In the Spring Festival of 2010, a photo accidentally spread all over the country, and the photo did not have a very deep shooting method, nor did it deliberately create an atmosphere, only a mother with a child.
I saw that my mother was carrying a woven bag taller than her on her shoulders, and the bedding inside had already spilled out, and she had no choice but to wrap it around a few times with a rope. She carried a worn-out backpack in her left hand and wrapped her right arm around the child in her arms, and the child's clean and bright clothes contrasted sharply with those around her.
Bamu Yubu wood
In 2011, the photo was titled "Child, Mom Takes You Home" and won the Gold Medal for Photojournalism in China. Some people commented that life is on the shoulders, and hope is in the arms.
This photo touched countless families who left their homes, after 11 years, this photo was once again popular all over the Internet, and the reporter who took this photo found the mother again, and at this time the protagonist of the photo knew that he was popular in the country at that time, unfortunately, the daughter in his arms at that time has now passed away.
01
Bamu Yubumu was only in her early twenties when she was photographed, and if it were not for the embarrassment of life, she would not have to run so far to work with her child who had just been born.
At that time, Taoyuan Village was still a very poor small mountain village, with an average altitude of 1500, and the terrain was steep and rocky, and the income of the village basically depended on selling some crops, but for a family, this was simply not enough to maintain a living, even food and clothing may not be taken care of, not to mention that in small mountain villages, there is a general situation, that is, there are many children in the family, and the children still have to go to school, so the young and middle-aged people in the family can only go out to work.
When she was a child, because the family had no money, she had no chance to go to school, and from a young age, she could only follow her parents to the fields and cultivate the land, and when she was the right age, she married her current husband.
But the life of Bamu Yubumu has not been improved, the husband's home is also the same adobe house, whenever it rains, it rains heavily outside, there will be light rain inside the house, because the power facilities in the village are not perfect, at night you can only listen to the sound of raindrops falling in the dark, and then put the basin in the place where the rain leaks.
In 2007, the couple had the eldest daughter, Wuqi Labumu, because they had suffered before, so Bamu Yubumu and her husband wanted their children to be able to go to school and then get ahead.
So Bamu Yubumu is more economical than ever, many of the clothes she wears are either "picking" others don't want, or go to the town to catch the market, spend 2 or 3 yuan to buy, but more often than not, others don't want it, because she is reluctant to spend money on herself. Even so, in terms of children's expenses, Bamu Yubumu has always given the best to the child within his best ability.
In their village, every family basically lived by growing corn and potatoes, but at that time, the Bamu Yubu family only had six acres of land, and the potatoes and corn produced in a year were basically enough for the family to eat for a year. But for children, eating potatoes and corn nutrition will certainly not keep up, so Bamu Yubumu will save money and spend "huge sums" to buy rice for his daughter.
In 2009, their second daughter was born, the family's living conditions were more difficult, looking at the little baby in his arms, Bamu Yubumu helplessly made a very courageous decision - to go out to work.
02
For Bamu Yubumu, going out to work is a very challenging thing, because there is no culture, there is no far away, alone out of her hometown, to a big city, it is a lot of courage, but she still did it.
Bamu Yubumu asked the literate people in the village to help him buy a train ticket, and then took a ride to Nanchang, when he first arrived, Bamu Yubumu's experience was as unsuccessful as expected, because he had no academic qualifications, even a decent job could not be found, he could only make a little money by moving bricks in a brick factory, although his monthly salary was only more than six hundred, but it was much more generous than farming.
When she was working, there was no one to help him take care of the child, so she could only carry the child to work, once moving bricks was too hot, Bamu Yubumu could only put the little daughter to sleep aside, when the little daughter was only half a year old, the child began to have a fever after sleeping, or repeated, which can be anxious to bad Bamu Yubumu, she thinks this may be pneumonia. Because the price of money in the city is expensive, and Bamu Yubumu is illiterate, it will be very inconvenient to go to the hospital, so she quickly bought a train ticket and prepared to go home to treat the child.
It was during that train rush that Bamu Yubumu was photographed by reporters, and in her bag, there was actually nothing precious, just some quilts, clothes and blankets, because she was reluctant to throw them away, so she packed a big bag and took it home.
After taking the child home, he was immediately sent to the local hospital for treatment, but the child's illness has not improved, but it has become more and more serious, and he died almost half a year later, and the child's death has brought great psychological trauma to Bamu Yubumu. For a long time, she no longer went out to work, nor did she mention the experience of that time, and in 11 years, Bamu Yubumu gave birth to a baby girl, but sadly, the child died within a few days of birth, until 2014, when her third daughter was born, she slowly came out of the shadows.
