Introduction: Thousands of rivers and thousands of mountains separated by blood and family, 87-year-old Taiwan veteran successfully found his relatives in Heilongjiang, who had been lost for 70 years
A story of searching for relatives that spans time and space for 70 years has witnessed the power of family affection that blood is thicker than water. An 87-year-old Taiwan veteran was determined to search for his relatives on the mainland, and finally reunited with his relatives in Heilongjiang with the help of volunteers on both sides of the strait. How many years of hope is this for the relatives who are separated from each other? How many hardships and struggles have you experienced? What kind of joys and sorrows do their stories contain?
1949 was a turbulent year. The civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party broke out in all directions, and the smoke of gunpowder was billowing out. In this protracted war, the fate of Yang Zhuguo, a young man from Heilongjiang, also encountered earth-shaking changes.
Yang Zhuguo's ancestral home is Zhaodong, Heilongjiang, and in addition to his parents, he also has a sister who is often affectionately called "girl". Although the family is poor, the family is happy and depends on each other. But the good times didn't last long, one day in 1949, Yang Zhuguo was conscripted into the army by the Kuomintang at the right age, and left his hometown and relatives in a hurry.
It is also a coincidence of fate, when the direction of the army's defeat and retreat was precisely Taiwan. In this way, from an unknown young man, Yang Zhuguo was swept into the whirlpool of this great change. The war raged, and the family letter was suddenly interrupted. Yang Zhuguo could only miss his relatives on the mainland day and night, but there was nothing he could do.
In his hometown of Heilongjiang, Yang Zhuguo's parents and sister "girl" also began a long wait. At first, they had the expectation that the child would be drafted only temporarily and would soon be demobilized and returned home. Who knew that as time went by, the child's news became less and less, and finally there was no trace. In the dead of night, my sister would secretly shed tears, and her parents would add gray hair to their heads.
I don't know when it began, the "girl" began to wonder if her brother had formed a new family and left their old relatives behind. She begged her parents many times to allow her to go out to find out her brother's whereabouts, but she was always refused. At that time, it was too unsafe for my daughter's family to go out.
In this way, the family was still cut off, and the days were spent in agony and waiting. Until the fifties and sixties, the old couple passed away one after another, and there was no trace of Yang Zhuguo after waiting. The younger sister "girl" tearfully buried her parents' ashes in the grave of her hometown, and left a place for herself next to it. She earnestly hopes that in her lifetime, her brother Yang Zhuguo, who has been separated from the world, will also be buried in this cemetery of her relatives.
After crossing the sea to Taiwan, Yang Zhuguo did not settle down. As a soldier, he traveled with the army throughout Taiwan until 1953, when he settled in Taoyuan. This city near Taipei later became a new starting point for Yang Zhuguo's life.
In 1954, 26-year-old Yang Zhuguo met a woman surnamed Chen in Taoyuan, and soon the two became his wife. Mrs. Chen was born in a small landlord family, and her family was quite wealthy. After getting married, the couple rented a private house in Taoyuan, and their lives were quite decent. In 1956 and 1958, Mrs. Chen gave birth to a pair of children for Yang Zhuguo, and the family's life slowly got on the right track.
However, even though Taoyuan has become Yang Zhuguo's new home, his attachment to the mainland of the motherland has never been erased. Whenever there is a dead of night, there is always a figure of the family affection of the father and the elder in my mind. Sometimes he can't help but think of his sister "girl", the delicate appearance of her youth, and the unique mole on her chin.
Perhaps because the family was once separated, Yang Zhuguo cherishes this small family very much. He not only worked diligently to make money, but also told his wife to be frugal and keep the house. As long as he has free time, he will hold the children and repeatedly tell about his past in the mainland era.
Although the children are still young and cannot fully understand what their father said, Yang Zhuguo is happy to do it. He hopes that this will deeply imprint the customs of his hometown in the minds of the children, and that they will never forget where their roots are.
