That would not be dreadful if leftover children hate thier parents, what really matters is that they give up the expectation towards thier parents' 

love.The equation "5+2=0" is accepted by the educational circles, that means, if the two-day family education is lost, the five-day school education is meaningless. Parents are the most important people for children, any other teachers and volunteers can't take the place of parents' impact.The Hefeng County in Enshi Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province, where the expressway has not arrived yet, because of the project of Free Lunch For Children, the Hefeng County was known as "the first county of FLFC in Hubei Province", and it once became the focus of national news media. In November of 2011, the founder of FLFC, Dengfei, came to an agreement with the Hefeng County to popularize the project of Free Lunch For Children together. At the end of 2012, 43 primary schools in Hefeng started to serve free lunch for children uniformly. As a successful model of  cooperation between government and social force, it only took three years for the Hefeng County to solve the basic 

problem of adequate food and clothing for thousands of leftover children in the county.

But the story hasn't come to an end.

Those who care the  leftover children found that as these children commonly lacked the concern and love of parents, their increasing mental and 

behaviour problems should also be concerned and solved by sustained efforts.

Sensitive local educators tried to take mothers of leftover children home from thier working places. However, this state-supported impoverished 

county in the hinterland of Wuling  mountain would never be the place where the mothers wanted to stay.

1."I hate my dad and mum."

In the fall of 2015, the Education Bureau organized some people to hold a public lesson for girls' caring. According to the assignment, those who 

attended this lesson are all leftover children.

During the class, Liuming, who was responsible for local student aid, asked these children "Do you miss your dads and mums?" However, as soon 

as that question was asked, she found some children were extremely anxious.

A six-grade girl started to sob almost just as she heard that question. When it turned to another student, her answer astonished Liuming more, 

she said "I hate them." Although Liuming had been a teacher for over ten years, she did not know how to wind up that question for a time. "I am 

very distressed about their(those leftover children) life, at the same time, I felt horrible."

After attending Liuming's public lesson, another master teacher named Zeng Liuhai thought it was not terrible for the children to express thier 

hate towards their parents, what really matters was that these children gave up the expectation for parents' care when they were only 10 years 

old.

Just after the Spring Festival of 2016, one boy called Liulu in Zeng's class didn't go to school. Zeng called up his grandfather, then the next day, 

Liulu was forced to go to school by his grandfather. Zeng wanted to have a talk with him but he kept silent all the time.

On the third day, Liu was missing, his grandfather was very worried and looked for him everywhere with his grandmather. Finally, they found him 

who seemed to be in a daze near a stream deep in the mountain.

Zeng Liuhai thought Liulu must say something, after weeping for about half an hour, Liu broke the silence himself. At that moment, Zeng knew his 

lot. When Liu was a little child, their parents divorced, he was awarded to his father. However, after the divorce, his father went out as a migrant 

worker and only went back home during the Spring Festival. After Liulu went to primary school, his father got married with another woman but 

divorced again soon. Now, his father established a new family in the city where he worked. "I missed my natural mum, I hope she and my father 

can get together." Liulu added, since he could remember, he had never seen his natural mother.

"I just don't understand why." he said. Liu's words shocked Zeng Liuhai, it never occurred to her that a five-grade boy would answer her in such 

an adult voice. Helplessly, Zeng had to ask Liu's grandmother to pay attention to him, once he had any abnormal behiours, they could inform her 

immediately. 

To thier surprise, he never skipped classes again later.

One day in March of  2016, when Zeng Liuhai was updating the file of leftover children in the school, she called up to Liulu's grandmother and 

learnt that he"was no longer miss dad, but still hoped to see my mum when I grow up."

2."Mental problems have to be solved by the teachers."

Zeng Liuhai paid much attention to that boy, she once thought that other teachers would not invest such efforts for leftover children like her until 

she heard about the family affairs of twelve-year-old girl Zhu Yaqin from six-grade master teacher Wang Hong.

Zhu's father died very early,  her mother went to Zhejiang Province to work before she could walk, she and her grandmother depended on each 

other for survival deep in the Wuling mountain. Wang Hong never discovered missing-parents phenomenon from her, she used to think that 

straight-A leftover girl had overcome the period when children would have some problems as the lack of love.

