24 City Page #2

But then... Job, family, kids!

Not to mention, the cost of it.

She couldn't afford to visit home.

Bottom line...

After coming here in 1958,

when did we first go back to Shenyang?

It was in 1972.

She had left in 1958.

Between 1958 and 1972, 14 years.

I was 18 or 19 by then.

I'd finished middle school.

Only then did I first go back

to Shenyang with Mom.

The first time back.

-Do you remember that trip?

-Sure I do.

I remember it vividly.

What was it like?

Well, it was...

Coming home like that...

It was 14 years since Mom had left.

As soon as we got there,

my Grandma and her husband

broke down in tears.

I was still too young to really understand.

I didn't appreciate why they felt so strongly.

I didn't understand what they felt.

Hou Lijun, born 1953 in Shenyang

Repairman in workshop 63 of Factory 420

And when we were about to leave,

they all said:

"We must take you to the station.

If you stay away this long again,

"we'll be more than 70 years old next time.

"Will there be another chance to meet?"

Then I understood

why Grandpa had cried like that.

When the train started moving,

Grandpa broke down in tears again.

As the train pulled out,

Mom kept her composure.

But me...

I began to cry myself.

On the train, I began sobbing out loud.

I felt so sorry for my grandparents.

Mom lived so far away

she couldn't visit them.

It was so hard for us to go back.

The great thing was

that Grandma was lucky.

Near the end of her life, she said:

"My greatest wish is to go to Chengdu

"to see my eldest daughter."

That is, my mother.

She finally came here in 1985.

At the age of 86, she finally made it.

The second year after she'd gone back...

The second year

she passed away.

How many in your own family?

We're a three-person family.

Standard size.

-Your husband works in the factory?

-Yes, he does.

-What's his job?

-A kind of

surface treatment in the coating workshop.

Surface treatment.

-You have a son or a daughter?

-A son.

When he was in the sixth grade

of primary school,

I was laid off.

-How old were you then?

-I was 41.

Was it a political decision

or some other reason?

Political, to reduce staff numbers.

They cut back and increased efficiency.

The factory needed fewer people,

so we were laid off.

I was one of the first to go.

I recall ten or so lay-offs in our workshop.

We had a last dinner together

at Hekouwei Restaurant.

He had booked many tables.

But that night we could hardly eat.

Manu couldn't eat, they just cried openly.

Everyone cried.

Everyone pulled at the hands

of Director Cao and Director Yang.

They said:

"I've never come late for work.

Director Cao agreed they hadn't.

"Was there ever a time

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