She minds her shop as she studies during the daytime and even stays up late into night, reading until one or two o’clock in the morning. At 38, she enrolled herself in legal science courses at Radio and TV University (RTVU), obtaining a junior college diploma. She is now engaged in the undergraduate programme. In 2014, she passed National Judicial Examination; she wants to be a lawyer in order to use what she has learned to help others.
Ms. Dai Guanghui, studying as she looks after her small shop
Dai Guanghui answering questions for people who have come for consultation
As it’s not easy to pass the National Judicial Examination, many law university graduates keep away from it. However, this 43-year-old rural woman from Fuling passed the 2014 National Judicial Examination with distinction, earning a score of 396, which made her feel overjoyed. She said, “Passing the judicial examination is just the beginning, there is still a long way to go.”
The other day, this journalist went to Nantuo Township, Fuling District, and met the woman Dai Guanghui, and listened to her dream of becoming a lawyer.
An incidental idea leads her to RTVU to study law
It just so happened that some friends and relatives dropped by to congratulate Dai Guanghui on her passing the judicial examination on the day that this journalist interviewed her. As the guests sat down, she began talking about her dream of becoming a lawyer.
Mrs. Dai’s home is in the No. 4 Production Team, Guandong Village, Nantuo Township, Fuling District. Her husband, Guo Fei, is a village doctor, and she takes care of a small shop while carefully tending to the daily needs of her husband and daughter.
“I had thought that I would lead an ordinary life. I didn’t expect that a sudden chance idea would make me go to university to study law,” said Mrs. Dai. After she learned from a friend that adults could go to university in 2010, she went to Fuling RTVU with her husband to learn more.
Dai Guanghui said to this reporter, “I was overjoyed that RTVU offers a law degree. Right then I told my husband that I wanted to study law and become a lawyer. I didn’t expect him to offer such strong support”. She had gone to work as a migrant worker after she finished high school and had always regretted not being able to go to university. She was finally able to fulfill her university dream by applying to RTVU.
Mrs. Dai made no secret of the fact that she was already 38 years old when she began her studies at RTVU. Later, she began to wonder if the idea of attending university wasn't extremely absurd. Was it simply a waste of time and money? However, Mrs. Dai became energetic when thinking about her dream. She said to herself, “I mustn’t give up. I must follow through on what I have decided to do and see it through to the end”, and thus set out with determination on her journey to study law.
Overcoming a myriad of difficulties through persistence and hard work
“It’s easy to study law, but it’s by no means easy to learn it well. It’s a painstaking job to memorize the articles of each kind of law. It was an even bigger challenge for me, someone who had been away from school for a long time,” recalled Dai Guanghui with emotion.
Almost all the RTVU classes that she was enrolled in were held in the evening, but Mrs. Dai never missed one class. Each time her husband Guo Fei took her to Nantuo Township for class, he would sit at the back of the classroom, wait for her, and then take her back home after the class was over.
“We may have a lot of dreams in life, but it’s very difficult to turn them into reality”, said Guo Fei. When he learned of his wife’s dream and her efforts to realize it, he did what he could to support her.
Dai Guanghui learned that she had to pass examinations in 13 subjects before she could earn her diploma in the junior college law programme. Therefore, she created a plan to complete the undergraduate programme, and finally to pass the national judicial examination.
Dai Guanghui would write down all the questions she came across during her studies, and would then take them to the teacher the next time she went to class. As she was learning the law, she was also learning how to log on to the internet with a computer.
At the beginning of the 2014 spring semester, with the encouragement of her teachers, Dai Guanghui decided to attempt the National Judicial Examination.
While preparing for the examination, she would get up and begin studying at seven in the morning. During the day, she studied as she looked after her small shop; in the evening, she used to study until one or two o’clock in the morning. Mrs. Dai said, “I kept studying for over 10 hours a day.” When she became tired, she reminded herself to balance work and play so as to keep healthy.
“My daughter is now a freshman. She didn’t see the point of my decision to study law at all before”, said Dai Guanghui. During the 2014 summer holiday when she was preparing for the judicial examination, she neglected communication with her daughter, who was quite dissatisfied and often blamed her. “I had a heart-to-heart talk with her, which helped change her attitude to one of support for me.”
“Can the judicial examination be so easy? Even many students from famous universities fail!” “You are well over 40, what do you want to take the examination for?” These are just a few of the discouraging words heaped upon her by her relatives and neighbors during her preparation for the examination. They tried to persuade her not to be hot-headed, or that she would become a laughingstock.
However, Dai Guanghui was not moved. “If I fail the first time, I will take it again. If I fail the second time, I will keep taking it until I succeed.” She believed that success would come her way through consistence and persistence.
When talking of what she had gained from the study of law, Dai Guanghui took out a pile of books and said, “I read each of the specialized books here at least 10 times. In addition to reading and memorizing, I had to understand, avoiding merely learning by rote. I would ask the teacher about whatever I didn’t understand until everything was clear”.
Learning justified by giving legal assistance to the villagers
Dai Guanghui said frankly that she began studying law to fulfill a dream of her own, but as time went on, she began to love it more and more. In particular, when she saw that she could help others with what she was learning, she felt very happy. “My education in the law is well justified when what I have learned proves to be of help to others”, said Dai Guanghui.
Once, a villager consulted her on inheritance law after seeing a doctor in her husband’s clinic. The villager was very satisfied with her patient explanation. On another occasion, a young couple living next door had a quarrel and wanted a divorce. She went over and tried to help them resolve their differences by analyzing the mutual interests for both husband and wife from the perspective of the law. The young couple soon made peace after they listened to Mrs. Dai’s persuasive comments.
In late September 2014, Dai Guanghui took the National Judicial Examination. When the results were released, she found that she had scored 369 (the national minimum passing score was 360). “I became very excited when I knew the result, and I told my husband the good news immediately so that we could share the joy together”. Dai Guanghui said “Many thanks to them” crediting her passing of the National Judicial Examination on her first attempt to the support and encouragement of her family and the RTVU teachers!
In the future, Dai Guanghui has a very clear plan. She would like to find a law firm where she can enjoy an internship before becoming a qualified lawyer able to use what she has learned to help those in need. Dai Guanghui well knows that she has to continue to put forth great effort if she wants to be a true lawyer and take on her own cases. She said, “No matter how many difficulties and setbacks there are ahead, I will continue to persist until my dream of being a lawyer becomes a reality.
Written by Huang Weijiao and photoed by He Qianjian from Bayu City Newspaper