A peasant worker works his way to becoming a postgraduate student

He failed the postgraduate entrance exam twice

On the afternoon of September 13, the reporter went to the Tibet Nationalities Institute's School of Humanities, located in Xianyang City. Thanks to the efforts of the School's teachers, Lu, once unwilling to be interviewed, accepted the interview. He is an ordinary young man from the countryside, and looked shy throughout the talk with the reporter. He told the reporter that he is 33 years old this year, and that comes from Lujiada Village, Ducun Township, Jiaozhou City, Qingdao. After finishing junior middle school in 1991, Lu did not go to senior high school, but worked for a township company, because he failed to enter a junior secondary school and his family was in a bad economic situation at the time. During this early stage, he felt satisfied with his job. As time elapsed, though, he realized that he should not work for others like that, and must make some changes in his life. He wanted to learn more to live a better life because he realized that he could not do anything meaningful without knowledge. In 2002, after Lu had been married for three years, he picked up his textbooks again and attended the self-study exam for adults, and received the three-year college and undergraduate diplomas from Shandong Normal University in 2006. Later, he took the postgraduate entrance exam. After failures in 2007 and 2008, he made his long-cherished wish a reality in 2009: he was admitted to the Tibet Nationalities Institute's School of Humanities, majoring in ancient Chinese literature.

At present, Lu only wants to learn more

The life that most local young people live is an easy lifestyle: they work outside to earn money and support their family after getting married. In the beginning, Lu lived in this way. But after living as a migrant worker day in day out, he realized that only knowledge can bring him wealth, just as the saying goes: knowledge can change one's fate. After he had set this goal, he started to get the momentum to learn. During a break at work, while others were playing, he used every minute to read books and learn; during his spare time, he went to teachers and asked them to explain what he did not understand. He said he had never gone to sleep before midnight since he began attending the self-study exam for adults. He had originally planned to only get the undergraduate diploma, because he thought that the diploma would qualify him in society. He found a job as a typist at a company in Guangzhou, and earned over 2,000 yuan per month. After reading a story about a man who was crippled by polio and still became a postgraduate and later a doctor student, however, he found the man's perseverance in overcoming his difficulties stimulating. He thought that an able-bodied man must be able to do what a crippled one can do. Consequently, Lu sped up his preparations for the postgraduate entrance exam. Passing the postgraduate entrance exam, however, is more difficult than getting an undergraduate diploma; English, at which Lu is weak, stood in the way like a seemingly insurmountable mountain, let alone these ancient texts that are very difficult to understand. He failed two times because of his deficiency in English. In order to conquer it, he spent most of his energy studying the English, and finally cleared this obstacle by memorizing words, learning grammar and doing simulation tests over and over again.

He feels sorry for his wife and two daughters. His wife has had to do all of the housework, because Lu studies and works outside. At the same time, he offers her daughters little care or attention. Now, he is studying in Xianyang, and is thus unable to care for them. Lu has thought little about the future. He said that now he only wants to learn more during the next three years.

Translated by LOTO