<b>A graphic diary that records Yimeng nostalgia</b>
Text/Yang Shuming
My family friend Hua Tielin is a brother I respect very much. I respect him not for his social status as vice chairman of the Shandong Photographers Association, but for his character of fraternity and righteousness and his talent for virtue. Not long ago, he asked me to write a book review of a few hundred words for Li Baijun's "Every Day", and I did not hesitate to resign.
"Every Day - 2000 Life Visual Diary", although published twenty years ago, for me, it still feels very intimate and fresh to read. I am a person who likes to read, in the journey of more than sixty years of life, I have read a variety of books, including many diary books, but reading books in the genre of graphic diaries is the first time, and I have to praise the author's ingenuity.
Li Baijun, the author of "Everyday", is a Native of Yimeng and has a high reputation in the photography industry, and his works have not only won national awards many times, but also held solo exhibitions in many parts of the country and Japan, Spain, France, etc. After reading through his work, I can say with certainty and praise that he is not only a photographer, but also a person who worries about the country and the people, has rich feelings and loves life. His love of life, the watchful eye of conscience, and his concern for his homeland can be described as a journey of life.
Looking back at the turn of the century in 2000, which was the year of continuous development and progress of Chinese society, "Every Day" was a good witness. The 365 pictures in the book and their text introductions, or people or events, are like "kaleidoscopes", showing us a colorful and full of sweet and sour social life. Historical development tells us that social progress cannot be separated from the impetus of literature and art, but in this kind of power, the most active energy is not those false works full of praise and flowery words, but those full of human brilliance, full of sour, sweet and bitter, true, good, and beautiful products, "Every Day" is such a work. I don't know the original motivation of the author to create "Every Day", but after reading this book, I can intuitively feel that the truth, goodness and beauty rooted in the depths of the author's soul, his benevolence, the source of wisdom, and the basis of integrity, which is very precious.
To say that the biggest feature of "Everyday" is that in my opinion, it is the authentic content and simple style. Throughout the book, not only its pictures are simple, but the text is also simple, and the content reflected is more simple. There are no dignitaries and entertainment stars in the book, only ordinary sentient beings; there are no earth-shattering events and important events, only the clothing, food, shelter and transportation of simple people; there is no lofty mannerism, only simple and simple people's feelings that show the truth, just as his friend Liu Yang commented on the book: "The camera he took these works seems to have no camera, so that a feeling of directly facing life surges in these works, without the lens, there is no fabrication in front of the camera, there is no subjectivity behind the lens. There is no such thing as the so-called inherent model of art and the heavy load that this model has caused to the development of photography ontology. It is precisely because there is no lens that the relationship between photography and reality, life and art is freed from the entanglement of ingenuity, utilitarianism and imitation. "Jiangshan is easy to change and difficult to move, and the ever-changing text is like its own person, I think, the author Li Baijun must be a simple and generous Yimeng Hanzi."
In terms of content, "Every Day" is the author's "travelogue" in 2000, which records what the author heard and saw every day of that year. Although the author's "travel" traces have also traveled to Beijing, Dalian, Qingdao, Jinan, and even Vladivostok in Russia, it is more the author's footprints in the Yimeng Mountains of his hometown, which may be closely related to the author's deep nostalgia.
Nostalgia and love, too, are eternal themes of literary creation. Although the people or events recorded in "Every Day" in 2000 AD are undoubtedly the author's nostalgic works in terms of their main content. In the book, although he does not use the word "nostalgia" too much, nostalgia is the theme throughout the book. Maybe this is the author's intention, or maybe it is unintentional, but no matter how you say it, "nostalgia" is the most intense atmosphere in the book.
