我的故事 ~ 13. 人在旅途，且行且珍惜

• by: Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.)

“享受每一刻的感觉，欣赏每一处的风景，不管身在中国还是澳洲，这就是人生。”

又到了珀斯漫长的雨季，连绵的阴雨使一切看起来都是阴郁的，也包括心情。静心一想，移民澳大利亚后的一幕幕又展现在脑海中。经历过的一些事，接触过的一些人都变得格外鲜明。

初到珀斯的时候，一切都是那么的陌生，很长时间也没有找到一种归属感。我虽然生活于此，但感觉它仍然离我很远，它不属于我。直到一天傍晚，我驾车行驶在西澳大学的校园里，路上没有一个行人，天空下着蒙蒙细雨，两边的树木苍翠欲滴，远处的天鹅河格外地美丽。突然间，这个景象似乎唤起了我最深处的记忆，一切都显得那么熟悉，就像是回到阔别多年的故乡，一种最深沉的伤感从心底泛起，像被一只手抓住了心头那块最软的部分……从此以后，我不再把自己当成是一个过客，我试着去观察、去体验、去感受。生活中并不缺少美，而是缺少发现。

1965年的初冬时节，塞外新疆的一家医院里响起了我的啼哭。我的上面有两位哥哥和一个姐姐，但我从来没享受过家里老小的宠溺。听父辈讲，那时候生活比较困难，养活一大家子人非常不容易。那时候我的家乡，历来是男人在外打拼，女人在家操持家务。我爷爷对我妈要求：“有国有家，你男人在为国家做事，你要好好在家忙活。”我妈那时年轻，有些文化，又受过革命的熏陶和教育，她冲出家庭的束缚，参加了县医院的工作。那时她年轻、好强，一心投入工作，把我寄养在奶妈家，等到她有空去看我时，发现我饿的皮包骨头，逮住东西就往口里塞，直把她看得泪花翻滚，抱了我就走。我妈说，小时候我先后寄养在二个姨妈家里，直到我妈妈的工作关系跟随爸爸的转业，于1970年迁回到北京，而后，是两个姨妈家的表兄弟送我到北京与父母相聚，那一年我应该五岁吧。青少年期，本来应是风华正茂的季节，而我却过得忧心、郁闷，从红色子弟到白袖套子女，心里落差还是很大的。虽然，我的运气还不错，上了大学，但是所学的电子通信工程专业知识并没有真正使用过。那时的国家处在改革开放的最初阶段，外面的世界有很多很多的诱惑。我大学毕业后申请了当时的外资企业，在一家做通信行业的跨国公司做基础技术员的工作。在当时我的工作还是很时髦，也让人羡慕的，只是却一直得不到家人的赞许。在他们看来，我就应该像哥哥一样，去参军报效祖国。循规蹈矩和一成不变的生活使我萌生了要去看看世界的想法。我和妻子两个人都喜欢读点书，有时间就一起到名胜古迹游游。我们也越来越不满足现状，开始收集移民留学等的信息，并着手做各种的准备工作。我记得自己专门去学习了厨师证，每天下班后都骑自行车去离单位40分钟车程的北京一所知名的大酒店，和主厨学习。现在想想，那是要多大的勇气和毅力啊，一种不达目的不罢休的精神支撑着我这个渺茫而朦胧澳洲梦。

那一年是2005年，等了近半年的赴澳劳务签证终于批了下来。虽然前途未知，但是我还是充满了对未知和陌生生活的向往。刚刚登陆时的澳大利亚天空那叫一个蓝，大地那叫一个绿，海水那叫一个清，空气那叫一个纯，风景那叫一个美啊。我对一切都充满了好奇。眼中的澳洲是个环保至上的国家，美丽的鹦鹉到处可见，清晨的梦，经常被它不太美丽的叫声吵醒。而造型很酷的袋鼠更是幸福自由得一塌糊涂，有时竟然跑到高速公路上欲与汽车比高低，不可避免地制造几起让司机格外痛苦的交通事故。最让我无可奈何的要算是澳洲的土生特色动物的代表–苍蝇了。澳洲的苍蝇之昌盛，之多情，之大胆，令人目瞪口呆。…… Read more

My Story ~ 14. Seeking A Better Life, Doing Meaningful Things

• by: Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.)

“I came to Australia in order to seek a better life. I have suffered a few bumps along the road but have never given up. Is a better life just for oneself good enough? I gradually realized that your own life is not everything, to assist others less fortunate than yourself to live a better life is a worthwhile reward for hard work and effort!”

