Go to home visit

"Home Visits," Huang Deng's follow-up to "My Second-Tier University Students," documents what she saw, heard, felt, and thought during her visits to her students' families from 2017 to 2022. In these small towns, villages, and villages, scattered across a map, each requiring infinite zooming to reveal its name, Huang Deng interacted with her students' parents, grandparents, siblings, childhood friends, and neighbors, listening to their insights into education and life. This enabled her to gain a deeper and more authentic understanding of the young people who came from all corners of the world to attend her classes—her second-tier university students.
Stepping down from the podium, Huang Deng followed the students' routes home, traveling by high-speed train, long-distance bus, minibus, electric bike, and motorcycle to Tengchong, Yunan, Yangchun, Taishan, Huaining, Dongguan, Lufeng, Puning, Foshan, Shenzhen, Raoping, Zhanjiang, Suixi, Lianjiang, Shaoguan, and Xiaogan. He visited abandoned elementary school playgrounds, climbed onto the roofs of old houses, sat on the slopes of tea plantations, slipped into express delivery packaging workshops, wandered through the waters of oyster farms, and picked up sweet potato vines from the ridges of fields. He experienced the environment in which his students grew up and the hard work every family put into their children's education. Through these repeated, down-to-earth visits, Huang Deng grew close not only to his students but also to their parents, and in a deeper sense, to himself, to education, and to the realities of contemporary China. Nothing comes easily; even a second-tier university requires the full dedication of the child and the dedicated support of the family.
Huang Deng's "Home Visits" maintains the sincerity and earnestness she brought to "My Second-Tier University Students," a sincere exploration of individual lives and a genuine commitment to the written word itself. She travels thousands of miles to visit students' homes, sharing their meals, lodging, and traveling with them. This demonstrates a genuine interest in their growth and a deep concern for the future of this group of young people.

2024-02-01

人民文学出版社

315

9787020184262