“Today, Niu Niu is 5 months old and she always smiles at me, she has such a nice smile. But, we had to send her to the countryside. Niu Niu, forgive mommy.” Li Huiying wrote this in her diary on September 14, 1958, at the age of 21.
After half a century of vicissitudes, the 72-year-old Li Huiyin is still full of motherly guilt for her 51-year-old “Niu Niu.” She has no memory of what her 5-month-old self went through, but in Li Huiyin’s heart, those days have left a deep mark. The “Niu Niu” has no memory, but in Li Huiying’s heart, that period of Time has left a deep mark, and whenever touched, pain and helplessness grow like weeds.
On August 17, 1958, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Beidaihe and adopted the resolution of “All the people of the Party struggle to produce 10.7 million tons of steel”, which set off a fierce national steel-making campaign. The phrases “the steel marshal rises to the tent” and “10.7 million tons of steel, not even a single ton” became popular at that time.
The hospital set up a steel-making furnace
At that time, Li Huiying and her husband were both young backbones of a hospital in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. In Li Huiying’s memory, the hospital’s open space was always thick with black smoke, and in front of a homemade earthen blast furnace, young doctors with scalpels in their hands were struggling to pull the blower, sweating and with black faces. “The doctors and nurses of the hospital were divided into two shifts, one for treating patients and one for making iron and steel, with the two shifts taking turns to pour.”
Iron ore is used to make iron, naturally there is no such “rare” raw material in the city, so in response to the call of the state, the iron pot, shovel, iron bars on the windows and other iron smashed; iron is not enough, other metal products are also brought to donate, even copper “Soup maids”, and Hanging mosquito nets with copper hooks were taken away to “back to the furnace” steel.
At that time, there was an old doctor who had studied abroad, the old man wore a pocket watch with an exquisite pattern, polished every day. The organization approached him I don’t know how many times, “soft and hard” to “persuade” the old man to knock off the case of that watch steel. “If you don’t hand over the watch, you’re going against Chairman Mao’s teachings.” Li Huiying remembered that these were the words of the organization when they last approached him. After hearing this, the old doctor silently pulled out the watch and let the visitor smash down the case with a hammer that was engraved with a delicate pattern. Holding the watch without the case, the old man stood for a long time. Looking at the old doctor standing in the autumn wind that day, Li Huiying began to think for the first time whether such steelmaking was meaningful, but such thoughts stayed in her mind for only a moment.
“It was a time when people were really fanatical from the heart.” Li Huiying got up early and stayed up late every day to guard the blast furnace, directing the steelmaking army that came and went, and even sometimes, she actually forgot that she had a newborn child. So, on September 14, Li Huiying made the decision to send her 5-month-old child to a distant relative’s house in the countryside to be raised. At that time, the steel-making movement had not yet spread to the countryside, and Li Huiying thought that the child would be better cared for there.
For half a month, Li Huiying did not see her child, her mind was on the blast furnaces that were staggered in height. Every time a piece of “steel” was made, she felt heartfelt joy. She and her colleagues carefully guarded the black piece and sang “Unity is Strength” around it.
Mother’s heart is “harder” than steel
Finally, it was Li Huiying’s husband who first couldn’t resist the idea of going to see the child. The five-month-old Niu Niu is yellow and skinny, and because she cries a lot, her eyes are red from crying, so much so that tears flow into her ears, and her ears start to bleed. Looking at the child in front of her, Li Huiying cried, her husband also cried, the Family cried into a ball. The older sister of a distant relative’s family said apologetically, “We have to do farm work and steelmaking here, so we can’t be busy. Don’t delay your child, take her away.
Li Huiying and her husband carried Niu Niu for a long time, almost wanting to carry her Home. However, the thought of going back to the endless work, who do not have time to take care of Niu Niu, Li Huiying beat a retreat. On the dirt road in the countryside, Li Huiying and her husband stood speechlessly, Niu Niu sleeping quietly in her mother’s arms, as if nothing had happened. “It’s better to leave the child here.” After smoking three cigarettes, the husband made his decision and Li Huiying nodded silently.
“Sisters-in-law, who can help me take care of the child?” On that country road, Li Huiyoung eagerly asked every woman who passed by. No one was willing to take care of this city woman with a baby in her arms, her hair in disarray, and her eyes red and swollen from crying. At last, when Li Huiyoung was near despair, an older sister stopped and said she was willing to take care of the baby. Li Huiying followed her back to her home, which was not very big and still clean. The two sides agreed on a price, and so, once again, Niu Niu was left in the countryside in her sleep.
The frenzy of the great steelmaking until December 19 finally came to fruition, that day, the superiors announced the completion of the task of doubling steel production 12 days ahead of schedule, 11.08 million tons of steel production slightly above the target. When the news came, all the doctors and nurses in the hospital raised their arms and shouted “Long live Chairman Mao!”
On the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month of this year, Niu Niu was finally picked up and brought home, although she was still very thin because of malnutrition. “Nowadays, many people do not understand that they do not care about their children in order to work. But at that time, in order to respond to the national call we really can leave everything behind.” Li Huiying said.
How many years later, Li Huiying knew that during that national steelmaking boom, the more than 3 million tons of clay steel and 4.16 million tons of clay iron made were simply unusable and eventually became scrap. Leaving her daughter behind and not fulfilling her responsibilities as a mother became Li Huiying’s eternal pain, especially when all she got in return was a pile of scrap steel and iron.
“I’m sorry, Niu Niu.” Li Huiying, 72, looked at her daughter, who was more than half a century old, with tears flashing in her eyes. Since her daughter grew up, she has not used this name to call her daughter for a long time.
Recent Comments