I met my wife in Harbin when we were pursuing postgraduate degrees, then we got married and went to Shenzhen to work together. We lived there for more than a decade. I was a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and my wife was a nurse. We started from nothing when we were married and established a career; however we were motivated by a higher goal, my wife made the decision to go abroad for further study.

There are two main reasons for such an important decision, the first reason— Shenzhen was the first special economic zone when China opened up to the outside world. People could feel the modern atmosphere in Shenzhen at that time. During 1997 and 1998, we travelled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand; we were a part of the early group of people who had experienced the world’s different life styles outside of China. Although many people read about the world from books, films and television, only through personal experience was it possible to see the differences between China and the world. The experience and feelings during our trips outside China not only opened up our eyes, but stimulated us to make the decision to go abroad. The second reason that motivated us was the pressure of work in China. During the reform transition period, Chinese domestic hospitals were facing huge structural adjustments and policy changes. We could feel the instability affecting our career, plus the work pressure was too much to bear, therefore, my wife decided to study abroad to upgrade her knowledge and skills to avoided unpredictable changes and unnecessary pressures. We then contacted an migration agent in Shenzhen to assist us to prepare the application for my wife to study in a Canadian nursing school. It didn’t take long before everything was ready, then the 911 Incident occurred, all the visas to North America were cancelled. So she changed her destination to Australia. Soon after that, my wife came to Perth and studied nursing at Curtin University.

My wife studied English at Curtin University for the first six months, followed by a one-year nursing conversion course. The tuition and living expenses were very high, I had to continue working in Shenzhen to support her financially while also looking after our child. She graduated from the nursing course after a year and half.   My wife was very lucky, she found a nursing job three months after graduation just before her student visa was about to expire. My wife had fifteen years work experience in China, which helped her at the interview and she was employed by an Australian hospital. She soon became the most senior clinical nurse in the respiratory department of the hospital. Although it was not so easy at the beginning, because of the language, different work systems and professional habits, she overcame all the difficulties and became a successful nurse. Read more

我的故事 ~ 14. 永不言弃

• by: Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.)

“加入社区以后才知道中澳文化没有冲突。”

我生长的地方是个小小的渔村，开门见海，可以说是是面朝大海，春暖花开。房子是依山而建，没有平原土地。虽说靠海吃海，但我不打渔，我从十几岁就离开家乡，读书工作。海边的人有独特的生活习惯，我父亲是渔民。我们村一般男的都是渔民，到外海去打渔。福建的渔场，不是中国四大渔场之一，福建很多人都北上，去闽东的一个渔场打渔。记得我六岁的时候，父亲在那里捕鱼，那时候虽然已经是解放以后，但是天气预报技术不发达，出海的渔民遇到了大台风，就在那次海难父亲翻船了。那一次有七个人遇难，尸体都没找到。

出国前两三年没有想过要出国，在那以前，我们在国内对华侨有一种隔膜。说白了，就是不喜欢他们。有我一些亲身感触。我有一个亲戚，十九年前去了台湾。后来不是恢复可以探亲吗，他就回来探亲。到了我家一看，我父亲去世了，我母亲带了几个兄弟姐妹生活很穷。从房子到家具，生活可想而知。他呆了不到一个小时就走了，后来再也没来过。他是回来过，只是再没有回到家乡。据说他儿子在广东那边台商开发区。那时候，才十几岁，就感觉那些外来客、方客有钱了，就看不起我们了。他们带着粗大金色项链，表现出有钱人那种高傲，我感到不舒服，也不能接受。君子爱财取之有道。那时候觉得钱不在于多少，而在于一个人有没有奉献精神，钱多不做点好事，就没有意义。

我毕业于厦门师范学院。工农兵大学生，学的音乐专业。那时候刚刚70年代，文革后期，高考刚刚恢复了，各方面条件都差。我就分配在老家乡下的一个中学当了几年老师。就在我自己上过的那个中学当老师。由于县城的一个中学需要音乐老师，我就调到县城中学，又做了几年被调到教育局，去负责全县音乐教育工作。然而没做多久，领导又决定我去做了四年行政工作，这就是我的一个转折点了。在单位里面有时候不在于你工作多努力，多能干，而在于你跟领导关系的融洽程度，可能现在还是有这个问题。做了行政以后才知道这里面还牵扯到政治，还牵扯到权利。权利关系就很复杂了。有上下级关系，里外关系，那时候我年轻单纯，就想把工作做好，为老师服务好，社会服务，这是我的天职。但是不见得你这样做，领导就满意。也会引起别人的嫉妒，这就是人性的弱点。

