Where is Qidu Island?

Qidu is an island town in Lucheng District, just across the river from Wenzhou City, with a permanent population of over 9,000 and overseas Chinese15,000. It is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese.

Income depends on foreign exchange: the per capita annual income on the island is not high, only 6 166 yuan (statistics in 2004), but the living standard is not low, and overseas remittance has become the main pillar of their lives.

No ATM: Apart from rural credit cooperatives, China Bank is the only state-owned commercial bank on the island. The only ATM in the bank was cancelled because it was left unattended for several months. The explanation given by the bank staff is that it is too difficult to persuade the elderly who are almost illiterate on the island to use bank cards!

Exchange foreign currency for daily necessities: there is a saying that an old lady who can't read newspapers and TV is quite familiar with the exchange rate between euro and dollar. When she had no change, she exchanged euros for eggs, 1 euros for 15 local eggs. The foreign currencies commonly used on the island are mainly US dollars, euros and Canadian dollars. There used to be lira, francs and Dutch guilders. ...

Summer vacation is more lively than Spring Festival: because people can't travel freely without a green card, many adults can't go home for the Spring Festival. On the contrary, many children come back from abroad to attend summer camp every summer vacation. Perhaps the word "going home for the New Year" means little to these children, but it is an unforgettable dream for their parents.

On February 28th, 2005, 65,438, Wenzhou Qidu Bridge with an investment of more than 400 million yuan broke ground. It is understood that this is the largest municipal public bridge in Wenzhou history. This incident has once again aroused people's attention to Qidu Island. Close observation of this hometown of overseas Chinese, known as "Wenzhou Island United Nations", makes many stories of overseas immigrants of Qidu people come alive.

Ordinary Wenzhou citizens' understanding of Qidu seems to be reported in the news of the safe evacuation of island residents on the eve of typhoon every year. In fact, apart from being vulnerable to typhoons, it is the only hometown of overseas Chinese in Wenzhou.

Qidu Island is surrounded by water, and most of the indigenous people make a living by fishing except farming. Changing from fishermen to seafarers is the only way for them to improve their living conditions, so from these people, the first generation of overseas Chinese in Qidu was born.

From liberation to reform and opening up, the second generation of expatriates went abroad, and they mainly engaged in catering, clothing and leather goods processing overseas.

After the reform and opening up, the third generation of expatriates went abroad, mainly engaged in intermediate trade overseas.

Every student with a local hukou studying at school may be a future immigrant. They are like kites. The other end of the rope is in the hands of relatives across the ocean. When the monsoon blows, they will fly in the direction of the rope. ...

"intergenerational education" makes left-behind children isolated.

Walking on the village road in Qiansha village, a little girl wearing little red riding hood, four or five years old, was walking and playing with a small notebook on her back. The reporter asked her, "little friend, your hat is so beautiful." Who sent it? " The little girl said that her mother bought it. But when the reporter asked her where her mother was, she didn't know.

At this time, a villager next to him interjected with a smile: the little girl's parents are in Italy, and after the child was born, she was sent back to her grandparents for foster care. She hasn't been back for years.

According to the villager, in order to save the cost of raising children and make time to make money, most people choose to send their children back to their hometown for foster care and then receive them abroad to study in primary or secondary schools when the time is ripe.

From the teacher Huang Baosheng of Qidu Town Education Office, the reporter learned the following figures: the permanent population of Qidu Island is 9,232, and the number of people living in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and overseas is15 times that of the permanent population, including 5,478 in the United States, 3 169 in France and 1/kloc-in Italy.

Of the 283 kindergarten students on the island, only 54 are registered locally. Due to the declining birth rate, fewer and fewer students go to school, and the primary schools in the town have merged from five last year to two now.

The Vocational Education Department of Qidu Middle School has two classes every year when enrolling students, and it will be merged into one class in the third year of high school, because half of the students will drop out of school and go abroad.

According to statistics, there are 1467 students (including kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools) on the island, most of whom are left-behind children whose parents are far away from home, and about half of them have intergenerational education. They are less bound by their families and more free than children in the city, but generally feel lonely.

The fate of going abroad makes children mature ahead of time.

Qidu Middle School is surrounded by water on three sides and has no walls. Standing on the rostrum of the playground, you can see the endless winter fields. On the flagpole next to the playground, there is a national flag flying high, and the red flag is picturesque. Under the five-star red flag, several children playing basketball are desperately.

Many of them will go overseas to reunite with their relatives in the near future and start a completely strange life.

The reporter found Xiao He and Xiao Ren (a pseudonym) in the basketball court. They are in Grade Three and Grade One respectively.

This semester may be the last semester for Xiaohe to study in China. His three sisters and mother have all got visas, and they are only waiting for new york's father to give the order and the whole family will emigrate. Xiao Ren's two sisters are also in new york. It is estimated that Xiaoren went abroad after graduating from senior three.

Besides video games, basketball is their biggest hobby. "It's boring to play now, because one of my best playmates went abroad in the first half of this year, and now I'm short of three." When they said this, they seemed a little lonely.

Xiao Huang is a senior three student this year. Like all newcomers, she likes to wear fashionable jeans with many pockets. Although she is beautiful, she doesn't fall in love as early as children of the same age in the city. She told reporters that in Qidu, the phenomenon of puppy love is less, because such feelings are very fragile. Once you go abroad, your life will change.

Xiao Huang will go abroad after getting his diploma next summer. But she doesn't want to go abroad at all, because she learned from her returning partners that working abroad is very hard, just like her sister. Her sister went to America eight years ago and hasn't returned yet because she doesn't have a green card. The year before last, my elder sister married a Fujian native who was also working, so my family could only wish them well from a distance.

There is no future to stay in China, because her academic performance is not very good, and she will definitely not be admitted to the university; Finding a job after graduation from vocational high school is not only low in salary, but also very hard. In contrast, it is better to go to America. Although the money earned is not much, it is dollars after all, and it is still very useful to send it home. When she talks about dollars, it is as natural as when we talk about RMB.

In the eyes of children, America is a big factory.

Although they will go abroad soon, they know almost nothing about the country they are going to.

The only thing Blackie knows is that the daytime in the United States is just the opposite of that in China. Every time I get a call from my father at home, it's night, but it's daytime there. But until now, he doesn't understand why, because he has never been exposed to world geography.

"What is the capital of the United States?"

New york? Hesitated for a long time, XiaoRen mumbled something to answer.

When reporters reported NBA, Niagara Falls, rock music, Hollywood and other words one by one, they still looked blank. In their minds, the American world does not belong to them. This is just a big factory. They go to work and earn only dollars.

Asked about their greatest wish, Xiao Ren said without thinking, live a free life and do what he wants.

Xiao Huang pondered for a while and said: Make more money and try to go back to China to watch the Olympic Games in 2008.

A large number of overseas Chinese celebrities went out of the island.

The reporter tried to mention some celebrities on Qidu Island, but immediately found it was in vain. Yu Xilong and Lin Jingping ... They didn't respond to these names.

Although these children who are about to go abroad know nothing about the overseas Chinese leaders in their hometown, a large number of overseas Chinese groups in Qidu Town are quite famous in the overseas Chinese community in Wenzhou.

The leaders of these overseas Chinese delegations responded in succession in the overseas Chinese community, directing hundreds of millions of funds to move to overseas shopping malls.

At home, overseas Chinese have also donated a lot of money to build roads and bridges, seawalls, pavilions for the elderly and schools ... covering all aspects of social welfare. In addition, they also regard it as their unshirkable responsibility to donate money for disaster relief every year when the typhoon strikes.

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