The Lane, and the 1979 Return of the Educated Youths' Children

In the autumn of 1979, the tide of the times brought the first group of educated youths back to Shanghai. Seven-year-old Lin Xiaotang set out from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps with her parents, Lin A Ming and Su Peizhen, her ten-year-old sister Lin Xiaoyan, and her five-year-old brother Lin Xiaoyang. Their hastily approved notice to return had arrived too late for them to inform their grandparents in Shanghai. The family of five squeezed onto a rattling green train, lugging canvas bags stuffed with lavender, old clothes, and cloth dolls.

Along the way, they looked forward to the pan-fried buns in the alley and the White Rabbit candies Grandma had hidden, yet worried whether the ten-square-meter attic in Grandpa’s home could fit the whole family. They cherished memories of the vast Xinjiang Gobi, yet felt uneasy about Shanghai’s damp air and unfamiliar Wu dialect. From a stranger on the train warning them that “relatives might not welcome you” to the complicated looks from their uncle and aunt when they reached the alley, the five of them drew on a child’s innocence and an adult’s resilience to slowly feel the weight, warmth, and unease behind the words “coming home” amid an era of change.