Grow and flow

Author: Huang Peihua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: Many years later, when my only son was born into this world, I stood on the balcony of the city hospital, cradling a delicate little life and gazing into the west, trying my best to sense the presence of Nong Baotian, who lay buried beneath the yellow soil in northwest Guangxi. A rhythm belonging to the Hong River then arrived as promised, gently tapping against the hearts of my son and me. I felt that it was the flow of blood. I knew then that the life in my arms was but a drop of blood from our farming family. Starting from the 1920s, Nong Baotian's life not only brought forth dozens of lives for our farming family but also, along with their generations, continuously carried forward the flames of hearth in the Hong River area of our hometown in the southern foothills of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the tales of the elders, my great-grandfather Nong Baotian was undoubtedly one of the most legendary figures among the people of the Hong River.