Taking a moment to reflect on home

My love affair with the Ningxia Hui autonomous region dates back 40 years to the autumn of 1978 when I met Ulanfu and his wife Yun Liwen. He was a senior leader of the National People's Congress and would later become vice-president of China.

I was only 3 at that time, waiting to perform in a kindergarten show for the 20th anniversary of Ningxia's founding. The memory has faded over the years but I still remember seeing lots of people crowding into our kindergarten. In the middle of that crowd stood a grandfather and grandmother whom our teachers introduced as Ulanfu and his wife.

Other children and I staged various shows for them. I played a spotted deer in a drama called Proud Spotted Deer. After the show, all the children had their picture taken with the elderly couple, a picture I cherished the rest of my life in which I was held in Yun Liwen's arms, smiling under the clear blue sky.