China / China

Hard life for non-only child family

(chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2011-07-28 22:23

Fifty one year-old Sun Yuanhua and his wife and kids pose for a picture in Woyang county, Bozhou, East China's Anhui province, July 27, 2011. Sun's wife is 32 and intelligently challenged. Their five kids are aged from 5 to 11. As a result, Sun isn't able to work outside the village and leave them behind. Sun is the only bread winner of the family. He makes money from salvaging and selling rubbish (or discarded material) and selling things planted on the family's 3 mu (half an acre) of land. Three of them receive government minimum living subsidy. The annual total income for the family of seven is no more than 5,000 yuan ($776). The family's property consists of two shabby brick houses, a room full of rubbish and a tricycle Sun uses to collect rubbish. All five kids sleep on the rubbish, do their reading on desks made of planks and wear salvaged clothes. "I feel most sorry for my kids,” Sun said, “I was too traditional back then, believing more kids means prosperity for the family, and the more kids there were, the better life would be. I'm 51 now, and can hardly do any work a few years later. The kids will still be at school by then, and life will be harder." According to Sun Wei, an official of the village, village officials went to Sun's house to advocate the family-planning policy when he was married in 1999, but Sun managed to have five kids in seven years by "fighting guerrilla war", a joking Chinese term used to express the fact that a couple hide from family-planning inspections and give birth to two or more children. [Photo/Xinhua]