But from this semester, everything seemed to change. Just during a class break last month, a student ran to Wang's office and said that Zhu Yaqin 

was going to jump from the building, but luckily she was stopped by other students.

Facing Wang's inquiry, Zhu didn't want to hide the reason. She told Wang Hong that her mother had got married again after a failed relationship 

but her step father didn't want to raise her. That despaired Zhu Yaqin,"My mum never love me, and she will not love me in the future." she said 

with no tears.

Wang made an agreement with Zhu that she would not tell others about what the girl had done but at the same time, Zhu must not suicide 

again. In the eyes of Wang Hong, Zhu was likely to draw her mother's attention by committing suicide, so she didn't phone her mother.

However, Zhu broke their promise first. Just after one week, Zhu was going to jump from the building again. Wang Hong rushed up to call her 

mother up and told her what Zhu had done. Zhu's mother said nothing, Wang let Zhu answer the phone but Zhu also kept silent.

Wang said angrily,"You are a mother, you should take care of your daughter's mental situation!""Sorry Miss Wang, I can't help her, I must trouble 

you to talk sense into her." Zhu's mother hanged up the phone before Wang Hong could say anything more.

Another person having the same trouble was also a six-grade master teacher Liu Yajing who was working in another county school which located 

sixty kilometers away.

According to the demand of Education Bureau of Hefeng County, every school must organize leftover children to make phone calls with their 

parents regularly. At the end of 2015, Liu asked a leftover girl to tell her mother to go back home in the Spring Festival. Liu had to pay extra 

attention to that girl because she refused to communicate with her classmates and teachers all the term, she even said nothing during a two-

hour talk with the headmaster.

The phone was handsfree, the mother said she couldn't come back home, then her girl started to sob. Liu just couldn't hold back her anger,"Your 

daughter has been away from you for one year, don't you worried about her mental problems?""Mental problems have to be solved by the 

teachers."

【Children of Liujia Primary School in Hefeng County are having lunch.】

3."Schools can't give children family affection and care."

That is not the only fish in the sea. Since the leftover children problem occurred, the lack for parents' love seemed to continue up to now 

stubbornly. The headmaster of  Yanzi Village ethnic primary school Tan Zhengxiong, who has been worked as a teacher for over 20 years has 

experienced it himself.

In 2009, Tan was taking a temporary post in Education Bureau of Hefeng County, he went to all nine villages in thier county together with his 

collegues to fim materials of children's life so that the Education Bureau could make an advertising video on leftover-children-care project.

There was a photo which impressed him deeply, that was a 14-year-old boy, but he was only one meter tall and all skin and bone. "I know that 

Hefeng County is a national poverty county, and preschool children often don't have enough food to eat."

Another scene also impressed him deeply, in the farthest corner of Hefeng County, his colleague let leftover children to get out thier greatest 

wish, then a group of children cried towards the camera,"Dad and mum, I hope you can go back home!" Hearing that, Tan Zhengxiong just 

couldn't control his emotion.

At first, Tan thought that might be a individual case. But after visiting those villages one after another, the children's wish were almost the same, 

to avoid the shock of heart, Tan had to run away before shooting the scene of wishes.

Early in November of 2011, Yang Anwen, who was the county magistrate of Hefeng at that time, made an agreement with Denfei, who was the 

founder of Free Lunch For Children, to popularize free lunch on a county wide scale. Free Lunch For Children is a public welfare program 

proposing to donate 3 yuan everyday to provide children in poor distict with free lunch originated by more than five hundred reporters, dozens 

of media outlets and China Welfare Institute. In Hefeng, the government sponsors one yuan while the program sponsors two yuan. In December 

of 2011, 43 primary schools in Hefeng started to serve free lunch for children uniformly.

Zhu Meiping, the under secretary of Hefeng Education Bureau, once introduced that the population of Hefeng County was 220,000, students at 

school were 20,000, half of them were leftover children, about 4.5% of total population. After the problem of basic food and clothing was 

solved, the Hefeng County started leftover children care program in June the 2013 which focuses on the mental health of leftover children.

As many schools fedback that leftover children still had some mental problems in common, Hefeng County started this program. Zhu considered 

that the caring led by the government and mental construction program held by the social force couldn't solve their mental problem from the 

root."Schools can't give children family affection and care, those leftover children need thier parents, anyone others can't replace them."

