Chapter 18 Chapter 17 Aria II: The Wandering High Blind Stream and the Still Barren Hills

One day at the beginning of July 1997, the graduation ceremony of a certain university by the side of Baishiqiao Road in Beijing had just finished. Zhao Xiaogang, a graduate, excitedly held the red-skinned gold-stamped university graduation certificate he had been looking forward to for four years. He faced the northwest direction, With tears streaming down his face, he said intermittently: "...Dad, your son has finally obtained a college diploma! The 2,000 yuan tuition you paid for me in the small coal mine that year was not in vain, Dad——!" Zhao Xiaogang" Kneeling on the ground with a "plop", he didn't get up for a long time... When he woke up from the mixed sorrow and joy, he found that the people in the same dormitory had disappeared, and even the bedding on the bed had disappeared.Zhao Xiaogang was also planning to leave school in the afternoon, but he felt that the classmates should say hello to each other, so he stayed.At night, the usually bustling dormitory became quiet, which even aroused Zhao Xiaogang's imagination——

Yes, four years seemed too long for Zhao Xiaogang, and it was too unbearable to look back on.He couldn't help but think of the scene four years ago when he was holding the university admission letter but didn't dare to show it to his father: It was a very sunny day, but Zhao Xiaogang felt as if he had committed some crime, standing in front of his father I didn't dare to speak for a long time. "What's the matter? Come on, I have to go to work in the mine, or the whole family will be in trouble." The father looked at his son impatiently.Zhao Xiaogang had no choice but to take out the university admission notice he was carrying in his arms: "I have been admitted to university." The son knew that his father would not be happy when he heard this, but he still didn't imagine that his father would get angry at him Hearing this, Zhao Xiaogang burst into tears: "Dad, just let me go to college. The debts at home will make a lot of money like people in the city after I go to college." , I promise to return it all!" "Really?" The father looked serious. "Really. I won't be human if I don't earn a lot of money after graduating from college! I will never go back to this cottage again!" The son knelt down, faced his father, and swore to God.My father was finally moved: "Succeed, you can go to study. Study the books in the university carefully. If I don't die, I can see the trees growing on our Zhao family's ancestral grave! Go!" Take out 2,000 yuan from the bottom of the box where no one can move, and give it to my son, "I just borrowed this from the mine owner, and I planned to use it for you to study in college. I didn't tell you, because I don't believe you will take the exam." In fact, to be honest, I really don’t want you to go to school anymore. Don’t blame your father, who told us that this small family is sick..." That night, I didn’t like to talk to my father since I was a child, and hated my father in my heart. The short-sighted Zhao Xiaogang suddenly had a new understanding of his father.He finally understood that his father often beat and scolded him, but he also loved him deeply in his heart, just like other fathers treat their sons.

Zhao Xiaogang took the 2,000 yuan his father borrowed from the mine owner, entered the university, and ran through the four-year bloody journey that was too long for him.He can't remember how many times he was ignored and discriminated against because he was a "poor student", and he didn't care about it.What he remembers most is that when he went home for the winter vacation in his first year, his father paid off the 2,000 yuan debt owed by the mine owner.It was the New Year's Eve that day, and the son asked his father why he still had to work in the mine. The father told him that the mine wanted him to pay back the money, because he had to work overtime and do coolies for others.When the father was about to leave, he gave his son a hard look and said, "It's up to you in the future. Dad can only work as an ox and a horse for others in his life, but he can't support the family well. Alas——!" After a long sigh , the father hunched his deformed back and disappeared into the morning mist.On that day, Zhao Xiaogang seemed to have a premonition that his father would never come back after he left.Later, my father really never came home again.A few hours later, people from the mine came to report that the small coal mine had collapsed, and five people, including Zhao Xiaogang's father, were buried in a well 100 meters deep...

