The stone statue of Mr. Ouyang Shan in the Meihua Village community in Guangzhou was created by the sculptor Pan He
Huiji East Road, where the Sanjia Lane Museum is located
Text/Figure Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Sun Lei Intern Chen Xiaonan
Chicken Gonglan, Bai Qijie, Qilou Street, Manchuria Window... On the stage, when the Cantonese music "Rain Hits Basho" sounded, a picture of the city full of Lingnan fireworks slowly unfolded. In July 2021, a new version of large-scale modern Cantonese opera of the same name adapted from the famous Guangdong contemporary writer Ouyang Shan's masterpiece "Sanjia Lane" was staged in Guangzhou, with rave reviews.
In the more than 60 years since the advent of the novel "Three Family Lane", it has become popular and enduring, and has been continuously adapted into movies, comic strips, dance dramas, and Cantonese operas, becoming a landmark "literary motif" of Lingnan culture.
In the eyes of the "Lao Guang", everyone who likes to read novels knows "Three Family Alleys". At that time, as soon as the "Yangcheng Evening News" with the serial novel came out, the citizens flocked to buy it and take a look at it, which also made a good story in the history of China's newspaper industry and literature.
Today, from the statue of Ouyang Mountain in Meihua Village, Guangzhou, to the Sanjia Lane Museum at No. 21 Huiji East, to the Ouyang Mountain Showroom on the second floor of Lu Xun Memorial Hall, Ouyang Shan and "Sanjia Lane" have not only been deeply rooted in lingnan and become an indelible youth memory of a generation, but also the vitality radiated by its rich artistic connotation spans time and space, is constantly reinterpreted, giving Lingnan art a deep nourishment.
The dwelling place of the elderly
Out of the Yangji subway station, go forward for tens of meters, turn in front of a blooming plum tree, and come to the Meihua Village community. Walking along the road full of banyan and camphor trees, a small brick-red western-style building comes into view.
In 1983, Ouyang Shan moved here and lived here for fifteen years. He moved elsewhere in 1998 and died in Guangzhou two years later. The story of Ouyang Mountain has remained in Meihua Village ever since.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Meihua Village Community Neighborhood Committee, after the death of Ouyang Shan, the small Western-style building where he had lived for a long time was turned into the former residence of Ouyang Mountain, and the garden in front of the door was also named Ouyang Mountain Square; there were two pavilions on the square, and next to the left pavilion stood a stone statue of Ouyang Mountain, created by the famous sculptor Pan He.
When he stayed in Meihua Village, Ouyang Shan was already in his old age, and his eyes were not very good, but he could not idle. Here, he revised and reorganized "Three Houses Lane". The book is the first volume of the huge work "A Generation of Winds", and the next four volumes of "Bitter Struggle", "Willow Dark Flowers", "Holy Land", and "Ten Thousand Years of Spring" were published from 1962 to 1985.
In the eyes of many critics and readers, "Three Lanes" is the most fascinating of the five volumes. Set in Guangzhou during the Revolutionary War, the novel reflects the magnificent times by borrowing the different growth and development of the zhou, Chen, and He families from different classes and the changes in the relationship between the three families.
Today, the residents of Meihua Village are all unaware of Ouyang Mountain. On Ouyang Mountain Square, retired old people sit around the stone table to play chess, play cards nine, or sit idly "pouring", enjoying themselves. The daily life of the old Guangdong in the 1920s depicted in "Three Family Lanes" should be more or less the same. Talking about Ouyang Mountain and "Sanjia Lane", many old people still remember the life scenes depicted in the book. Uncle Lao, who was playing chess, recalled seeing Ouyang Shan in the village when he was a child - at that time, the small open space in front of the building did not have these round tables and stone benches, and the wall encircled it, and Ouyang Shan planted many flowers and plants here. "He was often seen being supported by a nanny, walking around the yard, or basking in a wheelchair."
Uncle Lao said that he had already seen "Three Family Lane" when he was in elementary school, and "he still remembers the image of Zhou Bing, with a round head and big eyes, like Jia Baoyu." Uncle Zhang, who plays against him, is also deeply impressed by the life in the streets and alleys described in the novel.
A piece of paper is all the rage
On August 3, 1959, the story of "Sanjia Lane" began to be serialized in the supplement of "Yangcheng Evening News" "Huadi". For a time, readers in Guangzhou bought newspapers one after another, joking that "four cents to buy "Three Lanes"" was purchased.