However, over time, Yang Zhuguo finally took root in the land of Taiwan. After more than ten years of hard work, he bought a small house in Taoyuan in 1970, which can be regarded as building a place for his wife and children to live in. In this year, Yang Zhuguo was also officially discharged from the army and has lived the life of an ordinary person ever since.
The year after he was discharged from the army, Yang joined a professional union, where he found a decent job to support at least the family's basic living expenses. However, although he can live a relatively stable life in Taiwan, Yang Zhuguo still cannot forget his relatives on the mainland. However, at present, the cross-strait situation is tense and there is a lack of effective channels of contact, and the road to finding relatives has reached a deadlock.
Time flies, and the white horse flies. In the blink of an eye, Yang Zhuguo has changed from the young man who was far away from home to an old man with a white beard. And his longing for his relatives on the mainland has not declined by half a point. As he grew older, the chances of regaining his lost gains became slimmer, and Yang Zhuguo couldn't help but feel more and more anxious and hesitant...
Time flies, and in a blink of an eye, Yang Zhuguo is already in his old age. But although the memories in his mind are gradually drifting away, the appearance of the sister "girl" he has never met has always been deeply imprinted in his heart.
Although Yang Zhuguo can't remember his sister's name, the image of the little sister who was affectionately called "girl" by his family has never faded in his memory. He still clearly remembers that when he was a child, the "girl" was born with fair skin, clear eyebrows, and big black and white eyes, like a clever and cute deer.
Every festive season, parents will dress up the "girl" carefully. She looked particularly beautiful at that time, and the few locks of green silk on her forehead were carefully coiled by her mother, revealing a smooth little face, and when she smiled, the unique mole on her chin also loomed.
Yes, it was the slightly raised mole that became the most impressive sign of Yang Zhuguo's sister. I don't know when it began, the family habitually associated my sister with this little mole, and often joked that the "girl" had to be careful when she grew up, so as not to be recognized as a spot that would never fade.
The "girl" herself seems to like this unusual little feature, often playing with her little mole in the mirror, revealing a little pride in her demeanor. Yang Zhuguo saw his sister smirking in the mirror more than once, and he couldn't help but step forward and poke her little mole with his finger, causing the "girl" to giggle.
In this way, the small bulge on her sister's chin finally took root in Yang Zhuguo's impression, portraying her unique appearance. Later, this small feature became Yang Zhuguo's eternal memory symbol for his sister, and when he mentioned "girl", he would unconsciously think of this unique part.
Time flies, and the years go by. Even though he has been separated for more than half a century, even if he has long forgotten his sister's name, Yang Zhuguo's voice and smile at her are always as clear as in front of him. He can always clearly sketch in his mind what his sister looked like when she was young, the big black and white eyes, the shy and timid smile at the corner of her mouth, and the unusual little mole on her chin. All these have been deeply imprinted in the depths of Yang Zhuguo's memory and have become his indelible precious marks.
Perhaps, it is this unique little imprint that makes my sister very vivid in Yang Zhuguo's memory, as if she is still in front of her. As soon as he closed his eyes, he seemed to be able to see his sister's sweet little face, and see her blinking and smiling mischievously at him with big black eyes. For Yang Zhuguo, this may be the biggest reason why he will never forget his sister.
Although the good times have passed, Yang Zhuguo's belief in finding relatives has never wavered. In Taiwan, he met a fellow villager friend Zhou Shanyu, and the two gradually became close friends who talked about everything. Zhou Shanyu was also forced to leave his hometown in the old society and eventually went to Taiwan. Because of similar experiences, the two are particularly concerned about finding relatives.
In 1988, with the easing of cross-strait relations and after absorbing some information about finding relatives, Yang Zhuguo and Zhou Shanyu resolutely decided to embark on the road of finding their roots. Their first stop was Fujian on the mainland, where some distant relatives had corresponded with Yang Zhuguo. However, for more than three months, the road to find relatives has been wandering in the quagmire. At that time, the conditions on the mainland were relatively difficult, and coupled with their advanced age, the movement of the two was quite inconvenient.
