MARGARET ANSWERS READERS’ QUESTIONS
Thank you for visiting our Really Enough Blog. It was my great pleasure to share my life with you through the book, and it is my great honor to have received your heartfelt feedback. I always appreciate reading your questions. I am also so moved to hear about how the book impacted reader’s lives. I would like to take the opportunity here to answer a few most frequently asked questions. Please don’t hesitate if you have new questions to send them through the comment box.
Q: Do you feel bitter after all the hardships you endured?
A: I do have some regrets, but looking back, I don’t feel bitter. I do shudder sometimes to think of the many situations that put my life at risk during my more challenging early years in China. I am happy I made it, and as an American I count my blessings everyday.
Q: Why didn’t your elder sister Double Happiness treat you better?
A: At that time, she was trying to survive herself with the burden of many children. With my help as a babysitter, she was able to save a little money to help our parents when they were in need. Having had virtually nothing in my childhood colored my perspective when seeing her “better life” in the city. From her perspective she was helping me to survive. It was a complicated time in China. Double was the sibling who did not endure the struggles I experienced, having grown up in the “good times” in her early years. I think it was difficult for her to connect with my pain, or to see things from my perspective. In the end, she herself had to be reformed, and worked hard labor in the fields. Her contribution to my life in later years as my teacher and QiGong Master, more than made up for the early years.
Q: Where are all your siblings now?
A: They all live in China except Sister Enough. She immigrated to the US eight years ago, and lives and works in Southern California. Can you imagine after a lifetime in the fields, she lives in America. We had fun reminiscing about our youths when the book was being written. We laughed and cried remembering things about our mother, and memories of stealing the vegetables, and father’s reaction to our letter to Secretary Qin.
Q: Have your siblings read Really Enough since they are all in the book?
A: No. Since none of them read or speak English, they have not read it. I did however consult with them in trying to fill in some of the details of my memories from the years when I was very young. They are very proud of my accomplishment, but cannot truly imagine what the book conveys. In some ways, this is a blessing since I am afraid Sister Double Happiness may not like the first part of the book. She might criticize me with the famous Chinese saying: “Family ugliness shouldn’t be spread to the outside.”
Q: What traditions are you still keeping now?
A: Love to use chopsticks when eating. I still prefer to eat Chinese food every day. I treasure every piece of paper. I never take two pieces of paper to dry my hands in the public restrooms. I buy paper money from the Chinese grocery stores and burn it when I think of Mother. Also, I tend to walk behind my husband all the time until he urges me to be in front of him when meeting with people or visiting people’s homes. So I do him the favor of letting him show his chivalry.
Xei Xei,
Margaret (Zhen)
PS Love to hear your own reaction to really Enough in terms of any way it changed you or your thinking
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