A photo album of memories of exotic assignment
By Victoria Fei |
May 25, 2013, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ZHANG Maodu, 79, a retired electrician diagnosed last year with liver cancer, sits in his home in a small community in Minhang, paging through a photograph album.
Happy memories fill the void of his twilight years.
The highlight of his life, he said, is the five-year period he spent working in Pakistan during the early 1970s.
It was an experience that broadened his life and certainly helped his career.
Pakistan was a rather exotic adventure for a farm boy with no formal education. His family was forced to flee their home in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s. Later, he managed to pick up some rudimentary skills at a blacksmith's shop near what is Zhongshan Park in Changning District today.
Zhang was able to parlay those skills into a job at Shanghai Heavy Machinery Plant in Minhang, where he worked as a technician and decided he wanted to become an electrician.
"I was grateful for the chance to work there and improve my skills," he said.
His diligence and hard work paid off.
He was eventually reassigned to the engineering department and picked to go to Pakistan, where China was helping its neighbor build a heavy machinery plant.
Most of the equipment and technical expertise for the Taxila Heavy Machinery Plant near Rawalpindi came from Shanghai Heavy Machinery.
In 1969, Zhang was sent to Pakistan to help install the machinery his factory had exported.
"I felt a little anxious about the job," he recalled. "I wasn't sure I had enough knowledge and experience. And I had to leave my wife and two kids."
Zhang remembers what he wore the day he left as though it was yesterday. A tailor-made suit that cost him what was then a hefty 400 yuan (US$65.04). The flight, his first, took 17 hours.
Work overseas
What greeted him was something quite apart from his own environment.
The new plant, commissioned to manufacture equipment for sugar refining, cement-making and road building, was located in a vast valley not far from the capital, Islamabad. It was a hot, dusty terrain.
Zhang had to cope with major changes in climate, language and customs in a Muslim country.
"It was so hot," he said. "It almost reached 50 degrees Celsius during the day. I felt dizzy when I walked."
But young men acclimate and so did Zhang. He relied on Urdu and English translators to help him in his work. In time, he picked up a bit of Urdu.
Food was another challenge. Fresh vegetables were a luxury. For the first two weeks, he stuck to only rice congee.
"Bearing in mind the saying 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do,' I grew my own vegetables on a little plot of land closed to my living quarters, with seeds sent from China," he said.
Photos. And more photos. Zhang leafs through his albums and smiles.
He remembers the times he ached with homesickness. He remembers the times the workers had to take refuge in air-raid shelters when relations between Pakistan and India were strained.
"My wife was so worried about me," he said. "She listened to the international news every day, paying close attention to the situation in Pakistan. In order to easy their anxiety, I always wrote glowing letters home."
Over and over, he trained teams of Pakistani apprentices, mustering up his patience until they mastered the techniques of running the China-made equipment.
Five years seemed long at the time. Now it is just a flicker of pages in a photo album. Zhang relishes the memories.
"I was thrilled seeing the first machinery equipment roll off the assembly line there," he said.
His wife Jiang Yunhong waited patiently for his return, rearing their two children by herself. She wrote many letters, always careful to be upbeat even during rough patches in his absence.
"I was always proud of him," she said. "I still am." She still keeps the gifts he brought back for her - a watch, a lamp and two blankets.
Photos and memories are best shared.
Zhang recently received a visit from Guo Limin, a writer who once spent three years working on the Karakoram Highway, a Pakistani-Chinese joint venture of the 1960s and 70s to build one of the highest paved roads in the world.
Zhang and Guo reminisced and shared photos of their experiences there.
"Although we never met before, we felt like brothers at first sight," Guo said.
Happy memories fill the void of his twilight years.
The highlight of his life, he said, is the five-year period he spent working in Pakistan during the early 1970s.
It was an experience that broadened his life and certainly helped his career.
Pakistan was a rather exotic adventure for a farm boy with no formal education. His family was forced to flee their home in Shanghai during the Japanese invasion of the 1930s. Later, he managed to pick up some rudimentary skills at a blacksmith's shop near what is Zhongshan Park in Changning District today.
Zhang was able to parlay those skills into a job at Shanghai Heavy Machinery Plant in Minhang, where he worked as a technician and decided he wanted to become an electrician.
"I was grateful for the chance to work there and improve my skills," he said.
His diligence and hard work paid off.
He was eventually reassigned to the engineering department and picked to go to Pakistan, where China was helping its neighbor build a heavy machinery plant.
Most of the equipment and technical expertise for the Taxila Heavy Machinery Plant near Rawalpindi came from Shanghai Heavy Machinery.
In 1969, Zhang was sent to Pakistan to help install the machinery his factory had exported.
"I felt a little anxious about the job," he recalled. "I wasn't sure I had enough knowledge and experience. And I had to leave my wife and two kids."
Zhang remembers what he wore the day he left as though it was yesterday. A tailor-made suit that cost him what was then a hefty 400 yuan (US$65.04). The flight, his first, took 17 hours.
Work overseas
What greeted him was something quite apart from his own environment.
The new plant, commissioned to manufacture equipment for sugar refining, cement-making and road building, was located in a vast valley not far from the capital, Islamabad. It was a hot, dusty terrain.
Zhang had to cope with major changes in climate, language and customs in a Muslim country.
"It was so hot," he said. "It almost reached 50 degrees Celsius during the day. I felt dizzy when I walked."
But young men acclimate and so did Zhang. He relied on Urdu and English translators to help him in his work. In time, he picked up a bit of Urdu.
Food was another challenge. Fresh vegetables were a luxury. For the first two weeks, he stuck to only rice congee.
"Bearing in mind the saying 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do,' I grew my own vegetables on a little plot of land closed to my living quarters, with seeds sent from China," he said.
Photos. And more photos. Zhang leafs through his albums and smiles.
He remembers the times he ached with homesickness. He remembers the times the workers had to take refuge in air-raid shelters when relations between Pakistan and India were strained.
"My wife was so worried about me," he said. "She listened to the international news every day, paying close attention to the situation in Pakistan. In order to easy their anxiety, I always wrote glowing letters home."
Over and over, he trained teams of Pakistani apprentices, mustering up his patience until they mastered the techniques of running the China-made equipment.
Five years seemed long at the time. Now it is just a flicker of pages in a photo album. Zhang relishes the memories.
"I was thrilled seeing the first machinery equipment roll off the assembly line there," he said.
His wife Jiang Yunhong waited patiently for his return, rearing their two children by herself. She wrote many letters, always careful to be upbeat even during rough patches in his absence.
"I was always proud of him," she said. "I still am." She still keeps the gifts he brought back for her - a watch, a lamp and two blankets.
Photos and memories are best shared.
Zhang recently received a visit from Guo Limin, a writer who once spent three years working on the Karakoram Highway, a Pakistani-Chinese joint venture of the 1960s and 70s to build one of the highest paved roads in the world.
Zhang and Guo reminisced and shared photos of their experiences there.
"Although we never met before, we felt like brothers at first sight," Guo said.
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