The Cousin I Took In, the Bond That Lasted Half a Lifetime

I've met too many girls called “unwanted.” They were the ones adults said should never have been born, the ones who couldn't afford to study after helping their brothers finish school, the ones with no room in their parents' home after they married off. They were named “Bring a Brother” or “Hope for a Brother,” or, like Duo Yan in my story, “Unwanted” and “Despised.” My cousin Shi Mei was an abandoned baby girl, found and taken in by my eldest uncle. She grew up wandering through a world ruled by men, and in the end returned to where it all began, carrying a child in her arms and shouldering a whole household on her own. I want to write about how they survived: in a leaky old house, an elderly woman pulled two unwanted children into her arms and said, “Heaven's celebrating for us with drums and gongs.” The padded jacket that sold for thirty-seven yuan, and the words, “To me, you were never unwanted.” This book is dedicated to everyone who has ever felt unwanted. My Found Cousin: A Lifelong Bond