Zhongying Zhao: a prosperous life is endless

Source: AAAB yearbook (2022). Original author: Sophia Qin

Zhao Zhongying: A prosperous life is endless

Author: Sophia Qin

Ninety-year-old Zhao Zhongying starts every day by looking at the calendar. Get up at 5 o'clock, look at the calendar for the day's plan, browse the morning news from major media such as CNN, FOX, etc., have a simple breakfast, and then start a busy day. How busy is an elderly person? From how she spends the first three days of October, you can get a glimpse of the leopard.

On October 1st, I just finished my vacation in Spain last week. I cleaned up the garden with my family in the morning and went to Weston Castle for a party in the afternoon. It was 10 pm when the finale program "Singing the Motherland" ended, and Zhao Zhongying was not tired. The handsome bassist—a white guy who screamed and hugged her when he heard her ninety-year-old. That night, it was 11 o'clock in the evening when she came home. October 2. She was invited to participate in the annual Taiwan Film Festival with the theme "Bittersweet". At the AMC Boston Common Cinema, from the morning until 7 p.m., she watched the six films shown that day in one sitting. Meeting friends a few days later, she was familiar with each film, outlining the plot and briefly commenting on each film. On the afternoon of October 3rd, The Country Rider, a masterpiece of Italian realist opera, was staged at the Boston Seaport Outdoor Theater. Zhao Zhongying, a reporter who has been reporting on Boston's cultural events in both Chinese and English for more than ten years, was invited to watch.

