HU BING: When I was a child, I dreamt about having a job and going to work, that was very nice. I dreamt I was earning my own money, I could buy whatever I wanted. My parents wouldn’t give me any money. Later this dream became reality. A factory took over the land where we were living because the city was expanding. It was a sugar factory and they let the people who had lost their land work in the factory. I don’t remember if the factory was built in 1982 or in 1986, anyway I started working there in 1986. I worked there for a year, then I was sent to a paper factory. It was quite a big factory but after a while it got into trouble and in the end it had to close down because of the pollution. The sugar factory also closed down because less and less people were planting sugar cane. Then, in 1997, many smaller companies were merged into big ones, it was called the group system or something like that. So the sugar factory was merged into a beer factory. I worked in the packaging area, I had to clean the bottles before the beer was filled into them. In 2003, the beer factory went bankrupt. I could see that the company was going down, so in 2001 I started doing business on my own in my spare time, while I was still working at the factory. It was a really small business then, now it’s a little bigger.
    In 2003, I got laid off because of the bankruptcy. Since then I’ve been working in my own business. I need to take care of my daughter. Everything I do is for my daughter. Sometimes I wanted to get a real job but my husband didn’t want me to, he said I’d better stay home and take care of our daughter, she’s in her adolescence and if I didn’t take care of her she might get into trouble. I thought about giving up my business but my husband wanted me to continue. Anyway, I’m not really doing anything in this business, sometimes someone passes by and buys something, but that’s it. So I can do my work and still have time for our daughter. She listens to me, she’s also doing fine at school. I don’t care if I earn less money because I have to take care of my daughter. I think too much money is useless, anyway. I’m quite happy with my situation, it’s neither too good nor too bad. My life doesn’t have any dramatic events, it’s really quite ordinary.

BELOVED
ASPIRATION
TENSION
SUDDENLY
DISILLUSION
HARDSHIP
MOVEMENT
PERSISTENCE
ACHIEVEMENT
DESOLATION