Unsurprisingly, he canceled his birthday celebration and determined that no future birthdays should be celebrated. He had wanted to have fun but, as it was, he had never ever had fun in his life. All he had been doing was struggling to survive, fi ghting for a better life and dedicating himself to his whole family.
In June 2006, he gave me two choices with a dictatorial remark: “Take the ‘iron rice bowl’! Either to be a teacher or a doctor; otherwise, nothing.” I asked myself why was that. Without understanding such a conservative idea from his traditional mind, I chose the former. And without hesitation, I chose Hainan Island, the furthest place I’d dreamed of for my college life. It was strongly against what he had been expecting of me: teaching or nursing only around Shouning. The moment he heard the news, he collapsed in bed for fortyeight hours, with no food and no sleep. Only when I was about to set off , he expressed a remarkable crisis ahead and a great deal of melancholy affl iction with a claim: