Huang Wenxiu: A hero that shines in poverty alleviation

(File photo/Xinhua)

On June 6, 2019, 30-year-old Huang Wenxiu was returning to the village during a torrential downpour, when a flood crushed her car into the mountains, through which she had had a dream of constructing a concrete road for local farmers and their fruits.

In 2018, Huang Wenxiu, a freshly graduate from Beijing Normal University, became the new CPC chief in Baini village, one of the poorest places deep in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, responsible for poverty relief work.

In order to deliver local perishable fruits, sugar tangerines typically to the region, to other parts of China, Huang Wenxiu established an e-commerce shop and applied for the funding for a road for delivery. In 2019, the road was finally put into operation, after her death.

The villagers called the road "a path to prosperity," and it helped them sell more than 20,000 kilograms of tangerines that year. A total of 88 households out of 103 were lifted out of poverty.

Initially, Huang, a young woman, barely 30 with master degree from one of the best universities in China, was not exactly the kind of secretary that the villagers were expecting.

"No one really thought she would be here for long. It is a job that is too tough for a well-educated young woman like her," a villager named Huang Jinqing said, "and everyone thought she was from a rich family and came here only to gain some experiences that will make her resume look better."

But Huang Wenxiu soon proved them wrong with her hard work and affable nature. She loves bustling among the households wearing her straw hats, talking about their families and hers, because it is a sheer joy to help out her own people with things big and small.

Villagers would routinely welcome her to their homes, and if she hadn't had dinner, she would happily finish whatever they had left over from their humble dinner table, sometimes a plain bun, sometimes a bowl of rice porridge with pickles.

It was only after her death that the villagers found that Huang Wenxiu's own family was almost as humble as their own. Her mother was too weak to carry out demanding tasks in the field, and the main breadwinner was her father, who had unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer.

Why come back to the poor village? People would ask her. It is incredibly hard, and not worth the while for the incredible investment in the good education that she had received.

"We are a humble family, which was taken care of by the CPC, and her education was not possible without financial aid from the government," Huang Zhongjie, father of Huang Wenxiu recalled. "She always had a higher calling to give back, and she always thought that helping others was more meaningful than having a luxurious wealthy life."