How did she go from being a quarry girl to the editor of "Zhiyin"?

After reading "My Suffering, My University" by the American writer Zhao Meiping, I couldn't help myself for a long time. I covered my face and cried several times in the middle.

Why are you crying?

——Crying for her tragic childhood fate

——Crying for the fact that I was far inferior to her in the same fate

——Crying for her tenacity and unyielding Crying in spirit

——Crying for her changed destiny in the end

Looking at the resume, it is difficult for us to imagine that a quarrying girl with only a primary school diploma turned into a migrant working girl in Shanghai. , suddenly became the editor of "Zhiyin" magazine with influence across the country and even overseas.

"My Suffering, My University" is an autobiographical documentary.

Zhao Meiping was originally born in a happy family. Although her father was 40 years old and her mother was 38 when she gave birth to her and her sister, the family was loving and happy. Her father was a commune accountant and her mother was virtuous. Before marrying his father, he had a marriage with Yang Qidong. Later, Yang Qidong was imprisoned for breaking the law. After he was released, they both had new families.

Life always happens unexpectedly. At that time, Zhao Meiping was only six years old and her sister was three years old. Suddenly, her father’s fingers were bent and unable to close together. They gradually became like chicken claws and his eyebrows turned white. Finally, he was diagnosed with "leprosy" sick". This terrible news has haunted the family ever since and changed their destiny. The mother was frail and sick and often fainted.

Leprosy is contagious, so my father was quarantined.

The children in the village did not play with their sisters. When they went to school, they called them "leprosy children" from a distance. They even hit them with stones. They chased them home and banged the wooden door.

The years of being bullied like this have been lingering in the shadow of her childhood, until one day her father’s condition improved in isolation and he said he could be discharged from the hospital. But the sunny day had just arrived, and he was faced with a storm again. On the day of discharge, the nurse gave her father The wrong medicine was used for the injection, and she was allergic to penicillin. Within a few minutes, her father was lying upright on the hospital bed motionless, with a white cloth covering his head. Zhao Meiping was originally waiting for her father to come back from the injection to cook a bowl of egg noodles, but it became an eternity in her life. of waiting.

After his father passed away, his mother was harassed, intimidated, and threatened by prisoner Yang Qidong. He asked her for money every now and then, and even sold the family's only property, the cabinet, and even moved into the house in a grand manner, because her mother and him There was a marriage, and the village cadres had no control over it, saying it was a family matter. In the end, there was no other way, so I escaped overnight with the help of my cousin.

The three mother and daughter who fled Jiangsu overnight ended up in Anhui. Before that, Zhao Meiping’s mother gave her to a family as a child bride. She hunted hogweeds and cooked meals every day after school. The child bride was more of a servant than a servant. She had never been to the table to eat, not even a piece of meat. She wore straw sandals without socks in the winter, and the north wind blew in, biting the cold.

Zhao Meiping had no choice but to write to her mother many times, begging her stepfather to take her in and take her to Anhui. Finally, her stepfather relented and took her in. From then on, the happy life she thought began turned out to be in vain, and the family was crowded. In Shi Leiqi's house, not only that, her mother and stepfather often quarreled over money issues. Zhao Meiping graduated from elementary school and was admitted to the best local middle school. However, in order to support the family, she had no choice but to take the money with sadness and reluctance. The admission notice floated away along the river.

From then on, she missed studying and followed her stepfather to become the youngest quarrying girl on the mountain. At the age of 14, she made a living by smashing rocks. She carried a big hammer on her small shoulders and went up the mountain early every day. Smashing stones.

I suffered a lot at the beginning. Everyone had their own territory and built mountains based on their abilities. However, Zhao Meiping, an outsider, could only go to remote places to pick up the large rocks left by others that could not be smashed.

Her stepfather has a very hot temper and makes noises every day. Her mother is no longer as gentle as before and her voice is getting louder day by day. The living environment can completely change a person. Her and her sister’s biggest wish is It is time to leave this "Tomb of the Living Dead" as soon as possible.

