Children at play showed me a true picture of modern China

Iwas with 8-year-old Wang Fuman on Saturday when he was given a tour of the campus at the People’s Public Security University of China.

Unlike the people who recognized Wang as the online sensation “Snowflake Boy” and asked to have their photo taken with him, Wang Jiayi, who was on campus with her father, invited him to play.

However, before the 9-yearold Beijing native agreed to Wang Fuman’s suggestion of an arm-wrestling contest, she quietly asked me, “Will his hands hurt if I touch them?”

Although Wang Fuman’s hair was no longer covered with ice, as in the photo that went viral online and on social media, his hands were still covered by obvious frostbite.

“I have never had that (frostbite) so I don’t know how it feels,” Wang Jiayi said. For her, falling on a slippery dirt road in the mountains is unimaginable. That is quite understandable, because I really can’t remember the last time I walked on a dirt road in the capital.

While I was touched by the young girl’s kind-hearted approach, I was also struck by their different circumstances, which seemed to provide a perfect example of China’s unbalanced development.

Like Wang Jiayi, I was born and raised in Beijing. It wasn’t until I became a reporter and visited many impoverished villages around the country — places one would never visit as a tourist — that I began to understand how much work will be needed to improve the lives of many people in rural areas.

Many people have said they were shocked by the poverty in Wang Fuman’s village, but the truth is, I’ve seen many that are much poorer. There is no need to be shocked, but we must acknowledge the fact that cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are not truly representative of China’s general level of development.

We should be proud of Wang Jiayi, who can have a conversation in English even at her young age, but we should be equally proud of Wang Fuman, who has never missed a day at school and regards his “icicle hair” as funny rather than a sign of hardship.

In the event, Wang Fuman assured Wang Jiayi that his hands wouldn’t hurt and encouraged her to arm-wrestle with him. When their little hands were clasped tightly together, I felt I was seeing an accurate picture of modern China.