A+Chinese+civilian+living+in+Nanking+1

Name: Xia Jin-mei **(Research: usual names of time)** Age: Gender: Female Occupation: Schoolgirl **(Research: Possible?)** Appearance: Location: Xianqu areas. **(Research: geography of Nanking and areas around it, movement of Japanese soldiers)** Personality/Quirks/Unique Personality Traits: **(Research: Normal life of Chinese girl during 1930's, adjust for Nanking if needed; Chinese civilians' views on foreign nations; importance of values)** Always in charge of taking care of her younger sister. Unfortunately, she is not very happy with this. She is constantly being reprimanded for daydreaming. (Therefore) She has silly dreams of marrying a handsome foreigner and running away. (Therefore) She is trying to learn English, aiming for missionary-ran colleges despite her dislike of studying. Chews on her nails when she is nervous.

Family: An older brother, a younger sister, mother and father. **(Research: What kind of jobs were in the city, usual housing environment, usual size of families, was it usual or unusual for a woman to have a job)** Education: ? **(Research: Educational system of China in 1930's; gender ratio of said system; did girls have equal opportunity as boys?; what kind of future could girls expect)** Languages you speak: Chinese **(Research: Would it have been possible for a young girl to learn a foreign language in school or through other methods?)** Your main concerns at this time and in life: She is worried about advancing Japanese army, but Portrait (an image that you and we can live with):
 * (Research: How Chinese civilians viewed advance of Japanese army)**

August 15, 1937- September 12, 1937

Wonderful news! I met an American today. She was in Old Ling's shop, asking about the wares. She seemed to speak good Chinese, for a foreigner. She had blonde hair and pale skin. Other customers were staring discreetly, but I was the only one who actually talked to her. She was surprisingly nice, and said that she was wife of a missionary. We talked a little, and I was very impressed by her Chinese, although she had a strange accent. I asked about America, and the colleges they worked in. I heard all sort of wonderful things. I've now decided that I will go to a missionary-ran college once I graduate from public school. Then, I had a great idea of asking her for an English name. She suggested Sarah or Jane at first, but I like the way name Julia rolled off her tongue. I was very happy with the name, so I made sure that Old Ling gave her fair price on items. I told Tao about my little adventure, but Tao is being insufferable again. She said that it was foolish of me to just walk up to a foreigner like that and start a conversation. Besides, she said, why would I need an English name? I told her that I would need it when I moved abroad. She snorted and said that I would marry an old fool that mother arranged for me, and never would go abroad. It's all those silly ideas clogging up your head, she said, that makes you forget your numbers and burn rice. I slapped her. Tao is forgetting her place. Just because people think she is pretty and smart, she thinks she can boss her older sister around. Besides, if I went to America, I would not have to hear Aunt Chi speaking about her dead husband year after year, and I would not have to endure Uncle Mao who never speaks and smells like mushrooms. I would not have to deal with Tao's demeanor either.

+ There was loud noise coming from outside. I was scared and hid with Tian-yu under the table. When father returned, he said that Japanese planes had dropped bombs in other parts of the city but would not let us go and look.

+I am getting used to air raid shelters now. The shelter is a horrid place, dark and damp. I tried to spell out my new English name, but I can't make them look right. So instead I imagined someone taking me away from here. He would have fair skin and blonde hair, but perhaps smaller nose than other foreigners. "Oh, Julia," he'd say. "You are the girl of my dreams! Will you not come and be my wife?" We would live in a big house in America, and I would have lots of silk clothes and jewelry. I would send letter to my family talking about my great life, and Tao would weep, being married to an uneducated lumberjack. "Why did I insult my sister so," she would say. "Now she is living a life of grandeur!"

+Aunt Chi came along today. She said that we should flee before Japanese arrive. She looked very worried, and spoke in hushed voice and kept looking around as if she expected something to jump out from shadows. She told us that there were rumors of defeat and bloodshed from other regions, and that their next target was Nanking. Many others are supposedly planning to flee as well. Aunt Chi is already gathering up her things; she wanted to know if we will join her tomorrow. My mother shook her head after Aunt went back. Mother says aunt is being paranoid, and the soldiers have promised to protect this city from all attacks. Besides, we can't leave my father's store or grandfather's land. I'm glad that we don't have to leave.

