Boyhood (Memories)

Li Shaoqiang

In the autumn of 1970, the Liberal Arts Department of Shandong University came to Qufu and merged with Qufu Normal College to form Johor Bahru University. The affiliated middle schools that were disbanded during the Cultural Revolution were restored, and those of us who wandered in the nearby township primary schools began to return. At the end of this year, it is considered to complete the curriculum of primary school, and then graduate and enter junior high school. This age is the most energetic and naughty period, and we are still like before, not studying seriously, mainly playing. Playing the game of "occupying the room" between classes, playing ball and hanging around after class, most of the class failed the final math test, and I also made up the test. This incident shocked us a lot, aware of the dangers of not studying hard. At this time, some teachers of the Chinese Department of Shandong University, such as Mou Shijin and Ge Benyi, taught classes at the attached middle school, and they had a high academic level and serious lessons, which benefited us a lot. But we were young and mischievous, and once somehow provoked Mr. Mou, who angrily rubbed the blackboard on the podium, and the noise was quite loud, and we were suddenly silent. In order to participate in the Chinese art show, Mr. Mou organized us to go to Dazhuang to conduct social investigation, and then he wrote a group of poems. We came on stage, recited passionately, went home after the evening and did not want to remove our makeup, and admired ourselves in the mirror. Ms. Ge was elegant and humble, and her lectures were frustrating, and she made me a representative of the Chinese class for one semester, which made me have more contact with her. At this time, the ancient texts in the language such as "Yugong Moving Mountains", "Qianzhi Donkey", "Chen Shijia", "Wusong Fighting Tiger", etc. had a deep influence on me, and I can still recite them like a stream. Although there is some effort in learning, but the teenager's energy is still excessive, playing between classes, once someone mischievously plugged the classroom door, just the physics teacher Liu was blocked in class, Lin classmate kindly opened the door, Teacher Liu mistakenly thought that he did it, and criticized it fiercely, when the thunder was angry, he threw the scarf on the podium, and Liu ridiculed: "What, still tie?" Teacher Liu was extremely angry, and pointed at him with trembling fingers, and only then did he utter a sentence: "You, you rogue!" Hearing this, the whole class laughed. At this time, the country began to rectify education, the initial high school carried out strict examinations, most of our examinations were not ideal, only Ni students had excellent results, ranking first in the county. He gave a typical lecture in the great hall, and we listened to it from the audience, which was deeply touched.

In early 1973, we entered the first year of high school, and the two classes in junior high school were reduced to one class. The first exam was very stimulating to us, and it set off a climax of learning culture classes. At this time, Teacher Jiang Yifei was transferred from other places to the attached middle school as our Chinese teacher, she was enthusiastic and straightforward, gave serious lectures, and won everyone's respect. I was young at that time, I did not take a lunch break to read novels, some Chinese and foreign masterpieces had a great influence on me, sometimes in the afternoon to write essays, I imitated its artistic conception and language, and received praise from Teacher Jiang. Once the essay I wrote, "Remembering a Military Training", was selected as a sample essay to be read in the class and presented to junior high school, which greatly encouraged me. Although I like Chinese the most, I have learned well in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and my grades in all subjects are excellent. In addition to the cultural class, I learned to play basketball, and I often ran and exercised, and my body and mind were well developed. This period was the prime time of our middle school and is still fresh in my memory. Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and in 1974, the Pinglin Pingkong Movement began, especially the so-called Huang Shuai Incident, and the normal order of the school was disrupted. Students write big posters to the teacher, and the following offenses are taken for granted. The ink was not enough, and the chemistry teacher adjusted a large tank for us, but it faded quickly. After that, I actively asked to participate in the so-called Confucian Criticism Movement, and I read the "History of Chinese Philosophy", told teachers and students the history and story of the Confucian struggle in the attached middle school, and later went to Xiaoxue Commune to preach. I never wanted teaching to be my lifelong career. In order to meet the needs of the movement, we formed a number of theoretical study groups and read the Communist Manifesto, the State and the Revolution, the Critique of the Gotha Program, etc. Although they did not understand it very well, they laid the foundation for my future study of humanities and social sciences.

At this time, the school was basically closed, we had nothing to do in the classroom, girls played sweaters, boys chatted, and Lin also wrote poems and satires about it. But the trend of the times cannot be changed. In particular, after graduating from the previous high school, the students went to the countryside to work in agriculture, and what is the use of learning cultural knowledge. Seeing that everyone is mixing up their lives is not a solution, I don't know who proposed to set up professional groups for studying medicine, studying engineering, learning forestry, painting, etc., in order to adapt to future farming, labor, etc. Emphasizing social practice is the characteristic of our time, from primary school onwards, we helped farmers pick wheat ears and cut wheat during the wheat harvest, and went to the county auto parts factory to learn to practice. At this time, it is even more natural to learn a craft. I like to draw and practice words, and I often run a blackboard newspaper in school, so I joined the art group, often went out to sketch with a few classmates, and visited art exhibitions in Jining. In the early summer of 1975, we lived in the countryside to help the wheat harvest for more than a month, and we got a good exercise, laying a certain foundation for going to the countryside to work as farmers in the future. This summer, we graduated from high school, many years old and turned 18 years old, from teenagers to young people, to the society, and began a new page in life.