"Tiger Skin Man", Wu Liuwei, Jiangnan, No. 1, 2022, read on January 21, 2022.
Appreciation: We have seen or heard of wolves in sheep's clothing, but have you ever seen a man in tiger's clothing? "I" have seen, and this person is "my" uncle.
The article innovates the way of storytelling, with "I" love to watch movies alone at home as an introduction, and in the process of searching and screening films, I think of an article "The Life of My Uncle Caterpillar". "I" uncle, the big name Yin Shicun, the nickname Caterpillar, nicknamed Chicken Gonggong, nicknamed Tiger Skin Man. His uncle's life was legendary, and he was very afraid of caterpillars as a child, so he dropped out of school, and at a young age, he followed his father to work in a private coal kiln, and his father died unexpectedly. What is even more painful is that due to working in the underground coal kiln for many years, the bow back is very serious, and it has never been straightened up again. Therefore, the original height of one meter and nine meters is only half in reality. The uncle used his father's pension and the money he earned from his own bow to build a house and marry a wife, but he was childless for life, which became his uncle's biggest regret. Adopting a son but disagreeing with himself, the uncle chose to go far away and wandered to the county seat.
The second half of my uncle's life was spent in the county seat, specifically in the county circus, a fairytale world that can be summed up as the story of the Hunchback man and a group of "dwarfs". Although they are disabled, hunchbacked, and dwarfism, they find the meaning and value of life here, and it is a paradise in the hustle and bustle of the world. There will always be joy and sorrow in life, circus members leave in various temptations or misfortunes, animals also grow old, and the violent impact of other forms of entertainment makes the circus unsustainable. My uncle put on orangutan skin and tiger skin and began the life of an orangutan and a tiger skin man. Eventually returning, this became one of the most peculiar scenery in the village.
This is a chivalric literature, the uncle is a bow-backed knight, his life is like Don Quixote, full of legend, but behind the absurd and bizarre story, is the thinking and interpretation of beautiful human nature, the meaning of life is not in material life, but also in the spiritual majesty and indomitability, lies in the tiger skin people's ridicule and rebellion against fate. Under all kinds of attacks after his death, the backbone of the tiger skin people still did not fall. Maybe we have a lot of "tiger skin people" around us, strong on the outside and kind on the inside.