In 2006, the Three Gorges Dam was nearing completion, and houses and farmland in Guilin village would be submerged below 175 meters. Zhang Bingai and her husband refused to relocate twice for various reasons.
In 1994, director Feng Yan spent 8 years filming the documentary "Bingai", showing the difficulties and helplessness of this rural woman in the cracks.
Zhang Bingai rejected the village's relocation mobilization in 1992 because she feared that her husband's leg disability would make it difficult for the family to move. She believes that although the village and town on the other side of the bank are on higher ground, if there is no help from her brother, it will be a big problem to get up and farm.
In addition, growing citrus seeds also needs their help. Therefore, she chose to stay where she was, hoping to continue to have their support.
Her husband, who has a disability and has a child who is still a minor, said: "I don't just think about objective factors, I don't think this side is better than that, it's just that life here is too difficult to maintain, and I am willing to flee to a distant place, but I can't bear to leave my two children behind."
Even if I have to beg for food, I will do my best to raise them. The "he" in her mouth is her husband, his hip joints are one high and one low, his legs are not the same thickness, and he usually has no problem walking, but he is struggling to do heavy work.
Fruit trees are planted in their area, and in autumn, her husband is responsible for picking oranges, and she is responsible for carrying more than 150 catties at a time.
Zhang Bingai is suspicious of immigration, knowing that her skills are only farming, and her husband's disability makes life in a foreign land difficult.
She even feared that if she left the land, she might become a beggar. Although this idea may seem absurd, for people who have lived in the mountains for generations, migrating to urban life is like allowing the current earthlings to move to other planets.
Before marriage, Zhang Bingai used to have a boyfriend, but due to the opposition of her parents, she could only marry a disabled man under the mountain in anger, lacking marital autonomy.
She made her choice, and her parents expressed their support. The value of the work on the mountain is not high, only the work under the mountain is worth money. Her father also said that the water is closer to the bottom of the mountain, and the water is cooler. The day before her wedding, she also planted peas on the hillside.
At that time, I lived in poverty, and the rice at the wedding banquet had to be mixed with bud rice. Her mother-in-law doesn't like her son, she doesn't value her daughter-in-law, and she rarely helps. Before the marriage, only her husband gave her a few balls of red wool to make a headband, but she refused, because she did not feel that she had come from a deep ravine.
However, Zhang Bingai remembered that her husband specially invited the gong and drum band and four girls to pick up her relatives and create a beautiful wedding atmosphere for her.
Zhang Bingai started getting up early to fetch water and cook on the second day of marriage, while her husband continued to sleep. As time passed, her husband began to realize Zhang Bingai's hard work and began to assist her with household chores.
The people of the village believe that everyone has a soul, but Zhang Bingai has a different view. She said that the human soul does not follow people easily, and only after many years of marriage will she dream of her married home in her dreams, and in her previous dreams, it was her own maiden home.
When he heard that the village was going to emigrate, Zhang Bingai felt a deep panic. Although she had moved from the mountain to the bottom of the mountain and was used to life down the mountain, it was very unsettling for her to now move further into the mountain.
Her husband was unable to do heavy physical labor, and her in-laws did not care much about her disabled son. If she moves to a distant place and leaves the care of her mother's family, how will she build a house on the ground by herself?
The village was also poor and could not help, so they had to move and build their own houses.
The village cadres conveyed to them a possible future: water and electricity cuts, problems with children's household registration, and even affecting children's schooling. However, Zhang Bingai was not frightened by this, and she said firmly: "Even if we lose our hukou, we will try to survive." ”
Her children also said that even when the school rejected him, he would lie outside the window to listen to lectures and use candles to do homework at night. Faced with such difficulties, Zhang Bingai's family decided to refuse to immigrate.
In contrast, her husband's brother's family, who had shared a roof and a wall with Ms. Zhang's family, had moved away. The elder brother took away most of the family's things, including furniture, farm tools, tiles, pottery, dishes and chopsticks, etc., leaving Zhang Bingai with only the ruins of a half-side house.
Despite all the challenges, Zhang Bingai's family still maintained their perseverance, believing that only through their own efforts can they change their fate.
