Born in the 1990s -- Zhang Yan, 19
Print Edition
“I want to find my little brother, who must be a teenager by now.”
Zhang Yan, 19, a native of Chongqing and soon-to-be sophomore at Fudan University, has a special dream apart from the usual ambitions for a good job.
“I want to find my little brother, who must be a teenager by now,” Zhang says.
When Zhang was a young girl, her infant brother was snatched by a relative and never seen again. She says she doesn’t blame her parents. They were both migrant workers who needed to labor every day to make ends meet and couldn’t be home all the time to watch the children.
Instances of child-snatching are not uncommon. Recently in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, an obstetrician sold a newborn baby. The infant was later found, after having changed hands in three neighboring provinces, and returned to his mother.
The “Chinese Dream” may be particularly compelling for inland areas of China, where poor economic conditions and lax social governance have left many people without much hope for a better life. That’s been particularly true among migrant families.
“Although my parents later gave birth to a younger sister, I feel I must find my little brother to reconnect our blood bond,” Zhang says.
She is making her way to a better life by studying hard. Zhang is now learning German at Fudan.
“Being in Shanghai has been an eye-opener for me,” she says.
She did not return home until late July for the summer vocation because she had to finish part-time work as a private tutor.
On this trip home, which takes 27 hours by train, she treated herself to a sleeper berth with her earnings.
“It was much better than the experience during the winter holiday, when I had only a hard seat for the 41-hour slow train back to Chongqing,” she says.
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