Fortunately, the old friends were not discouraged, but strengthened their belief in finding their relatives. In 1989, the two resolutely embarked on a journey to find their relatives again, this time they traveled to Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and other provinces, just to find a clue to find relatives. During this period, the two would receive help from some kind-hearted people from time to time, and also met some like-minded fellow travelers.
Around 1994, the two old men, who were over eighty years old at that time, were still tirelessly running between the two sides of the strait, never slackening. On the Taiwan side, they established the "Cross-Strait Family Root-Seeking Association" in 1995, hoping to use this platform to gather more strength. Many young volunteers have also joined in, providing strong support for the two elderly people on their way to finding their relatives.
With the increasing popularity of the Internet and social media, the two elderly people and the volunteers have also extended the channels of family tracing online. Through Sina Weibo, Renren and other platforms, the search notice was released in an attempt to obtain some valuable clues. Sure enough, at the end of 2015, an enthusiastic netizen accidentally saw Yang Zhuguo's missing person post while browsing Weibo, and immediately took the initiative to get in touch with the old man.
After some hard communication, this netizen finally found some clues, pointing out that Yang Zhuguo's sister "girl" did stay in Heilongjiang back then, and it is very likely that she has been living there. After Yang Zhuguo learned the news, he immediately made up his mind to go to Heilongjiang again and spare no effort to get his sister back.
In this way, with the strong assistance of Taiwan's family tracing volunteers, in March 2016, Yang Zhuguo, then 87 years old, embarked on the journey home again with mixed feelings. This time, he will return to his hometown in Zhaodong and get back the long-awaited sister "girl" definitively, making up for the regrets of the two for decades.
In March 2016, Heilongjiang was still chilly, but this could not extinguish Yang Zhu's enthusiasm for the country. With the full support of volunteers from Taiwan, he finally set foot on the soil of his hometown again, starting the last journey of nearly 70 years to find his loved ones.
This time, with some clues obtained before, Yang Zhuguo's footprints soon extended to the urban area of Zhaodong. With the assistance of the local government, they contacted an old man surnamed Zhang, who may be Yang Zhuguo's sister "girl".
Mrs. Zhang is now over eighty years old, and she is getting stronger and stronger. She lives alone in an old bungalow in downtown Zhaodong, living on a meager pension. After learning that relatives from Taiwan had come to find their roots, Mrs. Zhang was quite excited. As a young woman, she was haunted by the fact that she could not find out the whereabouts of her brother, who had been away from home for many years. Now that there is finally conclusive news, she is very much looking forward to reuniting with her brother.
Soon, the two sides met. The 87-year-old Yang Zhuguo has gray hair, although the wrinkles on his face show the heaviness of his age, but his black and white eyes still reveal a bit of childishness. When Mrs. Zhang saw Yang Zhuguo's familiar eyes and face, tears fell like rain in an instant, and she whimpered in a low voice. For many years, she has been holding on to the hope of reunion, and today she finally got her wish.
It turns out that Mrs. Zhang is Yang Zhuguo's long-separated sister "girl". When he saw Mrs. Zhang, Yang Zhuguo's gaze involuntarily fell on her chin. Yes, it was the tiny mole, the unique mark that he still remembered, which undoubtedly confirmed that Mrs. Zhang was his own sister back then!
The reunion after more than 70 years made both parties really overjoyed. Yang Zhuguo took Mrs. Zhang's hands full of furrows, and her eyes were full of tears. For the first time in his life, he said the name "girl" to his sister. Before, he had forgotten his sister's name due to forgetfulness, and could only vaguely remember this nickname. When Mrs. Zhang heard this long-lost title, she burst into tears, and it seemed that she had suddenly returned to the childhood of the two.
Then, with the help of assistants, the two sides began to exchange their experiences over the past 70 years. Mrs. Zhang told how she silently waited for her brother's return during the war years, and how she struggled to get through that special time. Yang Zhuguo talked about his life in Taiwan after being drafted into the army, and the arduous journey of finding relatives along the way. During the conversation, the two sides would sigh from time to time that the arrangement of the god of fate for them was so tortuous and bizarre.