Anshan Family & City Memory Interview — Descendant/Younger-Generation Edition (Case 16)
Description
The respondent, born in the 1980s, is a descendant of an Anshan steel family: both parents and her grandparents worked at Angang, and she grew up in the mill's residential community in Anshan city. She now works in education/research and says her knowledge of the 1990s restructuring comes mostly from what elders told her rather than firsthand experience, since she was too young at the time. Her strongest childhood sense of the danwei was material and everyday—free use of her mother's unit bathhouse and unit-allocated housing—and she recalls elders speaking of the unit with pride. Her city-choice answers are internally tense: she marks that she is still in Anshan and 'left and came back,' yet also describes leaving after university for the developed Yangtze Delta / southern coast to work in education, rating life there as better and marking it as long-term settlement; these are transcribed faithfully as answered.
世代 / generation: 1980s · 身份 / role or relationship: Descendant of an Angang (Anshan Iron & Steel) worker family; parents and grandparents worked at the unit; grew up in the mill's residential community in Anshan; now works in education/research
In their own words selected highlights, verbatim, de-identified
我经常去母亲单位洗澡，因为是福利不收钱。
长三角经济发达。
父母尊重儿女选择。
Full interview parallel text
The complete question-and-answer record, in the order the respondent answered it (29 exchanges). The Chinese is the respondent’s own wording, transcribed from the photographed pages; illegible passages are marked 【难辨】 / [illegible] rather than guessed. The English is a working translation by the editor, not part of the source.
Left column: respondent’s Chinese, as written · Right column: editor’s working translation
问您大概是哪一代人？
QRoughly which generation are you?
答1980年代
A1980s
问您和鞍钢/相关单位的关系？
QWhat is your relationship to Angang / a related work unit?
答父/母曾在；祖父母曾在；从小住鞍钢社区附近
AParent(s) worked there; grandparents worked there; grew up living near an Angang community
问您小时候主要在哪里成长？
QWhere did you mainly grow up as a child?
答鞍山市区
AAnshan city proper
问您现在大概生活在哪里？
QRoughly where do you live now?
答仍在鞍山
AStill in Anshan
问您现在从事哪一类工作/学习？
QWhat kind of work/study are you in now?
答教育/科研
AEducation / research
问您对九十年代那段变化的记忆，主要来自？
QYour memory of the 1990s changes comes mainly from?
答我当时年纪小，主要是听家里长辈讲的
AI was young at the time; mostly what elders at home told me
问小时候，家里长辈常提鞍钢/单位吗？
QAs a child, did the elders at home often mention Angang / the unit?
答偶尔
AOccasionally
问先用您自己的词：长辈提到单位时是什么感觉？
QIn your own words first: what feeling did elders have when they mentioned the unit?
答（勾选）骄傲；答：很骄傲，很自豪
A(checked) Proud; written: very proud, very honored
问鞍钢/单位对家庭生活影响大吗？
QDid Angang / the unit have a big impact on family life?
答很大
AVery big
问主要体现在哪些方面？
QIn which areas mainly?
答（勾选）住房；答：我父单位分配【难辨】住房单位
A(checked) Housing; written: my father's unit allocated [illegible] housing/unit
问小时候您觉得父母的单位更像什么？
QAs a child, what did your parents' unit feel more like?
答普通工作
AAn ordinary job
问有没有一个具体的小事，让您小时候感到「单位」就在你们家生活里？（一次分房、一次厂庆、食堂、澡堂、生病去厂医院…）
QWas there a specific small thing that made you feel as a child that the 'unit' was inside your family's life? (a housing allocation, a plant anniversary, the canteen, the bathhouse, going to the plant hospital when sick...)
答我经常去母亲单位洗澡，因为是福利不收钱
AI often went to my mother's unit to bathe, because it was a welfare benefit and free of charge
问那段时间，您家有没有明显变化？
QDuring that period, did your family see any obvious change?
