"My mother used to tell her stories to us often, and I was very curious about them. Every time she told me her stories, I formed clear pictures in my mind. When I started writing, I was trying to interpret the pictures into words," says Yang.
"It's very strange that with my age increasing, my memory is getting bad and I often forget what happened a few days ago. But the early memories are still so clear that they seem like being engraved into my heart. I will never forget them," she adds.
Zhang found her mother's writing touching, and pasted it on the online forum Tianya in 2009. To Yang's surprise, many people admired her writing, sympathized with her, and encouraged her. Moved by the goodwill of strangers, she bought a computer, and learned to type so that she could reply the comments.
In 2019, Yang's writing was recommended to Tu Zhigang, editor-in-chief of publisher Pan Press. He was surprised by the "vitality" in the book and decided to publish it.
"The book offers the perspective of an ordinary Chinese woman reflecting on history. Yang has her own style in telling stories, which makes them very vivid," says Xin Ningning, the book editor.
Qiuyuan was published in 2020. In the preface of the book, Yang emotionally wrote "Qiuyuan has come to the world. She once struggled, and experienced both desperation as well as great joy. Today, her 80-year-old daughter tells the story of this ordinary woman to the world".
After its publication, Yang sent three copies to her hometown in Hunan, and entrusted her relatives there to burn them in front of the tombs of her parents and elder brother as an act of commemoration.
Writing, for Yang, is a painful process as she reexamines the lives of her family members, especially the hardships they have gone through. That made her further realize and appreciate how great her mother was.
"As I described in Qiuyuan, after my father's death, my family was very poor. I was a teenager and could have helped my mother a lot to earn money and take care of my younger brothers, but my mother insisted on making me go to school and shouldered all the responsibilities herself," says Yang.
"I didn't realize how incredible this decision was until writing this book. I feel so regretful that I didn't ask her why she was so resolute," she sighs.
But Yang never completed her education, and regrets it to this day. Since the secondary vocational school she was admitted to closed down before her graduation, she then migrated to Yichun, Jiangxi province, to work, where she met her future husband. She got married and the husband promised to fund her return to education, but after the births of her three children, she never had a chance to realize her dream.
As a result, Yang highlighted the importance of education to her children. They were all admitted to universities, which was rare in the 1980s.
