Rome wasn’t built in a day, but modern China almost has been. In a rush to modernization, the focus has been on the greater good, which, as always, has its blind spots, from the world’s highest cancer rates to life-threatening pollution to a healthcare system incapable of nurturing a gigantic population being pulled at a breakneck pace by the sweep of history.

Case in point: The harrowing story of Zheng Yanliang, who took desperate measures to escape certain death in the world’s largest economy.

From Bernhard Zand at Spiegel:

His shroud had already been purchased when, on April 14, 2012, Zheng Yanliang, 48, a Chinese man from Hebei Province, summoned up the last of his strength to lean out of his bed and reach for his toolbox. He took out a hacksaw. Then he wrapped the handle of a backscratcher in a piece of material, which he stuck in his mouth so that he could bite on it. He did not hesitate. He had thought about his options and concluded that he had only one choice, this unthinkable, monstrous deed. He placed the saw against his right leg, a hand’s breadth below his hip, and began to saw.

The life of worker Zheng Yanliang, which began in 1966, probably would have ended in 2012 were it not for a miracle. It’s a life that spans the entire period of China’s opening to the world, and of the great Chinese economic miracle. Zheng diligently contributed to his society’s high-speed transformation, as both a farmer and a migrant worker, as did millions upon millions of his fellow Chinese, in a country where progress for the masses is everything and the fate of the individual means nothing. Zheng’s story shows what can happen when someone falters in this relentless pursuit of prosperity, and when he falls and is taken out of the running. We are only aware of his story because he did something unimaginable to survive, and because photos were later taken of what happened to him. We know nothing about many thousands of other Chinese who fall by the wayside while working to increase their own and the overall gross national product.•