That's why Tan were very confused, even the resident students would go home at weekends, and they would be raised by their grandparents. 

But the seniors have little ability to conduct normal family education. "How can family education be conducted without parents?The equation 

'5+2=0' is accepted by the educational circles, that means, if the two-day family education is lost, the five-day school education is 

meaningless.The children need thier parents most, teachers and volunteers can't take the place of them." 

4.Take mothers home

Therefore, local educational system decided that they must do something. With little disagreement, at the beginning of 2016, the Education 

Bureau organized "Take mothers home" theme parents' meeting to propose that father or mother, one of them stay at home.

Zhu Meiping hoped to awake parents' "asleep love" by this parents' meeting so that the number non-parents family would become lower and 

lower, "As long as one parent stays at home, the basic mental health of leftover children can be guaranteed."

This small mountain county deep in Wuling Mountain started to realize the value of work force. At the beginning of 2014, on the returned 

migrant workers' forum, Wang Xiaoping, the party secretary tried to introduce Hefeng, hoping the migrant workers could go back to the 

hometown to start up business. He told the media that "Despite the distance, Hefeng is nothing but good."

During the interview of the Southern Weekly, the subprefect of Hefeng County Qian Wenbing said that some of the assistant migrant workers 

would go back to work, he also said that Hefeng must find thier potential development to attract more migrant workers.

Before the Spring Festival of 2016, Zeng Liuhai asked 14 parents of leftover students to come to school and she hoped that those parents could 

stay at Hefeng and take care of children's study and life. At that time, three parents agreed, which made Zeng inspiring a lot.

But when new term came a month later, Zeng found it too early for her to be happy. At the very start, that three parents were still at home, but 

when it turned to March, Zeng found they went out for work again. "Our class now has three more leftover students." said Zeng.

Wang Hong met with similar things, at the scene of "Take mothers home", six of seventeen parents agreed to stay at Hefeng, but they all left 

after the Spring Festival, one of them called up to Wang and said,"Miss Wang, I have to make money, I don't have other choices." 

That made Wang think of another 11-year-old girl in her class. Her parents divorced when she was very small, her mother worked outside, so she 

stayed with her grandma. When she was seven, she asked grandma"where is my father?",her grandma told her that her father has died, she was 

so sad that she pump her head towards the wall. When she grew up, she asked her grandma again and her grandma told her the truth was that 

her father left her alone. That girl just stood in front of her grandma, poking her head with a steel bar heavily.

Later, Wang phoned the girl's mother, hoping that she could come back to look after the child. But that mum refused immediately,"I'm going to 

make money."

5.The challenge of healing the heart

The subprefect of Hefeng County Qian Wenbing thought that it would take a long period of time for parents to be aware of the importance of 

family education. He told the reporter of Southern Weekly that he once asked a child during the Spring Festival whether his parents went back 

home for festival. That child answered that "They are making money, why should they go back home?", which surprised Qian. "Even a four-grade 

child would say that making money is more important, that means making money has pierced the child's heart." said Qian. Some parents even 

said that as long as children are safe at school, their mental health can be ignored.

During the Two Sessions of 2016, Luo Ning, who was an NPC delegate as well as the director of the Department of Civil Affairs of Guizhou 

Province, said that parents' accompany was the fundamental solution to the problem of leftover children, the key point was parents' behaviour. 

Now the local government started to focus on leftover children's care, that let some of the parents have serious dependent mentality, who push 

the responsibilty to the government totally.

At this point, Hefeng also has such problem.

But Qian Wenbing is  not so worried about the future. Accoring to the Leftover Children Care Program, every government offical has a leftover 

child to assist. From his experience, some parents have already gone hometown to accompany children. "Don't be afraid of failure, our aim is 

kind." 

"In the final analysis, only by changing the poverty of Hefeng can attract  those parents come back home, then there will be no leftover children 

any more."said, Qian Wenbing.

(According to the demand of interviewers, the names of Liu Ming, Zeng Liuhai, Liu Lu, Wang Hong, Zhu Yaqin are all alias.)

This article was published in Southern Weekly on Marth the 24th,2016, the writer is Qu Xingli.