"Tianjin Role Model" Jin Wankun: My Promise and Life are Equally Long Role Models | Tianjin | Life

On June 19th, 91 year old Jin Wankun was awarded the honorary title of "Tianjin Model". In the field of freshwater fish breeding, Jin Wankun is a name that resounds like thunder. Starting from a semi illiterate background, he relied on diligent self-study to cultivate 11 nationally approved new aquatic species over several decades. Among them, 5 were the leading fishery species recommended by the Ministry of Agriculture, and he published 5 monographs including "Embryonic Development Atlas of Hybrid Freshwater Fish Species". He has published more than 90 papers in national academic journals, and has undertaken 26 projects such as the National Spark Program, Agricultural Science and Technology Achievement Transformation, and Good Seed Engineering. Under his leadership, the New Aquatic Seed Farm located in Ninghe District was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture as a national modern fishery seed industry demonstration farm and a national demonstration farm for healthy aquaculture. Jin Wankun is revered as the "Yuan Longping of the aquatic industry".

Jin Wankun is reviewing the seed selection report

Jin Wankun said that he never dares to slack off. He embarked on the path of breeding for a promise, and the deadline for fulfilling this promise is until the last day of his life.

91 years old, leading the charge again

Jin Wankun's recent physical condition is not very good. After busy with the breeding season in April and May every year, Jin Wankun appears very tired and needs time to recover his strength.

The breeding season is the busiest time of the year in the breeding ground for new and improved varieties. The incubation workshop is brightly lit and operates day and night. The factory requires all employees to stay in the factory during this period and are not allowed to take leave or go out without permission. This rule was set by Jin Wankun, and he took the lead in strictly adhering to it. The two small rooms next to the spawning pool are Jin Wankun's bedroom and office. During the breeding season, he often lives in the workshop to observe the status of his fish and inject oxytocin at any time.

Jin Wankun is observing the parent fish

At the age of 86, Jin Wankun was still wearing waterproof pants to personally go into the water for work. At the age of 87, the workers firmly refused to allow him to go into the water again, so he stood by the pool and provided guidance at any time.

This year's breeding season, 91 year old Jin Wankun is still at the forefront. Due to the inconvenience of his legs and the lack of an elevator, it took a long time to get off the second floor dormitory. Jin Wankun simply moved back to the small room in the incubation workshop. He woke up at around 4 am every day and was busy until 11 or 12 pm at night before going to bed, with an average daily sleep time of only four or five hours. Because he is too tired, he often has no appetite. Sometimes he only eats breakfast after ten o'clock, and sometimes he simply doesn't eat. It seems that there is something wrong with his digestive ability. The baby Rice noodles, lotus root starch and other food bought by his family for him are often his meals. After the breeding season ended this year, Jin Wankunming became noticeably thin. Most of the time, he didn't want to speak loudly and found it exhausting. However, whenever he talked about fish, he immediately returned to the "little Jinzi" who was obsessed with fish farming.

"Yuhuazi" forced to take on heavy responsibilities

In 1932, Jin Wankun was born into a poor family of fishermen. He lived with his parents on a small boat and drifted on the water all day long. Whenever he saw groups of students on the shore going to and from school, Jin Wankun felt envious in his heart, but going to school was a distant luxury for him.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, a fishery mutual aid group was established in Lutai Town, and Jin Wankun was elected as the group leader. In 1955, the mutual aid group was upgraded to a cooperative and renamed "Lutai Renewal Fishery Production Cooperative". Jin Wankun was elected as the president. Because of his excellent work, Jin Wankun was invited to attend the commendation meeting for exemplary organization in Hebei Province in 1957, and the prize was 3000 fish fry. "These fry are all crucian carp and silver carp caught from the Yangtze River. Before 1955, there were almost no crucian carp or silver carp in the north, and grass carp was also rare. The main food consumed was crucian carp, carp, and catfish," Jin Wankun told reporters. These 3000 fish fry are said to be prizes, but they are actually a new task. The organization requires Jin Wankun to keep these fry well and promote them to the north.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Jin Wankun took a group photo with employees from the newly established fishing ground

At that time, there were no freshwater fish farms in the north. Jin Wankun only knew how to fish and had never learned how to raise fish. With his understanding of fish habits, he dug two large pits and put 3000 fish fry into them. Unexpectedly, he raised them very well. In 1958, a breakthrough was made in the artificial breeding technology of silver carp. In 1959, Jin Wankun was sent to Jiangsu to study the hatching technology of silver carp. After 40 days of study, he combined what he learned with his practical experience, built fish ponds, carried out spawning and hatching, and achieved great success. This achievement was reported as a good news step by step, and soon after, Yang Fuqing, then Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Fisheries, came to the newly established cooperative. Yang Fuqing has a background in aquaculture and has been selected to study at the Tokyo Aquaculture Institute in Japan.

