"The Legend of Hulan River" VS "Old Things in Seongnam"

"The Legend of Hulan River" VS "Old Things in Seongnam"

The two novels are similar. Read it together and don't be interesting. After reading it one after another, I found many places of comparison.

About the Author

Xiao Hong (1911-1942). Lin Haiyin (1918-2001). They were all born in the 1910s, and Xiao Hong was born seven years before Lin Haiyin.

Xiao Hong, from a family of feudal landlords. Most of the people around me are stubborn and conservative people. Her childhood, except for her grandfather and the garden behind the house, can give her some warmth and happiness, and the rest is full of loneliness, loneliness, and sadness. Reading about her childhood, it felt depressing.

Lin Haiyin, born in Osaka, Japan, came to Beijing at the age of 5 (then called Beiping). Her parents were enlightened and poured their love into their children. Her childhood was joyful, sunny, and loving. Although driven by her ignorant and kind curiosity, the tragic development of the characters is intensified, resulting in a faint sadness, it is easy to read and warm.

The family environment is the place where the character is shaped, and it also determines the direction of the character's fate and development.

The desolate Hulan River, the desolate family, the desolate garden, and the desolate human relations eventually led to the 31-year-old "30s literary Roselle" - Xiao Hong, who traveled everywhere and fell in Hong Kong. What a pity!

Enlightened parents and strict tutoring have cultivated Lin Haiyin's kind, independent, autonomous and responsible character, and can cope strongly in the face of various changes. She has a heart like a sun, spreading her love between the lines. He died in 2001 at Taipei Zhenxing Hospital at the age of 83.

Creative background

Both novels are memories of childhood. The difference is that Xiao Hong lives in Hong Kong and has childhood memories of her hometown in Hulanhe City, Heilongjiang, northeast of china. "The Legend of Hulan River" was created in 1942, which was the most difficult stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which made Xiao Hong, who was far away in Hong Kong, miss her hometown and childhood even more, so she created this novel based on her hometown and childhood life.

Lin Haiyin is in her own home in Taiwan, recalling her childhood life in the courtyard of Beiping Nancheng. At that time, Lin Haiyin, who was still a child, followed his father from Taiwan across the ocean to Beiping, living in an alley in the south city, the camel bells, remnants of the ancient capital, downtown, battlements... It attracts Lin Haiyin all the time. She spent a precious and wonderful childhood here. Later, his father died, and Lin Haiyin's happy childhood ended. Many years later, Lin Haiyin, who is far away from her second hometown, is still unforgettable for all this, and the wisps of sorrow and deep lovesickness are still deeply imprinted in her childhood memories, so there is this "Old Things in Seongnam".

Literary features

First, we all see the world from the perspective of children.

Although "The Legend of Hulan River" does not have a consistent story line, we can truly feel the life forms that are tortured by the suffering life and poisoned by feudal thought from the natural scenery of the small town, the monotonous and gray real life, and the superstitious folk customs, reflecting the distorted and sick social reality of rural China. Through the depiction of the naïve reunion daughter-in-law and the eccentric second uncle, the author mercilessly flogged the ignorant, conservative, insensitive and ignorant and trivial people, while the description of the brave Feng crooked mouth praises those who are kind and simple and dare to pursue happiness and light.

"Seongnam Old Things", through Ying Zi's childish eyes, sees the joys and sorrows of the adult world, and the joys and sorrows of the adult world. The madman in the eyes of adults, XiuZhen, is a good friend of Hideko; the thief in the eyes of the patrolman, a young man with thick lips, is a good person in Hideko's heart. With her own unique perspective, Hideko perceives the warmth and indifference, joy and sorrow of society.

Second, they are all prose culture styles.

"The Legend of Hulan River", the pinnacle of "reminiscence", breaks the pattern of traditional novels and has significant and unique prose culture characteristics. As Mr. Mao Dun puts it, "'The Tale of Hulan River' is not 'like' a novel in the strict sense" because it does not have the clues that run through the whole book, does not have a complete plot setting, but it is scattered and concentrated, and has "something more 'seductive' than 'like' a novel; it is a narrative poem, a colorful terroir painting, a string of poignant ballads".

"Old Things in Seongnam" reveals a kind of "faint sorrow, heavy lovesickness", and the author himself has said: "However, how much I miss the scenery and characters who lived in the south of Beijing in my childhood!" I said to myself, write them down, let the actual childhood pass, the childhood of the soul live on forever. In this way, I wrote a book "Old Things in seongnam". "There are countless scene descriptions in the text, using scenes to set off the mood of the characters, and the scenes are blended, which is the realm of prose culture."

Third, there are colloquial and colloquial uses.

For example, after watching the fire clouds in "The Legend of Hulan River", the crows flew over, and the children who were not yet asleep were shouting: "Crows and crows, you fight, give you two buckets of food..." We are directly introduced to the scene where a group of black crows that cover the sky scream and fly overhead. It evokes a bleak ambience. "Pull the big saw, pull the big saw, and sing the big drama at the door of grandpa." Pick up the girl, change the son-in-law, and the little grandson will also go..." And the warmth of the lively singing of the wild stage drama and the reunion of the people was set off.

Another example is the Hakka language that Dad said when he rejected Hideko in "The Old Story of Seongnam", "Do it!" Do it! Ying Zi's mother can't speak Beijing dialect well, and has a strong Cantonese flavor, "Buy a pound of rent leakage (pork), don't go back too much (fat). "Listen to me give you the count, two customs (twenty), two customs record one (twenty-one), two customs record two (twenty-two), two customs record three (twenty-three), two customs record four (twenty-four), two customs record five (twenty-five)..." Reading these colloquial expressions, imagining a family, speaking different accents, with infinite humor, let us deeply feel the joy and harmony of a family.

Good work, intriguing. Similar works are read together and interesting.