Taoyuan Village
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Later, under the national policy, Taoyuan Village began to plant flue-cured tobacco, and the Bamu Yubumu family was also entered into the establishment of a file card household, with the help of the state and their own efforts, the Bamu Yubumu family no longer went out to work, but began to grow flue-cured tobacco.
In the first two years, some people in their village planted flue-cured tobacco to earn thousands of yuan, which is much stronger than part-time work, and they did not have to go out, but when the Bamu Yubumu family began to plant, the situation was not so good, they planted the family's land into flue-cured tobacco, but they did not make much money in one year, and by the second year, the situation was much better, and their family relied on the guidance of the technical personnel sent by the state to earn tens of thousands of yuan a year.
Bamu Yubumu's new home
The living conditions are getting better and better, the couple gave birth to their third child in 2013, in 2018, Bamu Yubumu received 40,000 yuan of housing subsidies issued by the state, and the family worked hard to save tens of thousands of yuan and built a new house next to the original house.
And under the care of the state, the infrastructure of Taoyuan Village has been improved, not only is it connected to water and electricity, the roads in the village have been built into cement roads, and the children no longer have to go to school along the steep hillside, which is much happier than before.
By 2020, the Bamu Yubumu family has successfully achieved poverty alleviation. So what is their life like now?
Wang Xue, the second daughter of Bamu Yubumu
04
On February 2, 2021, Zhou Ke, the reporter who photographed her, came to Taoyuan Village in Wayan Township after eleven years, and in the process of going there, all the way was cement road, and the newly built Yi villages on the side of the road were particularly conspicuous.
At this time, Taoyuan Village had just been lifted out of poverty not long ago, through the leadership of the villagers, they came to the home of the "Spring Festival Mother", and when they came to the mother's home, they knew that her name was Bamu Yubumu, and she was 32 years old this year.
The reporter did not come in a hurry, Bamu Yubumu had gone out to work, but the children were at home, it was a good day, Bamu Yubumu's eldest daughter was playing in the courtyard with her younger brothers and sisters, and laughter filled the whole courtyard.
Eldest daughter
Bamu Yubumu had four children, three daughters and one son. Seeing that the neighbors brought reporters, the eldest daughter, Wuqi Labumu, greeted the reporters in Mandarin.
The child is very polite, like a "little adult" generally invited reporters into the house, after entering the house, the room is very tidy, the floor and walls are tiled, refrigerators, rice cookers and other household appliances are also readily available, there are many bacon hanging on the wall.
Bamu Yubumu's children are very lively, and Wuqilabumu pulls reporters to visit her room, the quilts on the bed are neatly folded, and the books she usually likes to read are placed on the desk. The second eldest in the living room, the younger sister Wang Xueyi, pointed to another room next to it and said happily: "This is my room, I sleep in a room by myself, and I am not afraid at night." ”
Later, Wuqilabmu took the reporter to see the house where they lived before, and the reporter couldn't help but feel sad, the adobe house was short and messy, looking crumbling, as if the slightest movement would collapse. But on the faces of these children, the reporters can only see the innocence, and they can't see that their previous lives were so hard.
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Because Bamu Yubumu is not at home, so the reporters chose the video connection, at this time, Bamu Yubumu only knew that he was a photo that was popular all over the country, for now it is once again concerned by the whole country, Bamu Yubumu is also very happy, he smiled and said to the reporter, he has seen the report on the Internet, but what he did not expect is that it will be followed by so many people, she said: "Thank you for your attention, I am very touched, and very happy.."
Recalling the scene at that time, Bamu Yubumu said, in fact, the bag looked so big, in fact, it was not heavy, and the husband sitting next to her immediately opened his mouth to retort to her, "Where is not heavy, just because you were only in your twenties at the time, young, that bag of things, at least fifty pounds of weight."
Watching the couple mix their mouths, the reporter and others laughed, it can be seen that the two people are very affectionate, in the next interview, because Bamu Yubumu's Mandarin is not particularly good, so the husband is on the side to help him break the siege, the two have been smiling, and they can't see the exhaustion that life brings to them.
The reporter took a look at the place where the couple lived, although the place is not large, but it is also very enough for them, the wall is still hanging from the family of bacon, every day at noon two people fried some bacon, cook some soup, a meal will be solved.
Seeing that their family is so happy now, the reporter is also sincerely happy in his heart, and these happy lives all started from the day of poverty alleviation.
06
At the end of the interview, Bamu Yubumu smiled and said: "I don't have much culture myself, but I still hope that the children can read more books, they can go to college, it is the best, the good life is created by themselves."
Although Bamu Yubumu's previous experience was very bumpy, but now it has been smoothed out by a happy life, although it is not rich, but whenever they think back to their previous life in an earthen house, they will feel particularly beautiful.
Hopefully, her story will inspire readers in front of the screen, as she says, we all have to create a good life ourselves!