Faced with the endless quarrels between her mother and stepfather, Zhao Meiping was full of despair about the dark life. She wrote 10 suicide notes and wanted to commit suicide many times. In the end, she still couldn't let go of her frail mother and sister. Without her, their life would have been even more difficult in a foreign land. Her mother also committed suicide once after her father died of illness, and her life could no longer withstand the blow.

When she was 19 years old, Dachuan, a boy from the same village, returned to his hometown from Shanghai and talked to her about the prosperity of Shanghai and new terms such as working girls and working boys. One month's salary there was equivalent to three months of throwing rocks at the family. Meiping was full of curiosity and her eyes were shining. In addition, her parents were eager to marry her off. The bride price could pay off the debt. Her mother was hospitalized many times and owed loan sharks. Zhao Meiping listened to Dachuan and said that it was okay. When she went out to work to make money, she seemed to see the hope of life, so she "eloped" with Dachuan.

When she first arrived in Shanghai, looking at the bustling streets and tall buildings, Zhao Meiping thought to herself, could this place accommodate a bird like her that happened to meet by chance? In my hometown, I listened to Dachuan talking about how to make money in Shanghai. However, when I came here, I realized that everything was not that easy.

I looked for a job for a long time, and my feet were all worn out. I finally found a job as a waiter in a restaurant. Unexpectedly, not long after I started working, I encountered sexual harassment from my boss. I had no choice but to fire him. Zhao Meiping had no place to live. In order to save money, she found a remote dilapidated house with an unused kitchen. The door was not even locked. The roof leaked on rainy days, and she even encountered a python entering the house on rainy days.

Later, I was introduced to a garment factory and worked successively as an assembly line sewing worker, a technician in a fashion company, and a copywriter in an advertising company.

But no matter what job she changed, including breaking rocks up the mountain at home, she never gave up reading. Reading enriched her soul, and reading also led her to embark on the path of writing. Despite her busy work, She worked more than ten hours a day, but she still insisted on writing. What really changed her was a party where she volunteered to go on stage and recite an article she had written.

The article "I don't understand your discrimination" received warm applause from all the migrant workers in the audience, and some were even moved to tears. This article was later published in "Baoshan News" and "Steel Research News". From then on, she became a little celebrity in the factory, and the boss of the factory, Director Pan, also looked at her with special eyes.

Later, the factory entered into a joint venture with a Japanese-owned enterprise. Due to Zhao Meiping’s outstanding performance, Director Pan promoted her to a technician, which attracted the favor of Mr. Ishikawa of the Japanese-owned company. He once wanted her to become Mr. Ishikawa’s daughter, but She was afraid of attracting comments, so she didn't agree after all. However, many people were still jealous and even maliciously slandered an outsider girl with a primary school diploma. Why should they point fingers? However, Zhao Meiping showed her outstanding performance and on-site operation without any mistakes, so they had to accept it.

Zhao Meiping’s experience, coupled with her beautiful writing style, has led to many publications. In 1993, a poem "Chang'e" was recommended by the editor-in-chief of Moya and published in the "Shanghai Overseas Chinese News", and she received her first royalties. , then "Mother, Hammer, Stone" was published in Shanghai's "Xinmin Evening News".

Overnight, the media in Shanghai focused on this extraordinary foreign girl. Shanghai People's Broadcasting Station and other media have done special reports on Zhao Meiping, calling her a "working idol." and “a role model of self-improvement.” She was also hired as a special guest host by the editor and director of Shanghai People's Broadcasting Station's "Haina Baichuan" program group. Every weekend at 10 o'clock in the morning, Zhao Meiping talks to more than 3 million migrant workers in Shanghai through radio waves, listens to their joys, sorrows, and sorrows, and helps them solve their problems.

From then on, she became more determined to embark on the path of writing.

In March 1998, Zhao Meiping, who had become a veteran author of "Zhiyin", was invited by Zhiyin magazine to participate in the "Zhiyin New, Malaysia and Thailand Overseas Travel Pen Conference".

The working girl flew out of the country.

During the journey, Zhao Meiping was accompanied by either undergraduates or masters, postgraduates, Ph.D.s, editors, and reporters. She was the only factory worker girl with a primary school diploma. Zhao Meiping had to feel inferior, and it was her first time to fly. She didn't know how to change her boarding pass, and she didn't even dare to eat the food handed to her by the waiter on the plane. She thought she would be charged, and she didn't dare to go to the toilet because she didn't know there was a toilet on the plane.

