Alice (by Jane)

I am most affected today by the situation of one of my students, Alice. She is a second-year student here, and she attends first Dave’s class on Monday mornings, then my class just for kicks on Monday afternoons. We bumped into her at today’s big-screen, outside viewing on campus of the parade in Beijing celebrating “new China’s” 60th anniversary. She was trying to interview people about the day, for the university’s on-line newspaper. Instead, she told me her story.

Alice told me the story of where she comes from and where her family is right now. She comes from the mountainous northeast part of Sichuan province, a 10-hour bus ride from here. She comes from a farm, where her parents don’t have a car, or a computer, which would be, as she put it, “totally useless for them.” Some of the people in her village have an automatic washing machine and televisions. They all have basic electricity.

The people in her village work as farmers. Alice’s parents did, too. But Alice has a brother – actually more than half of my students have a brother or sister, indicating their quite rural status – who will be entering university next year. Their parents cannot support the university tuition for the two of them on a farming income.

Alice’s parents moved to a different province, Fujian, about 1.5 years ago. They moved to work in a factory for the higher wages. Her dad is an experienced worker, so he earns the most, rmb 3,000 per month, which is about $428. Alice hasn’t seen her parents in this year-and-a-half. Last Spring Festival, she went back home, and stayed with her father’s brother, where Alice’s brother now lives. But her parents couldn’t afford the time off work nor the cost to travel there. They put all their money into the education of their children.

Alice looks forward to next year’s Spring Festival, when she will travel outside of Sichuan province for the first time. She will travel to Fujian to see her parents for the first time in almost 2 years. She is 20 years old and hasn’t seen her parents in a very long time. I wonder what she will think of the migrant-worker conditions her parents surely live in.

As she told me of her parents, her demeanor became very serious. I sensed she was holding back greater emotions and tears. She spoke of her need to study very hard so that she can support her parents once she gets a good job. She wants them to be able to return to their hometown, and farm if they want to, just for pleasure.

Alice was the one wandering around today, looking for an article to write. I was the one who walked away inspired to write, inspired by her studiousness, humbled by the story of her and her family.