December 6, 1937

Japanese soldiers are here! The Japanese soldiers surrounded our city and dropped bombs on us. Our forces seem to be in a bad shape. I fear for our future.

+Japanese troops are pouring in! Uncle Mao, seeing some of our soldiers fleeing, ran to the Gate. We couldn't leave; Father was not home, and sound of fighting too intense for us to venture outside. When we looked out the window, several buildings were aflame, including Old Ling's shop.

+Mother, looking very pale, told us to go to the Gate. There's sound of gunfire everywhere. She told us we would meet later, when she Father came back. Tian-yue started crying, and Tao and I had to shush him and coerce him with sweets.

+We saw some young Chinese soldiers threatening men at gunpoint. They have realized that their uniforms are marking them as targets, and are trying to hide in civilian clothes. We also saw a woman with blood running down her face, running and screaming. She fell over on the ground, but we were too afraid to help her up.

2

The situation has changed; people are pouring back into the city, into the so-called safety zone. Tao and I ran as well, although we were confused and didn't know what was going on. On the way, I thought of Mother in the house.

But Tao kept yanking on my hand, hard, and we ended up running until I ran out of breath. I'm still not sure what's going on, but from what I can gather this is a good place to be. The foreigners had set up a place to keep us safe from the Japanese, they said. If only Mother and Father would be with us....

+Mother and Father are dead. That's what the old ladies said, anyway. They say that the soldiers shot father and set fire to his store. I feel cold inside. I should be crying, but no tears cry. I am a horrible daughter.

+I have asked Tao where Tian-yue was. She did not know. It turns out we each though he was with other--but he is with neither. What kind of older sister am I? I looked through the hotels and asked anyone who would answer, but I could not find him.

3

We finally met a familiar face. Hong Juan-sheng, who is two years older than me, was sitting on the front steps of a building when we found him. Unlike the other refugees, he was without a baggage. His family was also nowhere to be seen.

He is supposedly a grandson of a high-ranking official. Mother said that rumors were not to be trusted so easily, but he lived in a good house and wore clothes made out of fine material. He would grow up to be a fine young man, Mother said, if he wasn't always frowning. Tao used to remark that his face seemed carved out of stone.

I awkwardly put my gaze to the ground. I didn't know him well, but it seemed that it would be good manners to greet him. On the other hand, I still didn't know him well.

Tao flat-out asked him to help us out of here. Everyone knew, she said, that government officials and their family remained unharmed by Japanese soldiers. I don't know how she knows this, since I have never heard of this information before.

It was a good thing to know, though. Perhaps it would be possible to keep the soldiers off our backs if we stayed with him.

He shook his head and told us it was impossible. He told us that we weren't the first people to come to him--there had been many others before. Unfortunately, though, rest of his family was nowhere to be found. They were probably out on the road to Shanghai.

They probably weren't coming back, either, and how could a grandson of a low-ranking official save anyone when even wives of ministers were being raped by invaders?

We can do nothing. Safety zone is crammed full of refugees weeping, and suddenly I felt like crying as well. Mother, Father, Tian-yue and Aunt Chi were all gone, and there were only Tao and I left. For some reason, I was not so sad when I heard of my parents' death. I refused to believe, and thought it could not possibly happen to me. But now there's no one, and I cannot stop crying. Tao helped me walk back to our quarters; she was not crying, but she was pale.

4

We cower in fear whenever the Japanese soldiers are spotted. Although this place is supposed to be safe, the Japanese come here like uninvited guests. Sometimes they drag out men, accusing them of being soldiers in hiding. Other times they take the women, and the women come back weeping.

If the safety zones offer no protection, then what of the people outside? We hear terrible stories. The men burned alive in their houses, the women with their stomach cut open, children being buried alive.