Later, the mine owner approached Zhao Xiaogang's family and himself for a loan of 2,000 yuan.This kind of black-hearted request should be rejected, but this matter has been following Zhao Xiaogang's four years of college like a shadow.In Zhao Xiaogang's subconscious mind, his father's life is his 2,000 yuan tuition for college, and now he is holding this bright red graduation certificate, just like holding his father's bleeding heart buried under Jiuquan.At this moment, Zhao Xiaogang was full of thoughts, he wished he could grow his wings and fly back to Helan Mountain, kowtow a hundred heads in front of the sunken ruins where his father was buried, as a token of family affection.

"Xiao Gang, why haven't you left yet?" Suddenly, a classmate broke into the dormitory. Zhao Xiaogang returned to reality from his distant thoughts.He asked his classmates in a daze: "Where are the people in our dormitory going? They didn't even say hello..." The classmate laughed: "He is about to become a director of a foreign company, but you are fine, you don't have to worry about it at all!" Zhao Xiaogang felt strange: "What am I worried about? Now that I have obtained my university diploma, what is there to worry about?" "Hahaha...Look, I have said before that our current university direction is problematic. It specializes in cultivating high IQ and ignoring social practice ability. Isn't you a good example in front of you?" The students seemed to be in the classroom He talked loudly, "Mr. Zhao, do you think that a college degree can save you? It can make you a mountain baby become a rich man overnight? Wrong! Dear Mr. Zhao, you must clearly understand that the current You are not much different from that Zhao Xiaogang who got scum on his body four years ago. In a word, you are still a pauper! Isn't it?"

"Me? Why am I still a pauper? Look, is my diploma missing a corner from others?" Zhao Xiaogang was in a hurry, holding a red leather diploma as if to explain an undeniable truth for thousands of years. This time it was the classmate's turn to shake his head: "Mr. Zhao, Mr. Zhao, I really can't tell you. Let me ask you, besides a graduation certificate, can you still spend 100 yuan to buy a home certificate?" Train ticket? Let me ask you further, even if you get home, have you ever thought about whether you are riding a donkey on the "information highway" in the beautiful Helan Mountain village, or carrying a pole to carry out "network" farming? Think about it, my dear classmate!"

Yes, what can I do when I go back to Helan Mountain?Should he bring a bright red graduation certificate to the mine owner to recover his father's life?Or take this bright red college diploma and put it on the table in the main room, and ask the whole family to offer it every day?No, I can't go home with empty hands like this, I want to be a rich man!Zhao Xiaogang remembered the wish he had made in front of his father when he got the university admission letter, "I want to make a lot of money like a city man in the future", and suddenly he held the hand of his classmate a little excitedly: "You must help me, Let me go with you to make a fortune..."

Since then, in the vast and crowded city of Beijing, there has been another "blind stream" who is in a hurry every day and doesn't know what to do and what to gain.And Zhao Xiaogang is one of the tens of thousands of "high-level blind streamers" among the millions of blind streamers in Beijing.The so-called "advanced blind flow" has been defined by a sociologist as follows: it generally refers to those intellectuals and technical personnel who work or look for jobs in other places without personnel relations or household registration relations.Among them, college graduates are the most.According to a teacher from the student department of a certain university, the graduation assignment of college students has gradually become free to choose careers, so the school generally does not care about your whereabouts after graduation, except for some national indicators. In other words, as long as you have the ability, you will stay When you are a king in the palace, no one cares about you.Therefore, another situation that is actually happening at the university is that it has mobilized all forces to help those students with difficulties complete their studies during the four years of hard work. The school doesn't care about it, and it can't manage it anymore.

What is the purpose of helping the poor to study, saving the poor, and enabling the poor children to finish college? A big mistake! A real problem that has to be faced squarely! One day, nearly a year after Zhao Xiaogang graduated, I met him in a residential area behind the military museum, which is commonly known as "the white-collar elite in the capital".Now he shares a fellow villager's house with a fellow villager, which is very small and looks like a temporary building.In addition to the two beds, there are a lot of various advertising materials in the house.Xiao Zhao told me that he and several "buddies" who stayed in the capital after graduating from university did not return to their hometowns, are doing advertisements and special features for several CCTV programs.

