When Wenzhou’s Ye Yongjie published New China’s first Chinese science fiction novel in 1961, Little Smart Roams the Future, he would have never imagined his futuristic dreams would inspire young Chinese like Ye Nan, a Xiamen University (XMU) graduate from an impoverished mountain area of Zhejiang Province, to transform science fiction dreams into reality! (Fig. 4.1)

Fig. 4.1
In a photograph, teacher Ye Nan in Beijing is interviewed by professor William Brown.

Prof. William Brown interviewing teacher Ye Nan in Beijing on July 8, 2019. Photo by Zhu Qingfu

Full size image

Zhejiang Province is certainly not a place you’d expect to find poverty. Zhejiang is home to cities like Hangzhou, dubbed by Marco Polo as the earth’s greatest city. Even today, this coastal province is often called “China’s backbone,” ranking fourth nationally in GDP, and is home to famous business people such as Jack Ma. If even wealthy Zhejiang has struggled with poverty in isolated mountainous areas, just imagine the challenges in ending poverty across China when almost 70% of the nation is mountains, hills and plateaus—all crisscrossed by more than 5000 rivers.

Thankfully, China’s poorer regions now benefit from comprehensive national policies evolved over seven decades. And they are also blessed by help from people like Mr. Ye Nan, who after graduating from XMU, committed himself to helping not only his own hometown but also impoverished areas in west China.

“Given you come from a poor area yourself, what moved you to help even poorer regions in west China?” I asked.

“In junior high school I was able to visit Wenzhou,” Ye Nan said. “And a man who enthusiastically helped poor mountain children like me gave us many books to broaden our ideas about the rest of the world. I think that for a child, a book or even a conversation may change his thoughts or perspective. I’ll be forever grateful to this uncle who opened my eyes to the world by giving me the science fiction book, Little Smart Roams the Future.”

The novel was written in 1961 by Wenzhou native Ye Yongjie but not published until 17 years later because the optimistic depictions of a future city with flying cars, robots and video phones jarred with the harsh reality of the natural disasters China was facing. When it was finally published in 1978, it was China’s first original science fiction novel published after the Cultural Revolution, and it has delighted and inspired young and old alike for decades. I’m sure that the author, who died in 2020, would have been gratified to know that one of his young readers was so moved by his work that he committed himself to helping even poorer students share in New China’s hope.

“I returned home from Wenzhou,” Mr. Ye said. “With a fervent desire to study even harder, so that I could get a better education and help more people, and I was fortunate to test into XMU.”

Mr. Ye’s desire to help the poor was bolstered further when he learned that XMU’s founder, Mr. Tan Kah Kee, had donated all his life savings to Chinese education. The apple of his eye was XMU, which has fostered the Tan Kah Kee spirit to this day.

“What most moved you to help the poor,” I asked. “Given that you yourself came from a very poor area?”

“My extracurricular activities helped expose me to the needs and broaden my vision. During all four years of my business studies, I also worked in the Xiamen University Youth Daily. I learned a lot about what was happening around China. But the biggest influence was a video, Yellow Sheep River Town (黄羊川), by a Taiwan entrepreneur, Wen Sayling (温世仁).”

As a child, Mr. Wen’s family has been so poor that he captured fireflies each night to study by their light, but his poverty paled in comparison to what he witnessed in Gansu’s arid Yellow Sheep River Town. “Tears streamed down his face,” when he witnessed their hardships, and he invested US$50 million in the Town and Talent Technology Company, Ltd. (千乡万才科技有限公司) to help 1000 poorest towns in west China by training 10 million youths from 1000 schools to prosper right at home through remote employment at software design.

“I was so shocked and moved by Mr. Wen’s dedication,” Mr. Ye said, and so he decided to go to west China directly after graduation. “He was the biggest influence on me. And in my junior year, I attended a bazaar held by a senior who had taught in west China in the Gobi Desert, near the Mao Wu Su Desert. It had virtually no water and when I saw that those children’s living conditions were far worse than mine as a child, I determined to help them in some way.”

In his junior year, Mr. Ye signed up for the XMU Support Team, and spent his senior year with several classmates as a teacher in rural Ningxia in west China. “We thought we had prepared ourselves psychologically but conditions were far worse than we could have imagined. With virtually no rain — only tens of millimeters each year — tractors had to haul in water each week. Rain was so rare that locals called it ‘sky sweet water’ Well water was called ‘bitter water’ because wells are so deep that the mineral content is very high, which makes the water bitter.”

“The lack of water made both agriculture and industry impossible. Yet in spite of such abysmal conditions, the children were very optimistic. There was such a great shortage of teachers that I had to teach not only all liberal arts subjects but also biology and even physical education. But that was a very happy year for me because I drew strength from the children’s optimism!”

But young Ye was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the needs and lack of resources. “Hundreds of children needed help, but I was only a college student with limited abilities and resources — I decided to write online to let the rest of China know about their needs.”

China’s Internet was flourishing by 2005, so for the entire year Mr. Ye posted his daily experiences—hundreds of thousands of words by year’s end. XMU teachers then led him to compile his experiences into a book that was published in 2007.

As Mr. Ye signed a copy of his book for me, I asked, “Is this book your diary for that year in Ningxia?”

“Yes,” he said. “Most of it was from that year. After university I taught elementary and junior high school students until 2017. My students went on from junior high to high school and then to university. I have watched them grow up and face and overcome hardships. The book actually covers the entire 12 years between 2005 and 2017.”

“After I returned to XMU, I kept in contact with many students from Ningxia. One student almost dropped out a number of times, but we kept urging him to stick it out. He did, was admitted to a university in Nanjing, and after graduation he founded and chaired a Nanjing non-profit organization (NGO) that is an incubator for more NGOs. His dream is to help others who want to start NGOs, and he’s doing very well. I’m very proud of him.”

