In Section 7 “No Difficulty Studying German” of Part TWO, “Studying in the School”, it was described that Wei’gang Dai (my schoolfellow in Nantong County Middle School) and myself met a lady interpreter with two foreigners in Xuanwu Lake of Nanjing. Both of us were lost in admiration. In the countryside, my hope to contact foreigners was fading. My emotion fell from the peak to the valley. The news came once in a while that not only those who were assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also some who made their own efforts had gone abroad, studying, trading or living, making use of German. I had made my own efforts too and in 1981, I attended an examination of Jiangsu Province for selecting trained personnel. I got a good grade, but the head of the education bureau of the Tongshan County didn’t give me the offer sent to me by the Provincial Personal Bureau. In 1990 when I began to teach in Pengda, I got to know a young lady teacher, Hui Liu, who worked at her Alma Mater after graduation and got ready to go to the US because her husband was admitted by the State University of Wisconsin and got the scholarship $800 every month, which could support both of them to live. Shuhong Zhang, a girl student graduated from the ZMS, who was No 1 of Xuzhou District in the CEE of 1981, entered Beijing University, studied chemistry and then was an assistant lecturer. She got a high grade in TOEFL and GRE and was enrolled in Yale University of Connecticut. I had not studied TOEFL and GRE carefully and only heard that the examinee must remember more than 10000 words. Before the Cultural Revolution, the foreign minister, Yi Chen, said to the students studying in the BIFL that students majoring in English must remember 5000 words, the task being rather challenging. Who could do well in such two 10000-word-examinations? Only those who resembled Shuhong Zhang, top students with High IQ.
I was already 46 years old, with the hope resting on the kid. Liangliang Song was reading in the senior class of Xuzhou First Middle School. It was a long time before he could go abroad for the postgraduate study. However, I invited Hui Liu to come to Tuchengmen Lane, where we lived. We talked with each other the whole evening and I got to know the whole process to apply for studying in the US. Liangliang Song was also present and listened to her depiction. I was wondering what kind of influence would be exercised upon him. The risk of applying for studying in the US was very high. We’d just moved from the countryside to the city and spent all of our savings, plus borrowing some money, buying a small flat. If Liangliang was willing to go abroad, he had to get a very high score in the examinations and win the full scholarship, which would bewilder him very much. I had never expressed such a hope before him.
In 1977, Liangliang accomplish the bachelor degree program and decided to take part in the entrance exams for postgraduate schools. We persuaded him to give up Qinghua University and aimed at BUAA. Because of the different requirements of the professional courses between Yanshan and BUAA, he failed in the entrance examination in 1977. He continued to review after leaving Yanda. We managed to get the exercises on the professional courses of BUAA and he could train himself pertinently. When the result of the examination came, we were very glad. That year the Caterpillar Corporation established an English training center in Pengda. After the entrance exams for postgraduate schools Liangliang began to receive the English oral and listening training provided by American teachers.
From the fall of 1998, Liangliang Song began to read for the master’s degree in the robot institute of BUAA. In the second half of 2000, he entered the TOEFL and GRE class run by New Oriental School and at the same time he had to carry out the heavy assignments set by his supervisor. As parents, we could do nothing but worry about the result. The grade of his TOEFL and GRE was fairly good. The total mark of TOEFL was 677 and he got 630 and that of GRE was 2400 and he got 2220.
It is necessary for me to explain what TOEFL and GRE meant. The full name of TOEFL was Test Of English as a Foreign Language, verifying whether the examinee whose native language was not English was able to study in the US or not. The full name of GRE was Graduate Record Examination, which was an entrance examination for graduate students. No matter what kind of program you would choose to study and no matter whether you were Americans or international students had to attend GRE. It was designed to measure verbal, analytical, and quantitative skills, with each part 800 scores. The total score was 2400. The “record” in GRE meant that the score was written on record. If you took part more than once in GRE, your result was the average of all the scores on record.
After the bone fracture I lay on the bed and cared about the process of Liangliang’s applying for studying in the US. I had such a feeling that I was very unlucky that I was attacked by a flunky when the department was divided into two and now was forced to lie on the bed. I had never experienced such frustration. If Liangliang could win the full scholarship and go to the US to win the ph.D my frustration would disappear completely and I would get delighted from my heart.
