Along the Fields Through the Years: Forty Years in the Life of Three Generations

[Period Setting] [Warm Everyday Life] [Family Matters] [Bittersweet Life]

Across the Central Plains, generations of hardworking farmers have made a living from the land. Zhang Xiuping has many regrets in her life, from missing out on college to marrying Ge Shou'an, another person who never got what he wanted. But neither of them let their disappointments make them lose faith in life. Instead, they faced it with determination. Zhang Xiuping endures the disdain and exclusion of her younger sisters back home, as well as the many difficulties her two sons encounter when they get married. After all this, she ends up better off than her sisters. Her eldest daughter, in whom she had placed so much hope, also manages to make a place for herself in the city. And it is thanks to this daughter that when Ge Shou'an develops uremia, she takes the initiative to help him find treatment. From diagnosis until his death several years later, she helps ensure that he lives well.