A Photographer and A Family 70 Years of Friendship

BEIJING, Jan. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A photographer's personal narration of a seven-decade-long story by China.org.cn

The first spring after the founding of the People's Republic of China (1949), I was working as a press photographer for Zhejiang Daily. On my very first trip to cover the countryside by myself, I met a farmer named Ye Gentu and his family in Qixing, Jiaxing. After that, they became an important part of my life.

In 1950, 1959, 1990, 2008, and 2019, over a timespan of seven decades, I captured the lives of four generations of this family through my lens. As I flip through these photos today and familiar faces appear before my eyes, I see not just the people themselves, but all the millions upon millions of Chinese farmers. I see their kindness, their assiduousness, their humble simplicity, and their dependable character, and appreciate how they have built a brighter future through their own efforts.

I am now 90 years old, but thinking back, it feels like only yesterday that I first travelled to Jiaxing.

The first picture is a family portrait, and I returned to the family in 1959. As I listened to Gentu describe all that had happened over the years, and as I looked around at the Ye family's neat and tidy little courtyard, I was suddenly so moved that I didn't know how to react. All I could do was lift up my camera again and say, "Let me take another family portrait for you!"

A few days before National Day in 1962, I received this letter from Gentu, inviting me to attend his daughter's wedding, and immediately I went to the bus station to buy a ticket. I soon realized, however, that I could not attend a wedding empty handed, but what should I bring as a gift? The photos sandwiched between the pages of my notebook gave me an idea.

"I'm afraid I don't have anything nice to give Guifeng, just these family portraits that I developed and framed. I hope that she can look at them often when she is with her husband's family and that they remind her how much her life has changed from the hard days of the past." These humble gifts were an expression of my friendship, and my way of giving my best wishes to the bride and Gentu's family.

Standing in front of all the well-wishers present, he turned to his daughter and said, "Guifeng, though our bellies are now full, we cannot forget the past. Twelve years ago when we lived in Jiaxing, this comrade took our picture. Three years ago, he visited us again in Huangyan and took another photo of our family. These two photos are a record of how much our family has changed over the years. Today is your wedding day, and though I didn't originally prepare a dowry for you, I want to give you these photos as family heirlooms that you can bring to your husband's home. In the future, you can look at them to see how things have changed, and when you have your own children, you can tell them about how we used to be." With that, he passed the framed pictures to the newlywed couple.

My wife still remembers me telling her about the great project that I had envisioned after I returned from the wedding: "I want to make each of the five people in the photos individual subjects, and produce a photo report every five years to tell the story of this family over a 30-year period."

Neither of us could have guessed that the coming Cultural Revolution (1966-76) would upset my plans.

When I finally returned to Liangpengling in late December, 1978, I learned that it had already been four years since Ye Gentu passed away.

After that, I would visit Jiaxing and Huangyan three or four times a year to see how the rest of his family were getting along. They also made a point of meeting me whenever they came to Hangzhou, and shared all of the big news in their lives with me as soon as it happened.

In May of 1984, I made a special trip to visit Jiaxing at Gentu's oldest son, Xingfu's invitation. Ten years earlier when he was discharged from the army, he decided to stay and build a life for himself there. At the time of my visit, he was already in charge of a large unit of workers at a local farm and responsible for more than 30 hectares of cropland. Coincidentally, the place where he worked was the same place where he was born.

When my boat floated up to the bank, I saw that Xingfu's whole family was already on the dock waiting for me. Before we even had a chance to greet each other, two lively looking children dressed in nice new clothes bounced over and, under Xingfu's instructions, called out to me "Grandpa! Grandpa!"

Arriving at Xingfu's home, I found that his family lived in a spacious and tidy house filled with trendy furniture. They had a bicycle and a sewing machine, and basically all of the other possessions that the average worker's family had.

Impressed, I said to Xingfu, "Before liberation, your mother would always sigh about your name, saying that giving you a name meaning prosperity was just wishful thinking since there was no prosperity to be found at the time. But now look at you, you've lived up to your name!"

"By all accounts, good times have come at last," he replied. "Now the kids can have a good life, with nice clothes to wear and fresh food to eat."

Xingfu's son Shengzhong chimed in with his father and proclaimed his own lofty aspirations. "I want to keep becoming more capable until I'm a master at what I do!" Listening to this wide-eyed and innocent child speak, I couldn't help but smile.

Little did I know, Shengzhong would stay true to his word.

In the fall of 1992, 20-year-old Ye Shengzhong entered the Minfeng Paper Mill in Jiaxing. Starting as an ordinary shift worker, he quickly became hailed as a young expert.

At the beginning of the summer in 2004, Xingfu phoned to invite me to Shengzhong's wedding.

"I'll definitely be there," I replied excitedly, "and I'll bring another family 'heirloom' to give to Shengzhong."

After that, I also attended the wedding of Weiping, another grandson of Gentu's.

I was already 86 years old by then. Worried that I would have trouble walking around, my wife stayed with me the night before in Taizhou and accompanied me the following day to Liangpengling.

By that time, I wasn't just like a relative to the Ye family, but also a friend of the whole village. People called me Grandpa Xu and joked that I had been to the village so many times that I had basically become a fixture there.

"Are you worried I didn't bring a gift for your grandson?" I joked as I signaled my wife to take out our present – another family portrait! This photo was taken when I came to Huangyan during the Mid-Autumn Festival the previous year.

Seeing the young and old members of the Ye family holding the picture and smiling, I cannot help but raise my camera once again.

Seven decades, four generations. In Jiaxing and Huangyan, the Ye family blossomed and grew. Xingfu's son Shengzhong got a job at a state-owned enterprise, Gentu's second son, Xingyou's son, Chengjian opened a seafood restaurant in Taizhou, and Xingfa's son Weiping ran a hardware business. Only Guifeng's son Yang Huijun was still a farmer.

However, he was already a very different kind of farmer than Gentu was.

The specialty of Maoshe Village is growing watermelon, with two-thirds of its working-age young people in the watermelon business. Over the years, Huijun not only mastered the skills for growing watermelon, but also developed a keen ability to analyze the market. Going all over the place to plant vast crops of watermelon, he can be counted among the new generation of skilled farmers who have found their talents in high demand beyond the confines of their villages.

As a lifelong friend of the Ye family, if there is one thing that I asked of them, it is that I could see one of their family go to university.

On June 8, 2013, this dream of mine finally came true – Guifeng's eldest granddaughter, that is Huijun's daughter Yang Xichen was about to graduate from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai with a degree in bioengineering!

How could I miss such an important moment? I had to go. There, I took a photo of Xichen in her graduation gown.

Is this where the Ye family's story ended? Of course not.

On the eve of the Lantern Festival in 2019, I went to Taizhou, Jiaxing, and Huangyan with a few young reporters from Zhejiang Daily to take photos of the Ye family's descendants.

Looking out the window as our car sped down the highway, I found the villages and factories we passed looked brand new. All those years ago, it was a difficult journey that required weaving around on many roads, but now you can drive straight there. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012, Zhejiang has thrived economically and enjoyed a beautiful environment, and everywhere one goes one can feel that a new era has begun.

China Mosaic
http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm

A Photographer and A Family 70 Years of Friendship
http://v.china.com.cn/2020-12/29/content_77060464.htm

SOURCE China.org.cn