"It's close to the Central Station, and it's just a few steps to 'Media'. We have to discuss business with customers almost every day, but we ourselves are not official staff of the Central Station, and it is inconvenient to enter the station, so we use the ' Media’s a treasure land to do things.” It seems that after leaving school, Xiao Zhao has already been reborn, no longer the kind of stupid nerd, and has become a well-equipped “business expert”.Hearing my flattery, he hurriedly said humbly: "It can only be regarded as just getting started." "Can you introduce your experience?"

"What kind of experience is it? There are a lot of lessons!" The following is the unusual experience Zhao Xiaogang told me after graduation: At the beginning, I followed a few classmates like a blind man touching an elephant, wandering around the city of Beijing, but I didn't know where the beginning was and where the end was.Going out of school is not like being in school. Although sometimes you can’t get enough to eat, but after all, there are people in charge, so you don’t have to worry about being called up by the police in the middle of the night to check your ID card.It’s not going to work right now. At first we didn’t find a decent job, so five or six classmates lived together in a small house of about ten square meters.You sleep during the day, and he sleeps at night. Anyway, some of us do daytime work, and some of us record programs all night, but we can handle it.But mainly to save some money.The six people we helped all did not return to their hometowns after graduating from university, and most of them came here by relying on special poverty subsidies at school.You ask why they don't want to go back to their hometown?The idea is similar to mine, I just want to earn some money outside.Everyone said that in the past, those of us students from poor places thought too simply, thinking that we could change our lives after working hard to get out of the "farm gate" and get a college diploma.But when we arrived in the real world, we realized that our thinking was too backward, at least a few beats behind the development of the times.In other words, if it was possible in the first five or six years, it may not be the case now.Some of us graduated with a master's degree. He said that when he graduated, he thought that after studying hard at university for six or seven years, he would be able to securely arrange a scientific research position in a national scientific research department or a large enterprise.In the end, he waited and waited, but he couldn't wait. Later, he ran by himself, and after running, he found that Beijing was full of master students like him.Finally, a unit was willing to hire him. When he went to work, he saw that he was asked to be an assistant to a section chief with only a junior high school education.He was so angry that he asked his boss to reason with him. They told him that you have a foreign registered permanent residence and have no official working relationship. This position is already taken care of for you. In your case, in a country with an official establishment like ours, even if you have a Ph.D. Always a "wage earner".My buddy was so angry that he gave up the idea of ​​finding another unit and started to venture into the world by himself.Later, relying on the profound knowledge and hard-working spirit of his master's degree in economic management, he won the favor of editors of several economic columns of CCTV, and began to give him some work. The boss of the circle.you ask me?Hey, it's far behind him, and I may not be able to keep up with him in my life.I have not been in partnership with these buddies for a long time. I have done many jobs in the past. For example, I worked as an assistant to the owner of a private company in Changping, I also did promotions in a restaurant in Yanqing, and later I did delivery in a chain store. , I can't remember how many places I have worked in.But there is one thing you may have noticed. I usually look for those who have a place to live and a job to take care of the meals.When you first started working, you had no money.If you rent a house and buy food by yourself, even the cheapest farmer’s house in Beijing will cost you two to three hundred a month!How much does it take to work part-time for a month?Five or six hundred yuan. Doesn’t it mean that you spent the rent and food for nothing?But if you want to find those units that manage food and housing, there are not many that are not coolies.They don't care if you are a college student or not, as long as you have strength.Once I worked in a mineral water company, and I had to travel more than a dozen units a day under the scorching sun, and I was still riding a cart. I was so tired that you were pushed to the crematorium at night and burned without knowing it.You asked why you didn't want to go back to your hometown when you were so tired and didn't make money?Why don't I want to?For a while, I really went back to my hometown, but I wanted to cry when I got home. I can’t mention our place.Not to mention anything else, just for drinking water, people from generation to generation have to drive donkeys up 30 to 40 miles of winding mountain roads to carry a few barrels of water.That time when I went back, because I wanted to drink water, I