The Day of Retirement

Mao Mao, also called Deng Rong, Deng Xiaoping's daughter was born in Chongqing City, Sichuan Province, in 1950. Not long ago in 1993, she pub lished her father's biography, My Father Deng Xiaoping (Volume Ⅰ), a 520,000 word biographical novel. With ease and verve, she described her father's rich and legendary life. The book is filled with a daughter's love and respect for her father. To express our memory of our late leader, we have chosen to present the first chapter of the book to our readers.     

My Ping-Pong Family

WHEN I was born, my father was 40 and my mother was 36. Father is a man of few words and an introverted nature. He belongs to that type of people who are very tough and strong-willed; he has worked hard all his life. Mother, on the other hand, is extroverted and eager to excel. My personality is a combination of both of their characters. Father loves playing ping-pong ardently. He used to be a top player of the Henan provincial team and won the men's singles championship in a contest of five provinces in central and southern China. Mother, a worker at the No. 4 National Textile Mill in Zhengzhou, also loved to play ping-pong when she was young. It was because of the sport that she and Father were brought together and got married. When the Henan     

Father Remarries

FATHER seemed a different person after my mother's death. During my frequent visits home I noticed that he stayed in one place for a long time, silently, but sighing all the time. As time went by I visited home less often, mostly because of the pressures of my job. My father called and complained that he had no one to talk to, that he was     

Marshal's Wealth Left to His Children

FOR commemoration, for passion and for belief-I wrote this article to dedicate to my father Zhu De's 110th anniversary of his birth. I did not meet my father until I was 14. I had no memory of him in my mind. The first time I saw him was in Yan'an at the end of 1940, where my memory of him became clear. But because our time apart was so much longer than the period of our reunion, the memory actually only became a dim     

Emancipation Began When Foot-Binding Ended

MY late grandmother was one of the last generation of women who had bound feet. In the beginning of this century, she was born in a small remote village inhabited by the Mongol and Han nationalities. In those years her mother bound her childish feet tightly, using strips of cloth, so her feet remained small and pointed. Although I didn't know much about life when I was a child, I often felt constrained at the sight of my grandmother's bound feet. While I was growing up, I read some books about women's emancipation and started to be more concerned about the fate of women. Chinese women have struggled up a long     

An Ordinary Mind——Woman Bears Tragedies by Practicing Qigong

Iremember clearly how despaired I was seven years ago when I received the doctor's diagnosis of my illness—multiple hysteromyoma. "Mum, you'd better to have the operation," said my 15-year-old son. "Ⅰ'Ⅱ go to the hospital to take care of you." His mention of the operation disheartened me, because I had already had three operations. During these operations, it was my husband who helped me through the difficulties. He cooked delicious food for me and took care of my daily needs. But he has passed away. I did not know how I could go through this fourth operation without his help.     

总算交流了(英文)

Many women dream that one day they will have a wedding ring slid onto their finger by someone they dearly love, and they will happily spend the rest of their days with that person. My wife was no exception. When wewere preparing for our marriage, I asked what she wanted most. "A ring, an exquisite ring, for sure," she said excitedly. Taking her into my arms I said, "You'Ⅱ have it." Unfortunately I failed to keep my word. When we were just about to get married, my father contracted lung cancer. I spent nearly all of my savings and got into debt because of the hospital bills. Ten days after my father's death, my wife brought her luggage to my room. We pasted the character “喜”(double happiness) at the bedside and in the living room. It was autumn. "Now let it be the time to harvest our four years'love. "said she. Without any ceremony or guests, we got married. Thinking that my wife couldn't get the ring she craved for filled me with regret. That evening I held her tight, gently stroking her delicate     

Views on Middle Aged Couples

AWOMAN calls a women's hotline: "My husband and I have always been compatible. Now our son is almost 10 and my husband still wants to have sex! This makes me sick. I don't know what to do. Help me!" Another woman calls in tears: "My husband is an ordinary man and used to lead a normal life like anyone else. One day, he told me he would try something else to develop his career. I supported him. Finally, his efforts paid off. But soon after, he began having an affair. He didn't deny it but he said he wouldn't divorce me. Why did this happen to     

The Joyous Kitchen

MY kitchen, less than 5 square meters, is my favorite place. On my simple gas stove I can change chicken, duck, fish, meat, eggs and variety of vegetables into various delicacies to entertain family and friends. Cooking is culture as well as recreation. My old friends who I haven't seen for many years were astonished to learn about my interest in cooking, because they all knew how I didn't like to be tied to the kitchen when I was young.     

