Story of a Wonderwoman
ONE - She knows everything of me, yet I know so little of her.
I felt awkward and strange when I sat in front of her face to face. We are so close. We see each other almost everyday, ever since I was born. But we have never really talked deeply. She knows my favourite colour, food, book and movie; she knows the names of my best friend and primary school’s teachers; she knows when I am delighted or blue. She knows every bit of details of my childhood. Yet I know so little of her past.
Today is International Women’s Day, a day I thought would be wonderful to introduce a special person to you in our lives. A mother. My mother, to be specific.
I wonder if you would feel the same as me, that we assume we know our family better than anyone else in the world, but actually we are not. We are too close to get closer. There came the weirdness when I set all the things up: a tripod and a camera. We sat in front of each other, as we don’t usually do. The awkwardness hit me. My mind went blank.
TWO - How she met my father.
I started off with some silly questions, like “How did you meet my father?” or “Do you feel strange sitting there?” She peeked at the camera, sitting so straight that I could almost felt her nervous. I laughed, and told her she looked like me at my first day school. She laughed, too. Surely it triggered some memories of ours.
She began to tell me something about her teenage. She said there was some guys chasing her back in high school, she just didn’t like them. When I asked for the reason, she could barely think of one. Of course I asked the follow-up question, why did she accept my father then? She giggled, and said she doesn’t know either. I didn’t trust her, so she told me how they met.
My mom met my father at a factory she worked in. He was there because his friend knew one of the owner of the factory. My mom thought he looked skinny and brown. At that time, Cantonese didn’t like people from other provinces. She thought he is one of them (which in fact he is not) and she frowned. The story continued and it sounds so soap opera to me. My father ran after her for seven years and they finally settled down. She told me my father could be very jealous as he “kidnapped” my cousin when he saw guys going to my mom’s home yet she refused to go out with him. She rephrased his words as “If I take your niece away, you must come after me. That’s how I lure you out.” Without any doubts, he failed. My mom stayed with her family for the whole day. My cousin had a wonderful day in the factory my father took her to though.
THREE - My mother was a feminist on action... Somehow.
She has been full time housewife for 20 years, ever since I was brought to the world. I’ve never known her as another character, not until today. She was a factory owner. A tiny one, though. It’s still big enough to be the only private factory from where she was born. She transferred her work to my uncle when she was pregnant.
She started her own business one year after graduated from high school. As I mentioned before, she worked as a ordinary worker in a knitwear factory. In less than a year, she figured out how to operate machines and stuffs. The machine supplier offered to give her two knitters so as to launch her own business. She quitted the job and brought two knitting machines home. She taught her brother’s wife to operate them so that they could work as partner. Time’d gone and the factory of two grew to ten. She hired ten women as the business boosted. Back in the 90s, there was no private industries going on in small town like hers. Should you have known that before China’s Reform and Opening-up Policy, capitalism was a taboo. The government had turned round and she undoubtedly grabbed the chance and made a success. Success always attracts jealousy. Some people sold her out, trying to put her down. Luckily the law had changed. It seemed they had done dirty for nothing.
FOUR - There is so little do we know.
I’ve never knew all of these. I know she can sew very well but I don’t know she as a factory owner. I know she can get things so organised but I don’t know she was a factory manager. I know she is tough but I don’t know she was strong, so strong that she could manage to operate a private business back in 1990s, when women were under valued.
Today is International Women’s Day. A day to remind us to fight for women’s right and remember their contributes. I am so ever lucky to have talked to her, my mother, to reveal what time has covered. Her hands might be winkled now, but I know what they have done. And I am so proud.
Five
When I am writing this line, my mom is sitting next to my father in a sofa behind me, sharing an apple.