took up the whip to drive the donkey again. I was driving all the way, and the uncles and aunts asked me along the way, saying, Xiaogang, you have seen a lot of world outside, do you know when we drink water here? Don't you need to drive the donkey?I shook my head and said I don't know.They asked again, why don't you know if you are a college student?If you have read so many books, help Murakami repair the well!Looking at the expectant eyes of the folks, I almost sank three feet into the ground.Yes, I have studied for more than ten years and am a college student, but how can I dig a well to find water?But college students are omnipotent talents in the eyes of the people in my village!I feel that I can't stay any longer, because I know that as a college student, I will not find a well for the villagers. If I stay in my hometown and fail to find a well, the villagers will be so disappointed in the college students!They are still working tirelessly so that their children or grandchildren can go to college like me. I cannot let their expectations for their children and grandchildren fail.On the other hand, I wanted to exchange my father's life for the lofty honor of being a college graduate, but in the end I couldn't even help the folks build a small well. Wouldn't I lose face as a college student?Besides, even if someone drilled the well, would there be water?What if there is?Still can't see the "information superhighway" and "network world"!It was in this situation that I returned to the capital, with the indescribable emotion of my hometown, at least I could drink tap water at will, and I could go to the "information superhighway" and "network world" without spending money. "The metropolis... "What are your plans for the future?" I asked. "To be honest, I'm at a loss." Zhao Xiaogang grabbed a handful of advertising materials and said, "This kind of work can make some money, but it's not my major. I'm studying agronomy. In the modern metropolis of the capital, this I don’t need any technical skills, but I can make money here, which allows me to see the latest developments in the future world anytime, anywhere. Although my hometown can use the agricultural technology I learned, there is no money! The money village with a well I don’t know how many times the government has tightened their belts. What’s the use of my skills? Instead of doing that, it’s better to reduce one person who receives state relief money from my hometown...” I can't decide whether Zhao Xiaogang's theory is right or wrong, but he reminds us of an undeniable fact that some college graduates are reluctant to return to remote and poor areas because their values ​​have changed to pursue their own future These students who focus on improving their own living environment have lost their desire to return to their hometown since they studied hard and wanted to jump out of the "farm gate"; Afterwards, they will return to their impoverished hometowns in the future to do a great job in a different place. However, the impoverished and backward hometowns are unable to provide them with a battlefield to display their talents, which makes them gradually lose their original enthusiasm and ambition to transform and build their hometowns.This has to make our universities, especially in the work of helping poor students, put forward deeper requirements, to solve their tuition fee reduction, find work-study positions for them, and even help them to complete their studies in the university. It is not enough to go to the society without hesitation and ask grandpa to tell grandma for sponsorship. More importantly, it is necessary to provide them with "spiritual help" in terms of ideals and outlook on life.According to data, in 1997, there were 64,990 undergraduate and junior college graduates in colleges and universities directly under the Ministry of Education, and 34,502 people went to Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and other developed areas or stayed in Beijing and Shanghai, accounting for 53% of the total number of graduates. Only 3,793 people returned to the ten remote provinces and regions, accounting for only 5% of the total.What does such a huge contrast indicate?It shows that at least half of the impoverished college students from impoverished areas have not returned to the place where they should have gone.According to a survey conducted by the China Social Survey Office, 78.3% of college graduates clearly express that they do not want to work in poor areas.I also conducted a sample survey of 10 impoverished students in China Agricultural University. As a result, 6 of the 10 said that as long as they can find a job in Beijing that can earn more than 800 yuan a month, they will not return to their hometown— —It needs to be explained that the jobs they refer to are all under the premise that the work relationship and household registration cannot be resolved.During the interview at Forestry University that day, two girls happened to be discussing with the teacher about staying in Beijing to find a job on their own.These two ladies are both "Nei Pei students" of Forestry University. Now that they have graduated, they should go back to their hometowns, but they said: "We would rather pay thousands of dollars to pay off the training fees than stay in Beijing. You