New fishing grounds and ponds in the 1950s and 1960s

At first, Yang Fuqing came once a week, but later it became every three or four days. Jin Wankun felt that the leader came frequently just to see the fish, so he didn't think much. The only confusion he had was that the leader always asked him what he wanted to do. "He always asks me, 'Little Jinzi, what do you want?' I say, 'I'm not doing it anymore, raising fish.' I wonder why he keeps asking me this question," Jin Wankun said. After a while, Yang Fuqing finally revealed his trump card. "He said, 'You can't just raise fish. You have to make fish. My first reaction was that the minister asked me to cook fish for him to eat.' At this point, Jin Wankun laughed heartily. When the minister told him that "doing fish" meant cultivating fish and engaging in breeding, Jin Wankun backed down and said, "I said I don't know one liter of big characters, how can I do it? But when the minister said I can do it, he asked if I have the determination. In the end, I was forced to do nothing, and I said I should learn. Please let the minister rest assured that I am engaged in breeding."

Flip through a few dictionaries and self-study to become an expert

In order to fulfill this promise, Jin Wankun has not rested for decades.

Jin Wankun said that he only attended 36 hours of school. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he participated in literacy classes for a total of 18 days, studying for 2 hours every day. Due to his low level of education, Jin Wankun always felt like a dwarf when standing with experts. When the organization sent him to study in Jiangsu, his first reaction was fear. He could understand all the practical parts of the teaching content, but when it came to pure theoretical knowledge, he found it very difficult. "When I was studying, the teacher talked about chorionic villus hormone, and no matter how I listened, it was like 'mom cow' or something," Jin Wankun said.

Jin Wankun in Learning

Jin Wankun, who had almost no foundation, launched a charge towards breeding science. Apart from diligence, he had no second path. With the help of his literacy class, he was able to look up radicals in a dictionary, and at a farmer's school, he learned Chinese Pinyin. He went to the bookstore to look for breeding books, self studied theoretical knowledge, and sought advice everywhere when he encountered those he didn't know. Over the years, he flipped through several dictionaries.

From initial resistance to later obsession, Jin Wankun swam further and more freely in the ocean of freshwater fish breeding science, and also increasingly realized what "endless learning" means. "I haven't been at home for 7 Spring Festival holidays. Firstly, I was thinking about how to do it, and secondly, I was studying. The more I worked, the more I realized that without culture, we can't go far. Only with knowledge can we have crutches and go far." Jin Wankun said.

Jin Wankun and colleagues are working underwater

Jin Wankun spent all his time on work and didn't take care of anything at home. His spouse, with four children, silently took on everything and became his strong backing. Jin Wankun said that his spouse is a very kind person with a gentle personality and never quarrels with him. However, even a person with a good temper can have unbearable moments. He didn't attend the weddings of Jin Wankun's first three children because he was busy. On the day of his last child's wedding, his wife sent someone to ask him to go back. Jin Wankun felt guilty and went home. "When I entered the door, I saw my wife's face swollen and standing tall. She cried and asked me, 'Do you still have a home?' 'Do you know what you do?'" When my wife was most angry, she would ask Jin Wankun, 'Do you still have a home?' Jin Wankun couldn't help but cry. He had too much debt to his wife and family in his heart, but he couldn't find time to make up for it. He always had unfinished work, knowledge, and experiments that he couldn't stop. ".

Jin Wankun and colleagues are conducting experimental research

Decades of study have made Jin Wankun a breeding expert, publishing five monographs including "Embryonic Development Atlas of Freshwater Fish Hybrids", and more than 90 papers in national academic journals. He has undertaken 26 projects such as the National Spark Program, Agricultural Science and Technology Achievement Transformation, and Good Variety Engineering. In 2002, Xin Xin was promoted to a national level aquaculture seed farm. In 2013, Xin Xin was approved by the Ministry of Agriculture as a national demonstration farm for modern fishery seed industry and a national demonstration farm for healthy aquaculture. Received numerous national and municipal awards and qualification certifications. Jin Wankun led the cultivation of a total of 11 nationally approved new aquatic species, of which 5 were the national leading fishery species first promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Guarding "freedom to eat fish" and safeguarding the livelihoods of fishermen

China is a major consumer of aquatic products. According to the 2018 China Fisheries Statistical Yearbook, the annual production of freshwater fish in aquaculture is 25.4098 million tons, with over 90% of freshwater products coming from aquaculture. Nowadays, there is always sufficient supply of freshwater fish in the market, but decades ago, China faced a fishing crisis. Jin Wankun recalled that after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the fishing volume of fishermen showed a significant downward trend year by year, and people's purchase of fish gradually changed from relying on tickets for supply to having tickets for no fish.

