Grandma Chen Qiaodi’s 3 Generations of Change

Abstract

Our family fell in love with Yangshuo when we first drove there in the summer of 1993. In our eyes, this country town along the river is far more beautiful than the sprawling city of Guilin 66 km to the north. It feels like a gigantic Chinese miniature landscape, surrounded by the otherworldly temple-dotted karst peaks that inspired the whimsical mountains of Dr Seuss’ children’s books. We loved the beauty and the quiet — but it is no longer so quiet.

Our family fell in love with Yangshuo when we first drove there in the summer of 1993. In our eyes, this country town along the river is far more beautiful than the sprawling city of Guilin 66 km to the north. It feels like a gigantic Chinese miniature landscape, surrounded by the otherworldly temple-dotted karst peaks that inspired the whimsical mountains of Dr. Seuss’ children’s books. We loved the beauty and the quiet—but it is no longer so quiet.

In July 2019, I was astonished to find the country town had evolved into a small city. And the bamboo rafts that men used to pole along the river for tourists are now powered by engines to make the trip faster (and more profitable)—and we had to wait in line to buy tickets and then wait in line to board. In Yangshuo, it seems one of the most common pastimes is now waiting in line—whether for tourist sites or restaurants.

Many people who remember the Yangshuo of 30 years ago complain about the changes and the crowds. I’ve had foreign tourists complain to me about the crowds, and I’ve responded, “Feel free to leave and lessen the crowds by one person!”

While standing in line is not my favorite pastime, I appreciate the crowds at Yangshuo, the Great Wall, Yunnan’s Stone Forest or Lhasa’s Potala Palace for three reasons. One, it shows that Chinese now have the money to enjoy their own country. Twenty years ago, they were visited mainly by overseas tourists or wealthier Chinese. Two, as Xi Jinping emphasized 30 years ago, when he was a young leader in Fujian’s impoverished Ningde, cultural tourism is an economically sustainable way to preserve and promote local culture, especially that of minorities. Three, thriving tourism has boosted economies and improved locals’ lives—people like Ms. Chen Qiaodi, who happily shared with me how her family’s life had changed.

“When I first started working in the literature and art promotion team in 1965,” she said. “Yangshuo had only one street, and our house was very dilapidated, but things have changed rapidly since the 1980s.”

“Even in the early 1990s, Yangshuo had only a couple of main streets,” I said. “But today it has grown so much that I can’t even find the old main street.”

Ms. Chen laughed. “You just walked down that street to get here! But it does look a little different now.”

Ms. Chen was transferred to a film company in 1975. At that time, no one had TV, but films were very popular. Nowadays, however, many movie theaters have closed because new technology makes it easy to show educational and promotional movies for free in park squares and the countryside.

“Yangshuo did not have many tourist spots back then, but now the Lijiang River, Moon Mountain, and Nine-Horse Painting Mountain have developed very fast. And new roads connect villages. I used to have to walk to get to these villages, but nowadays not only are all of the villages connected with concrete roads but these roads lead directly to each farmer’s doorstep. Roads have helped even the remotest areas to prosper, especially the past 10 years” (Fig. 18.1).

Fig. 18.1

Prof. William Brown interviewing villager Chen Qiaodi in Yangshuo, Guangxi on July 29, 2019. Photo by Zhu Qingfu

“Many have said that the fastest change has been over the past 10 years. Why is that?”

Ms. Chen said, “Under President Xi’s leadership, science and technology have developed rapidly, and so has tourism. Yangshuo has much better facilities now, and tourism by both foreigners and Chinese has grown. Even my own hometown of the Nine-Horse Painting Mountain has a road leading directly to our doorstep, and tourism has grown there as well.”

“What was it like before the new roads?” I asked.

“Before we had roads, we had to climb over a large mountain to get anywhere. If we rode a bicycle, we had to carry it on our back. The first road was not built so well, but later it was improved, and tourism in our area exploded after that.”

“The last time I drove here was in March of 2000, when even the new roads were still very poor. But today they were as good as anywhere in China, from coastal provinces in the east to Qinghai and Tibet in the west.”

Ms. Chen nodded in agreement. “Yes, I remember very clearly. By 2009, the roads were okay but still not great. Now the road to the Nine-Horse Painting Mountain is flat and as good as Yangshuo’s main roads. Thanks to good roads, every household in my home village has someone working in tourist attractions on the Lijiang River. Tourism has benefited us greatly, and life is improving day by day.”

“What was life like here when you first arrived in Yangshuo?” I asked. “What was your home like, and what did you eat?”

“It was pretty bad,” Ms. Chen said. “I married in 1970. Back then, there was no tap water, and we had to carry water in buckets from the Lijiang River. My mother-in-law was too old to haul water, so I carried most of it myself. And we had very little to eat—mainly sweet potatoes, corn and sorghum. Nowadays, of course, everyone can eat rice.”

