Yunnan recollections

by Maria Miklina (China)

Making a local connection China

I was sitting silent in the classrom when one of the mates came in calling out for volunteers to Yunnan province in coming summer. Pretty ironically, I turned out to be the only person willing to make it, white Slavic girl fluent in Mandarin.... could anything be more shoking to the villagers? Anyway, I just took it as a challenge, which I've been asking God for past few weeks, and here we go, I'm going to Yaoan, the Chinese village far away from Shanghai ( beautiful city which I got lucky enough to reside). Yaoan is a county located in a Chuxiong prefecture of the warmest province in China, it has also been famous for its poverty and authentic culture of the Southern Chinese minorities. If you ever get the chance to travel to Southeastern Asia, you will surely find out that, the heart of Chinese hospitality is settled right here in Yunnan. People are being super friendly and outgoing despite of the hardships they have been facing, smile never comes down from their faces, which leaves a longlasting sense of gratitude and joy. As school ambassadors , organized and motivated by the local government of the People's Republic of China, our team (guided by Dr. Wang or "Wang Laoshi" in Mandarin), was given a mission to investigate the life conditions and family agenda of the local school students, who's been potentially awarded with the scholarships for the further study ; basically we would do the selection of the most outstanding students, which could give them a chance to apply for the undergraduate programme right after High School graduation. That would actually sound like a great opportunity, considering the fact that merely 13% of the students in China mainland are able to get the Higher Education due to the population growth and the high level of competition, which seems quite despairing. We interviewed about 30 families in total and, I might admit, that was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had in my entire life. Being a foreigner, a white girl, a stranger, I couldn't feel more blessed and connected to the local community, the way they accepted me as a part of their society has been far from my expectations. The eyes of those kids, full of hope and trust filled my heart with a pure joy. There's been a moment that I would never forget. It was another interview with a teenage girl, three of my university collegues and I sitting right in front of her, having a conversation with her grandpa, a really nice guy, I remember him inviting us for a smoke (an ancient tradition here in Yunnan, when having a guest, offering a cigarette is a must), telling us about how hardworking his granddaughter was and how she'd been performing at her studies . All of a sudden, the girl started crying, no one has even realized what has just happened. "Her parents had passed away"- an old man said calmly. I remember all of our team hugging her afterwards, no one dared to bother her any longer, we had done all we could. But when we came outside and were about to leave, the girl appeared agan, she looked so reliefed and encouraged that she let us give her a hug once more. All of the bad feelings, inconfidence and the sense of apartness had disappeared in that moment, everything I felt wrong about myself being there had become right in that hug, I was feeling her pain, I was feeling her joy, and I was feeling myself accepted, more than ever before.