Tian Hailan, the granddaughter of Ouyang Shan, recalls that at that time, every three or four o'clock in the afternoon, there was always a long queue in front of the book kiosks and newsstands in Guangzhou. Many people waited to snap up the newspaper that had just arrived, chasing the story and taking a peek. Good novels are widely disseminated because of good newspapers, and good newspapers are popular because of good novels - this is also a legend in the history of China's newspaper industry and literature.
Ouyang Shan's daughter Ouyang Dana said that in the 1960s and 1970s, when many outsiders came to Guangzhou, the first thing they asked was: Where is Sanjia Lane? However, Ouyang Shan has not responded positively to this question, and there have been many opinions on where the "Three Houses Lane" is. Huang Weizong, a famous literary critic who has studied Ouyang Mountain for many years and a professor of the Department of Chinese of Sun Yat-sen University, believes that the "Three Lanes" in the novel are a condensation of Guangzhou's social life and have no completely consistent original form.
Leaving Meihua Village, the reporter took the subway to the Park Front Station. All the way, turn into a small road planted with palace pink bauhinia and pass by a small shop that hit copper and iron, and come to the old Nanhai County community on Liurong Street. Some researchers say that this is the closest place to the prototype of Sanjia Lane. As described in the novel, Sanjia Lane "is located in the northwest corner of Guangzhou City, in the area of the west gate, the north end is not passable, the south end is turned to the east, and it can be opened to Guantang Street." Not far from Sanjia Lane is Dou Fu Lane, and nearby are the General's Front Square and Guangxiao Temple, where Zhou Bing often plays."
According to reports, in the 1920s, There were four "three lanes" in Guangzhou, which were located in Bailing Road, Haizhu South Road Sanfuqian Street, Hongqiao Street, and Dezheng North Road Wan'anli. After much research, it pointed out in its original shape to the area of Huiji East and Huiji West of the old Nanhai County community of Liurong Street. In 1982, it was chosen as the location location for the film Sanjia Lane. In 2019, a Sanjia Lane Museum was built on Huiji East Road.
The museum as a whole is designed around the plot and historical events related to Sanjia Lane, and the museum recreates the courtyard at the entrance of Zhou, Chen and He Sanjia in the novel, displaying various editions of "Sanjia Lane" books and historical objects with Lingnan characteristics. Young actress Li Jiayi played Chen Wenting in the new version of the Cantonese opera "Sanjia Lane", and in order to experience the role, she also came here to visit and study.
Long scrolls of customs
Ouyang Shan is very familiar with the civilian life in Guangzhou.
Based on Lingnan culture, "Sanjia Lane" depicts a genre painting of urban life in Guangzhou in the last century with popular and dense brushstrokes, and the neighborhoods, interpersonal networks and customs and folk customs in the Xiguan area of the old city appear flexibly in the author's pen.
The scholar Jiang Shuzhuo once called "Sanjia Lane" "Guangdong's social encyclopedia".
Writer Mo Yan mentioned in his acceptance speech of the "Writer of the Year" in the 2019 Huadi Literature List that his dreamy imagination of Guangzhou in his youth came from "Sanjia Lane": the streets of stones, the continuous rain, the sweltering summer, and the rolling water in the Pearl River, as well as the wooden slippers worn by women, the large undershirts worn by men, and the food eaten by Guangzhou people...
Ouyang Shan's depiction of Lingnan customs wins with meticulousness——
He wrote about the mansion where the He family lived: "The water-milled green brick high wall, the black lacquered gate, the acid branch 'wading', the mahogany carved low door, the white stone door frame steps; the wall near the eaves, painted twenty-four filial piety figures, in front of the pictures hung lanterns, iron horses, very grand." This kind of "ancient big house" is a quite distinctive type of residential building in modern Guangzhou, and the Earliest and most numerous in the Xiguan area, so it is often collectively referred to as the "Xiguan House".
He wrote about folk culture beggars: "There are nailed gold embroidered skirts that are less than Ding Fang, there are all kinds of embroidered soft satin high-soled shoes, flat shoes, wooden shoes, slippers, sandals and colorful socks the size of a grain of grain, there are exquisite and lightly fluttering tents, sheets, curtains, table circumferences..." These depictions of Lingnan beggars and folk customs are exhaustive, and later became classic sentences quoted in the text of the Guangzhou Tianhe Beggar Qiao Cultural Festival's declaration of national intangible cultural heritage projects.
