Perseverance offers path to better life

One of the comments the photo attracted was, "Her life is very hard, but she holds hope in her arms."

Netizens were touched by the image of Bamuyubumu and the innocent face of her child, who was wrapped in a clean and tidy blanket. The photo was titled "Baby, Mom will take you home."

A photo taken on Jan 22 of Bamuyubumu smiling in the sunshine at her home triggered online comments that included: "Her smile is brimful of confidence and her eyes shine like the stars"; "I feel so glad she is now leading a better life", and "She is a fighter".

Describing her life in an interview this week, Bamuyubumu said, "Eleven years ago, I didn't have enough to eat. I lived on corn, buckwheat and potatoes I grew on my land, but there was never enough."

Bamuyubumu, who never had an education and married when she was 17, strove hard to improve her standard of living.

"I couldn't speak or read Mandarin, so I learned it sentence by sentence while helping with work in other villagers' fields," she said.

"In 2009, my newborn baby lacked nutritious food. I felt she was no better off than I was, and I was determined to improve this situation."

Bamuyubumu found a job as a laborer at a brick factory in Jiangxi. "The salary (500 yuan a month) was not that good, but it was far better than farming at home," she said.

Like many in the Yi ethnic group, Bamuyubumu has only one name.

She and her husband now work at a wharf in Ningde, a coastal city in Fujian province. From April to July each year she grows tobacco on the family's small farm at home in Sichuan.