Those Left Behind: China’s Deserted Villages

Those Left Behind: China’s Deserted Villages
Feb 25, 2014 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s note: Every year more and more people are pouring into China’s cities to find work. By 2012 more than half of the population had moved into the urban sprawl, leaving villages almost completely empty. This translated article from ifeng introduces one of China’s deserted villages, Nansong, a village in northwest Jiangsu Province, and those left behind. From children who miss there parents, wives who miss their husbands, and elderly who have no one to look after them, life as one of the left-behind is tough.

Nansong village, northwest Jiangsu Province, is located near Dazong Lake. According to legend, this area, along with Beisong village, was a bustling ancient city until it was flooded. Two brothers were believed to be the only survivors. The elder brother settled in the north of the lake and the younger settled in the south and so the two villages were formed.

The village has one main street (though this is only about 2 to 3 meters wide, and only about 100 meters long) and many little alleyways. There are a number of small independently owned convenience stores, all with very few customers. The whole place looks deserted. Nansong village now only has 2,100 residents, and more than 900 of those have left to look for work. Ninety percent of children, 70% of the elderly, and 30% of the village’s women stay behind.

Nansong’s Communist party branch secretary, Zhou Xiaozhao, says, “Nansong is divided into 14 villager groups, the majority of the residents are in Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and Shanghai working in construction, textiles or noodle manufacturing, there are very few young people in the village now. But for the villagers here, the income is very low. Last year villagers salaries came to 14,500 RMB, almost every family built a home. Although almost every family has a home, because there are so few people, at night, only a few buildings have lights on.”

Young children in a rural Chinese village.
Source: Praziquantel

Left-behind children miss their parents

The school is about 8 km away from Nansong, there are 692 students, 373 of which are ‘left-behind’ children, and 32 of these children come from Nansong. At the school, all the teachers act on behalf of fathers and mothers because, in addition to imparting cultural knowledge, they pay close attention to the children’s psychology. One teacher said that although the children seem to adapt to school life, they all long for their parents, a fact they do not like to share with others. Once Ruan Peijun gave the Year 5 boarding school children a music class, and taught the children to sing “Left Behind Children.” Ruan felt the song was authentic and so taught them to sing it. After the class, all 40 children began to cry at their desks. He said he dare not teach this type of song again.

Huang Qiuying, a houseparent at the school used to make 260 RMB per month, now she make 500 RMB a month. Except for weekends she almost works 24 hours a day. Although her salary is not much, she often gives students money for medicine, hoping to be reimbursed later. Over the last 10 years she can’t remember how much she has spent on medicine for the children. The students have become her grandchildren, and many refer to her as “nainai” (Grandmother).

Left-behind elderly are lonely and have no one to rely on

At Nansong’s Yongxing temple, many of the village’s elderly gather to chat, because staying at home is difficult, and boring. There are many elderly still living in the village, because their children are not around, who love to join in the fun at the temple. They play petty games in which they can easily cheat, often cheating outsiders of their money. The old people in this village are terrified of getting sick, because there are no children to look after them.

Like many of the parents left behind in China’s deserted villages, although life can be difficult, they still support their children leaving to find work. 64 year old Li Mingguo said, “Both my two sons work elsewhere, both have a house in the village, which I look after for them, next year they will return.”

Left-behind women have no sustenance for their affection

Fourty-four year old, Xu Yongping, has a 20 year old son working in Suzhou, a husband who is a carpenter who lives and works in another city, only returning for a month at Chinese New Year every year. The couple have lived this way for 10 years.

Fifty-three year old Liu Meihua is Chairwoman of the village and also a left-behind wife. “In the village there are few young people, the majority leave together as husband and wife to find work, they look after each other. The women left behind are all over the age of 40, they look after grandsons and granddaughters at home, call on friends, and play mahjong. Husbands are gone for long periods of time, so some of the women have lovers in the village, a fact that they talk about privately but not publicly. The majority of the women left behind are very conservative, they can cope, but if you want to hear the truth, it is hard, the women’s life is not easy,” she opines.

Source: ifeng.com

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Keywords: women left behind China’s deserted villages Left-behind children

5 Comments

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astrongman

Sounds like the song Dogtown by Harry Chapin. I recommend it as the whaler's wives of 16th and 17th century New England went through the same thing. Sad lives but, yet again, caused by poor life choices. In a rush to get married and have a child, but not develop the means to raise or support it effectively, so send the kid to another city as the father becomes a low level grunt in another city. This kind of life breeds broken families and emotionally distant people. My father-in-law works most of his time either in Anhui or in Wuxi. . .which isn't far from his home. But still, it's not Danyang or Zhenjiang. My wife was one of these types of children. I accepted her inability to show affection and luckily, it's changing since we met. But it's been a long, hard slog to fill the emotional hole.

May 19, 2014 08:56 Report Abuse

BenjamminBW

i dont know what to say, it's not good. i think the faster than light pace of development and urbanistation, and a population so large but with the government still putting out the message that 'we need to create more people as fast as possible' is kind of unatural and these are just some of the un humane and uncalculate or even ignored consequences of the chinese government's relentless stomp towards what it wants

Mar 11, 2014 15:14 Report Abuse

sorrel

sadly without their parents around, these are children vunerable to abuse from the adults who remain behind in the villages. no matter how well intentioned the teachers are, they are no substitute for parents.

Feb 28, 2014 21:48 Report Abuse

Robk

Here is a video on a similar village (Chinese with English Subtitles) - "http://www.metropolistv.nl/en/watch/recent/mr-lou-s-lonely-pupils-in-china" Seems like this is happening in pretty much every village in China. So many people but such a lonely place.

Feb 25, 2014 13:28 Report Abuse

strength

My heart goes out to these people - there are no easy solutions.

Feb 25, 2014 11:15 Report Abuse