He wrote about the customs of Lingnan Chinese New Year's Eve: "Selling lazy, selling lazy, selling until Chinese New Year's Eve late." People are lazy and I am not lazy!" In the past, Guangdong New Year had the custom of "selling laziness", and when the Chinese New Year's Eve, children would always carry red lanterns out of the street to "sell laziness" in order to be diligent and diligent in the new year. Thousands of homes are brightly lit, the neighbors are drinking with their doors open, and there are chicken, duck and fish meat on the case... With just a few strokes, the lively Spring Festival in Lingnan is outlined.
In addition, Ouyang Shan also portrayed the tea house culture of Guangfu, the fifth of May, and the wedding ceremony. In his pen, Erliguan, tea houses, shops, guys, boats and other elements of Guangfu city are everywhere, and local languages such as "snakes have snake roads, rats have rat roads" and "bury skylights" are even more handy.
Chen Sihe, a professor at the Department of Chinese of Fudan University, was born in Shanghai although he was from Panyu and could neither speak Cantonese nor understand Cantonese style, but he said that the folk scene descriptions in "Three Family Lanes" made him feel very close, as if he had returned to the land of blood. Chen Sihe once said: "The first half of the novel, the love process between Zhou Bing and Ou Tao, and the southern folk customs that the children participate in, are the most fascinating chapters of the novel. ”
Classic rendition
In addition to the Sanjia Lane Museum, there is also a relief wall of the story of "Sanjia Lane" on the edge of the Liurong Cultural Square, four reliefs with a length of 2.30 meters and a width of 1.40 meters, showing the four themes of "a generation of winds", "Shaji Fengyun", "Provincial and Hong Kong Strike" and "Guangzhou Uprising". The bronze carving is exquisite, and the characters and buildings are vivid. This group of reliefs has become a scenic spot in Yuexiu, and this area has also become a place for community cultural activities.
In "Three Family Lane", Ouyang Shan uses a youthful pen to write vigorous patriotic feelings, which is also an important reason for the long-term prosperity of "Three Family Lane". The novel reflects the revolutionary movement through the mental journey of the characters, expresses the political situation of the times with social life customs, and has a distinct personality in the modern historical theme works of the same period.
In the view of scholar Huang Weizong, "Three Family Lane" is not only the first red classic that comprehensively reflects the history of the Lingnan Revolution in this period, but also one of the longest and most complete and profound epic works with the longest time and space span in the same theme and genre of artistic creation.
The magnificent era, the twists and turns of the story, and the full and three-dimensional characters have made the classic text of "Three Family Lane" constantly reinterpreted by posterity. It has been adapted into a dance drama, and the Xiguan style such as "picking flowers", "tea" and "begging" in the novel is softly and movingly interpreted through the stage set and dancers' dance posture.
The Guangzhou Cantonese Opera Troupe adapted it into cantonese opera of the same name in 2008. At that time, the protagonists were Cantonese opera celebrities Ni Huiying and Lai Junsheng. After 13 years, the youth version of the story reappeared on the stage last year, and the historical events on the relief sculptures on Liurong Street glowed with a new style under the interpretation of the rookies, sounding Cantonese, singing and playing, and continuing to pass on the story of Lingnan's vivid life.
Interview
Write poetry about everyday life
It is the really brilliant writer
Liu Sifen (famous writer, calligrapher and painter, winner of Mao Dun Literature Prize)
Yangcheng Evening News: Ouyang Shan's novel "Three Family Lane" was popular throughout the country in the 1950s and 1960s, and it is also a household name in Guangdong today. Why is it so famous?
Liu Sifen: In those days, novel writing was far less prosperous than it is now, there were few publications, and every weighty work published was very concerned. Of course, what is more important is that "Three Family Lane" is indeed well written. Ouyang Shan mainly wrote three families, representing three different classes, living in the same alley, the neighborhood is close, and the younger generation is almost a generation that grows up together. Slowly, the younger generation of these three families was affected by the impact of the times due to their different social status, resulting in differentiation and contradictions. Ouyang Shan shows the changes in society and the wind and clouds of the times through this kind of division and integration of young people, and the conception is very clever.
Another feature is that I write Well in Guangzhou. Ouyang Shan is a Hubei native, but has lived in Guangzhou for a long time, and he is very familiar with guangdong's customs and customs, human feelings, and his writing is very delicate, Cantonese people read very kindly, can produce emotional resonance, so the work is popular as soon as it comes out.