will be assigned to a place where you will never get out, and your life will be over!" I asked them if they had any intention of working in Beijing, and they said they hadn't found it yet, "Anyway, let's look slowly." It seems that their determination is very firm, everyone There is a spirit of no turning back.One of them said: "On the one hand, we can earn some money by staying in Beijing. On the other hand, we also want to take the postgraduate entrance examination. If we go back to our hometown, this kind of opportunity is almost a fantasy, but it is possible in Beijing. Our Quite a few of the senior sisters followed this path.” It turned out that there was another world in their minds, and who could say that this was not a healthy state of mind, a pursuit in line with the spirit of the times?But - our problem is still "but", but if our country trains about 200,000 students for impoverished areas every year (the national colleges and universities enroll about 1 million students every year, and the proportion of poor students is calculated according to the official 20%) If we don’t go back to our original place, then will our impoverished areas send out batches of talented people forever without any knowledge or culture?I can’t help but think of a report that says that there is a poor county in Gansu that trains many college students every year. The folks beat gongs and drums every year to send them away to study, but hardly a single student returns after graduation. The small county is still impoverished... It is not clear whether our work of helping the poor has encouraged the poor students to be more determined to leave their homeland, or is the poverty alleviation itself creating people's mentality of pursuing wealth?But one thing is certain, that is: when some poor students are being sincerely helped and cared for by others, another kind of change is quietly taking place in their thoughts and consciousness—— Teacher Liu from the student office of Nankai University told me about such a student: This person is surnamed Hong, a student in the 95th grade, and his family is in the countryside, and he is an orphan.After receiving the admission notice, he did not report to the school because he could not pay the tuition fee.We wrote a letter and telegraphed to tell him that no matter what the situation was, you had to make arrangements at home and then report to school.Later, he really came, and he looked like a very poor child, who didn't bring anything.After I reported the student's situation to the leader, the school gave him the green light to register for tuition-free registration.The party secretary of our Nankai University happened to see this student that day, so he asked him how he was, and took him back to his home, asked his wife to cook him delicious food, and bought many necessities for the student with his own money.At that time, the student was very moved and said that he must study hard and repay the society and all those who care about him in the future.Because he is a typical poverty-stricken student, this student received support and care from time to time.Later, it was found that the money to support him was always insufficient. After checking, fortunately, he even learned to smoke and drink.The school organizes a work-study program for poor students and asks him to do some work. He walks away after doing such a simple and easy job a few times. How do you think he looks like a child from a poor family! An even more surprising thing happened in colleges and universities in Shanghai: a poor student received subsidies and social sponsorship from the school many times. Anyway, he was able to reach out faster than others for the benefits of poor students in the school. Instead of going to the teaching position and leaving the status of a normal student, he actually took out a large sum of cash all at once.In order to help poor students, a university in Shanghai adjacent to Normal University has provided interest-free loans to poor students every year since 1994. However, many people would rather not have a diploma than repay the loan. More than 1,000 graduation certificates are locked in the iron cabinet of the student office.An even more ridiculous thing happened in Shanghai: the year before last, a company from Hong Kong went to a certain university to fulfill its promise to provide 150 yuan per person per month as a living subsidy to 25 poor students every year.On this day, the company boss sent a representative to the school to distribute money to the poor students. In order to let the poor students receive a love education, the school called the poor students of several grades to participate in the cashing ceremony.After distributing bursaries to 25 college students, the representative of the company said: Although we only distributed bursaries to 25 students today, there are indeed students who are very difficult among you, and our company will consider them according to the situation.As soon as he finished speaking, the students in the audience lined up in a long line without any command, and walked towards the stage with arrogance and arrogance.The company representative was stunned, and the teachers standing beside them rushed up to stop their students with red faces, but it was too late... An educator once said that