This past Mid Autumn Festival shall always be fondly remembered by one particular family, one no longer in Nanjing. For that’s when they were reunited with a missing family member, some 22 years since departing in search of fortune.
In 1999, Mr. Zhang, like so many of his contemporaries in those times, “went out” from his village in Sichuan.
The term, “going out”, was popularised in the 1990s to mean leaving a rural home for the big city, seeking a better wage to help sustain the family homestead. And it was migrant workers such as Zhang who comprised the workforce powering China’s exponential growth characteristic of the time.
For his big city, Zhang had chosen Nanjing. He intended it to only be a year or two before he could return home. In the meantime, he would regularly send money back and keep the family happy.
Problem was Zhang turned out to be unable to save almost anything. The loss of face he would experience were he to return to Sichuan penniless would be too much to bear.
So Zhang simply stayed put. For 22 years.
That was until mid-September this year. A dispute had occurred at construction site in Nanjing’s Pukou District where Zhang worked, reported Nanjing Daily on 20 September.
Taking both parties in for questioning, the police found that the identity of one of the men, surnamed Zhang, could not be verified.
Police from the Pukou Public Security Bureau then contacted the local police in Sichuan and were passed down to the village head in the man’s home.
Very surprised to see the photos sent to him by Nanjing police, the village head confirmed that Zhang had left home in 1999 and never went back. The family had been looking for him, but to no avail.
Over the years, Zhang’s brothers and sisters have also worked in other places, scattered to the four winds. But after learning the news, they all rushed to Nanjing from Shenzhen, Hunan and elsewhere.
On 17 September 17, the family was reunited in the Pearl River Police Station in Pukou. “Our brothers are together today, and we can’t be separated anymore”, Zhang’s brother said excitedly.
Nanjing’s police also once again showed their human side, by preparing a small meal of moon cakes for the family. The round shape of moon cakes, after all, symbolise reunion and togetherness.
Then on 19 September, with all fears of any loss of face evaporated, Zhang finally left Nanjing and headed home. With his family.
