dia's

Once they were dried, the sliced yams would be stored in a huge clay pot in my older brothers 'bedroom or in our dia's attic.

Excerpt: Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin 2004

My second brother found a small piece of pork in the cabbage too, and put it into our dia's bowl.

Excerpt: Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin 2004

"Don't annoy me, you liar!" our niang admonished, and she picked some food up with her chopsticks and put it in our dia's bowl.

Excerpt: Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin 2004

I quickly did a currency conversion: two hundred dollars was equivalent to over two years of my dia's salary.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003

My dia's cooking was basic and often flavourless, but nobody complained.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003

Just one return train ticket was equal to half my dia's salary for a whole month.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003

The next morning Niang was looking for her hairpins on my dia's side of the bed again.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003

One year, a friend of our dia's who worked in a Qingdao printing factory gave us some Deer cigarette labels.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003

Later that day, I waited at the entrance to our village for my dia's return.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003

Apart from my dia's few brief days with a teacher, my parents never went to school when they were children, so they could not read to us.

Mao's Last Dancer Li, Cunxin, 1961- 2003