The student's name is Song Jinping, and she is 69 years old; her teacher's name is Zhong Bingchu, who has reached the ripe old age of 99. In an old residential building in the Songyu West Community of Chaoyang District in Beijing, Song Jinping lives with her teacher along with her family of three. The 60-square-meter apartment feels a bit cramped but is filled with warmth.
An educator, who showered her student with maternal love, has been cared for by that student as if she were her "mother" for a full 28 years, according to Manzhouli Recruitment Network. Despite having been classmates for only a year, this student has looked after her teacher until she was nearly a hundred years old. Even though the teacher is now both deaf and blind, and the student herself is nearing seventy, they have remained inseparable, according to Alashan Recruitment Network.
"The care for Grandma has been divided between Dad and Mom. Dad is responsible for cooking three meals a day, while Mom takes care of Grandma’s washing and cleaning, including dealing with her excrement," says their daughter. To her, the efforts of her parents are quite ordinary. Since childhood, the daughter has witnessed all this; as she grew up, she also joined in the caregiving. Despite being 99 years old, Zhong Bingchu’s blood sugar, blood pressure, and lipid levels remain normal.
(According to Xinhua News Agency report from Beijing on November 2) The picture shows Song Jinping (on the left) wiping Zhong Bingchu's face, issued by Xinhua.
In 1983, when Song Jinping’s daughter Song Jing was just one year old, she and her husband found Zhong Teacher living alone and brought her home. After coming to live with the Song family, Zhong Teacher had her right eye removed due to illness. In 2001, her left eye suddenly went blind as well. Being completely blind, most of the time Zhong Bingchu could only live lying in bed.
Since she was young, Song Jing has shared a room with Zhong Teacher. Influenced by her parents' example, the daughter also learned respect for elders. In October this year, even after her recent marriage, Song Jing still wishes to return home and share a room with her grandmother, though the single bed has been replaced by a double one because there is another person she loves.
One Sunday morning, Zhong Teacher specially came to see him at the sports institute and gave Song Jinping the accumulated savings of 22 yuan and some scattered food coupons. This help allowed Song Jinping to get through the toughest phase of his life. Song Jinping made a silent vow: "Teacher hasn't married till now, so I will be her son and take care of her when I grow up." After starting work as a teacher in a school, whenever he had time, he would visit Zhong Teacher, buying rice and flour for her, and occasionally sending her some fish and meat.
Fifty-five years ago, Song Jinping attended the Baoface Elementary School in Wangfujing, Beijing, where Zhong Bingchu served as his sixth-grade teacher for a year. At the age of 44, Zhong Bingchu was unmarried and childless, and her students became her children. Zhong Teacher showed great care for her students and gave boundless maternal love to Song Jinping, who lost his mother when he was less than two years old. Later, Song Jinping was admitted to the then Beijing Physical Education Institute.
Song Jinping continues to think night and day about how to extend the life of her "mother." The extraordinary story of Song Jinping supporting her teacher for 28 years has set up a lighthouse for cultural morality. Reported by Xinhua journalist Wang Sihai.