"Famous Artists Appreciate" Hou Wenyong: The taste of cherries

Iranian director Abbas once told a story in his film that had a profound impact on me, so I would love to tell it again.

There was a frustrated man who climbed a cherry tree and was ready to jump off the tree and end his life. Just as he decided to jump down, the school was out. Hordes of elementary school students came over and saw him standing in a tree.

A schoolboy asked him: What are you doing in the trees? When people are unlucky, they don't even want to commit suicide. Looking at the child, he thought to himself, I can't tell the child that I am going to kill myself. So I had to say: I'm looking at the scenery.

Have you ever seen a lot of cherries around you? Elementary school students asked.

He looked down and hadn't noticed that the trees were really full of red cherries, large and small.

Can you help us pick cherries? The children say that if you shake hard, the cherry will fall. Please, we can't climb that high.

What day is this?

The frustrated person disobeyed the children and had to agree to help. He began to jump and shake in the tree, and soon the cherries fell from the tree. The children on the ground were all excited to pick up cherries.

Since it was school time, there were more and more children gathered on the ground after school, and he was also required to jump and shake again. Then there was the laughter of the children, the sound of shouting.

After a while of frolicking, the cherries fell almost and the children gradually dispersed. Frustrated people sat on the trees, looking at the happy backs of the children, not knowing why, the mood and atmosphere of suicide were all gone.

He looked around, picked some cherries that had not yet fallen to the ground, climbed down the cherry tree helplessly, and walked slowly home with the cherries.

When he returned home, it was still the same dilapidated home, the same wife and children.

The wife asked him where he had gone, and he took out the bag of cherries. The wife smiled and didn't say anything more, and the child screamed and jumped again, so glad that Dad had brought the cherry back.

After dinner, the wife brought out cherries. Everyone happily ate cherries. Looking at his family, he suddenly had a new experience and touch, and he thought in his heart, maybe such a life can still live...

The story is like this. I don't know what mana it had, but this story helped me through the lows and difficulties of the time. Later, I often told the story to others, and I also saw its magic. Every time it really worked a little, I felt as if I had tasted cherries myself.

I often wonder, where is the charm of this magical story?

Later I figured out a few truths. First, it's not just a story. When you've heard this story, like me, it's not hard to find yourself with a cherry tree in your heart. It's actually always there, you just don't notice it. Again, when you, like the people in the movie, enthusiastically shake the cherry tree vigorously, or pluck it and give it to others, you can easily bring happiness to others and bring yourself. Finally, and most amazingly, the more you share them with others, the longer the cherries grow and the richer the taste.

About the writer: Hou Wenyong, born in 1961 in Chiayi, Taiwan, is a famous writer and physician. He has published novels such as Hou Wenyong Short Story Collection, The White Tower, Dangerous Mind, and essays such as "Dripping City" and "Dear Wife". Many of his works have been adapted into film and television dramas.

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