This article is from WeChat official account:One (ID: yitiaotv), author: Ni Chujiao, self-report: Liang Hong, original title: “Beijing female doctors return to their hometown in 10 years aroused attention, media recommended”, head picture from: “Literature in a Village”
Liangzhuang is a small village in Henan. It was originally ordinary. In 2010, because of the writer Liang Hong, it entered our field of vision and became the same as the “Jiangcun” described by Fei Xiaotong.
Liang Hong, who finally came out of Liangzhuang by studying, returned to his hometown in 2008 in order to record the changes of Liangzhuang in the past 40 years. After five months of visits, he wrote “China in Liangzhuang”. In 2013, she followed Liangzhuang’s part-time job and traveled to more than 20 cities across the country to investigate the living conditions of migrant workers in the cities, and wrote “Leaving Liangzhuang”.
Someone commented: “Liangzhuang is a template, we can see an’invisible class’.” This record has never stopped. In January 2021, “Liangzhuang Ten Years” was published, and dozens of companies The media’s strong recommendation, such as “Sanlian Life Weekly”, “New Weekly” and so on. This time, Liang Hong returned to his hometown again and revisited the people and events described in the book.
This time she saw: rural women struggling under domestic violence, prejudice, discrimination, gossip, and patriarchy, young people fleeing the village, and workers returning to their roots, children who grew up in silence, and died in accidents Old man living alone…
Liang Hong’s documentary “Swimming Until the Sea Turns Blue” Stills
Liangzhuang Ten Years
13 years oldIn 2017, Liang Hong walked out of Liangzhuang for the first time and entered the county seat.
This was the first time she saw a train and crossed a criss-cross road. She was looking for her eldest sister’s unit, but she was scared and didn’t dare to ask for directions. In those leisurely pedestrians, she saw something strange. “Although it is only a small county, the feeling for a rural child is a clear class and distance.”
In 2008, Liang Hong’s son was less than 4 years old. This was the first time that he followed his mother back to Liangzhuang.
The day before I arrived, it had just rained in the county. The ground of the train station was a bit muddy, mixed with melon peels, confetti and garbage, and flies buzzed. Liang Hong’s son cried and didn’t want to get out of the car. He was obviously a little frightened. He pointed to the ground and said: “Dirty-too dirty.”
These two stories were recorded by Liang Hong in “China in Liangzhuang”. Since leaving Liangzhuang, the relationship between the country and the city has always been the motif of her thinking.
Liang Hong, who grew up in the countryside and worked in the countryside since childhood, has lived in Liangzhuang for 20 years. After finishing junior high school, reading teacher training, worked as an elementary school teacher in the village for 3 years, and went to undergraduate study. From ABC, I started to learn English by myself, and passed the postgraduate and doctoral exams step by step. Now I work in the School of Arts of Renmin University of China.
After turning over by reading and finally “escaping” from the countryside, Liang Hong began to doubt his work. “Every day teaching, talking, and writing unjustified articles, everything seems to be meaningless.” There is always a voice continuously reminding. To her: This is not real life.
The dilapidated house in Liangzhuang
This voice prompted her to return to Liangzhuang in 2008. After a five-month hometown survey, she wrote “China in Liangzhuang”, restoring Liangzhuang’s changes in the past 40 years, and its gradual dilapidation and desolation. process. She tried to answer: When did the country become synonymous with the bottom, the edge, and the disease??
Liangzhuang people who work outside
This is not enough. In 2013, “Leaving Liangzhuang” was published. She followed the footsteps of Liangzhuang people working in more than 20 cities across the country, trying to investigate how Chinese farmers live in cities, how they travel, and how How to eat, how to love, how to think about Liangzhuang, how to think about his city.
Ten years in a blink of an eye. Liang Hong still maintained the rhythm of going home two to three times a year. At first, her father accompanied her, and after his father died, her sisters accompanied her. She went to each house to chat and talk, find various reasons, organize various meals, who came back, who left, are all reasons to eat.
Ten years ago, Liang Hong still had a deep sense of distance, and he often observed Liang Zhuang from the perspective of “outsiders”. If it were not for her father’s help, she could hardly integrate into the conversation of the villagers. But now, Liang Zhuang and the people in Liang Zhuang have been in the blood of Liang Hong. “We look at each other. You have me in you and you in me. It is no longer possible to distinguish each other.”
Liang Hong’s hometown in Liangzhuang
In 2020, Liang Hong finally finalized the idea that has been hovering in his mind for a long time-continue to record. This year is special because of the epidemic. “You suddenly find that human life is extremely precious.Yes, life is so difficult for people, and social life has changed so much. “
In January 2021, “Liangzhuang Ten Years” was published. If it is said that “China in Liangzhuang” and “The Story of Liangzhuang” have a relatively integrated historical view, they show a social and macroscopic village. Ten years later, “Liangzhuang Ten Years” is presented in a more microscopic, relaxed, and everyday way.
