It is customary practice in many parts of the globe to consider all children, regardless of their gender, to be born on an equal footing.
On the other hand, in some parts of the globe, the fact of whether a baby is a boy or a girl has a huge influence.
In the 1980s, China instituted a policy that limited each family to a maximum of one child, which led to the termination of many pregnancies on the basis of the gender of the unborn child and the abandonment of many children by their parents.
When compared to boys, Chinese girls are not always accorded the same level of respect as their male counterparts. A guy has a far greater chance of landing a job than a girl does, not to mention the potential for receiving a substantially higher wage.
This kind of thinking is the root cause of many of China’s societal problems, the primary one being the treatment of women in society.
Following the implementation of the “one-child” policy, many families who already had girls made the difficult decision to give them up to orphanages in the expectation that they might one day be adopted.
Although not all parents reacted in the same manner, the most common approach was to throw their children out into the woods or into the street while they were still inside of a shoe box.
Yu Shangzhong was one of the few individuals who defied the norm and refused to just watch as this situation deteriorated in front of him.
According to reports from Asian sources, Yu Shangzhong and his partner adopted their first daughter 35 years ago, when Yu was 40 years old.
Four years later, Yu came upon a baby who had been left abandoned on the street. Yu’s conscience wouldn’t allow him abandon the baby in the shoe box, so he brought her back with him to his house.
After adopting the infant, Yu and his wife went on to take in a total of twelve additional orphaned children over the subsequent several years.
1998 saw the discovery of his two younger kids, who had been left abandoned inside of a shoe box. Both of the daughters were delivered within a span of a week of one another.
The life of Yu and his wife in Wenzhou, which is located in the province of Chekiang, was not an easy one, despite the fact that they had a large family.
Yu was the primary provider for his family, so even though he only had a part-time job, he had to put in as much effort as he could.
It was challenging to provide meals for all of the girls as well as put food on the table.
“There were some challenging days. His elder daughter, Yu Xaeisong, disclosed this information to the South China Morning Post. “When I was a little kid, my mother would carry me around on her back while she collected food scraps from the street or even begged for money from strangers,” Yu Xaeisong said. According to the narrator, “people gave us money and old clothing,” both of which were gifts.
Due to the difficult conditions in which Yu and his wife were forced to live, they made the decision to find another spouse to adopt Yu’s older daughters when they reached their teenage years.
This would increase the likelihood of the girls leading happy and successful lives. At the moment, four of the girls are receiving some kind of financial aid from the government due to the fact that they are enrolled in college.
Yu and his wife are still raising five of their girls together in their home.
For the living room of Yu’s house, one of the girls embroidered a traditional Chinese picture for display. The phrase “a tranquil family shall thrive” is written in Chinese using five characters.
In spite of all that the family has gone through, they have made the conscious decision to approach the future with optimism and hope.
As another token of their affection for their father, Yu’s daughters presented him with a golden ring on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
This tale is a lovely reminder of how lucky some of us are to live in some places of the globe, and it serves as such a reminder quite well.
And it’s hard not to be inspired by Yu’s dogged commitment to help these once abandoned girls, who are now his own!
Please spread this message to express your support for Yu’s activities since he is a guy who deserves it more than most other people do!