My Cares in the World

1 I had lived at Shuiguo Lake in Wuhan for several years, when one day a wasp flew on my balcony. I was sitting there, reading my newspaper. Because I had been stung by wasps many times during my childhood, I had a lingering fear of wasps. I hurried to cover my face with the newspaper, but the wasp flew' unharmed onto my bonsai. I looked at it quietly and it also looked at me. Then it stuck up its tail and lowered its head to drink from the pot. Once it     

Xiao yun Comes of Age

XIAO Yun was the first nurse in my family. Since I had my son and began the life of a mother, I have had an indissoluble bond with nurses. Xiao Yun was from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province. In recent years, young Jiangsu women who came to seek jobs have rarely been seen in Beijing. Jiangsu and Anhui rural women held an equal share     

“妈妈”和“爸爸”

We had been going out for a couple of months when my then-boyfriend （now husband） asked me to meet his parents. It was in the middle of January, and I had been abandoned by my ftatmates to spend the wholewinter break alone in our drafty apartment, which st, ddenly started to feel too small. So, I was more than happy to agree （to meet his parents）. 1 thought 1 could finally get out of the flat and see some real people instead of watching more DVDs at home alone as I anguished over the empty promises of parties and fun that the university had promoted in its year-abroad handbook.     

The Call for Peace

THE war left a deep impression on people. I was still a child then and what I remember most was fleeing from the war and the air raids. During the eight years of the war I went with my mother to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou. We fled to literally every part of the country in the south. Now and then I was able to go to school, but I never stayed in any one of them long before we had to flee again. By the time I was supposed to graduate from middle school I had been to five different middle schools, but because of the constant changes of schools I never obtained any graduation certificate. In my research work I see some materials on the war, and     

Learning to Understand Love

I'M still young, but I've experienced a lot emotionally; I've been married twice and had extramarital affairs. Thinking back on the past, I was really a fool back then, continually mired in confusion. I had my first love affair about 10 years ago when I was a university student, and didn't know much about life.     

me and my Angel

MY dream of being a university student vanished like soap bubbles when I failed the national examination for higher education. Saying goodbye to the high school in town, I returned to the village where I had been born and brought up. The prosaic rural life seemed to be my destiny, but I had no desire to watch my youth slip away in commonplace pursuits. I loved to read books and newspapers, and even kept up my habit of writing my diary. I still had my     

Health Consultation in China

ONE Sunday morning, I noticed some people gathered at a clearing outside a school in which my family had an apartment. Feeling curious, I joined them to find that some young dentists, wearing their white coats, were offering free consultations for people. They were selling toothbrushes and dental floss at the same time. One of my teeth was bothering me. It always felt odd when I bit something cold. I consulted with a young dentist, who was wearing a pair of glasses. He asked me many questions like when had it begun to hurt, if I felt the pain, how long it had been since I had it filled the previous time. He asked me to open my mouth and checked the tooth carefully. "You should have your     

信箱(英文)

Sexual Harassment, When No Means No hit home《性骚扰,女性不再沉默》令我深思What a great magazine! It is so good, well-written, and has great pictures. I liked the articles on sexual harassment. All the articles were interesting and I loved them! When I received your magazine, it made my day. I have been in and out of the hospital all summer. I have had a tough summer! Sexual Harassment, When No Means No hit home. I have been sexually harassed many times! From the time I was a teenager. On the job, I encountered the same thing. I kept quiet, because I felt no one would believe me. I never told anyone. My husband would say it was my fault. I hope I am not the only one out with this problem. I also love the pictures in your magazine. It gave me insight.Cindy White, USA     

At the Window of the Old House

ONE winter, my mother told me that the old house had to be sold. Among us children I was the one who most bitterly opposed the scheme to sell because of reasons that were hard to explain. But my mother's words seemed to be irrefutable: "Nobody has been living in the house for years and we should sell it before it collapses. You have always cherished your feelings for the house, so go there and stay for one last time." Our family's old house was a two-     

一百三十针(英文)

Imet my first girlfriend when I was in my third year at college. Her name was Lan and she studied in the Foreign Language Department. We met through Old Sui, one of my roommates, who came from the same town as Lan. Blood brothers, Sui and I often drank wine together, had heart to hearts and slept together. After I met Lan, Our twosome became a threesome.     

Frost Heaves(Alridged)

THAT year, I returned from Tibet to visit my home inland. It took a 15-day ride on bus. The truck I took carried worn tires. After diving down from the plateau, 5,000 meters above sea level, we bumped along for 10 days and finally arrived at the Gobi. It was spring and the road was covered with frost heaves. Driving on such a road, our truck was like a drunken cat, lurching now to the left and now to the right. It should have been only an eight hour journey, but we still had not arrived     

I Return to my Second Home

LAST September, Chai Ran, my classmate and roommate in Shanxi, and I took a train to Yuanping to visit our second home. Twenty-five years ago, we 31 students from Beijing went to live in the Xiadalin Village in Yuanping, Shanxi Province, where we lived and labored for seven years. In our railway car, Chai told me that Yuanping, to which the Xiadalin Village belonged in the past administration, was celebrating its emergence as a city. Chai had married a villager and had returned to Beijing only two years ago. Her son and daughter, who were both born in the village, had just visited there and had brought her the news. Although I knew that Yuanping had changed a great deal, I was still unable to imagine what it had become, since I had left eighteen years ago. In my memory, it was only a series of streets with a     

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.     

Birthday

IN the 1960s I was a resident student in a primary school. Nobody cared about my birthday, not even me. Often when I remembered my birthday, it had long passed. I was naughty when I was in the 2nd and 3rd grade of primary school. Every day after classes were over, I went out in search of fun. An ancient     

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     

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.     

Night College Author Spends Five Years Getting Diploma in Spare Time

AT the age of 32, I went back to school. I enrolled as a student in the Department of History at a night college attached to Beijing Normal University. My son was only two years old at the time. At first I went to night classes just to earn a college diploma. I already had 15 years' work experience, including four years of being a magazine editor. But if I wanted to keep my job as editor, I had to obtain a diploma. When I first sat down in the terraced, 300-seat classroom and touched my new textbooks, I was full of a craving for knowledge. I knew that my classmates     

信箱(英文)

Helping Me to Know More about China帮我了解中国It is my first time in China. I have been here for only two weeks as an exchange student. I got your February issue from one of my friends. I was absorbed by the cover, which was so colorful. I couldn't help but read the inside. I found some of the pictures so impressive, and very helpful to me in understanding Chinese women and China.     

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.     

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