[Malaysia] Ting Xian Fei, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
The rain is drizzling outside the window and the fragrance of the earth fills the air, making me recollect the taste of early summer in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province. Nanjing must have entered the rainy season by now.
I miss the sound of raindrops hitting the dormitory windows, the chirping of birds and the chorus of cicadas on campus, and the campus scenery which is as beautiful as oil paintings all year round. I can’t go back to college at this time because of the epidemic. I browse through the WeChat Moments of my friends at college and am letting my thoughts fly.
I was born in Malaysia in 1997, and as a descendant of overseas Chinese, my first impressions of China were mainly from the stories told by my grandfather. Whenever he talked about the hard times in the first half of the 20th century, he would always have tears in his eyes. When he mentioned the reform and opening up in the 70s and 80s, the rapid development in the 90s, and the prosperity today, joy and pride would naturally appear on his face.
I still remember that my grandfather’s favorite poem at that time was Yu Guangzhong’s Nostalgia: “When I was a child/ Nostalgia was a tiny stamp/I am hither/ And mother was thither/ When I became an adult/ Nostalgia was a slip of ship ticket/ I am hither/ And bride was thither/ Later on/ nostalgia was a low tomb/ I am without/ And mother was within/ But now/ nostalgia is a shallow strait/ I am hither/ And the mainland is thither.” As a young girl, I did not understand the meaning of this poem, but at that time, I made a small wish that one day I would go to China and set foot on the land that my grandfather had walked on.
As the saying goes, if you work hard enough, an iron pestle can be sharpened into a needle. Through my own unremitting efforts, I finally received an admission letter from a Chinese university after graduating from high school, and at that moment, the room was filled with the sound of my cheering.
On the day when I began my journey to university, the flight attendant outlined the city under the plane in clear Chinese, and I followed the flight attendant’s introduction and looked out of the window. The city underneath was brightly lit up like a flower, and the flashing lights of airport tower seemed to be waving welcome me.
As the plane landed, I arrived at my grandfather’s former hometown, a place that was both strange and familiar to me. During the first days after I arrived in China, I was still a little unaccustomed to it. But with the enthusiastic help of teachers and classmates, I quickly adapted to the tense but happy campus life. Every morning, it became my daily routine to rush to class holding my breakfast on a little blue bike. After school, you could see me shuttling through all big activities, busy and full.
However, life is not always smooth, but full of ups and downs. Who would have thought that the epidemic has left me in Malaysia for almost two years after returning for winter break?
At the time of the outbreak, although I was in Malaysia, I was always thinking about China. The first thing I did every day when I woke up was to turn on the news and check the epidemic situation in China. When I saw that the number of new infections in China increased from tens to hundreds and thousands every day, my heart was tightened and I kept cheering and praying for China in my heart.
When I saw that the Central Committee of CPC taking the overall situation into account, quickly took corresponding measures, invested a lot of human and material resources to build mobile cabin hospitals, made every effort to develop the vaccines, and mobilized all kinds of materials to help the hardest hit areas, I gave a thumbs-up for China from the bottom of my heart.
When I saw that more than one billion people in China actively cooperated with the government and had the epidemic effectively under control in as short as one month, pride naturally grew in my heart. I think the reason why China is China lies not only in its economic development and advanced technology, but, more importantly, in its national spirit: unity and solidarity.
The rain is still drizzling outside the window. At this moment I suddenly understand the proud look in my grandfather’s eyes when he talked about China, and the meaning of that poem, “Nostalgia”.
At this moment
Nostalgia is a plane ticket
I am hither
And China is thither.
The story is from "My Beautiful Encounter with China" Essay Competition organized by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchanges (CSCSE).