poverty is not terrible, what is terrible is the mentality distorted by poverty.Our whole society is now helping the poor and challenging poverty, but the county magistrates and township cadres in those impoverished areas are willing to sit there and be labeled as "poor counties" and "poor townships" ,why?Because the high hat of "poverty" is valuable, you can sit and eat without worrying about food and money.Is there such a phenomenon among our college poor students?I think there are, and there are quite a few of them.Therefore, while solving the material poverty of these students, it is more important to relieve their "spiritual poverty".Because material poverty is temporary, spiritual poverty will be a lifetime. I thought this was a warning to the world.A major content of China's "Hope Project" in colleges and universities is to solve the psychological poverty of poor students. This psychological poverty is concentrated in the education of the outlook on life.Sunshine and rain can make seedlings grow into towering trees.But a towering tree may not be able to become a pillar. If it is a hollow trunk, it can only be used as firewood for a torch.What we want to help is a generation of healthy and selfless college students in the new era who are brave enough to accept challenges, of course not those mediocrity who are short-sighted and extremely selfish.Otherwise, the love and hard work of our school leaders, teachers, and so much love and kindness in the society may be in vain, and many of our vast mountainous areas will remain barren forever, and the small gongs and drums sent by the folks will eventually be lost. will no longer ring... In fact, one thing needs to be pointed out: the "heart disease" of some poor students is not all their internal factors.The injustice of social distribution and the problems of employment itself have also caused their wounded hearts to be hit hard again and again. I have seen a senior student who claimed to be suffering from "depression" write a letter to the newspaper to express his helplessness: …I have almost graduated, and I should be busy looking for a job, but now I can only silently watch the dozen or so units recruiting students, and I cannot participate.There is only one reason: because I am from a remote province, there is a regulation that I must return to the original province to work.Some people would say: "What's wrong with going back to build my hometown?" In fact, why don't I want to go back?The actual situation is that tens of thousands of graduates go back to work in the province every year. Since there are only a few relatively prosperous units in the province, the relationship network is "wide" or not, and the background is "hard" or not "hard". As the first condition, grades and school performance can only take a backseat.I felt angry when I thought about my years of study achievements being ignored and trampled on.Whenever I think back to the four years of hard work in college, I worked hard, rose from the bottom of the class to the front of the class, served as a cadre in the class, and won school-level and national-level awards. I feel that I should not be better than others Difference.But why were they ruthlessly deprived of equal rights with classmates from inland provinces when they were employed (quite a few of them are far inferior to me, but they can go to units with good pay and great development prospects)?I know that some of my classmates from remote provinces have better conditions than me, and it would be unfair to deprive them of the right to compete with mainland students. …When it comes to places where the work is difficult, we students from poor areas seem to take the lead for granted. Why should we be born with such "special treatment"?Now is not the age when people were born, but the background of "Shengyuan" always reminds me: "You are from a remote area, you are different from others!" This frank female college student raised a very realistic and serious question to people, which is the rationality and scientificity of the distribution of college students that cannot be ignored.In particular, some so-called policies often take care of the "strong" but ignore the "weak". This is also a major problem facing poor college students in China today. Due to their poor background, when they are employed in the Mainland, no matter how good your grades, performance, or awards you have won, as soon as you see that you are from a remote province, they will say "Don't! Don't! Don't!" For this reason, they returned to their own familiar areas with high hopes, but when those units looked at their golden certificates and awards, they smiled embarrassedly: "We can't afford it, we can't afford it!" Occasionally there are those who can afford it, but it is our college students’ turn to afford it, because to enter a good unit that you want to squeeze into, you don’t have a father who is the head and secretary, you have to at least send a thousand children. hundred.In this way, impoverished college students will find that when they walk out of college with graduation certificates in their hands full of joy, they are still naked poor men! ...you ask who I am, and I don't know who I am. You ask me where I am, and I don't know where I am. So, they wandered on the crossroads of life again...