Fire and Backbone

On the National Day of 1958, Anzhou Aluminum Plant cut the ribbon. Fan Ping, an 18-year-old rural youth, squeezed into the crowd and watched the first wisp of smoke coming out of the chimney. He vowed to put on work clothes, earn 28 yuan, and support his family. He entered a hot world. Starting out as a porter, Fan Ping learned his craft from his master Liu Da and worked countless night shifts in the electrolysis workshop. He guarded the factory during the wave of reform and opening up. Beside the fire, there is the deep affection between master and apprentice, like father and son; there are husband and wife who support each other - Wang Shulan does not mind the poverty of his family, and he protects his wife from being wronged; there are co-workers who treat each other with sincerity - together they have endured famine, weathered storms, and worked hard for the factory. Over more than thirty years, Fan Ping rose from a young boy to a workshop director, moved from an adobe house to a building, and went from not having enough to eat to seeing meat on the table. He did not make a fortune or become a high official, but he kept the fire, the dignity of a craftsman, and the warmth and warmth of human beings that remained unchanged despite the great changes of the times. This is a book written to the times, to our fathers, to those ordinary people who have turned their hair white and bent their spines by the fire, but never lost their backbone.