My Journey …
I was born in a small town called Jiangle in Fujiang, a mountainous
province in Southern China, where my father and mother
were send to be "re-educated" in farms after they graduated from
colleges in the 1970's. The town lies among
great mountains and deep gorges with beautiful primitive forests and charming
streams, which, however, isolated it from the outside world. In my memories of
the town are big stones paved on the narrow dark streets, always smooth, wet
and slippery, reminding the walkers of their thousands years of history.
When I was ten, I left this
tiny town with my family and moved to a city named Sanming not very far away.
The city, with its three hundred thousand people and several giant heavy
industrial plants, is located in a narrow valley alone with a sandy river. In
the past decades, due to the cold war between the Taiwan Strait, this valley
was selected as a military strategic base -- close to the island but far enough
to avoid the direct gunfire. Although surrounded by forest, the city was quite
annoyed by problems of pollution, which caused the industrial shrinkage in late
80's. In a stuffy high school there, I spend
six years preparing for my college, together with a bunch of my most loyal
friends.
Then
I went to Beijing, the center of
Chinese culture and politics, and attended a famous engineering college -- Tsinghua
University. The school was
originally established by the Americans at the commencement of the 20th
century (using war reparations from the Chinese people) with the purpose of
fostering pro-western elite. Ironically, nowadays it is reputed to be one of
the most academically strict and politically conservative universities in the
nation. I was majored in materials science in Tsinghua. These five years were
unforgettable -- not only because it gave me a solid base for my future
carrier, but also because it taught me how to live in a realistic world without
losing an idealistic heart.
Two months after the graduation
from Tsinghua, leaving behind me my old and populous motherland, I came to Ohio,
U. S. Like many other new comers, I was attracted by the liberty, diversity and
affluence of this "new continent", but every now and then I felt
frustrated and deeply alone. Sometimes I lay myself on the ground facing
downward, imaging that I can look through the earth to see what is happening in
my motherland on the back of the planet.
Last modified 3/12/99