Jin Wankun and colleagues are working underwater

In February 1950, the first National Fisheries Conference was held in Beijing, and arrangements were made to restore fishery production, especially to address the shortage of fish fry and the problem of relying solely on fishing to obtain them. Yang Fuqing once mentioned to Jin Wankun that the future of fish populations in China was a big problem. At that time, Jin Wankun didn't quite understand what Yang Fuqing meant. It was only when he entered the breeding industry that he realized that Yang Fuqing's vision was long-term. With the continuous growth of population, wild fishing cannot meet market demand. Without artificial breeding and incubation, free fish consumption can never be achieved. The premise of aquaculture is to select good varieties, which can not only create economic value but also social value.

Every year during the breeding season, the yards of the newly established breeding grounds are packed tightly, and buyers from all over the country gather here to select fish fry. Buyers from the Yangtze River Delta and north usually come by car, while buyers from farther places such as Sichuan and Yunnan immediately pack and oxygenate the fish fry for transportation to the airport. In 2021, more than 3.7 billion fish fry were sold through replacement, reaching a new high in recent years. The highest number of fish fry was sold to 30 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country.

What attracts buyers is the replacement of their own varieties. Jin Wankun prefers to cultivate heterologous mating, which means mating and breeding between different species. This breed often has better disease resistance and higher nutritional value, but at the same time, it also means greater difficulty and a longer cultivation period. "Studying a fish, it takes ten to eight years to achieve success, which is amazing."

Jin Wankun is inspecting the new fish species cultivated in the Xinliang Seed Farm

Jinxin Red Mirror Carp is a newly introduced variety in the market, with a red color throughout. It is edible and ornamental. This fish not only has a good taste and strong disease resistance, but is also rich in carotenoids, with higher nutritional value. "Northerners are not very accustomed to eating colored fish, and it may take some time to accept it, but in the south, the market feedback for this type of fish is still acceptable," a staff member from the Xinliang Seed Farm told reporters.

Another reason why newly cultivated fish are popular is that they are of good quality and affordable. Jin Wankun deliberately violates market rules and proactively limits the price of the fish he cultivates. As the head of a private enterprise, Jin Wankun often looks at the bustling purchasers, and his thoughts are not about the efficiency of the factory, but about whether there should be any differences in the replacement. He is worried that the high cost of fish fry will increase the burden on farmers and make the people lose their freedom to eat fish. What he always thinks about is that his fish is related to the livelihood of the farmers and the quality of the dining tables of ordinary people.

"No difficulties, what do you want us to do?"

In November 2019, Jin Wankun stepped down from his position as the Secretary of the New Party Branch, which he had been working for 60 years. He now also serves as the Director of the New Aquatic Seed Farm. Every morning around 6 o'clock, he will appear in the factory on time. The cement road in the experimental pool is less than half a meter wide, and Jin Wankun walked on it like walking on a flat ground in the past two years.

"Breeding is a painful thing," Jin Wankun said sincerely after half a lifetime of work. During the breeding season, he experienced leg pain after standing in the water for several hours to induce childbirth; His waist, legs, and ribs have all been broken while working; How many times have all the fish fry died in a pond? Then drain the water and start over. Bitterness is truly bitter, but he has never given in. "Without difficulties, what do we need to do? If there are difficulties, it's okay, mainly the question of who wins and who loses." 91 year old Jin Wankun's tone is still stubborn like a teenager, probably because of his strength back then, which made Yang Fuqing certain that this uneducated child who is struggling to do experiments on his own will be able to shoulder the banner of China's freshwater fish breeding industry in the future.

Jin Wankun is observing samples in the laboratory

According to secular standards, Jin Wankun has already achieved great success and fame. He has won many honorary titles such as National model worker, Tianjin model worker, Tianjin Excellent Scientific and Technological Worker, Representative of the National Party Congress, National exemplary individual in Rural Science Popularization, etc. The certificates, trophies and medals he has won are full of three big cabinets. He, who is over ninety years old, if he wants to stop and lie down on his credit book, no one will think it's inappropriate. Actually, everyone feels that Jin Wankun should have taken a break long ago, except for himself. Last year, Jin Wankun conducted 90 experiments, and this year, there are still 40 experiments in his work plan.

When it comes to honor, Jin Wankun feels guilty from the bottom of his heart. He said that all he has done over the years is actually fulfilling his promise, fulfilling his promise to Vice Minister Yang Fuqing, and fulfilling his promise to raise good fish for the Chinese people. Once this promise starts, there is no deadline, and it will be passed down from generation to generation.