In 1992, I was transferred from the army to work at the Municipal Cultural Bureau in Huzhou. After that, I quit my job and decided to work for myself. I made money by driving rickshaws. I drove taxis. I also ran a factory and a company. In the summer of 2007, I sold my two companies and returned to my hometown that I had left 20 years before, and started farming lake sheep, a kind of sheep raised in Zhejiang Province.
Ou Yangxiu, a literary giant of China’s Song Dynasty, once said: "The first step toward establishing oneself in society is getting educated, and the foundation of this is reading." Meanwhile Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous German writer, said: "Reading all kinds of good books is like talking to many noble people." As a mother who was out of school for decades, I have often been asked why I chose to return. I think the maxims of those two sages are the perfect answer for me; external beauty fades, but the elegance and calm of those who have kept reading will never disappear.
My name is Deng Xin. I am a hostess at the Shaxian County Radio and Television Station, and a graduate of the Shaxian county workstation at the Fujian branch of the OUC.
Twenty years ago, I graduated from a secondary specialised school and became a hostess. I loved my job, and worked hard to learn the correct forms of pronunciation and expression through imitation. In this mindless way, a hostess can achieve a certain level of external accomplishment, but a genuine understanding of politics and culture cannot be imitated.
Many experiences fade from memory over time. There are always characters and moments, however, that linger in our minds.
Today I want to share two unforgettable stories from my time studying at the OUC.
An old saying goes: “Never forget why you started, and you will succeed”. It has been made famous by General Secretary Xi Jinping of the CPC Central Committee. So what was my goal when I began?
As a child in the mountain city of Chongqing, I dreamed of becoming a teacher. I graduated from secondary school at 18 and became a kindergarten teacher, as I had wished, and fondly imagined that my dream had come true. Only after 20 years of teaching did I realize that it had been just the first step. Learning has been a constant throughout my professional career.
About a month after I was born, a lymphatic tumor in my hand cost me half of my right arm. As I grew older, I learned that I was different from other children, who often made fun of me for being disabled, and over the years I have had to get used to the constant glances of strangers.
Ladies and gentleman, my name is Tang Zhijie, and I am 80 years old. I am a retired senior engineer who used to work with metallurgical machinery for the Shougang Group. I was often called "Teacher Tang", and I have a story to share with you about this.
Zhu Chao has been a Pre-School Education undergraduate at Panan Radio and Television University (Panan RTVU) in Zhejiang since the spring of 2015, and head of the central kindergarten of Shanghu town, Panan county. Becoming a preschool educator was her childhood dream. Now almost 30, Ms. Zhu has needed only four years to become an excellent kindergarten teacher.