24 City Page #2

At the age of 86, she finally made it.

The second year after she'd gone back...

The second year

she passed away.

How many in your own family?

We're a three-person family.

Standard size.

-Your husband works in the factory?

-Yes, he does.

-What's his job?

-A kind of

surface treatment in the coating workshop.

Surface treatment.

-You have a son or a daughter?

-A son.

When he was in the sixth grade

of primary school,

I was laid off.

-How old were you then?

-I was 41.

Was it a political decision

or some other reason?

Political, to reduce staff numbers.

They cut back and increased efficiency.

The factory needed fewer people,

so we were laid off.

I was one of the first to go.

I recall ten or so lay-offs in our workshop.

We had a last dinner together

at Hekouwei Restaurant.

He had booked many tables.

But that night we could hardly eat.

Manu couldn't eat, they just cried openly.

Everyone cried.

Everyone pulled at the hands

of Director Cao and Director Yang.

They said:

"I've never come late for work.

Director Cao agreed they hadn't.

"Was there ever a time

when I didn't do my best?"

Director Cao said: "Never."

In fact, nobody was in the wrong.

Nobody had come to work late

or not given their best.

Director Cao said I'd never failed at my job.

And I'd never come in late,

never made a mistake.

But they simply didn't need

so many people.

There was less work.

They were earning less money.

They couldn't support everyone.

They gave us all a small pay-off.

So we went home. As for the dinner...

We cried. Some of us didn't eat at all.

I ate just to encourage the others.

I was just pretending,

urging the other to tuck in.

That's what I did.

We call that "smiling through your tears".

That's what I did.

I kept telling them: "Why cry?

"Let's eat!"

In 1994, I was 41 years old.

I'd left school at middle school.

A 41-year-old woman.

My kid was in the sixth grade.

I had to pay his tuition fees

and feed three people.

I had just about...

When I went out job-hunting,

I put up a motto on the wall.

It read like this:

"Come rain, come shine,

I must go forward."

I went out looking for a job every day.

Always had my motto in mind.

Anyhow, I went out looking for work.

I tried all over Chengdu.

Again and again.

I tried at the Job Center.

In Chengdu City, there's a Job Center

in the Workers' Cultural Palace.

You sign up there.

You look everywhere, you ask friends...

Maybe an old friend has work for you.

It's so hard, really not easy to find a job.

I couldn't find one

so I tried selling on the street.

What did I sell?

I sold yellow michelia flowers.

You can wear them in your buttonhole.

I sold that.

Early every morning,

I bought them at Qingshi Bridge.

I set up on Dongfeng Road

by a little tree. I had to be discreet.

If the cops or the city inspectors saw me,

they would confiscate the flowers.

Later, thanks to some friends...

Yes, thanks to some friends...

I was introduced to other jobs.

Slowly, step by step.

Are you working now?

Nowadays?

I do some sewing at home. I'm retired.

I have a pension, but I still do some sewing.

-You do what?

-I sew.

I sew at home.

Didn't you notice that at my home?

I put up the sign "Sewing" at my window.

I still do a bit of that at home.

Just a little. I like it.

I earn some money

and have something to do.

If you have something to do,

you age more slowly.

If you have something to do,

you age more slowly

I have a date tonight

I will not sleep tonight

When the bell sounds

across space and time

It wakes the new millennium

Come, dear friends

Come, fellow workmates

Regulations for retired persons'

cultural room

WANTED:

Dormitory area in Factory 420

Dali, going out?

Feel better?

Much better.

Dali

Aunty, I'll hang it for you.

Please.

You called me "aunty"?

You should call me "granny".

Granny.

This Director Song, has he come yet?

He has.

He's probably in a meeting with the bosses.

Are you new here?

Yes. I just graduated.

You can wear make-up to work?

Foreign enterprises expect you to,

or they won't hire you.

Isn't this state-owned?

Factory 420 was a state secret.

The original name was Xindu Machinery.

Later it became the Chengfa Group.

Its code name has been 420 all along.

Like a military designation.

That never changed.

I remember when we got our wage packets,

there was a 5 yuan bonus for secrecy.

Pretty good!

Around 1960,

at the time of the natural disasters,

people didn't have enough to eat.

But our factory gave us each

Our work was vital, aeronautical stuff.

No negligence.

Hao Dali, worker in Factory 420

Held the national title of March 8th

Red Banner Holder

Factory Xindu staff canteen

Vegetable Ration Coupon

I still remember that on pay days,

the bank set up a desk at the factory gate.

It was just a table really

for us to deposit our wages.

Back in 1975, I earned 58 yuans.

I deposited 30 yuan every month.

I fed my family

and sent some money back to Shenyang.

My sister lived in a village,

she had many children.

So I sent her all my old clothes.

She altered them for her kids.

The factory provided us

with uniforms, work-gloves,

that kind of thing.

I never threw them away.

I collected the used gloves

and I sent them to my sister.

She washed them, unraveled the thread,

made balls of it,

and wove clothes, trousers

for my nephews.

This year, my sister...

Her youngest son, actually,

sent me 500 yuans.

So I rang my sister

and asked her:

"Why are you sending me money?

"What for?"

She answered:

"l know things are tough in your factory."

My sister's son lives in the village.

He runs a small grocery store.

It gives him some extra income.

It never crossed my mind

that I'd need help from my sister in old age.

When did you join the factory?

Factory 420, in 1958.

From Shenyang, we moved here in groups.

I was in the last group.

My boy was three years old.

I was 18 when he was born.

So I'd be 21! Yes, 21 that year.

Not quite an adult, in fact.

I'd never left home before,

I'd never been on a boat.

That year,

the Chengdu-Baoji railway collapsed.

No route overland, so we came by river.

First a train to Dalian,

then a boat to Shanghai.

Then we took a river-boat

along the Yangtze to Chongqing.

And then a bus from Chongqing

to Chengdu.

It took 15 days to get to Chengdu.

As we approached Goddess Peak,

there was thick fog that day.

We went on deck,

but we couldn't see anything. Nothing at all.

I'd never been on a boat before.

I felt seasick and threw up.

All around me, it was chaotic on the boat.

My husband suggested

that I rest for a while.

But I couldn't sleep.

There were kids running around.

I still felt seasick. Still kept throwing up.

And the boat was juddering.

Not easy. We finally reached Fengjie.

In Fengjie, we docked on the wharf.

We went on land.

They gave us two hours there.

It was nice to take a breather.

But the boat was carrying

important equipment.

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