Because of becoming more and more familiar with the village and the people inside, Liang Hong has returned to the state of “seeing the mountain as the mountain” and let go of his “ambition” to respond to social problems through events. But just like a photo, no matter you put the focus on the person or blur the background, you can get a glimpse of the colors, contours and atmosphere in the background.
Ten years have passed, how is Liangzhuang?
Here is Liang Hong’s narrative:
Liang Hong and Liang Zhuang
Actually, when I was writing the second book of “Liangzhuang”, a friend advised me: “”China in Liangzhuang” has been established, the second book is easy to mess up, why bother?” When I When I wrote the third “Liangzhuang Ten Years”, there were still such voices from outside. But I think this kind of “fear” is insignificant compared to the mood I want to record.
I have infinite love for everyone in the village. Watching them playing cards, chatting, farming, and drinking tea, I think it’s so cherished. Liangzhuang is still on the move, it is like a long river, always moving forward. I want to write about their birth, old age, sickness and death, coming and going.
Children swimming in the pond
“This time, I will write daily, not events”
If you read the first two books, you will find that the story of Grandma Five is a very complete process.
In the first two books, when I write about people, I will focus on the major events that he has experienced. They all carry a huge social background.
In “China in Liangzhuang”, I wrote the story of Grandma Five’s grandson drowning in the river. Granny Wu’s husband has passed away for many years. Both her son and daughter-in-law are working in Qingdao. She is the only one who is pulling her grandson Bao’er to grow up. But Boa drowned while swimming in the pond. My fifth grandmother is a very optimistic and self-deprecating old man. Her home is the “press release center” of the whole village, but when she talks about the death of her grandson, her voice is erratic.
When I arrived at “The Story of the Liangzhuang Village”, I went to Qingdao to interview the son and daughter-in-law of the five grandmother who worked outside, the parents of the drowned child, my cousin and cousin. Bo’er’s matter has been on my aunt’s mouth, but no one seems to have asked before me. The aunt later gave birth to another son named Yangyang. Yang Yang was taken with him. In a large factory with more than 2,000 people, Yang Yang had only one child, and he grew up alone.
Sand dredger in the river channel
I think such a most ordinary family, the joys and sorrows contained in it have covered all the problems, such as staying in the villageOf the elderly and children. Why did this child drown? It’s because the ecology of our river is completely destroyed, and there are huge whirlpools in the river…
However, in the book “Ten Years of Liangzhuang”, I hope to present the everyday side of Liangzhuang. After a long period of home epidemic prevention in 2020, you will find that it is precisely the “daily” that saves us: our eating and drinking Lazards, the relationship with our loved ones and relatives, it will save mankind.
So I wrote about the daily life of Grandma Five at home, how she laughed, how she took her granddaughter’s pink tram to the street to get a haircut, this is simply her favorite activity. Nothing special happened either.
It is impossible for people to remember such tragic things all the time, and it is impossible to wash their faces with tears every day, so I want to show Granny Wu’s vision and humor. I think this is one of the biggest reasons why life can continue to thrive. No matter how difficult the future is, we are all trying to live, and we still have to laugh, and we still have to love those who are alive. So this is what I especially want to express.
Women working in the factory
“As a woman, once you get married, a certain part of your subject is obliterated”
This time when I was writing “Ten Years of Liangzhuang”, one evening, my grandmother, my eldest sister, my second sister, and some other female friends in the village were sitting on a low stool in the courtyard and chatting. When I looked at them, I suddenly thought of a question, Where are the girls in Liangzhuang?
In the village, the moment a girl got married, she was banished by the village. In another village, you may not even have a name, just changeWhen beautiful girls, they will whisper in a particularly mysterious tone.
Including the Ram case, I saw a few in-depth interviews. She wants to broadcast live. She is also more beautiful, and she is unwilling to compromise with her husband. People in the surrounding villages say that Ram is not obedient to women. She appealed and was sentenced to divorce. But why does her husband keep coming to her? Just because no one supports her. When women have a kind of independence, everyone feels that you are not obedient to women’s ways, so her husband is so confident.
Mother takes her child to work outside
When I found these girls, I was still hesitant to explain to them at first. I wanted to write their stories in the book. In the end, they didn’t feel ashamed at all, and they all supported them, “Okay, it’s not easy for us girls. Write it, and someone should give me a grievance?”
In fact, rural women are also self-conscious. It’s just that life is too difficult, and some people are completely covered. Not everyone can escape.
I think many people have the illusion that urban women have a high status. For example, some people often say: “My mom controls the money in our family.” But they never thought about why men are not willing to hold this money? Because he wants to put all housework and all things on women, do you think this is power? This is not the transfer of power, but the control of power.
I think women have to go a long way in the current civilization of China before they can achieve real and internal progress, instead of the superficial “my mother in my family is very powerful”, which is not the case.
