Impossibly possible

A little girl needs her Daddy 

to love her with gentlemanly charm.

To hold her tightly when she is afraid;

and keep her safe from harm.

From pigtails and bubblegum,

to lipstick and high heels;

Help her mend a broken heart,

teach her that true love is real.

These stanzas are from the poem 'On this father' composed by Kacee Harrington. Generally, the word 'father' is related to love, care, support and hope. Every child's hero is his/her father. However, are all people fortunate enough to have a role model kind of father? Not necessarily. Xue Xinran tells us an unbelievable story of such an unlucky girl in her book 'The good women of China: Hidden voices', who is destined not to live but to die because of her cunning father. Xinran's book is a collection of 15 true stories of Chinese women, which the writer dug out by gaining their trust by her radio program, 'Words on the night breeze'. All the stories are extraordinary. However I am mostly touched by the story, 'The girl who kept a fly as a pet'. The story exposes an immoral father with demonic nature. It is hard to believe that such people also exist in this world.

As soon as the girl named Hongxue turned 11 and got her first period, her father started to abuse her sexually. At the same time, he did not forget to threaten his daughter not to tell the mother anything about this. The bewildered girl felt "sick" all over.  

Once the man began his dirty game he never stopped. Whenever the mother was not around he would corner  and assault Hongxue. The poor girl says, "I became more and more afraid of this activity." As if this was not enough, the circumstance compelled Hongxue and her younger brother to live only with their father. Since then the father started to rape the helpless girl.

She tried to protest at her best but in vain. The man had stopped pretending it was "father's love." He warned Hongxue saying that if she told anyone she would have to face a public criticism and she was already a "broken shoe." After a couple of years of such torture the mother somehow got to know about the father's filthiness. At this point Hongxue was hopeful thinking that eventually she would be protected by her mother. To her great surprise came the lady's response, "For the security of the whole family, you must put up with it. Otherwise, what will we all do?"

The writer: Xue Xinran

Due to her painful lifestyle Hongxue fell ill every now and then. She found the hospital was much safer than the terrible home. With this realization she started to hurt herself so that she could stay longer at the hospital. She was not afraid of dying. In fact for her death was dearer than life. At the age of 17 Hongxue died of her self-inflicted disease 'septicemia'. In reality it was an unspoken suicide, which nobody, even doctors, knew about. 

In this way, poor Hongxue never got a chance to experience the fatherly love, support and protection expressed by Kacee Harrington above.

{The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]