Great China Leap (7), Postlude

Postlude, a family reunion in the countryside

I have long planned to finish this over-due series with a picture that I took in my May trip. Unfortunately that picture was lost in the camera that I gave as a gift to one of my nephews.

The picture was about a farmer's front yard. I went to visit my grandma, who is still living in countryside with my uncle's family. They have a typical rectangular-shaped walled residence. If you walk into the front gate, on the side are kitchen and utility rooms, and the main room at back. Before the gate there is some unpaved space, and I call that the front yard for lack of a better name.

It was a raining early summer day, tens of little baby frogs jumping around in the dirt.

My uncles and aunts and some of my cousins came to see me, while I go back to China often, mostly of time I skip seeing my grandma because it's a lot of hassle just to get there. So every time I did go back, uncles and aunts came for a get-together. Last time it was about 3 years ago.

Something was strikingly different about this time.

When everyone finally arrived, were 4 cars were parking in the front yard. Another one at a couple of hundred meters away, just off the highway, because it couldn't make it through the rain-drenched dirt road.

None of them are brand new, in fact they are all quite old, taking at least 5 years of beating in China's heavy traffics. But they are cars, running ok and looking decent.

I took the picture, cars, with dirty mud here and there, sitting silently in my grandma's muddy countryside.

It's been a long long way, China.