余先堂是章梦奇采访的老人中年纪比较大的一位。1926年出生的她在受访时已八十多岁，但她的记忆很不错，在口述中回忆了大饥荒期间各种挨饿觅食的经历。最让我印象深刻的是，大饥荒期间她在村里的卫生室工作，是个所谓的“赤脚医生”。这样的经历在别的受访者中比较罕见，因此也让她的口述更为重要。
因为赤脚医生的身份，她接触、救助了不少快饿死的村民，甚至有过用勺子替便秘的小女孩通便这样的夸张经历，也遇到过还没来得及打葡萄糖针对方就去世的悲剧。有一个村民为了感谢她打算送给她一张油票，但是她也没肯收下，因为在当时“要了她的油票等于杀人”。她的口述里不仅有大饥荒的残酷，也有村民相互扶持的温暖，以及女性为了自己和家人的生存而动用一切资源的勇敢和魄力。
Yu Xiantang is one of the oldest people interviewed by Zhang Mengqi. Born in 1926, she was over 80 years old when being interviewed, but she had a good memory and told many stories of starvation and foraging for food. What struck me most about her experience was the fact that, during the Great Famine, she was working at the village clinic as a so-called “barefoot doctor”—someone with very basic medical training and treated patients in rural China. Such experience is rare among other interviewees, which makes her interview especially important.
As a barefoot doctor, she met with and helped many starving villagers. There were surreal stories such as when she used a spoon to help a little girl with constipation to defecate; and there were tragedies such as the patient passed away while she was preparing glucose for injection. Once, to thank her, a villager wanted to give her an oil coupon, but she refused, because at that time “taking her coupon would be equal to killing her.” In her interview, one cannot only witness the cruelty of the Great Famine, but also the warm mutual-aid among the villagers and women’s bravery and resourcefulness when it comes to their families’ survival.
— Ling Jin
See full bilingual transcript for Yu Xiantang’s interview.
