They are also Parents They Are Also Parents - A Study on Migrant Workers | Page 70

CCR CSR | A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-behind Children in China | August 2013
CCR CSR | A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-behind Children in China | August 2013
me. During the time when mum was back here, to begin with her health away from me. I would only share with them something I’m happy about; not
was still okay, but then her illness came back. She went to stay in hospital. I anything negative.
was there with her in hospital while she was being treated. Dad didn’t come
back during that period. My mum really cared about me. Once when I had a “I’m not sure whether my parents miss me or not. I can’t read their minds,
toothache and I was in the hospital on a drip, my mum made congee for me and I haven’t asked them about this. I grew up with my grandma. My mom
to eat at home, and at nighttime she was at my bedside looking after me. didn’t spend much time with me when I grew up, so I’m not very intimate
with her. When talk to my parents on the phone, I usually don’t initiate
“When I was living with my mum, sometimes we’d chat about things that had conversations; just answer their questions. Previously my parents talked
happened in kindergarten. Kindergarten was when I was living with mum and about bringing me and my sister to Chongqing to live with them, but I don’t
dad. That was a really happy time. The happiest thing I remember was fishing want to, because I don’t know what it would be like. However, if my grandma
with my sister and her friends. moves to Chongqing, I would love to move with her. I don’t care much about
“My greatest wish now is to live with my dad.” where my parents work – Chongqing, or somewhere closer, it doesn’t matter
to me. Where they are is their own business – it should totally be their own
[A postscript from the interviewer]: Xiaohang is clearly torn between moving decision. At this point, I don’t have a preference about staying in the city or in
to a strange environment and wanting to be with own dad. Perhaps he doesn’t the countryside, and I don’t have any concrete career plans either.”
even realize it himself. There is obviously a contradiction, which is clear when
the boy describes having been to visit his father, while his father told us that “I don’t like school breaks. Although I can go and see my parents during
he hadn’t been. These contradictions are a struggle in the child’s head. Should breaks, I couldn’t hang out with my peers or simply go out for fun. Usually,
we understand this as the boy saying he wants to go? It is difficult to say. when I go to the city, I spend every day with my parents during the summer
Perhaps he thought he should say the “right thing,” or what he thought he was vacation. But I don’t feel much different during those periods.
supposed to say. Perhaps as adults we will never really know what children
like this are thinking.
“My sister was sent back home when she was maybe five, but I was sent back
at a very young age. My grandma told me it was because I cried too much
Case 2: I talk to my toy bear when I feel down and it bothered my parents. When grandma was working on farm, she always
Xiaoli, 12 years old brought me along. In my memories, grandma is the one that gave me the
most care and love. When I was sick, my parents wouldn’t come back to take
Xiaoli was born in Zunyi in Guizhou Province. Her parents started out as street me to hospital, they only mailed back some medications. Although I don’t like
fruit vendors in Zunyi, but are now migrant workers in a factory in Chongqing. going to the doctor and getting shots, I still feel it’s necessary.
Xiaoli was sent home at eight months to her grandmother. Since she rarely
has time to see her parents, she sometimes blames them for giving birth “I wish they could come home during the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year).
to her and not taking care of her. She even thinks she might not be their Every year I have to go to Chongqing for that. I think when they say they
biological daughter. can’t make it home it’s more of an excuse. I somehow feel like an unwanted
burden in our family. I even think I might not be their biological daughter. I
“I was born in Zunyi, and my parents were street fruit vendors. Now they are
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think the most important thing is a happy family. But even though some of
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