答年纪小不清楚
AToo young to be clear
问主要是哪些方面？
QMainly in which areas?
答（勾选）其他；答：因为太小记不清
A(checked) Other; written: because I was too young to remember clearly
问长辈当时的工作状态？
QWhat was the elders' work situation at the time?
答留原岗
AKept their original post
问家里会讨论「以后孩子要不要留在鞍山」吗？
QDid the family discuss whether the children should stay in Anshan?
答偶尔
AOccasionally
问如果讨论过，长辈是什么态度？先选，再讲一件具体的事或一句他们说过的话。
QIf discussed, what was the elders' attitude? Choose first, then tell one concrete thing or something they said.
答父母尊重儿女选择
AParents respect their children's choices
问您是否曾离开鞍山学习/工作/生活？
QHave you ever left Anshan to study/work/live?
答是，离开又回来了
AYes, left and came back
问若离开，大概在什么时候？
QIf you left, roughly when?
答上大学
AGoing to university
问离开鞍山的主要原因？
QMain reason for leaving Anshan?
答（勾选）上学；答：大学毕业后南方发展
A(checked) Schooling; written: after graduating from university, developed a career in the south
问若您留在/回到鞍山，主要原因？
QIf you stayed in / returned to Anshan, the main reason?
答（勾选）其他；答：因没在鞍山
A(checked) Other; written: because [I was] not in Anshan
问带我回到您决定走 / 决定留 / 决定回来的那个时刻：当时在想什么？是什么让您拍板？
QTake me back to the moment you decided to leave / stay / return: what were you thinking? What made you decide?
答长三角经济发达
AThe Yangtze River Delta economy is developed
问如果您离开了：当时去了哪类地方？
QIf you left: what kind of place did you go to?
答沿海/南方城市
ACoastal / southern city
问落脚在哪类行业？（大概即可）
QWhat kind of industry did you settle into? (rough is fine)
答教育
AEducation
问现在比在鞍山，过得怎样？
QCompared with being in Anshan, how is life now?
答更好
ABetter
问这次离开是？
QThis departure is?
答长期定居
ALong-term settlement
问【题干未拍全 · 其他项自由作答】
Q[question stem not fully captured; 'Other' free response]
答父母都希望我当老师
ABoth my parents hoped I would become a teacher
问您有没有因为父母的经历，刻意避开或刻意选择某个职业/行业？讲讲。
QBecause of your parents' experience, did you deliberately avoid or deliberately choose a certain occupation/industry? Tell me about it.
答（勾选）没有；答：没有
A(checked) No; written: no
问父母那一代最希望您得到什么？
QWhat did your parents' generation most hope you would obtain?
答（勾选）更高收入；答：父母希望我过更好的生活
A(checked) Higher income; written: my parents hoped I would live a better life
Significance to the comparison
The Anshan side of the comparison, in a first-person voice: how the danwei (work-unit) organized a whole life, what the 1990s restructuring did to it, and whether the next generation stayed or left. It is the lived-memory counterpart to the paper's question about what lets an industrial community absorb a transition.
Provenance
- Field collection
- Paper questionnaire (子女·晚辈版) completed voluntarily in Anshan, 2026; photographed page by page; transcribed and de-identified for the archive. Original held privately.
Evidence media
- Completed paper questionnaire, 11 photographed pages; 29 question-and-answer exchanges transcribed verbatim (original held privately).
Sources two independent sources, each resolving
- Anshan field collection questionnaire response, 2026 (original held privately).
- Steel & Oil archive field instrument (子女·晚辈版), 2026.
Tim Qiao, ed., “Anshan Family & City Memory Interview — Descendant/Younger-Generation Edition (Case 16),” Steel & Oil: Anshan–Houston Industrial Memory Archive, OHS-AS-115, version 0.2 (field-collected, Anshan, 2026). Citation formats and the stable-identifier scheme →