Ａ Ｂｌａｃｋ Ｂａｂｙ ｏｕｔ ｏｆ Ｂｌｕｅ

Granny Zhu is an ordinary woman in Beicai Town in Putong New District， Shanghai. She worked as a farmer for over 30 years and has two sons and a daughter. She lives a quiet life. However， her neighbors find that the granny has a grandson in black skin. The curly-hair boy looks like an African and his name is Zhu Junlong. The presence of such a grandson has affected the life of the family of Granny Zhu.

August 8th， 2000 was not a special day for Granny Zhu until she found a deserted baby in a bamboo basket by the road near the village vegetable market. The granny was on her way to the market and heard a baby cry nearby. She investigated and found the baby not far from the road. The baby came with a piece of paper reading that the boy was born on August 1st， 2000. Granny Zhu and some passers-by realized that someone had abandoned this baby.

Looking at the baby boy， Granny Zhu felt great sympathy surging through her heart for the boy. She picked it up and was ready to go home. Then a woman appeared out of nowhere and explained in a dialect which by no means sounded like Shanghai dialect that she was the mother of the baby boy. In tears， the mother said that she was working at a nearby hotel and as she was not married， she was unable to raise the baby. She had hoped that someone would find the baby and give him a chance to have a good life in a good family. The woman hurried away without leaving her name and address.

Granny Zhu brought the baby home， without realizing that the boy would be bringing huge changes into her family.

Her husband Zhang Dajun was unhappy at first. He complained that his wife should have discussed the matter with him before making the decision of adopting the 7-day-old boy with a suspicious origin. Zhang Dajun， however， soon accepted the baby. After all， they had been yearning to have a grandson for years. Granny Zhu was not worried about the baby. She was worried about Hu Ya， the wife of her second son. The young couple had been married for about four years and the daughter-in-law had failed to become pregnant. They had spent more than 20，000 yuan in vain searching for medical cures so that the wife could get pregnant. When Hu Ya came home and saw the black baby， she was startled. Although she had been yearning to be a mother， she was uneasy about the baby’s black skin. After a bath， they were sure that the baby was black. Could there be anything wrong with the blood of the baby boy? Doctors said that it was a boy of a Chinese mother and a black foreigner and there was nothing wrong with baby’s blood.

So the family of the four took the baby under their wing. The baby was named Zhu Junlong and nicked Baobao， a Chinese equivalent to sweetie. Hu Ya resigned from her work and became a full-time mother. Hu Ya fell in love with the new baby. The more she looked at the baby， the more beautiful she felt it was. The whole family was happy.

One afternoon in April 2001， Hu Ya suddenly felt dizzy and vomited. The next day she went to hospital and was told that she was pregnant. Suddenly Hu Ya was worried. She did not know how her parents-in-law would response to her pregnancy at this time. Granny Zhu was happy about the daughter’s pregnancy but worried about the future position of Baobao in the family. She got the baby back home partly because the daughter-in-law had failed to get pregnant for four years. Now wasn’t it like a miracle that the daughter-in-law became pregnant? The mother and the daughter-in-law discussed the matter and it turned out that their worry was unnecessary. They both wanted to keep the baby and enjoy the new baby. Hu Ya gave birth to a baby boy in February 2002. The new boy is nicknamed Beibei， another Chinese equivalent of sweetie in English， indicating a younger baby.

As the young father works as a sailor on an ocean-going ship， Hu Ya treats the two naughty boys with a principle of equality. But Granny Zhu sometimes deliberately favors Baobao when handling small fights between the two naughty grandsons.

As Baobao grew up and had more chances to meet other people， some people just asked impolite questions about Baobao. Hu Ya frequently faced questions: “What is the relation of Baobao with your family? Are you his nursemaid?” “Are you his mother? Is this the kid you have with a foreigner?”

When Baobao was four years old， his parents and grandparents first realized how difficult it was to adopt a child. In their town， all the babies are automatically qualified at the age of four to attend kindergartens. When Baobao was four years old， the family did not receive a notification which they thought would have arrived automatically. The notification never arrived. Granny Zhu went to the kindergarten and made inquiry. To her dismay， she learned that Baobao was not qualified because， without a birth certificate， he was not qualified to register as a resident. And without official registration， he could go nowhere. It was a fatal blow to the family. They knew the boy needed proper school education. If he could not get it in town， where else could he get it?

The next day， the family called an orphanage in Shanghai and decided to send the boy there. They went with the boy. Hu Ya prepared new cloths and a bagful of sweets for Baobao. Granny Zhu wept when they reached the orphanage. Baobao understood what was happening and refused to step into the gate of the orphanage. The orphanage turned Baobao down， saying that he was too old for the orphanage and he as a special boy did not meet the requirements of the orphanage.

Baobao came back. In 2006 when Baobao was six years old and approaching the school age， Granny Zhu was worried again. But fortunately and unexpectedly， things suddenly took a good turn. In the past few years， Baobao as a black boy had enjoyed a local reputation. The local government decided to help and Baobao was enrolled into a primary school.

Baobao ran into a new problem. His classmates feared him. They did not dare to touch him， thinking he was a black freak. Baobao became depressed and downhearted. He recoiled in his spirit， unwilling to see his teachers and classmates. His teacher became aware of this problem. The teacher took the hands of Baobao in front of the class， explaining to all the children that Baobao was different only in skin color from them and beside that he was all the same. Gradually， all the classmates accepted him. Baobao has made a lot of friends and the garden in front of the house is now a playground for his friends. Baobao is a good tree climber. But sometimes he feels the sadness about his origin.

On October 27th， 2007， Baobao was invited to a television variety show for youngsters in Shanghai. He recited a Tang poem at the gala. When asked what he was going to do when he grew up， he replied， “I want to enjoy freedom. I want to build a tower taller than the Jing Mao Tower and the Oriental Pearl Television Tower so that I can take a look into clouds.”□