The Wall Street Journal featured a story about liushou ertong, which refers to the roughly 22 million children left behind in the Chinese countryside while their parents seek higher-paying jobs in cities such as Shanghai. In China, small problems do not exist by mere fact of the population size. By way of comparison, 22 million is roughly the population of Texas, our second most populous state.
However, this problem is neither new nor limited to the Chinese countryside. We only have to look back a century or so to witness the countless Chinese men who left their wives and children behind to build America’s transcontinental railroad, work the mines, and labor in the agricultural fields. in the 1980s, we saw Chinese parents leave their children behind in the United States while they continued their careers in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Sometimes, the mother would remain in the United States with the children, and sometimes not.
In the present day, as the Chinese economy heats up, we can see a new generation of Chinese fathers again separate from their families. This time, reversing the trend from a century ago and departing Gold Mountain for China’s seductive shores. In our moment of excitement, the opportunities always look great, especially when the tangible financial benefits seem to outweigh the amorphous emotional costs. The truth is that our time together is too precious a gift to sacrifice. And, time once passed can never be replenished.
One response to “A Timeless Tale of Families Split Apart”
The problem of broken families is not only prominent in China. It’s something common across the globe. But instead of condemning the father who caused it or the mother who has been the reason or whoever it is in the family, let’s identify the things that usually make members in the family feel tired with each other.
There are lots of ways out there that can rekindle the fading love among family members. Let’s all work together to bring those information to each and every family in the worl.