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Cao Mingqiang, 47, did not know how to read or write until he was
10.
A
native of the Achang ethnicity, one of the 56 ethnic groups in the
country, Cao is now a writer focusing on the folklore of his 30,000
tribes people.
Born into a farmer's family in 1956 in Mangzhan Village of Dehong
Prefecture in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, Cao is one of six
children.
Life was hard; he used to graze the cattle when he was young. He
was illiterate, speaking Achang dialect only when he reached the
school year.
He
still remembers the day when a man of the Han people visited his
home, asking whether his "papa" was at home.
"We ate it," Cao replied, because "papa" has the same pronunciation
of "corn cake" in local dialect.
At
the age of 10, Cao was able to go to school after a teacher, who
knew the local dialect, set up a primary school in the village.
The year 1972 was a turning point for Cao as he left for further
studies at Dehong Normal College, becoming the first "scholar" in
the village. This was the time that Cao made up his mind - to
become a village teacher. He was then just 16 years old.
"I
admired my first teacher, I wanted to do what he had done for me,"
Cao recalled.
After graduating in 1975, he settled down in Dashan Village, an
isolated place hidden in the mountains of Pingshan Township. "I
would like more children to know how to read and write," Cao
said.
During his five years in the school, he wrote poems recording what
he had experienced in the village. Whenever he finished his verses
he would read them aloud to friends and students.
Then came the second turning point in his life with the publication
of one of his poems in a local newspaper.
Cao has become adept at literature ever since. He has published a
series of poems, stories and essays featuring the cultural heritage
of the Achang people. Cao has concentrated on collecting the folk
tales of his ethnic group.
As
one of the deputies of Yunnan Province attending the 10th National
People's Congress, Cao, deputy chairman of the Dehong Prefecture
Federation of Literature and Art Circles, is working on a proposal
to establish an eco-museum to preserve the traditional way of life
of the Achang people.
(China Daily March 5, 2003)
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