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A student who sends 1.3 billion into tears
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-14 21:10
ZHENGZHOU -- A wave of emotion swept through China this winter as millions of Chinese were inspired, ashamed or provoked by the story of ordinary college student.
Hong Zhanhui, a 23-year-old college student, struck a chord in China with the story about his adopted sister and support of his troubled family.
Hong Zhanhui and his adopted sister. [Zhengzhou Evening News] |
A university junior; an eldest brother; a guardian; a teacher; a nurse; a cook; a peddler who sells pens and instant noodles to earn his college fees; Hong is also a now a model citizen.
GROWS UP TOO YOUNG
Born to a poor peasant farmer's family at Hongzhuang, an outlying village in Xihua County, central China's Henan Province, Hong led a relatively peaceful life until an accident tore apart his five-member family 11 years ago.
During one day in August 1994, Hong's father, Hong Xinqing, suddenly began smashing the furniture in their tile-roofed house.
His crying mother was kicked to the ground and his one-year-old sister was grabbed by his father and lifted above his head.
"My full sister died, my dad went crazy and my mom was fractured," Hong, now 23, recalled as his eyes reddened at Huaihua Institute, a quiet university campus in central-south China's Hunan Province, where he studies. "It was such a nightmare. "
His father was diagnosed with mental illness and then 12-year-old Hong felt like the sky had fallen.
Deeply affected by his family's misfortune, Hong first encounter with wide-eyed Chenchen in an abandoned swaddle under a tree outside his village made him believe he was destined to adopt the child.
"You don't raise the baby, I'll take her," Hong told his mother, who considered finding another guardian for the infant. "Whatever happens, I won't leave her."
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