By Li Yu

Lianghekou Primary School in Longping Town, Changyang City has received new books worth 4,000 yuan, and Zheng Anyu, one of the school’s underprivileged students has received 1,000 yuan grant from Chen Hong, chairwoman of the Yichang Association of Returned Overseas Chinese, its secretary general Zhang Long, and Lv Denggao, deputy secretary of United Front Work Department in Tujia Autonomous County of Changyang, who are entrusted by Yichang North America Association (YNAA). All financial aid was supported by the kind-hearted Yichang persons in North America.
How could these Yichang persons in the U.S. and Canada know Zheng Anyu, a common Changyang girl? Thanks to the widespread of Internet, they learned her family’s unfortunate experiences: Her mother has been incapacitated by serious illness for many years, and years of treatment makes her merely able to look after herself; but the long-lasting treatment cost with the annual total of about 10,000yuan was such a burden for this poor family. Even worse, her father became permanently disabled in 2008 when working on a construction site, so he failed to do any hard physical labor since then. Having heard this tragedy, several Yichang fellow-townspersons voluntarily provided her with some money.

Chen transferred a letter written by the kind-hearted fellow-townspersons to Anyu, which read that “Life is not all roses. Young as you are, you are believed to take care of your parents while turning into an excellent student and good person. Please remember a group of Yichang persons will always be concerned about you; because we are your family members.”

It was not an empty talk to care about her all the time, because these Yichang persons in North America actually did it besides their busy life. On November, 2015, with the help of Zhan Guangrong, reporter of Sanxia Daily and via the Internet, YNAA got in touch with Liu Yongjun, the teacher in charge of her class working in Changyang Qingjiang Minzu Secondary School and knew that Anyu behaved as a good student with virtues and talents, and served as the dedicated monitor and dormitory leader ready to help other students. Moreover, she always came out at the top of every exam; due to her grateful consciousness, hard work, self-reliance and respect for teachers and parents, she was lauded as the Youth of Virtues in this year’s “Moving Campus” Award Ceremony held recently. It was also learned that her father could only earn 2,000 yuan monthly by taking odd jobs to sustain the family; what Anyu wore were all given by her relatives; and she lived on 200 yuan a month, but always produced surplus without spending pocket money.  

The message of her difficult situations put people’s mind at ease with sympathy, so they decided to donate again. Dr. Zhong Qin, a fellow-townsperson in San Francisco Bay Area, put forward special suggestions to parents: “Every Christmas we should donate some money for our children’s gifts to those children needed in Yichang.” The news of raising donations was welcomed by people’s active responses. There were over 30 persons concerned, including Zou Dan, Cao Mengchu, Wang Xiaoying, Zhou Tongqing, Tian Yu, Wang Jue and Feng Yinghong, among who included 6 children and 5-year-old Zhong Kairan was the youngest donor. The 8-year-old Chinese-American Ma Ruojie felt so satisfied that he could present his Christmas gift to his mother’s fellow-townsperson and asked his Chinese name could be put on the name list.  

On behalf of all people caring about Zheng Anyu, Chen commissioned by YNAA made exclusive visit to Changyang and gave her 10,000 yuan on December 22, 2015. Tian Hua, Changyang person working in Boston, the U.S., promised to support Anyu until her university graduation. On January 2016, he visited and gave her 2,000 yuan during his return to the hometown.   

Anyu greatly cherished this care from afar, so she wrote a letter of gratitude to those who have helped her much in her spare time of preparing the final exams. After finishing all exams, she reported her achievements to the family members in North American through chat software QQ, who were so relieved to their hearts’ content to be informed of the happy news. The story between the Changyang girl and Yichang people in North America is still going on.