Pasta, Shanxi Style Hand-pulled Noodles Loved by Tourists and Residents Alike

I had my most delicious meal with noodles in a small village along the Yellow River. It was on a March day a decade ago, when I had just moved to Shanxi Province. I was out in the field as a reporter, and was exhausted and starving after traveling more than 50 kilometers on foot and by bus. A middle-aged man, whom I did not know, was standing in front of his dugout cave, the traditional dwelling of the Shanxi people." He called to me and invited me to have a meal in his home. Upon entering the cave, I was asked to sit on a kang, a brick bed, while the man's wife busied herself with cooking my meal. In no time a huge bowl of youpomian, noodles with Chinese prickly ash oil, was on the table in front of me. My nostrils were immediately filled with the strong and delicious smell of chili and prickly ash.     

FROM THE CHINESE PRESS

A Memento from a Farmer's Family with Deng Xiaoping On the morning of February 22, 1992, when Deng Xiaoping came to the sports ground of the kindergarten at Qizhong Village, Maqiao Township in Minhang District, Shanghai, he took Tang Jiayun, the son of a farmer in his arms and kissed him. The reporter took the picture as a memento.     

Wishing to Marry a Virago

ONCE when I was with my friends we discussed how we could help our friend who teaches philosophy at a university and had just celebrated his 50th birthday. He is thin and shy, with long hair. His wife died more than two years ago and now he seems to have a hard time. We thought it would be a good idea to find a new wife for him.     

Nine Weddings in Half a Century

THERE is a Chinese saying the sentimentof which I am sure you all know: "Themore children you have, the greater your goodfortune and happiness." Here we see a mind-set that existed in China for generations, thebelief that having more children will not onlysafeguard your well-being and care in old agebut will help the healthy development of theclan. My parents belong to a generation whooft stated this philosophy. My mother married young (she was not yetsixteen) and managed to fit in nine children inall - eight boys and one girl, me. When mymother reflects on the past she says that shedid not experience much of the luck the     

A New Method—Traditional Chinese Medicine Relieves Toothache

BECAUSE I had a toothache, I followed my colleague to the home of Zhang Fengwu; he is the inventor of "Zhangshi Miracle Tooth-Protection Liquid." When I had toothaches, I used to go to the dentist. Recently, however, I have felt very weak, and was afraid that I couldn't bear more pain, so I went to see this inventor and learn about his work even     

Small Generation Gap

IT was while I was making milk for my son that I discovered the generation gap between us. A little thing of two years and three months, my son stood on a big chair I brought him and joined me to make milk. Holding a small spoon in his plump little hand, he scooped flour out of a jar and poured it into the feeding bottle and then scooped milk powder and     

My Nepalese Friends

NEPAL and China are good neighbors. In the 1980s many Chinese technicians went to Nepal to help build roads and other projects. As an interpreter with a Chinese construction cooperative, I worked there from 1993 to 1994. During my stay in Nepal, I met many different Nepalese women who impressed me deeply. My landlady Sumiyala, was the first Nepalese woman to come into my life. She was over 40 years old, a healthy and good-humored housewife. Whenever Ⅰ had time, I liked to chat with her and gradually we became friends. I remember my landlady was busy in and out of her house all day long— cleaning, cooking and taking care of her grandchildren and her parents-in-laws.     

Deng Xiaoping's Three Marriages (Ⅲ) Deng Xiaoping and Zhuo Lin

IN the summer of 1939, Zhuo Lin met a person named Deng Xiaoping through another. She did not know the ways of the world and was somewhat confused. She only knew that he was a veteran Red Army soldier, a high-ranking military officer who had been on the frontlines of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, but had little idea about what the man was doing and what he     

I Once Joined the Red Army

BORN to a poor farmer's family at Yangxi Village, Yeping Town, Ruijin County (today's Ruijin City) of Jiangxi Province in 1914, I was sent to the Lius to be a child daughter-in-law. The Lius were too poor to support themselves. They had nothing but two sons. Worried about not having enough money to purchase a daughter-in-law in the future, the family accepted me as a child daughter-in-law-to-be. I was told by my elders that when I was three years old, I went with my father-in-law to beg. On the way, I was bitten by a rich family's dog, causing my mother-in-law to burst into tears. My father-in-law died before long, leaving his wife, two sons and I with nothing to live on. With an uncle-in-law as     

My True Joy

Ihave special ties with paper-cuts. My interest has developed from my childhood to the present. Now I am over 40 and often use scissors to create art. I cannot deny this interesthas has matured with me. Being a newspaper arts editor I'm busy all the time. I'm the only one who knows my suffering and joy, I lack the time and energy to work on big art projects. That's why I can only     

WHEN WlLL I GET A COMPUTER?

Ihaven't bought a computer yet, but I have been dreaming about it for a long time. In the 1980s, when my friends and neighbors returned from abroad and brought back computers, I didn't admire them because I didn't think they would be very useful. Of course I couldn't afford it, either.