Alipa was present at the selection evening of Touching China. Photo by Deng Jia/CFP
The family portrait of Alipa when she was seventy years old. (Photo from the Internet)
Series Report No. 3
Half a century of raising orphans of Han, Hui, Uyghur and Kazakh ethnic groups - Motherly love transcending ethnicity and bloodline moves the world.
By Wu Wei and He Tao of our newspaper staff
"Only mother in this world is good. Having a mother makes one a treasure. Falling into mother's arms, one will enjoy happiness forever..." This familiar nursery rhyme has made countless Chinese people shed tears. Since 1963, Alipa Alikamhon, an elderly Uyghur mother from Qingshe County, Altay Region, Xinjiang, has raised 19 children, among whom 10 are orphans from four different ethnic groups.
For 50 years, no matter how many difficulties she encountered, Alipa has proven with her actions that each child is her precious baby; no matter what challenges she faced, as long as she heard a child's cry, even if it wasn't her own flesh and blood, Alipa was willing to open her wide maternal embrace. When her story flew over Tianshan Mountain, over the grasslands, over the Yangtze River and Yellow River, all the countrymen expressed heartfelt admiration and moved by this great mother, who became the Person of the Year for Touching China in 2009.
In the recent popular American broadcast of "China National Image Film - People Edition," Alipa became the representative of all Chinese mothers, showcasing the kindness and compassion of the Chinese nation to the world. However, facing such high honor, Alipa, over seventy years old, humbly said: "I just did what a mother should do."
"As long as you enter Alipa mom's home and drink a cup of hot tea, you can feel her omnipresent maternal aura. In my heart, I often involuntarily regard her as my own mother." Fan Qin, Han nationality, born in the 1970s, originally from Sichuan, currently the director of the Civilization Office of Qingshe County, has known Alipa for ten years. Deeply moved by her deeds, she wrote the literary work "The Story of Alipa."
In the preface, Fan Qin wrote: "A great love surpassing ethnicity and bloodline, a chart showing the close relationship between family and country, a history filled with hardship and tears but warm and lasting, firmly ties to a Uyghur mother. She is Alipa Alikamhon from Qingshe County."
For 50 years, Alipa and her husband Abibao successively adopted 10 orphans from Han, Hui, Uyghur, and Kazakh ethnic groups. In August 2008, after a lifetime of hard work, Abibao passed away, and the children took turns to support Alipa. Every festival, the children return home to reunite, and now the family has grown to more than 180 people.
Parents deceased
The eldest sister takes care of six younger siblings
Fan Qin introduced that "Alipa" in Uyghur means a leader guiding people on the right path. Her father Alimahong hoped Alipa would walk the righteous path, live well through hard work, and strive for a happy life. In 1956, with the thaw in Sino-Mongolian relations, 17-year-old Alipa returned with her parents to their long-missed homeland and settled in Qingshe County.
Unfortunately, in 1960, Alipa's parents both passed away within a week, leaving behind a lonely Alipa and her six younger siblings. At only 20 years old, Alipa had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of supporting the entire family. At the time, her brother Hopar was 16, sister Mariya was 13, Amena was 10, Ruzihan was over 5, Kalicham and Hapar were only 3 and 1 respectively. The young Alipa didn't know how to feed these younger siblings.
Helpless, she followed the neighbor's advice—find a partner and raise her siblings together with her husband. The then beautiful Alipa set a condition in her marriage proposal—to adopt the six younger siblings together, which made many admirers hesitate. Eventually, Abibao, who was 10 years older than Alipa, came. He was honest, had a stable income, and temporarily secured Alipa's family's livelihood.
However, with the birth of her own children, to take care of the dozen mouths in the family, the couple had to work odd jobs everywhere. Abibao worked as a blacksmith, built walls, slaughtered sheep at the slaughterhouse, and the heavy physical labor often left him too tired to straighten his back. In winter, Alipa sewed clothes for others, in summer she herded sheep for others. Sometimes, to prevent wolves from stealing sheep, Alipa and her husband guarded the flock day and night. Once, they lost five sheep to wolves, and the couple had two months' salary deducted. But in front of the children, the young couple never complained.
Fan Qin said that neither of the couple had much education, but they firmly believed that educated people would have a bright future. Therefore, Alipa and her husband scrimped and saved to send her younger siblings to school one after another. Some went to high school, some to vocational schools, and some even attended university.