"Sanjia Lane" can indeed represent the peak of Guangdong literary creation in that era. Even now, there is still something to see, because the author focuses on showing and depicting human nature, which is basically common in different societies, different eras, and even different countries.
Yangcheng Evening News: Compared with the past, what is the difference between reading "Three Lanes" today?
Liu Sifen: When Ouyang Shan wrote "Three Family Alleys", the background was mainly a passionate revolutionary era, and he wrote about the life experience and ideal feelings of that generation of young people very movingly.
Although our times are completely different, we are now encountering major changes that have not occurred in a hundred years, and we have also put forward new requirements for young people. Although the choice and goal are not the same, how to face this society and face this era, the choice of the younger generation of life path in "Three Family Alley" still has reference value at present. Therefore, today's young people reading this book may also have resonance and form a dialogue.
The so-called classic works are like this, and they will not become obsolete. Ouyang Shan's "Three Family Lanes" is read and read again by people, because its ideological and artistic nature has reached a certain height, can constantly produce topics, can dialogue with contemporary times, and has a rich space for interpretation.
Today, there are various adaptations of "Three Family Alleys", in fact, it is difficult to restore that era. Those who really want to understand "Sanjia Lane" and want to appreciate the old Guangzhou style, I suggest reading the original. Of course, various adaptations also illustrate the strong charm of "Three Homes Alley", and presenting it in different literary and artistic forms also helps to arouse everyone's interest in the text.
Yangcheng Evening News: Many people write about Guangzhou, what is the difference between Ouyang Mountain and Ouyang Mountain?
Liu Sifen: Ouyang Shan realistically depicted the Guangzhou style of that era, and he showed the beauty and poetry of the Guangzhou style through novels, which is actually very difficult. We often say that poetry is something like beautiful scenery and poetic feelings, but it is the writer who can find poetry from daily life.
This is a great test of the keenness of the writer's own artistic sense, and only with a genuine love for life can he find a moving and poetic side in it. Ouyang Mountain is to start from an alley, digging up poetry in the daily life of Guangdong, so it is why the customs and customs of Lingnan are written so movingly and beautifully, and write what everyone has in their hearts but do not have in their pen.
From Ouyang Shan's Guangzhou, we can also see the characteristics of Lingnan culture. Why Ouyang Shan can write so well about the daily life of Lingnan, I think this is also inseparable from the perspective of an outsider. As a Hubei native, he feels that everything here is fresh and interesting, so he observes meticulously and can also notice things that many people can't see.
At present, the population of Guangdong is more than 120 million, which is the largest province in the country, most of which have migrated from other places, and outsiders have brought their respective cultures over, and Lingnan culture has ushered in another integration. This kind of fusion is incomparable in history in terms of depth and breadth. I am full of confidence in the development of Lingnan culture, because this intertwined culture is the most dynamic, and different cultural experiences will burst out of new strength after colliding with each other.
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Chen Renyun's southern tones
On the west side of the former residence of Ouyang Mountain in Meihua Village, there is also a two-and-a-half-story single-family house, where the originator of the "Cantonese"espionage film "Yangcheng Dark Sentinel" was filmed.
"Yangcheng Dark Sentinel" was adapted by the famous Guangdong writer Chen Renyun based on the real events of the "first major case in Guangzhou" at the beginning of the founding of New China and another enemy case, which caused a sensation in the country after the release of the film that year, and was called "immortal masterpiece of the times", which was translated as five Chinese words and screened worldwide, and also made "Yangcheng", another name for Guangzhou, famous.
"Yangcheng Dark Whistle" exudes a strong flavor of the times and is imprinted with distinct Lingnan local tones. Haizhu Bridge, Yuexiu Mountain, Yonghan Road Arcade, Banana Forest, Lychee Tree... The film's framing is closely linked to the cityscape, which clearly reflects the characteristics of Yangcheng. In the film, Bagu took a fake photo to provoke dr. Chen's husband and wife relationship, and also deliberately selected the location in Huiru Building, a long-established tea house on Zhongshan 5th Road in Guangzhou, and invited diners to act as extras.
Among contemporary writers, Chen Renyun is one of the few literary predecessors who is also a poet, novelist, and film and playwright. His novel "Four Seasons of Fragrant Drifting" has opened up a new style in the new Chinese red literature genealogy and is known as "a monument to Lingnan literature". Chen Renyun used a series of works with Lingnan characteristics to open up a southern style different from that of northern novels, and has also become a sample of guangdong and Lingnan imagination in the minds of many readers.