a golden opportunity to take part in a literacy class with the teacher.

Gao Mingren (R) reading a letter he wrote for Nian Keqian, his primary school teacher six decades ago, at a hospital in Pingtan, on Sept 4. The two reunited when Gao ran across a story about Nian in a local newspaper by chance. [Photo/pingtan.gov.cn]

The 80-year-old Gao Mingren came across the name of his former teacher, Nian Keqian, in a newspaper in August, where Nian was reminiscing about the locals' fight against the Japanese during China's war in 1945, and "was overwhelmingly excited to see Nian after more than 60 years".

So, with the newspaper's help, Gao found his teacher's address and managed to reunite with him, on Sept 4, where Nian, now 93, said he would never have recognized Gao on the street because he has changed. But he did remember teaching him way back when.

Gao's village, Xianjin, near the town of Su'wo, opened a night school in 1950, when Gao, a teenager from a poor peasant family, was given a chance to attend a night literacy class, where Nian was the teacher.

And, as Nian recalls, "Gao was doing a good job at night school, so I applied to get him into one of the free classes in the daytime. And, I even advised him to jump to the fourth grade directly. He was a young boy."

While Nian's kindness might have been just a casual gesture, it affected the student's fate forever. That's because, several years at primary school led to further study at a normal school in Minhou county. And, after graduation, Gao came back to Pingtan and returned the favor by becoming a teacher just like Nian.

"Without his help," Gao concludes, "I could've been a farmer for life."