Two generations grew up together, and the impression of their parents faded for the younger siblings, but they had deep feelings for their sister and brother-in-law. Whenever someone mentioned "you orphans are pitiful," they would immediately counter, saying, "We are not orphans; we are Abibao's children."
Frugal living
One iron pot fed 19 children
Since Alipa and her husband Abibao were both orphans, despite their poor economic situation, their kind hearts drove them to help other orphans.
In the winter of 1961, Toghiti's three brothers lost their father Yahofu forever. Alipa and Yahofu's families were neighbors, and they always helped each other during difficult times. In 1963, Jamalehan also passed away, leaving the three brothers orphans. Although Alipa's family was already very impoverished at the time, the couple immediately adopted them.
In 1977, Alipa's sister found Wang Shuzhen, who was suffering from illness and full of scalp ringworm, at the hospital entrance and brought her home. Alipa gave her a Uyghur name, Habiza, meaning "protection." To cure Wang Shuzhen's disease, Alipa took her to the county hospital for treatment every day and washed her hair with medicine every night. Soon, Wang Shuzhen's illness was cured, and her head grew thick hair. She happily said, "That's great; no one will call me Little Leper anymore." She regarded her hair as the most precious gift her mother gave her, and now her hair is past her knees.
A year later, Alipa adopted Wang Shuzhen's three Hui siblings, Wang Zuolin, Wang Shuying, and Wang Shuhua. In 1989, Wang Shuzhen's stepfather Jin Xuejun also passed away, leaving three Han orphans, Jin Hai, Jin Xuelian, and Jin Hua. Alipa once again opened her maternal warm embrace. To ensure the children didn't go hungry, Alipa went to the market every day to pick up vegetables others discarded, washed sheep intestines and stomachs to earn money. Although the family kept two dairy cows, no one dared to drink the milk; all of it was sold to pay for the children's tuition and buy necessities.
In total, Alipa adopted 10 orphans from the Kazakh, Uyghur, Han, and Hui ethnic groups, adding nine biological children, making her the mother of 19 children and the elder sister of six.
All the children remember the large iron pot with a diameter of 1.2 meters at home. Alipa used this pot to feed 19 children, though it wasn't enough for everyone to eat a full bowl of food. "We basically could only eat potatoes, and could only eat noodles every two or three days. Mother tried to let us eat as much as possible; after cooking, she would stay far away from the rice pot and only eat a little wheat grain."
Sympathy for Orphans
Strong Mother Understands the Hardships of Orphans
The Altay region is vast and sparsely populated, and there are only a few scattered villages near Qinghe County. Many people asked Alipa why she chose to adopt so many orphans despite her family's financial difficulties. Alipa said, "My own children have me and their father, what about them?"
Kelimann said, "Mother understands the loneliness of being an orphan. If she didn't help, in such harsh natural conditions in Altay, they might have starved to death."
"Mother often favored the adopted children. My youngest biological sister never wore new clothes until junior high school," Kelimann recalled.
Nowadays, after a lifetime of hard work, Alipa is 70 years old, and her children have grown up and started their own families, expanding the household to more than 180 members. The children inherited her incredibly kind genes. Kelimann told reporters that everyone in the family has a compassionate heart and frequently helps orphans and villagers in need.
Therefore, the award speech given to Alipa for Touching China in 2009 read: "Not by blood, but all her children, she spreads her wings, shielding their skies. Wind, frost, hunger, and cold, all blocked out, poverty and toil, she shoulders alone. In her home, water is thicker than blood, kindness surpasses kinship. Spring water is clearest, maternal love is purest!"
Downplaying Honors
I Just Did What a Mother Should Do
On January 17, New York Times Square aired "China National Image Film - People Edition," where Alipa appeared wearing a Uyghur-style floral headscarf and a goose-yellow robe as a representative of Chinese mothers worldwide. However, on the day of the broadcast, Alipa and her children were unaware of this event.
"We didn't know until the TV station informed us that our mother was on 'American TV.' Everyone was very happy, and mother repeatedly thanked the party and government for their concern, saying she merely did what any mother should do and didn't deserve such praise," Kelimann said.
According to reports from Xinhua News Agency, Alipa never imagined she would become a representative of the national image. "If I had known it was promoting our country's image, I would have prepared well and ordered a beautiful ethnic costume in Urumqi."
Speaking of her wishes, Alipa said, "If I hear that there are orphans around who need help in the future, I will still adopt them. For these children, I sincerely hope they have a bright future and a happy life."