CCTV's 58-episode TV series "Human World" is about to usher in the finale, a TV series adapted from Liang Xiaosheng's novel of the same name, "The World of People", which shows the life scenes of ordinary people in Harbin's "light character film" in the 1960s and 1970s: low and simple houses, dirty and chaotic living environments, and simple family and friendship between people. Broadcast for nearly a month, it touched countless Harbin people living in that era. As the plot unfolds, they are constantly looking for people and things happening around them.
The "light character piece" in the novel is roughly located in the area of tongda street and min'an street in today
Liang Xiaosheng was born at No. 13 Anping Street, Daoli District, Harbin, where he attended Ha'an Guang school in primary school and Ha'an Guang School in middle school, and Ha 29 Middle School in middle school, both on Fushun Street. In 1962, his family moved to Guangren Street. Liang Xiaosheng graduated from junior high school and went to the countryside to the Northern Wilderness, went to Fudan University in 1974 to study, and was assigned to the Beijing Film Studio in 1976, staying for 12 years. Later, he worked at a Children's Film Studio in China and taught at Beijing Language and Culture University more than 20 years ago.
Liang Xiaosheng said: "When I went to the countryside for two years, I could only return home once, and that journey was an unforgettable memory for him. "Coming out of the train station, passing through Jihong Bridge, from the children's cinema uphill to the upper hurdle of Fushun Street, down is the 'light' word film where my family lives. Many years later, I realized that the names of the streets where my family lived were Guangren Street, Guangyi Street, Guangli Street... Together, it is what Confucius called 'benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith'. The person who named the street must have a deep understanding of traditional Chinese culture. Through the vicissitudes of the world, the spirit conveyed by those street names still affects me, which is also the open and inclusive urban spirit advocated by the city of Harbin. "
The place where Liang Xiaosheng's family lived, that is, the "light character piece" mentioned in the work, is probably the area enclosed by Xinyang Road, Tongda Street, Min'an Street and Gongle Street today.
This work, Liang Xiaosheng brewed for a long time. He said: "I was born in Harbin, familiar with the life of the people at the grassroots level of the city, and I have always had a wish to write a work that reflects the life of the children of urban civilians. For many years, I felt overwhelmed and ill-prepared, and I felt like I had to write. I want to tell young people about the past, so that they know what their parents lived when they were young, and the friendship between people at that time. "
The novel writes about the struggles and choices of the three brothers and sisters of the Zhou family, including the life trajectories of his most familiar family and friends, as well as the development and changes of Harbin in the past 50 years; both the glory and dream of China's social development and the difficulties and complexities of the reform and opening up process. In this work, Liang Xiaosheng does not shy away from the pain experienced by the old industrial base in the northeast in the tide of reform and opening up, and some people in the book face the difficulties and embarrassments of enterprise transformation and layoffs in middle age, and there are also the beauty of people helping each other and self-reliance.
"'The World of People' is my literary report to my hometown, a summary of the 50-year history of my hometown, the most important thing is that I want to use my pen to draw a group portrait of my hometown's fathers and fellow villagers, and present in the book the appearance of the Harbin people I am familiar with: bold, benevolent." This is a gift from Liang Xiaosheng to the people of his hometown. I hope that it can become a business card of the hometown people, and readers from other provinces and cities can also understand the lovely, kind and courageous Harbin people of that era through this book.
"The World of Man" depicts the lovely and amiable Harbin people who dare to take responsibility
Writers create realistic themes, usually closely related to personal experience, the Zhou brothers and sisters and Zhou fathers depicted in "The World of Man" have the shadow of Liang Xiaosheng's brothers and sisters and fathers, "My father is a construction worker who supports the third line, and I grew up living in the 'light character film' street mentioned in the novel. Liang Xiaosheng's home was quite good at the time, two square adobe houses, and a "small garden" one meter wide and two meters long outside the door. His father worked as a construction worker in the Great Northwest, sending them money on time every month, and his mother had 5 children alone. Liang Xiaosheng said that at that time, he never dreamed that life would become like this.
The background of my work has always been in Harbin, and the main reason is that I have a deep affection for it. The relationship between a person and the city lies mainly in his childhood experiences and impressions, every building and every street has a breath of life, and "The World of Man" is the most tired of all the long works of my literary career. Liang Xiaosheng said.
Liang Xiaosheng said that in China from the 1960s to the 1980s, young people now know very little. They should step over the cognitive blind spots and understand the experience of their parents' generation, how they came to be in that particular era, and how they viewed the relationship between interests, friendship, and affection. "
The family and neighborhood relationship of truth, goodness and beauty show the optimism and tenacity of the people of Harbin
In that era, the thing that made Liang Xiaosheng most happy was reading. "My brother likes to read, he is 6 years older than me, he often borrows books to go home, and when other children read picture books and fairy tale books, I follow him to watch "War and Peace."" With pocket money, he started going to the villain bookstore. "One or two cents can look at the thin, and three cents can see the thickness."
Later, Liang Xiaosheng and his brother also set up a villain book stall on the street, so that others could read a book and they could make a few cents. One day, they were out of the stalls, the film police and the street people came to check on the hygiene, and their villain books were confiscated. In the evening, after the mother heard about it, she came to the police station to explain the situation, and the film police did not embarrass her, and soon personally sent back the confiscated villain book.
It costs seven or eight cents to buy a book. In order to buy books, Liang Xiaosheng and his friends went to pick up scraps. Plastic hairpins, shoe soles, toothpaste skins, broken glass, wire... These can be exchanged for money. The neighbor's family had an uncle who collected waste, and during the Cultural Revolution, he received a large number of books. At that time, Liang Xiaosheng loved to visit his home the most. Reading "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousnesses", reading literary works, and indulging in the world in books can make Liang Xiaosheng forget the troubles in life.
After Liang Xiaosheng went to the countryside, the brother of the family had been sick for many years and had no income, the younger brother went to work at the Zhengyanghe Timber Factory, and the younger brother's co-workers learned of the plight of their family and often provided various help in life. To this day, recalling the help these ordinary people have helped their families, Liang Xiaosheng is still grateful.
Half a century has passed, Harbin has undergone earth-shaking changes, and the low, dirty and chaotic "light character sheet" has long been replaced by modern neighborhoods. Many times, Liang Xiaosheng sighed: "I can't find my way home that year." The street park is full of Harbin people who exercise, dance, walk, photograph, listen to symphonies and even paint, and the cultural atmosphere of the hometown is nostalgic. I considered whether my family would move back to Harbin and spend their old age here. "
Source: Harbin News Network
Reporter: Shen Zhiyuan / Wen Song Wenyong / Photo
Editor: Wang Yue