N O N FICTION WEI AN TRANS. WEI QINGQI AND KYHL LYNDGAARD The Way One Has Been: My Own Story 1 I was born in North Xiaoying Village, Changping County, Beijing. It was on January 7 th , 1960. According to my grandfather, our ancestors were among the first to make a home there. The village lies at the beginning of what I call the Great Plain of north China. To its west and north are the irregular foothills that give rise to the sublime Yanshan Range. Everyday at sunset, I imagined run- ning to the top to see where the sun would finally sink. I believed that the sun returned to the east by making a detour across the mountains, and to me, the other side of the ridge was a foreign country. This beginning of the Great Plain contained my whole childhood and youth. Like the lives of all country children, this time for me con- sisted of poverty, joy, fantasies, games, stories, adventures, fear, long- ing, and farming. I often cherish these memories, though I have yet to represent them in my writing. When I read William Wordsworth's line "The Child is father of the Man," I was deeply impressed. The village had rivers to both east and west, and also a number of wells. During summer, the wells were so full that you were able to get water with a shoulder pole. Each year sparrows would build nests inside the wells and feed their fledglings in these fissures of the walls. From time to time, young birds would slip down, and these unlucky creatures would possibly be saved if adults appeared with their poles and buckets in time. I have been tenderhearted since I was a very small child and some- times may go to the extreme. I am unable to watch people butcher cattle or even a chicken. This heart of mine is a result of consanguinity. I have always believed, even now, that my Fourth Aunt is the kindest person I have ever met. That family root later enabled me to feel quite at home Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 15.1 (Winter 2008) Copyright © 2008 by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment at :: on November 27, 2013 http://isle.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from