Pan Yujuan (left) and Pan Guijiao of the Yao ethnic group live in a village in Longsheng County, Guilin, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Because their hometown is located in a remote mountainous area, the elder generations lived in paddy fields, and few of them ever came out of the mountains. These two girls, however, have been to Guilin, Nanning, and other large cities. After graduating from high school, they studied livestock farming through a correspondence school, and have adopted new concepts that their elders do not share. When they talk about their future plans, Pan Yujuan says she would like to run a chicken farm in her hometown in order to earn a better living for her family, while Pan Guijiao expresses her wish to travel around China once she becomes financially secure.
Zhou Laosi, 28, is a native of Xingping Town in Yangshuo County. Since childhood, he has been curious of the outside world. Five years ago, he and his wife opened a restaurant in his hometown that offers local food. Because of its tasty dishes and reasonable prices, their restaurant, named Wangjianglou (Tower for Watching the River), has become very popular. Many photographers, reporters, and tourists from home and abroad have become his friends, and some businesspeople have invited him to run a restaurant in Guilin. Reluctant to leave his hometown, Zhou has not yet accepted their invitations.
Fu Yingchun is the chief supervisor of the Guilin No.121 Designing Company. Having graduated from the Art and Crafts Department of the Guangxi Art Academy in 1996, he has won prizes at many national and international art competitions. At present, he has established a company and has bought a house in Guilin. During the day, he puts a lot of time and energy into running his company, while at night, he indulges in trendy amusement, such as socializing at bars and occasionally going to discos to have fun.
Uncle Lin is a fisherman from Xingping Town, Yangshuo County. Every morning before the sun rises, he lights a lantern and sets out on a bamboo raft along the Lijiang River. With the help of cormorants, he spends the whole day fishing on the river. His livelihood depends on his hard work. He is happy and content with the lifestyle his ancestors have handed down to him. But as tourism develops along the river, few of the younger generation are engaged in fishing, and Uncle Lin is disappointed at this change.
Mo Huilan is a native of Guilin and a former athlete of the China Women's National Gymnastic Team. From 1993 to 1997, she won prizes at many domestic and international sporting events. The round-off, flip-flop that she successfully performed at the uneven bars final of the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games was praised as "a movement of the next century" and named "Mo Salto" by the International Sports Federation. Mo is the pride of her home city.
"I still remember the first time I returned to Guilin after years of being away from home; my fellow citizens offered me warm greetings and the highest honor," she said. "Upon winning a gold medal at the Hiroshima Asian Games, leaders of the Municipal Government of Guilin sent me a message congratulating me and held a grand celebration in the city." She added, "Although that homecoming was very short, I was touched by my home city's deep affection for me!" In 1998, she entered the Renmin (People's) University of China to study journalism.
(China Pictorial June 6, 2003)