When the villagers left, the remaining villagers accompanied them and saw them off on their long journey. People carry large bamboo baskets on their shoulders, filled with all kinds of daily necessities, and even an old man wants to bring firewood, which attracts the laughter and blessings of the villagers.
They lit firecrackers by the river and prayed for peace in their new life. For those farmers who lived in the remote mountainous areas of Hubei Province in the 90s of the last century, the small towns downstream were already quite far away, and after separation, they may never see each other again.
At that time, transportation and communication were not convenient, and some rural elderly people may have never stepped out of this land in their lives and never seen the outside world.
When the village asked Zhang Bingai's family to move out for the second time, her eldest son was already preparing for the college entrance examination, and her youngest daughter was about to take the high school entrance examination. At that time, my daughter, who was about to leave for school, was withdrawing money from the jar.
It takes 27 yuan, 12 yuan is the high school entrance examination fee, 1 yuan is the photo fee, and the rest is used for food. Zhang Bingai handed over the newly repaired canvas shoes to his daughter, and stood at the door to watch and tell her daughter not to run too fast, and her brother had just set off.
Now, 10 years later, Zhang Bingai's life is still very poor.
Zhang Bingai has always kept her promises, not only raising her two children, but also ensuring that they did not drop out of school. As the children grew up, she decided to move. The relocation is mainly aimed at families between 175 and 135 meters above sea level, as well as families below 135 meters above sea level who have not moved before, and is scheduled to end the autumn harvest of that year.
Zhang Bingai and her husband have their eye on a plot of land not far from their field and above 175 meters above sea level. They imagined their future life, and although it was not recommended to plant below 175 meters above sea level, Zhang Bingai did not give up the land and planned to plant some peach trees there.
Zhang Bingai originally thought that he could find a good piece of land to grow peaches, but he did not expect to be forced to emigrate due to geological reasons. The plot of land in her photo has been identified as a key landslide control area and can no longer be planted.
Faced with such a situation, Zhang Bingai could only accept the new land of the "rotten lawn" and had no other choice. But she still maintains a positive attitude, believing that if she works hard, she will be able to live there.
Zhang Bingai's problem is that her land contract is mainly based on the original agricultural group, and she lives in the third group but has to cultivate the land in the second group, which brings great inconvenience to her.
To make matters worse, the land allocated to her by the village was on a gentle slope, unleveled, full of large rocks, and it took a lot of money to level the land. In addition, Zhang Bing'ai moved to a place where there were no water and electricity facilities and a long way from the river.
For this reason, the village gave her family of four a total of 2,600 yuan for relocation and resettlement. However, even with this money, she still needs to spend at least 1,000 yuan to hire workers to level the land and tens of thousands of yuan to build a house, which is undoubtedly a huge expense.
Although the village has provided land to build a new house, Zhang Bingai still faces many unsolvable difficulties. **The staff suggested that she could move to the dam of the school to make the transition first, and at the same time, the village would also pay for the work and bus fares to help her demolish the old house.
However, on the issue of leveling the land, they could not take responsibility due to the lack of strength in the village. In this regard, Zhang Bingai's husband Xiong Yun expressed dissatisfaction: "Transition? What is the transition period you have committed?
I just want my house to be flat, and as soon as the dam is leveled, I will tear down the old house immediately. ”
*The department proposed a solution to move to other towns, but Zhang Bing'ai, who is deeply dependent on the land, was very unfamiliar with it. She believes that rural life, although hard, is real and tangible.
In her mind, land is the most precious thing, and anything can be grown on it. Therefore, she was full of fear of moving to the city, because she heard that some rural girls would sell their bodies in order to make money, and she thought that this way was not normal, and that only through legitimate means to make money was the real ability.
Zhang Bingai's ideas are simple, but they are somewhat closed. However, given that she is a poor rural woman who has lived in a mountain village for generations and has been busy with farm work all day, we cannot be too her.
Fearing that he would not be able to make a living in the city, Zhang Bingai eventually rejected the proposal to relocate. However, reality is unforgiving, and it won't be long before her old house is flooded.
*The staff assured Zhang Bingai that as soon as she agreed to relocate, they would immediately pull up water and electricity for her family and help her apply for a small vegetable plot in front of the house. After careful consideration, Zhang Bingai decided to accept the proposal.