“How did you keep up with your students?” I asked.

“At first by letters, but later the schools had telephones. And nowadays it is very convenient to use QQ and WeChat video calls. And I have visited them twice. All the children I taught had graduated but there are new children, and the school has changed a lot.”

“How has it changed?” I asked.

“Well, when I taught physical education, the playground was covered in cinders, and students were bloodied when they fell on it. It was especially hard in the winter when the temperature was below zero. The children were so lively that it did not seem to faze them, but even so it was difficult. And the only sports equipment was a whistle. But thanks to a generous person who donated RMB5,000, we bought lots of balls and built a cement table tennis table. And when I returned in 2010, everything had improved! The school had a professional sports track and all kinds of sports equipment.”

“Have there been other changes in the school?”

“Yes, they now have better drinking water. They used to have no phone, and no signal for mobile phones, but now they have hi-speed Internet. They also have new classrooms. And students used to wear clothes handed down from their older siblings, but in 2010 they were wearing new school uniforms. And they seemed much happier than before.”

“Why were they happier?” I asked.

“Three reasons,” Ye said. “First, for over 10 years, China’s economy has been developing and changing, even in the areas I was helping. Second, decades of poverty alleviation have indeed achieved remarkable results. And third, there are many like me from the mountains who study in the cities and then return to our hometowns to help however we can. The boy who started the Nanjing NGO is an example. Or the girl who after university graduation designed software for IBM in Dalian but missed her hometown so much that she gave up life in the beautiful coastal city to return home and work in Ningxia. And one student graduated from a normal university and returned to teach fulltime in the Ningxia school where I had taught for one year. Of course, this is easier to do now that transportation is convenient.”

“I too have met many people like this,” I said. “Even XMU teachers in the early 1950s gave up comfortable positions to teach in Gansu, Tibet and other west regions that were then very poor. Ye Xueyin (叶雪音), who entered XMU in 1950, spent four months on the trip from Beijing to Tibet in 1951, walking for weeks with little to eat on the last stretch from Gansu to Tibet. They crossed freezing rivers on ramshackle bamboo or wood bridges, or on yak leather coracles that the raging rivers tossed about like fishing corks. She wrote her parents when she reached Lhasa, and it took an entire year to get her father’s reply!”

“Today China has the best highway and railway networks in the world — as well as the most extensive Internet. Chinese in the remotest region make video phone calls — just like in Little Smart Roams the Future!”

“Yes,” Mr. Ye said. “China’s infrastructure, especially in telecommunications, is helping poor children in so many ways. In 2005, I told rural students I’d come from Xiamen, and they thought I meant Macau. They had no idea they were two different places. But today these children’s knowledge and vision are no different from what you’d expect from city children. They watch TV and surf the Internet just like the rest of us, but only 10 years ago all they had was newspapers, and those were often delivered to villages only once a month — so news was a month old! But today with 4G, and 5G on the way, many schools broadcast multimedia materials.”

“Students are now very aware of what’s going on in the world,” Mr. Ye said. “In 2005, if you asked students their dreams, they would give vague answers because they really had no idea. They dreamed of getting any job they could to survive. But nowadays they are very clear about their future. Like a student I helped last year — he wanted to be a painter. I am grateful they now understand society and the world, and that they can play a part in it.”

“What are your plans for the future?”

“Actually, I say that Xiamen is my second hometown, and Ningxia is my third hometown. I have deep feelings for Ningxia and have kept in close contact with the children there for over 10 years. I think that to grow up in a balanced manner they need help not just materially but spiritually. In west China, there are many left-behind children, for example, who grow up all alone. I want to help them somehow.”

“When I studied business at XMU, I engaged in NGO research for my master’s thesis. Perhaps I will do something with NGOs in the future, because I have many friends doing charity work. This is good because helping others helps us grow up ourselves.”

“I have been very moved,” I said. “As to how Chinese of all ages help relieve poverty, I interviewed a high school girl yesterday who tutors rural children online in math. She said, ‘Our family is not that well off, but we’re better off than those children, I should help them.’”

“Yes,” Mr. Ye said. “Information technology really helps us to help others!”

“It seems that more and more young people are willing to engage in such activities,” I said. “Why do you think that is, apart from the Internet that makes it easier?”

“Actually, I think public welfare is part of China’s traditional culture — whether in old China or in New China. Lei Feng is the most famous example. But thanks to much government support, standardized public welfare, NGOs, etc., have become common in the past 10 years. My work in Ningxia, for example, was organized and supported by XMU. This kind of education support activities started in 1999, and as of last year, about 1 million college students have supported education in west China. Given that each student can teach hundreds, I’m sure that millions of children have been helped. This is an accumulation process, from quantitative change to qualitative change.”

“And legislation helps, with new voluntary service regulations helping to bolster support for voluntary service. And historical events such as the Wenchuan earthquake tragedy have involved many volunteers. It was such activities that motivated the student who created the Nanjing incubator for NGOs. These organizations can draw lots of people to volunteer work like moths to a flame.”

“Yes — and also books like yours about west China!” I said. “I look forward to reading it.”

My time with Mr. Ye ended too quickly. I was heartened by his passion for helping those less fortunate than himself, and I took to heart several lessons. First, even a few words, or a book like Little Smart Roams the Future, or a video like Yellow Sheep River Town, can make a big difference in helping to set someone’s course for life—be they a child, a university student, or perhaps even an older person like myself.

But passion is not enough. It was XMU’s support programs that helped give wings to Mr. Ye’s vision. And, happily, China’s vast highway and railway network and sophisticated telecommunications make it easier than ever to reach out to the poor—or even to serve them online. Opportunities are greater today than ever. Who knows—when I retire from XMU maybe I too can teach in west China!