我起早贪黑啊，工作是做得不错，但是觉得工作生活饱食终日，没有挑战，觉得生活没有真实的意义。我喜欢音乐，却做的和自己的专业一点都不沾边的事儿。再加上我的权利就是空架子，无形当中让你靠边站，关键是对你不信任。一个人得不到信任是很可悲的。一个人对自己没有自信做事情让别人认可，中国有句话说人不为己天诛地灭，一个人不为名不为利，什么都不为的这种虚无的生活，那大概是个教徒，我很难理解。要说一个人什么都不为活着，我活着做事情，一个人的良心，我拿你的工资就要为你做事情，多做点工作锻炼自己提高自己能力，或者是我有这个能力把它发挥出来，或者是发挥出来以后得到别人认可，没有一个人愿意被别人说成笨蛋，这就是人的上进心。 Read more

My Story ~ 15. Never Say “Give up”

• by: Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.)

“Only after I became part the community did I get to know that there was no cultural conflict.”

I was born in a small fishing village with sea outside my door and we can well say that it’s “facing the sea with spring flowers blossoming”. The family home was built on a hill, there was no flatland at all. Though people lived off the local resources, I had never gone fishing for a living but I left home for schooling and for work.

My father was a fisherman and he had a unique life style just like other people who lived beside the sea. Almost all the men in our village were fishermen and they all went fishing in the open water. The fishing area in Fujian is not part of the main four fishing grounds, and a lot of fishermen went north to Mindong Region. As I remember, my father went there when I was six and though it was after the opening-up policy was introduced; there was still no advanced technology for forecasting the weather. They encountered a huge typhoon and the boat overturned with seven people abroad, the entire crews were lost.

Two or three years before I went abroad, I couldn’t understand Chinese who had made the decision to leave, and frankly speaking, I didn’t like them. Well, I had my own experience which led to this attitude. A relative of mine went to Taiwan nineteen years ago and when home visiting was allowed he came back. He found out that my father was dead and my mom and I were living a poor life. Our living conditions could be seen by the condition of our house and our pathetic furniture. He stayed for less than an hour, went away and never came back. He did come back to China later, but not to our hometown. It’s said that his son works in the development zone for Taiwan-based companies in Guangdong. I was just a teenager and I knew those overseas Chinese were rich and they really looked down upon us. They wore a big golden necklace and their arrogance made me feel at unease and unacceptable. A gentleman makes money in the right way; I don’t think much of money but value the spirit of dedication. A life of being wealthy without doing good things means nothing at all.

I graduated from Xiamen Normal school. I’m a WPS and majored in Music. It was in the 1980s, the Cultural Revolution was behind us and the college entrance examination was reinstated. I was allocated to a middle school in my hometown village and worked as a teacher for several years. Well, actually it was my old school and it needed a teacher, so I went there. Later after several years, I transferred to the Education Bureau to be in charge of the music education in the town. I was transferred again after four years to be in charge of administration and my turning point came at that time. In my work unit, the key point of being taken seriously was not your ability and hard-work, but your good relationship with your boss. Maybe this problem still exists in China and after I was transferred to administration I got to know that politics and rights were involved too. The situation would be more complex if rights were involved. You had to consider the relationship between the boss and staff. I was young and all I wanted was to do a good job and serve society and teachers. Well, it doesn’t mean it is all right if you think so and do so and being jealous is a weakness of all people. Read more

我的故事 ~ 15. 追寻更好的生活，做有意义的事情

• by: Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.), Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.)

“为了追求更好的生活我一路辗转，从未放弃过努力，但更好的生活仅仅是自己的生活吗？我越来越明白，自己的生活并不是全部，让更多的人拥有更好的生活更值得去用心和努力！”

我与妻子是在哈尔滨上硕士研究生时相识后来并成家的，然后我们就去深圳工作，一呆就是十多年。我是中医，她是护士，两个人从一无所有到成家立业，之前推动我们到这里的人生目标已基本上实现。人到了这个特殊的年龄，如果没有人生的其他际遇或者大的激变，基本上已经不想重新作出什么方向性的选择了。也许我们只能想办法让现在的这种生活模式更加优秀、美好，于是妻子决定出国留学。

做出这样的决定主要有两个原因：首先，深圳作为开放特区，最先感受到了来自于不同地方的气息，大概是在97、98年吧，我们先后去了香港、新马泰旅游，这时才发现外面的世界真的很不同，虽然在这之前我们早已从书本、影视中了解过，但真的亲身感受一下，才对这种与中国内陆不同的生活有了更真切的感知，这些见闻与感受既打开了我们的眼界，也成了我们后来选择出国之路的首次心理冲动；而促使我们决定出国寻找机会的另一个原因则是因为当时国内工作的压力太大，那个改革的年代， 医院更是面临着不断的结构调整与各种政策改变，因此我们觉得没有安定感，压力太大，于是妻子决定出国进修提升自己实力，同时也算是一种婉转的回避。最开始是通过深圳的中介联系去加拿大的一个学校读护理，一切条件都已经具备，但就在出发之前，发生了911事件，北美的签证一下全都停掉了，没有办法，我们自己办到了澳大利亚，就这样妻子来到了珀斯，在科廷大学学习护士专业。