An offer came from Michigan State University, saying that a half scholarship was provided. The letter encouraged Liangliang to come and promised to arrange for a position of TA, teaching assistant. It did not set Liangliang’s heart at rest, and he was afraid that the fund provided was not enough. He gave up and went to a company to work first. He took part in the TOEFL again and got the score 660, the difference between which and the full mark was 17 and which added to the chance to get the full scholarship. He borrowed money from his company and submitted applications to almost 10 universities. In the end he received an offer from Miami University, providing full scholarship, more than $30000 a year. Each of us warned each other that we could not be happy until the visa was got. There were a lot of unfriendly things happening between the Sino-US in 2001. On April 1, a mid-air collision between a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet resulted in an international dispute between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC) called the Hainan Island incident. The crew of the EP-3 was not released until April 11. The Sino-US relationship was strained. Although the incident was handled, we were afraid that it would still affect the visa of the Chinese students to the US. Liangliang made adequate preparations and had appropriate reply to every question which might be put forward by the visa official. The American embassy and consulate was so particular that the visa official told you immediately during the interview that you were given or denied a visa. On June 18 of 2002, Liangliang song phoned home from the US consulate in Shanghai, telling me the good news that he was granted the visa to the US. It was so exciting as if a gold football was kicked into the goal. Meilan Zhang went to the market, returned I saw her riding under the window of our flat. I could not help reaching out of the window and telling her the good news. No matter how exciting it was, she responded coldly. We had not held any celebration.
After the neck of my thighbone was broken, a lot of people came to see me. Now my emotion turned positive and I decided to invite all of them to come to a party in a restaurant to express our appreciation. I went to Nantong by coach and walked with the help of one walking sticks, letting Liangliang say good bye to grandparents and other relatives. The number of my uncles and aunts in that year was 12, all of them above 80 except my father’s sister. All the brothers and sisters, brother-in laws and sister-in-laws, plus the next two generations were invited, amounting to more than 60.
Liangliang went to Beijing and performed all the formalities. In August, his girl friend, Lei Meng came to our home for the first time. On August 16, Meilan Zhang went to Beijing with them and asked her student, Xueyun Zhu, for help. Zhu’s husband sent them to Capital Airport on 18th. Liangliang flied to Los Angeles, then transferred to Miami, at the age of 26, bringing $4000 with him.
Also in August, 2002, not long after Meilan Zhang came from Beijing, our grandson, Wuyang Song (later English name Peter Song) came into being on the 23rd. I was very glad of him. However, I thought the birth of a kid was a natural thing. The Song’s had a flourishing population and it was the same whether a boy or a girl was born. A huge party had never been held because of the birth of a kid. In addition, I hated those family that regarded a boy as superior to a girl. Once a grandson was born all of the things were done by grandparents, all presents belonging to the son and daughter-in-law and all expenditure from the grandparents. Some sons and daughter-in laws were a good-for-nothing and proud of that. Our children should not behave in such a way and they should rely on themselves not on their parents. We were to be proud of such children. Unexpectedly, the daughter-in-law was particularly angry at our behavior. It seemed to her that we had attached much importance to Liangliang’s studying in the US and were biased against the grandson. She broke out in the evening before the feast would be held the next day. I had never thought of it and the daughter-in-law had completely different opinion from us. It was in such an inharmonious atmosphere that she told us a surprising secret that they would move to Australia with all formalities almost done. She added that it was nothing marvelous for Liangliang Song to go to the US.
The news arose so suddenly that I was shocked by a thunder. Too many delicacies would harm one’s stomach. To have too much of a good thing is not a good thing. It was a kind of retribution for my dream of contacting foreigners and going to English-speaking countries to experience. It was a short time between the acquirement of the visa by Liangliang and the outcome of the immigration news of Li Song, too quick for me to respond. Because I was still in the period of the rehabilitation and was not able to walk freely, an uneasy feeling arose in my mind. Li Song graduated from Southeast University and came to Xuzhou. We made our efforts to arrange for him to work in the communication section of the city security bureau, in charge of the switch, which was admired by a lot of graduates. Even if he had not any leading position, it was very convenient for him to contact somebody in the branch bureau or in the police station because his position was in the city level, so that we had a feeling of security. While I was lying in the bed rehabilitating, he was reviewing English in his own flat and then went to Nanjing secretly to attend the IELTS (International English Language Testing System). And then he asked the agency for help to immigrate to Australia, without telling us anything about it. When asked why he did so secretly, he answered that the risk was terrible and he didn’t want us to worry about it. It was impossible not to let him go, because it was rather difficult to succeed in applying for immigrating. It was a success for a family and worth celebrating. If we treated it differently, it was unfair. Attending the IELTS and application for the immigration cost him a lot. I talked with his mother and decided to support him economically. On 31st of March of 2003, Li Song, Li Xu went to Melbourne to go through the formality of landing on Australia, with the baby son, Wuyang Song still in the swaddle. On 29th of June of 2003, Li Song went to Nantong with us to say good-bye to all the relatives and we saw him off in Pudong Airport of Shanghai. At the age of 31, Li Song flied alone to Australia with 6000 Australian dollars, making us in fear. We hope Li Xu could go there as soon as possible so that both of them could care about each other, setting us in ease. On 26th of October in 2003, Li Xu flied to Melbourne with the ticket bought by us. We hoped both of them to go through thick and thin together over there.
June 30, 2011 in Xuzhou
Proofreading on March 23 of 2012 in Chicago
Uploading on Aug. 7 of 2023 in Xuzhou
