Feature: Bring their mothers back
Take me away, mom Animals on the Road	“Water Margin” on eggs Cat the occupier Adorable animals pose like stars Cuddle up together, battling against blizzard Sunshine in the life

 

When rape flowers begin to blossom in the rugged fields of southwest China, people know it is time to depart. Young fathers and mothers leave home to find jobs, putting toddlers and teenagers into the hands of elderly grandparents.

For the past decades, spring always brought hope along with a sense of the inescapable sorrow of separation for people at Dazhai village, Bijie county, Guizhou Province. The village has over 2,200 people, mostly of the Miao ethnicity, and the most common way to escape poverty is to find jobs elsewhere.

Cai Qun, a 36-year-old mother, repeatedly experinced such departures before emerging as a creative embroidery artist and becoming a successful entrepreneur. She is also among the 2,800-strong deputies of the 12th National People's Congress, now gathering for the most important political meeting of the year in Beijing.

Cai wants to bring more congressional and public attention to the fate of China's "left-behind children."

"A child needs a mother. Stop the mothers from leaving and bring them back," she said.

Cai's hometown, Bijie, a poor city in Guizhou of southwest China, has witnessed the brutal damage poverty and absence of parental care can do.

In 2012, five street children in Bijie died from carbon monoxide poisoning when burning charcoal for warmth, in a roadside dumpster. In 2015, four left-behind children aged 5 to 13, from one family, died after drinking pesticide at home.

There are about 260,000 left-behind children in Bijie. Nationwide, China has more than 60 million children in rural areas who are left with relatives, usually grandparents. These children are easy victims of tragedies such as murder, trafficking and suicide.

"I hope there will be more incentives, like loans to small business who can offer jobs to mothers in their hometowns," Cai said. "When mothers do not have to leave, there are fewer left-behind children."

FROM WASTE-PICKER TO LAWMAKER

Cai's childhood was mostly about fighting hunger, the reason she left hometown. Cai's mother, now 87, gave birth to 13 babies, of which six survived, with Cai Qun the youngest. She has four older sisters and a brother.

Her parents grew corn and sweet potatoes on a small piece of land. "We did not have a paddy field, so it was very difficult to feed us. My mother always had to borrow food from neighbors," she said.

At the age of 12, Cai followed her sisters to provincial capital Guiyang to make a living collecting garbage.

"We picked food, cakes and vegetables to eat. We picked plastic bottles to sell. I was most happy when I got an empty Maotai bottle -- it could sell for five yuan and got us a nice meal," she said.

Like most girls in her village, Cai married early. She gave birth to her daughter Yang Linfeng at the age of 16.

"My oldest sister took care of Linfeng when I was away. For my daughter, my sister was more of a mother than me. I was like a relative she saw only once a year," she said.

As Linfeng grew up, Cai and her husband Yang Zeyou sought jobs in the trade and manufacturing hubs of Yiwu and Shenzhen, where shoe, backpack, clothing and electronics factories gather.

"I worried most when Linfeng got sick. Once she had a high fever and breathing difficulties. My sister cooked pork heart with cinnabar to treat her, and it took her a long time for her to recover. I wanted to go home, but the factory did not allow any leave in that period. It pained me like a needle stabbing into my heart," Cai said.

Cai made up for her absence by making hand-embroidered dresses for her daughter. She sewed as many auspicious patterns on her dresses as possible.

Her daughter Linfeng, 20, got married in January, wearing her mother's hand-sewn dress. She is a nurse in the city hospital.

Almost every woman in her village knows embroidery, but Cai is probably more talented and skilled. She does not have to uses rulers or compasses to draw the patterns. She has the parameters in her mind.

In 2007, Cai joined a provincial folk art competition and won a prize for her wax painting.

"The competition was an eye-opener. My husband and I made up our minds to open a workshop at home," she said.

Cai expanded her house into a factory and founded a company under her own name. In 2013, Cai was elected to the national legislature for her efforts in preserving ethnic craftsmanship and success in creating jobs for women.

MOTHERS SHOULD STAY

Cai's embroidery products are popular at a karst cave tourist destination about 2 kilometers from her home. Last year, the shop's turnover was 8 million yuan (about 1.15 million U.S. dollars).

She employs about 300 women, and half of them used to be migrant workers. "The older women are more skilled, but I'm persuading more young women to come and work for me," Cai said. "When there are many orders, women come to work at her shop, but they can also work at home if necessary."

"In our village, many women have more than one kid. When their mothers are away, I saw brothers taking younger ones and running around in the field without people to look after their safety. Their childhood shouldn't be like that, without a mother," she said.

At her shop, one woman straps a baby on her back while she draws on the paper using wax.

"Wax painting and embroidery are mainly the hands' job. A baby on the back hardly affects anything for a Miao woman," Cai said.

Yang Zhongmei, a 29-year-old mother, joined the workshop in 2015. Before, she worked at an electronics factory in Shenzhen. She earns about 3,000 yuan (about 434 U.S. dollars) every month, a few hundred less than what she earned in Shenzhen.

"My older boy is in third grade, and my girl is in kindergarten. My son, in particular, is happy to see me back," Yang said.

"When I was young, my mother would sing when she sat down, resting from a day's work, sewing by candlelight. It is hard to forget the scene. I hope embroidery can change the lives of more Miao women, like it did for mine," Cai said.

Author： 　　　Source：xinhua　　　 Editor：Yang Fan