Tao had hurt her leg. She scrambled over a broken window while looking for Tian-yue (while I was sleeping, I might add) and got herself a long gash on her leg. It bled so much that at first I was afraid that she was going to die. We got little medicine from hospital, although the place is overflowing with wounded people and out of supplies. She tells me it's okay but it still looks painful. I told her not to go outside, but she will no doubt try to go out again and find Tian-yue. We heard that a schoolmistress had been shot for trying to stab a Japanese officer. People are afraid that Japanese will retaliate with harsher methods.

5

Tian-yue has been found!

I stayed up all night making sure that Tao would not run. She sulked a bit, but she finally fell asleep at dawn. I felt old, and I thought that perhaps I might never go to sleep at all.

I tensed when I heard footsteps approaching our quarters, but it turned out to be Juanf-sheng.

Who had Tian-yue with him.

Tian-yue was asleep, and he looked unharmed despite looking like he had been rolling in filth. I immediately woke Tao, and thanked him over and over again. I'm still surprised that he could even find Tian-yue in the first place. He told us that he had asked around, and found an old woman who was taking care of him. The old woman was suspicious at first but he had managed to persuade him.

He looked at Tao's leg and told me that I would never be a doctor. When Tian-yue woke up, he played with him, pretending to be a wise dragon on top of the mountain. His face is still set in a frown, but he has at least managed to Tian-yue giggle. That is an amazing feat in itself; Tian yue always cries when he isn't with Mother.

Juang-sheng also looked at Tao's leg and asked me who had been taking care of it. When I said it was me, he told me that I would not be a good doctor in the future.

While he was re-clothing the wound, he told us some stories about himself, although it might have more been for Tian-yue's amusement.

He was a first son of a first son--it was a good position to be in. His mother, unfortunately, died few years after his birth due to sickness. His father then took in a new wife.

The new Lady Hong seemed sweet at first, he said. But she soon turned out be a jealous woman, finding fault with Juang-Sheng's every action. He soon grew so tired of the scorn that he took to taking walk outdoors than staying home. His status as the firstborn son assured his place, but Lady Hong also had two sons. She became very proud, and according to Juang-sheng, even more insufferable.

His story is like that of the poor kitchen girl, I think. After the girl's mother died, her father took in a bad woman as his second wife. The kitchen girl, though, later became a queen as result of her good actions and honored her family. Juang-sheng on the other hand is stuck here with rest of us. I feel little bad for talking bad about him before.

Lady Hong became increasingly worried and fretful. She finally decided to run away during the nigh, taking valuable things. But before she could do that, Juang-Sheng sneaked into her room and took his mother's jewels, which she had been planning to steal away.

He showed us a little cloth package with the jewels inside. They were the only things he took with him when he left the house. Rest of his family, he said, no doubt headed for Shanghai.

That gave me an idea.

Aunt Chi used to have a house in Shanghai, I remembered. She was also one of the first people to run away. Shanghai is far, but surely it is possible to walk there. I have been told that it's ten day's walk, a week at best.

Juang-sheng approved of this plan. I suspect that he has some mischievous and adventurous streak inside him, although you would never be able to tell from his face.

6

Today is the date we have decided upon. But there is a problem.

Tao's leg looks terrible. The flesh had turned dark, and she says it feels like it's on fire. The swelling had gotten worse, and there are thick yellow liquids running down from the wound. The smell is horrible as well. I tried to clean it with water and wrapped it with some cleam cloth but she still has hard time walking.

Juang-sheng says he will stay, since Tao cannot walk and Tian-yue is too young. I say that I will not go either, but he is adamant. Wait for us there, he says, be ready. I do not want to go; I don't even know why he caring for my family. Still, they pack me a small bundle with what little things we have, and I have no choice but to go.

+They watch me go, and even Tian-yue is quiet for once. Will I ever see them again?

+The bags feel heavy. I also wish that I have brought more things to eat. There are some things lying on the road.

http://0-survivalrate.livejournal.com/