Although the ** person in charge of the relocation gave her a pen and paper for the relocation consent form, she was too excited to write for a while. After returning home, Zhang Bingai and her husband began to regret their decision, they were not satisfied with the allocated housing field, and felt that the place was too remote and inconvenient.
Although she spent tens of thousands of yuan to build a house there, Zhang Bingai thought that it was just asking for hardship, which would make her tired and live a few years less.
Zhang Bingai repeatedly read the resettlement notice in his hand, understood that rural resettlement is an important part of the entire resettlement work, and stressed that all departments at the county, township, and town levels should give full play to their functions and roles and give full support to the rural resettlement work.
She and her husband expressed dissatisfaction with the results of the staff in charge of the relocation, as they were worried about the impact of the relocation on their son, who was about to take the college entrance examination. Every month, Zhang Bingai insists on giving his son living expenses, even though his son claims to have money every time.
At that time, the eldest son's high school education accounted for a large part of the family's expenses, which made Zhang Bingai even more determined to provide adequate support for his son.
Don't worry too much about things at home. If you get a bad score in the college entrance examination, I will also let you repeat the year as well. Although the relocation money can help you go to college, if you don't need it, I will also pay for your school.
Our parents don't want anything from you, just like your grandfather, they just want you to live happily and I can have peace of mind. Maybe I misunderstood my son and thought he had moved to town to get a resettlement fee. ”
Zhang Bingai's son knew that his hometown house was about to be flooded, and it was not easy to convince his mother, who had worked in the fields all her life, to give up the land and go to the city to earn money. On the way back to his hometown from the county, Zhang Bingai again found the geological surveyors who were living in containers next to the highway and asked them if they could sell the shed to him after they left, so that he could live in it temporarily, and then slowly build a house.
However, this land belongs to the village collective, and the outside staff has no right to decide whether to ** or not. As a result, Zhang Bingai submitted an application to the village to build a house on the side of the road, and the village officials said that the land management of non-migrant households was the responsibility of the village land management, and that migrant households like Zhang Bingai's family needed to go through the unified planning of the long-term committee.
New copywriting: Zhang Bingai's story is a microcosm of an ordinary person's social pressure and hardships in the process of insisting on his self-belief. She once believed that if her house was built beautifully, it would be recognized by society, but in the end, she was seen as a nail household and forced to live in a shack.
Despite this, she stood by her beliefs and was unwilling to give up her homeland. Her story allows us to see the deep love and perseverance of an ordinary person for his homeland.
Zhang Bing'ai: A woman who illuminates her life with love and courage Zhang Bing'ai is a strong woman who uses her strength to make her family live a good life, although she is married to a lame man and the people in the village often gossip about her behind her back, but she chooses to face life bravely instead of being defeated by these gossip.
Zhang Bingai never left her disabled husband, and she raised a son and a daughter through her hard work, and educated them all. However, when the matter of immigration appeared, she "inherited" the ignorance, isolation and conservatism of the mountain village.
Although many economically good towns will build houses and plant good land for immigrants in advance, she does not dare to go to other places. She worries that going to places that are not welcoming to outsiders or that she can't find a job, which will drag down her family.
However, she still insists on staying where she is, because she loves the place where she has lived for decades, and she loves her family deeply. Zhang Bingai brightens her life with love and courage, and her story shows us how a strong woman uses her strength to change her life and create a better future.
Her resilience and dedication are an example for us to learn from, and her story will continue to inspire us to keep going.
Her vision is limited, mainly due to her family's long-term life in the mountains, living an extremely difficult life of watching the mountains and eating the mountains. They don't have much chance to control their fate, and being able to stay as they are and not slip is already the greatest satisfaction.
Zhang Bingai has a deep love for her family and the land. She is responsible for her family and has the courage to put forward her views to the cadres, and she has also made unremitting efforts, but due to lack of knowledge, there have been some deviations in the direction of her efforts.
Thankfully, when Zhang Bingai's son and daughter grew up, they sent their income to their parents, and Zhang Bing'ai and her husband's lives also improved a lot.