Reform's children

Chinese in their 40s list Deng Xiaoping's southern tours and China's WTO entry as key milestones of the past four decades while recounting their own lives, Satarupa Bhattacharjya reports.

Gazing at the green mountains or walking on muddy roads during the day and spending evenings by the dim light of kerosene lamps are among Yang Xiuping's earliest memories of her childhood in a village in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

Yang, who has just turned 40, attended school briefly as a child. She had to help her parents with farming activities like many of her peers in 1980s China.