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Xiaozhai Village, located in Minxian County, that once obscure small mountain village, suffered an extremely serious natural disaster in the late nineties of the twentieth century. It was a mighty storm that destroyed the village's peaceful home in an instant.
Villager Li Ga Monkey has witnessed everything he depends on for his livelihood come to naught in the wind and rain. In front of the collapsed house, he hugged his young son tightly, tears rolling in his eyes.
As a simple farmer, he can no longer rebuild a warm haven for his family, and his wife tearfully says: "We have no choice but to leave here temporarily and find a new place to live".
So, with endless trepidation and uneasiness, this family of three joined the ranks of the wanderers. They came to Chengdu with great expectations, looking forward to starting a new life in this vibrant city.
However, on the first day of his arrival in Chengdu, Li Gahou embarked on the arduous road of job hunting. However, for a rural person with a low level of education and limited skills, it is really difficult to find a decent job in a bustling metropolis!
As time went on, their economic situation deteriorated, and the family of three had to rely on frugal food and clothing to make ends meet. Just when they were on the verge of despair, a chance chance allowed Li Ga Monkey to find a glimmer of life - begging.
On that day, he saw a beggar in a miserable manner in the street, which attracted many passers-by to donate generously. Although only a few people donated, these scattered few dollars add up to a small amount of income.
A spark of hope rekindled in Li Gahou's heart.
At first, the villagers felt a little ashamed, but over time they discovered that they could earn more from begging than they did from part-time work. As a result, more and more villagers in Xiaozhai Village have joined this "industry".
Begging has gradually become a "profession" in Xiaozhai Village, and more than 80% of the people in the village have even begged before.
This phenomenon is not only prevalent in Xiaozhai Village, but also sweeping all over the country. The beggars, dressed in tattered clothes and dressed up pitifully, knelt on the ground and kowtowed in thanks, others shouted loudly and used all kinds of means to win people's sympathy.
In order to obtain more alms, some beggars have even mastered the technique of bowing three times and nine times to every passer-by. Even those who had no intention of donating in the first place were deeply embarrassed and troubled, and ended up having to shell out some odds and bits of money to fund it.
For these beggars from all over the world, their lives are like struggling to get down on their knees and beg for food, and they travel from north to south just to feed their families.
However, as the number of people who come to beg grows, it has become increasingly difficult to support their families in this way. In order to earn more income, these beggars began to use various means, some to learn the art of acting, and some to sell loudly.
As long as it is a method that can attract people's attention and bring benefits, they will not hesitate to try.
On a bitterly cold winter day, Li Ga Monkey and his seven-year-old son roamed the streets of Chengdu. The snow hasn't completely melted, and Li Gahou sits alone in a corner, playing a new track he learned from a TV show with an erhu.
As the piercing melody of the erhu sounded, many passers-by stopped and listened quietly.
Some are merciful and generous, while others pass by. When night falls, Li and his young son tread the slippery mud and carefully count the day's harvest.
Surprisingly, around 2003, beggars gathered all over the country, which caused widespread concern in the whole society. A report titled "Revealing the Truth of Modern Beggars" was hotly discussed in major media, making the reputation of "Gansu Beggars" far and wide, and Xiaozhai Village was known as the "No. 1 Beggars Village" because it has more than 200 beggars.
All of a sudden, reports about Xiaozhai Village surged up on the Internet, newspapers and magazines, and there were different opinions: "The beggar's village is full of two-story western-style buildings", "The beggars return to their hometowns by plane" and other remarks reached everyone's ears.
Some false reports are even aimed at creating a sensational effect, brazenly exaggerating and vilifying the situation in Xiaozhai Village, portraying it as a mysterious and strange place.
As a result, countless ordinary people who originally knew nothing about Xiaozhai Village could not help but be filled with a strong desire to explore this low-key and nameless village and a strong sense of curiosity! However, what is worrying is that some unscrupulous elements have a keen insight into the endless business opportunities contained in it, and have begun to wantonly abuse people's sympathy for the disadvantaged groups to engage in illegal activities such as human trafficking and forcing women and children to beg.
At the same time, the villagers of Xiaozhai Village have gradually broken free from their former shame and regarded begging as an honorable and "decent" profession, finding a rare sense of dignity and belonging.
They tend to choose large cities with prosperous economies and frequent commercial activities as their destinations, like migratory birds, constantly changing their habitats as the seasons pass.
Although the Li Monkey family in Xiaozhai Village relied on begging to maintain an idle life, Li Monkey never gave up the persistent pursuit of their son's education. In his ardent anticipation, in 2005, Li Yuping was successfully admitted to Hubei Vocational College of Land and Resources, becoming the first student in the history of Xiaozhai Village to enter the university campus.
For Li Gahou, his son's admission to university is undoubtedly the highest honor in his life. With great hope, he personally escorted his son to school, leaving his barren hometown for the first time and stepping into the unknown.
A university career has shaped Li Yuping's ability to think independently. He began to reflect deeply on the current situation in his hometown, and felt that the villagers had to condescend to the humble begging on the streets in order to survive.
Therefore, he published an open letter at the school, advocating to all villagers to be self-respecting and self-reliant, and to abandon the unearned lifestyle of relying on begging.
Li Yuping's voice aroused an enthusiastic response throughout the village. Many villagers are beginning to wake up to the stigma of begging and are eager to get out of this life.
Yang Jinzhong, a cadre of the township government, witnessed the signs of gradual transformation of the villagers and resolutely decided to contribute to the development of Xiaozhai Village. He was well versed in the ancient adage that "if you want to get rich, you must first build roads", so he built a road to the outside world for Xiaozhai Village, completely breaking the dilemma of the village being isolated from the world due to its remote location.
When the brand-new highway was successfully completed, there was no doubt that Xiaozhai Village had embarked on the first solid step on the road to prosperity! The vast and boundless vision made the villagers deeply understand that if they want to survive and develop, they must rely not on humble begging, but only on their own industrious hands.
This highway not only greatly alleviates the traffic pressure of Xiaozhai Village, but also helps them to smoothly transport their abundant agricultural products to other places, so as to open up a broader market, promote industrial upgrading, and improve economic benefits.
In addition, it is gratifying that the local government, which has always attached great importance to education, has once again increased its investment to build a new modern campus with complete facilities and a beautiful environment for Xiaozhai Village.
In this new school, children can receive a comprehensive and systematic education, understand and master all kinds of new things, and establish a correct outlook on life and values.
On the occasion of the winter and summer vacations, the school will carefully prepare a "Letter to Parents", which not only informs the precautions during the holiday in detail, but also clearly reminds parents that only through hard work can the family get rid of poverty and achieve a gorgeous turn of destiny.
With the joint efforts of the township government and the school, the overall atmosphere of Xiaozhai Village is undergoing earth-shaking changes. From childhood to adulthood, people have begun to re-examine the lifestyle of begging for a living, and deeply realize that only by relying on their own hands to create wealth can they truly achieve the grand goal of poverty alleviation and prosperity.