“How about medical care and retirement?” I asked. “Some people have risen from poverty, only to be devastated by illness and medical costs.”

“We used to have to pay all costs up front when we went to the doctor or hospital, but many people could not afford that. Today, we pay much less because the hospital deducts right up front what they know the government will pay, and after that I’m reimbursed for most of my expenses.”

“Do farmers in rural areas also have medical insurance?”

“Of course,” Ms. Chen said. “Everyone is covered. In fact, the reimbursement ratio in rural areas is higher than that for people in towns.”

“How about pensions?” I asked.

“Yes, farmers, too, have pensions.”

Ms. Chen’s house had been newly renovated, both inside and out. “Your family is obviously doing well now,” I said. “But where did you get income in the old days?”

“The government allocated our house to us in 1952,” Ms. Chen said. “It’s over 100 years old. My husband has five brothers and six sisters, and we used to be porters at the pier. But as the economy improved, my husband and his brothers left Yangshuo to find work. My husband’s oldest brother is head of the Quanzhou Education Bureau, and the second brother graduated from Wuhan University. My husband, the youngest, is a driver, the fourth brother is in a Guilin factory, and the fifth has a job here in Yangshuo. The sisters also have jobs. In other words, in the past it was really difficult to find work, but not now. The reason is all have benefited from school education. My husband’s father was an educated man, he pushed his children to get an education. They did, and they all have jobs.”

“Has education improved?”

“It is much better today! Everyone can get an education, get higher salaries, and have a higher pension after retiring. My own company’s salaries are a little lower, but I’ve renovated my home and rent part of it out, and life is good! Now my grandson is studying at Chongqing Jiaotong University.”

“I’m thankful that even rural children can attend university,” I said. “That was rare when I first moved to China.”

“Today, not only does the government provide support and loans to college students, but some companies also subsidize college students’ expenses. And if rural elementary schools lack facilities, specialists in poverty alleviation projects will help them in many ways such as improving the facilities, showing them how to cultivate gardens, etc.”

“A tour guide told me this morning that in the past, people could eat only what they had grown themselves and that only seasonal fruit was in stores, but now you can eat anything you want any time of the year. Is that true?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s true. We used to never have fruit here, but now it is shipped in year round from all over the country.”

“That’s amazing to me,” I said. “I remember that even in Xiamen in the early years we could buy only what was grown or made locally.”

“You mentioned that Yangshuo’s fastest changes have been over the past 10 years. Why is that?” I asked her.

“I think the biggest change is that people now have guaranteed medical care, and the society is safe, and our children have no problem getting an education. The government has done so much in so many ways that everything is better now.”

“When we were in Yunnan two days ago,” I said. “There was a man who was sick and hospitalized for two years. He said he would never have survived had medical insurance not paid most of his bills. It seems people all over the country have benefited from such services.”

“That’s true,” Ms. Chen said. “And the best thing is that there is no problem now caring for the elderly. Older people like us receive retirement pensions, we don’t have to worry about food, and children don’t have to worry about getting an education.”

Zhu Qingfu, the famous Fujian photographer who had been traveling with us around China, asked, “What was your family’s income 25 years ago?”

Ms. Chen said, “I was still working then, but when I retired in 1996, my monthly salary was only RMB315. Today I receive about RMB2,400 a month—enough for what we need!”

“Even in the late 1980s,” I said. “I was told that Xi Jinping was concerned about retirement. It was during his 17.5 years in Fujian that he developed his ideas on precision poverty alleviation, and he has said that by 2020 China should have been able to raise everyone in the country from absolute poverty. It’s hard to believe that this can be done in such a big country, but I am fortunate enough to have watched it take place over the past three decades. And during our drive up to here in 2019, we saw that absolute poverty had truly been ended in every province.”

Ms. Chen laughed, “We had originally hoped that we could earn at least RMB100 a month in retirement. We’d have never imagined receiving more than RMB2,000.”

“But what is the main reason behind the government’s care for everyone from schoolchildren to retirees?” I asked.

“The government has good leadership and good policies,” Ms. Chen said. “The people are happy, and I am the happiest because in the past I witnessed the difficulties of rural life. Back then we didn’t even have clothes to wear, and we went to school barefoot. Many young people could not find spouses because no one wanted to live in such conditions. Today, I’m 72, and things are much different.”

“You look much younger than 72!” I said. And she did, perhaps because of her optimism, joy—and gratitude.

“I’ve experienced great changes since I moved here in 1965,” Ms. Chen said. “And I’ve watched President Xi build a whole team to help China develop step by step from the grassroots level. He understands us very well.”

Xi Jinping showed a lot of courage when, in November 1993, he told a remote Miao ethnic village in Hunan Province that China could eliminate absolute poverty by 2020. No other nation in history, large or small, rich or poor, has dared make such a statement. I’m thankful, for the sake of people like Ms. Chen, that China not only set such a goal but achieved it.