It's not just cultural events that keep Cho Jongyoung busy. She is the only surviving founder of the three non-profit organizations Newton Mandarin Chinese School, Chinese Family Summer Camp and Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association. There are many social activities that she needs to participate in; she has long-term obligations to do translation work for senior centers and social welfare organizations; She is the mother of five children and the grandmother of thirteen grandchildren. No matter how busy she is during the day or how late she goes home, she will carefully sort out the activity materials of the day, bind them into books, and write down her thoughts on the day and organize them into articles. Her essays about mothers born in the 1990s have been serialized in new media since the end of last year, and more than 100 articles have been published. Not long ago, in an interview with the video media "Boss Talk", she said that she was looking for things to do every day, and she was never busy, and she never felt old. Zhao Zhongying was born in Nanjing in 1931, and her parents named her after "Zhongshan Zhiying". Her father, Zhao Shirui, was a student of the fourth phase of the Whampoa Military Academy and was appointed as a major general of the National Revolutionary Army at the age of 32. Her mother, Feng Xianwen, graduated from Jinling Women's University and was the head of the Sericulture Department of Jinling University. In her childhood and youth, Zhao Zhongying migrated with her military father's war. In the 12 years from primary school to middle school, she traveled to eight provinces in China and went through nine schools. Although the road to study was turbulent and bumpy, thanks to his mother's teaching that "it's too late to regret", Zhao Zhongying, who is diligent and studious, has laid a very good foundation. In his later years, Zhao Zhongying never forgets the study life in middle school. When she was a junior high school student at Nanjing Private Mingde Girls' High School, the school incorporated the education of benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and faith into the Chinese and history courses. In 1948, Zhao Zhongying graduated from Jianguo Middle School with the first place, and was admitted to the National Taiwan University Law School. At the same time, he was also admitted to the four-year scholarship of Mount Saint Vincent College in the United States. Under the influence of her mother, she gave up the former and chose to go to this Catholic aristocratic girls' school in the United States to study at university, majoring in social services and minoring in art. On October 15, 2016, 62 years after graduating from the university, as one of the two recipients, Zhao Zhongying was awarded the "Bring Glory to God" Outstanding Alumni Award by his alma mater. Zhao Zhongying used the word "extremely excited" when recalling her college life. She loves to study and play like a duck to water. Not only is she successful in her studies, but she also makes friends. She was artistically talented and often painted, and her portrait of Corazon Aquino, an alumnus who later became president of the Philippines, was later auctioned by the school. During her sophomore year, Zhao Zhongying met Li Ruijun, who was 5 years older than her. In 1947, Li Ruijun went from Shanghai Datong University to Iowa State University to study abroad. After graduating with a master's degree, he first taught at Plato University in New York. When he met Zhao Zhongying, he was the chief chemist of a leather factory in New Jersey. According to Zhao Zhongying's description, the Suzhou native has "two dimples and black hair. He blushes first when he sees a girl, and he doesn't speak much", but he is "mature and stable, with a strong focus on career and a deep sense of family." Two young people who admired each other got married on June 12, 1954, the tenth day after Zhao Zhongying graduated from university. Until Li Ruijun died in 2010, the two worked together for 56 years. They lived in Grand Haven, Michigan for two years before settling in Massachusetts in 1956. After 7 years of marriage, three boys and two girls and five children were born one after another. Zhao Zhongying has been at home with her husband and children for 16 years. As the children began to go to college one after another, her husband opened Lee's Chemical Company, and Zhao Zhongying also left the family and started working. She first worked as a math teacher, then became a civil servant, and worked in social welfare in the state government for 25 years until she retired at the age of 62. Recalling the past years, Zhao Zhongying said that the happiest days were the 16 years he spent with the children growing up. Although in the eyes of her mother, the former girl was "a mother, a driver, a nanny, a servant, and no servant girl", but Zhao Zhongying was happy in it. "When you educate a man, you only educate a person; when you educate a woman, you educate the whole family." This is a sentence Zhao Zhongying remembered during his studies at the Catholic Women's University. In educating the children, she and her husband acted as strict mothers and loving fathers, always setting an example. She took courses at Northeastern University, obtained a master's degree in education, and obtained a teacher's license and civil service qualification. With the eldest son Jianping directly admitted to Harvard's sophomore year, the five children have achieved success in their studies and have grown into competent doctors, computer engineers, lawyers, state officials and teachers. Zhao Zhongying is also proud of them. "I've always been willing to help others, I've always been willing to fight injustice, and I have an outgoing personality, so I chose a social service major in college," Zhao Zhongying replied when asked why he chose this major. She explained her understanding of this sentence with more than 60 years of social service experience. In the late 1950s, Li Ruijun and Zhao Zhongying began to actively participate in serving the Chinese community. Together with several Chinese families, they established the "Social Club" in 1959. In 1963, they changed their name and registered with the GBCCA Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association; they opened the Newton Mandarin Chinese School around 1960; More than sixty years later, these three nonprofits have prospered. The Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association holds the Chinese Spring Festival Gala every year, with an audience of up to 1,000 people. Its waist drum team, choir and other literary and artistic groups have been very active. During the epidemic, the Association and other institutions held an online Asia-Pacific Art Festival, which caused widespread repercussions. Newton Chinese School has grown from only seven students in Chinese classes to more than 1,300 students in more than a dozen branch campuses. At the 60th anniversary celebration, in recognition of the school's contribution to the community, the Mayor of Newton declared October 12 as Chinese School Day. The Chinese family summer camp with the purpose of Family, Fun and Friendship has grown from a few families to more than 200 people every year, and it has never been interrupted except during the new crown epidemic. One of these three institutions accompanies Zhao Zhongying's life course from youth to old age. As the only surviving founder, she can't remember how much effort she put into these three organizations, how many hours she had volunteered, and how much she had donated. I just remember that she started volunteering here and will do it for a lifetime. Donations also started here, and have become a habit, and now donate $6,000 a year from pensions to various social organizations. Zhao Zhongying's social service career did not stop at the three non-profit organizations she cofounded, not only during her tenure as a teacher and a civil servant in the state government welfare bureau. At the age of 74, she picked up a pen and volunteered to create a column called "Traveling Everywhere" for the Boston American Times, Asia Times, Boston Community News and other print media, reporting various theatrical performances, tourist sights, and cultural activities, with a few hundred words a day , the length can be several thousand words, and it takes ten years to write. In the era of public communication with the rise of mobile media, she started writing daily essays at the age of 89. Her life, her past, her unique perception of life, her unique thinking about history, and her unique observation of society, have formed a heavy book of life, which is unforgettable. Narration and writing come from Zhao Zhongying's impulse and enthusiasm to share information and serve the community in words, and also because she likes it. The 90-year-old Zhao Zhongying regards writing on Facebook, WeChat, and keeping a diary as his daily homework. She does it every day and doesn't feel hard, because it makes her feel happy. In the elderly center, the 90-year-old was called a "young man" by the elderly who were a dozen years younger than her, and she had no secret of withering in her old age, not only because of her open-minded and optimistic character, strong and stable self, but also because of her strong and stable self. She maintains close contact with the outside world and is constantly taking nourishment from new things. When I first met Zhao Zhongying, I saw that she was like a moon among the stars in the crowd, and I thought it was because she was highly respected for her age and experience. Only after getting along with her a few times will she realize that she is sincere and warm to people, and that kind of persistence comes from her broad and exuberant vitality, which makes her a powerful aura, becomes the center of the crowd, and makes people feel a kind of life of abundance and heaviness. At the age of 85, Zhao Zhongying received a birthday letter from the White House. "You have become part of the great American story," wrote then-President Barack Obama and his wife. Now, 90year-old Zhao Zhongying said: "Why didn't the White House send me a congratulatory letter at the age of 90, my story is not finished yet." This 90-yearold young woman, she has loved, felt, and dedicated; now, she is still loving, feeling, and dedicating. Her prosperous life is on the way.