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Home » Feature » People

Textile worker awarded top medal for life-long contribution

By Yang Jian | 00:00 UTC+8 July 3, 2021 | Print Edition

One of China’s earliest “model workers,” Huang Baomei, has witnessed and contributed to the nation’s rapid development throughout her life.

Huang was recruited as a textile worker when she was 13 years old. She later became a pioneer of Shanghai and China’s textile industry.

Chairman Mao Zedong asked her to take responsibility for the clothing issues of Chinese people. She has made it her lifelong mission.

The 90-year-old Shanghai native was recently awarded the “July 1 Medal” by President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

“I’ve never dreamed to win such a great honor, because I’m just an ordinary working person who did what I should do,” said Huang.

“It represents the recognition from the Party and the people, so I must better serve the homeland and the people.”

Huang was born into a local poor family in Pudong in 1931. Her father sold tofu to make the ends meet. To relieve the burden of her family, she worked for a Japanese textile factory on Yangshupu Road in Yangpu District as a child laborer when she was 13 years old.

Huang still remembers the inhuman treatment at the factory. They had to get up at 4am and work for 12 hours continuously in unventilated workshops. The meals she brought from home often soured. The monitors would beat her violently. She also had to undergo body searches before entering or leaving the factory.

“That is reason why I worked so hard after the liberation of the country in 1949,” Huang said. “We working class finally stood up to become the masters of our own.”

Huang’s talent and endeavor made her outstanding when the Japanese factory was taken over and became the Shanghai No. 17 General Cotton Mill.

She optimized the working process and doubled the efficiency to operate 800 spindles simultaneously alone. Due to her performances and innovations, she became a member of the Communist Party of China in November 1952, and the leader of other spinners in the factory.

Huang was selected as China’s first generation of “model workers” from more than 300,000 spinners in the city in 1953. Former national leaders including Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou Enlai and Madame Soong Ching Ling visited her.

“The chairman said ‘being a spinner is a great honor. It is a great responsibility to let Chinese people have clothes,’” Huang recalled. She added the chairman’s encouragement had driven her to keep working hard and make innovations.

Inspired by Huang, the spinners at the local factory produced nearly half of the nation’s cotton cloth in the 1950s, a manufacturing miracle by then.

Huang inspired a movie by famous Chinese director Xie Jin in 1958. The film “Huang Baomei” which starred Huang herself became popular across the country.

An actor’s line “our female spinners are the real fairies who weave clothes for us” was known to almost every citizen at that time.

Huang became famous due to the popularity of the movie when she was 26 years old. She refused to become a movie star and insisted on returning to the spinners’ workshop. She declined to be made a company executive.

“I always remember the order from the chairman,” Huang said. “Spinning is my speciality and life career.”

She worked as a spinner at the factory for 42 years until her retirement in 1987. She won the honorary title of “model worker” seven times and was invited to three international meetings on behalf of the Chinese working class.

When she went to Vienna to attend the meeting of the World Federation of Youth in 1958, many Europeans gave a thumb-up to Huang and shouted “long live the Chinese people,” Huang recalled.

“I felt a deep pride to my homeland and determined to contribute for life,” she said.

After retirement, Huang was invited to Qidong in neighboring Jiangsu Province and Shihezi in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to guide the construction of textile factories there.

Huang offered professional suggestions and guidance for plant design, recruitment and equipment purchase without payment.

“It is my duty to help them and follow the orders of Chairman Mao to make sure every Chinese has clothes,” said Huang.

After returning to Shanghai, Huang established a company to help retired model workers with poor living conditions. She also takes an active part in community volunteer work.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led her sons and grandchildren to donate and serve as community volunteers. She also received the vaccination among the first batch of local seniors.

To inspire more of the young generation, Huang often gives speeches at local schools and communities. She has also made live-streaming lectures on the popular video stream platform Bilibili nowadays.

More than a million young people have listened to over 10,000 online and offline lectures given by Huang in the last two decades.

“Happiness is never about receiving but giving,” Huang told the young audiences on one of her latest online lecture on Bilibili, which attracted over 10,000 online viewers.

During her leisure time, Huang often visits the former site of the textile factory she had worked and lived for over four decades. It has been converted into the Shanghai International Fashion Center along the Huangpu River.

“I’m proud to witness the great changes of the Yangpu waterfront,” she said. “The riverside region used to contribute greatly to the nation’s economy. It has now become a popular public space for the people.”

During a visit to the Yangpu waterfront in November 2019, President Xi met and talked with Huang about the riverside region. Xi said Huang is the “witness, participant and contributor” to the development of China.

“I will keep sharing stories and contributing to society as long as I can walk,” said Huang.

People


 

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