God is fair to everyone. Just when Zhao Meiping was feeling very low on self-esteem, she heard an editor traveling with her say that "Friends" was recruiting editors. The recruitment notice would be published in the next issue, and those who met the conditions could apply.

After returning from the trip, Zhao Meiping silently went to the newsstand and bought "Friends", which made her excited and excited. However, after reading the recruitment conditions, her mood fell into a low point.

Article 1: Bachelor degree or above

Article 2: More than three years of relevant work experience.

Article 3: Published works of more than 100,000 words.

Except for the third one, none of the above two are consistent. Does she need to recommend herself? Courage rises and falls like a tide, falls and rises again.

If you don’t give it a try, how will you know you can’t do it? So, with the belief of taking a gamble, she copied all the articles published in "Zhiyin" in the past, bound them and sent them by express mail to the editor-in-chief of "Zhiyin" magazine. She deliberately did not write a resume. She hoped that "Zhiyin" "Zhiyin" will not block a person's education because of her academic qualifications, but rather her talent and strength.

This time, she seemed to have made a bet for herself, folding her hands and waiting quietly.

At the same time, she received a call from CCTV's "Half the Sky" program and said that she was very moved when she saw "Xinmin Evening News" published a report of hers "Migrant Girls Fly Abroad" and wanted to do a show on it. .

It was on TV, but it was CCTV. You can imagine how excited I was.

"God will give great tasks to people, and they must first work hard." When a person goes through many hardships, the goddess of luck must come, and she finally waited for the interview call.

However, among the more than 20 interviewees, all of them were senior editors or professors with better diplomas and academic qualifications than her. Zhao Meiping's inferiority complex emerged leisurely. How should she express herself in order to appear confident? Different? How can she impress the interviewer with a primary school diploma?

She looked at the sycamore trees outside the window, like her mother's hands soothing her soul. She suddenly thought of her mother, the hard days, and the days when she wrote furiously under the lamp in a small house in Shanghai. Bit by bit, whizzing through time and space.

It was her turn to introduce herself: "I heard other people's introductions, and I feel a little inferior because I only graduated from elementary school..." The first sentence had an effect, and the interviewer Everyone raised their heads and looked at her.

"Although I have not gone through university studies, society is also a university, and my experience is a wealth that others cannot match. It will benefit me endlessly in my future work and life. I asked "Friends" to give me a chance to prove my potential, because suffering is my university!" The examiners all looked at her, ranging from surprise to shock, from shock to admiration.

The next written test, including the interview with the boss, went very smoothly. Three days after returning to Shanghai, I received the admission notice from "Zhiyin".

At that moment, she seemed to hear the sound of flowers blooming.

When Zhao Meiping was 28 years old, she bid farewell to Shanghai, where she had lived for nine years, and went to work at Wuhan Zhiyin magazine. A quarrying girl with only a primary school diploma became a famous magazine editor.

In this way, a miracle in the journal industry happened, which also proved the employment mechanism of "Zhiyin" that seeks talents in an eclectic way.

We always complain about the unfairness of life, but compared to Zhao Meiping, what reason can we have to say that we have experienced suffering?

The true brave man is one who can still face life with a smile after experiencing all the troubles in life.

It is precisely because Zhao Meiping has a tenacious spirit and the courage not to bow to fate that she is where she is today, and finally found love. In 2006, a successful entrepreneur, a Chinese American, I met Meiping through media reports and admired her very much. They started exchanging emails. They hit it off and decided to fall in love with Yunnan when they exchanged the 66th letter.

In 2009, Zhao Meiping immigrated to Houston, United States with her husband, and worked as editor of the overseas edition of "Zhiyin".

Zhao Meiping’s life is the immortality of ordinary people, an inspirational history of the rise of the little people at the bottom, and a true story of Cinderella’s counterattack and transformation into a fairy tale princess.

Her representative works include "My Suffering, My University", "Whose Struggle Does Not Hurt", "Meeting Love at the Corner", etc. We look forward to more of her works.