The Yimeng Mountains have beautiful mountains and clear waters, but the barren land is an objective existence that needs no more words. The author's early life was poor and hard, although he left him with extremely sad memories of the past, he was always so haunted by his homeland and never abandoned. Thick nostalgia, worried that the change in his hometown is too slow, so he put those sad memories of the past in the hope and vision of future happiness and beauty, which should be the eternal longing of his conscience and watch, as Hou Dengke said in the preface to the book: "Li Baijun and fashion keep the distance out of instinct, it is Yimengshan who gives him a minimum conscience of survival, just as although he is also inferior to the creation of images, he is not humble about images' Circumstantial evidence', a kind of circumstantial evidence that is sometimes interrelated to the circumstances of your and my existence, especially in the difficult process of the transfer of civilization, can also be regarded as a reward for the homeland. ”
Forgetting the past means betrayal, and this is especially true of the reality of Chinese society today. "Every Day" is not only a "Qingming River Map" in the Yimeng Mountains, but also a memoir of the past that is fondly recalled. I am a villager in the Yimeng Mountains with the author, and I was born and raised in the same era, so his memories have a deep and strong resonance in my heart. For example, the agricultural village of wearing stars and wearing the moon and fighting against the heavens and the earth, the class struggle that is spoken every day, the month and the month, and the year after year, the poor life of coarse cloth clothes and light soup and rice, the academic memory of useless reading and rebellion and reason... Because it is unforgettable, it is bitter and difficult to say; because it is bitter and unspeakable, it is unforgettable. It is precisely because of this common experience that we have composed an eternal golden song praising reform and opening up in our hearts. In the book "Everyday", although the notes of this golden song are hidden from time to time, the tune is high and low, and the syllables are fast and slow, it is undoubtedly the main theme throughout the book.
The Yimeng Mountains are old revolutionary areas with deep red soil, which is highlighted in the accounts of several characters in the book: "Wu Shanmei was a veteran party member who joined the party in 1942, and when he was the president of the women's rescue committee in the village, he sent her husband, who had only been married for more than two months, to the army. In her later years, she fell ill and was hospitalized, and the medical expenses were all borne by her children, but she never forgot to pay the party fee, and said, 'When you become a party member, you should pay the party fee.' Zhang Daoyu, 78, once rescued two Eighth Route Army soldiers at the most dangerous time and almost died for them. One of the 'old eighth roads' who had been rescued by him went to visit him after he left his retirement, and when he saw that he was still living in the old house without complaint or regret, he could not help but have mixed feelings, but Zhang Daoyu said to him: 'When I saved you, it was because you beat the devil.' "Zhang Liansheng, who joined the Eighth Route Army at the age of 15, demobilized and returned home in 1951, and from 1972 he ran his own family library to serve the villagers. He said: 'I am 78 years old, I have worked with the Communist Party all my life, and when I am old, I always want to do more for the party, and when I am tired, I think that I am an old party member and an old eighth road. Reading the simple words of these old party members and old eighth roads, I couldn't help but think about it, and the tears blurred my eyes unconsciously.
Nowadays, watching "Every Day", I still can't help but feel a lot of emotions. As far as the long river of history is concerned, twenty years may not be too long, but for the life of an individual, it is said that it is long and long, and it is short but not short. Life needs memory, the times need memory, and history needs memory. In this way, the memory of "Every Day" shows its infinite value.
【About the Author】Yang Shuming, a native of Jinan, whose ancestral home is Yiyuan, is a member of the China Writers Association and the former chairman of the Jinan Lixia District Writers Association. He has published ten collections of essays, such as "No Trace of Time", "Past Events Like the Wind", "Flowing Years Like Water", "Scissors Lane Walking", "The Heart Road Is Not Far Away", "Time Frozen in Memory", "The Imprint of Time", "Traces of Famous Scholars under the Calendar", "My Father and Mother", "Lixia Old Brand", and two monographs on the commentary; he was a columnist of "Qilu Evening News" who "has something to say"; the editor-in-chief of "The Taste of Jinan", "The Fall of the City", "Poetic Calendar", "Folk Tales under the Calendar", "Alexandria" and other books and periodicals He has won the Bingxin Prose Award, the Qilu Prose Award, the Quancheng Literary and Art Award, etc.
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