Langzhuang’s large western-style house
“Building a house in the country has become a person’s desire”
One change in the village is remarkable. The number of houses in Liangzhuang is increasing, but the people who build them have changed. Most of the people who came back to build houses were farmers who went out to work, but did not stay in the city in the end. Now many farmers with urban household registration and good living standards also want to come back to build houses. This is a very interesting psychological change.
In July 2020, I discovered that there is a tall western-style house at the west end of Liangzhuang Village. It is very tall and European-style. The courtyard is surrounded by rose flowers and trumpet creepers. Gray marble walls, Roman columns, rockeries, grasslands, recreational areas, and sports areas, it is completely comparable to houses in any city or resort in the world.
This house was born to justice. Yisheng is considered to be quite well mixed in our village. He is almost an entrepreneur. He has many houses, villas, apartments, and his own company in other places. He doesn’t need to go back to Liangzhuang to live, why does he want to build this house? In fact, he went back to Liangzhuang to build a lot of houses. He kept a house for every aunt and uncle. He hoped that the whole family would be reunited. He hoped that there would be a kind of root.
Old House and New House
There is also a man named Liang Xuejun. He is the only farmer who works abroad and has a firm foothold in a radius of several tens of miles. He has already joined the Spanish nationality, and has already studied as a teacher, has joined the stock of a restaurant, and his income is quite high. His three children are all Spanish and enjoy Spanish state subsidies. But he also came back and built a two-story building in the middle of the village. He let his children stay private in Nanyang.Where will he be? The most likely is in the factory where his father works. If he went to university and graduated with a bachelor’s degree, where would he be? It may become what everyone now calls “beating workers.” In short, Yang Yang’s destiny may be either to become the hitter or the “worker”, reaching the same goal by different routes.
But I would hope that Yangyang has more spiritual space. But he is very depressed now. I also wrote in the last chapter that he is taking care of other children. Is this kind of sensibility what a child of his age should have? In fact, this also explains his loneliness, his loneliness.
Liangzhuang’s closed elementary school
But in fact, “going to school” is a kind of “buffer” for many children in Liangzhuang. Otherwise, what do they do when they are so young? If you can’t work legally, and no one takes care of you, then study first. But to change my destiny, I still rely on reading.
“Small town being the home of questions” may be the path most children in China take. The same is true for big cities, they are just “cities being the masters”. Children who grow up in this way have actually been squeezed in their mental space during the middle and high school years. All his inspiration, spirituality, and all his thoughts on problems have been crushed endlessly. By the time he was admitted to university at the age of 18, he had become a “hollow man.” We did not encourage them to think independently when they were adolescents. When we arrived at university, we suddenly said, “You have to think, you have to own yourself”.
This in itself is very contradictory, and it is a systemic problem that is difficult to change in a short period of time. I think every young person should also give himself a little space: on the one hand, we are struggling, looking for a good job, looking for a possibility; but on the other hand, my inner spirit must also struggle, not just self-pity. , Blame this society, because it is meaningless.
Centenarians in Liangzhuang
“Elderly care should not be a moral kidnapping of individuals”
Just when I finished writing “Ten Years of Liangzhuang” and returned to Liangzhuang in November 2020, I realized that my fifth grandmother had a fractured bone and was unable to move while lying in bed. She was lying on the bed with only a small ball, and her white hair was disheveled. She grabbed my hand and cried.
Although she talked for a while, Grandma Wu regained her resounding tone, still an optimistic and self-deprecating old lady. However, the moment I walked out of the house, I thought of leaving her alone in the dark room, and suddenly felt a little sad. Loneliness, aging, fear, these most fundamental things of mankind are descending on this strong old man. Granny Wu’s sons actively pooled money to treat Granny Wu, but they couldn’t take care of them. The only one who can take care of her is the granddaughter who is already at work. When the granddaughter is married, who can continue to take care of her?
This reminds me of Forber. People say that he is the most blessed, because he even walks so simply.
On the Spring Festival of 2017, Fober was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer. Fu Bo has 7 children. He rushed back from all over the country as soon as he heard the news. Throughout the Spring Festival, everyone rushed to obey Fu Bo.
As a result, after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the children began to worry. Each of them has too much urgency in reality. Some have to help their children pay off the mortgage, and some will be expelled if they don’t go back. All of them have trouble saying, and they can’t stay at home to take care of their father. I don’t know if it was because of hearing the children’s talk or because of the condition of esophageal cancer. From then on, Fu Bo shut his mouth tightly and decided not to eat a bite of food. On the last day of the first month, Fubo passed away at the age of eighty-five.
I think this is a very practical problem, and it cannot be solved by filial piety and unfilial piety. The issue of elderly care for the elderly is very inhumane if it is kept entirely on the individual’s body, or as a moral kidnapping of the individual. The socialization of old-age care is a very important issue, and we must begin to pay attention to it. This is not only the case in Liangzhuang, but also in many villages, which will extend a lot of family problems.