当时妻子在科廷先要学习半年的语言，再学习一年的护士转换课程，在这里学习和生活需要一大笔费用，我就和孩子留在深圳，我继续工作，经济上支持妻子。就这样坚持下来，妻子毕业以后花了三个月终于在签证到期之前找到了一份护士的工作，在她面试的时候，国内十五年的工作经验成为她的优势，因而被顺利录用，进入一所医院的呼吸科，成为临床最高级的护士。尽管工作之初遭遇了语言、习惯、工作各方面的困扰，但都顺利扛过去了。

我也在此期间到珀斯探亲。来到这儿之后，很喜欢这里各方面的环境，终于下定决心定居珀斯。不过当时在语言方面还有不小的障碍，要知道虽在国内读大学读到硕士研究生毕业，但中医的学习比较重视中国古代汉语，因为要阅读大量的古籍，而相对地忽略了英语的学习，谁也没想到有朝一日会这样用到它。

我将国内的工作辞掉，和孩子一块过来了。妻子来得早，英语熟练，又有固定的工作，而我却冒冒然然被拽入这边的生活中，根本没有时间适应和融入，所以刚到的时候主要是做“家庭煮夫”，接送孩子，做饭。这样围着锅边、围着孩子转的生活，开始的时候当然很不甘心，也想努力改变，但一方面是语言的障碍，使得交流困难，更重要的是当时无法克服职业身份的落差，这种落差是在我和这里的中医协会、中医针灸协会开始接触之后形成的。与这些协会之中的一些大师、会长接触后，我发现即使很有本事的人也仅仅是守着自己的一个小诊所，看到他们仿佛看到了自己的未来，而对比国内自己所呆的三甲医院，心里一时无法认同。要知道在国内，治病的地方私人开的小诊所根本没办法和大医院比，而且大医院也从上到下分了很多级别，三甲医院则是国内最高等级的医院，甚至可以牛到完全不认可低级别医院做出的化验单，可想而知，在这样等级体系下形成的优越感，到珀斯会遭遇怎样的落差。 Read more

My Story ~ 16. A Love Story

• by: Fan Hong & Liang Fen (Eds.)

“Open your heart and the happiness you deserve will arrive.”

Well, it seems that my going abroad was just to follow the fashion, but actually its roots are back in the beautiful dream that I had been pursuing since I was a child and my inner drive to look beyond the place where I was at that time.

After graduation from college, I left my hometown in the Northeast of China for Shenzhen, a modern city developed from a small fishing village. I was following my boyfriend. I spent nine tortured and struggling years there and grew from a teenager to a mature woman. Since I was not so successful in love, I devoted myself to work. I worked as an English teacher at the Shenzhen Polytechnic for the first four and a half years. Later, I was employed by China Office representing Ballarat University for four and a half years as a co-ordinator of a project of Studying Abroad working at Fuzhou University.

I admit that this transition in work triggered my thoughts of going abroad. I was always restless for quite a while every time groups of students were sent abroad. I was young and there should be opportunities for me to go to see the outside world, which is a wonderful prospect. However, what I lacked was education and qualifications, which I made my priority to overcome. I only had a junior college degree at that time so I pursued college education at the South China Normal College and then an MBA class while I was working at the same time. The classes were taught in English for the MBA, this once again inspired my desire to go to English-speaking countries — to have some real feelings toward the atmosphere of foreign classes and to experience life in foreign countries. The dream of going abroad which seems like the desire of a teenager who wants to meet her Mr. Right had become a rational pursuit of a mature woman.

People often say that Fortune always favors the one who is well-prepared. Well, she knocked on my door when I was preparing and the Fortune that guided my course was an old professor from Ballarat University who had been a loving-teacher to me. At that time, the International Department of Ballarat University was looking for a staff member in charge of the project in China and the requirement was knowing about Chinese education, Australian education, having work experience and equipped with a knowledge of education. The old professor thought I was the perfect person with relevant abilities and language advantages and he encouraged me to apply for it. So I flew to Australia for an interview in Jan. 2008. After several hours’ interview, I was accepted and came to work in Australia in March that year. Read more