Su Haiqiang/Wen
I once got Mr. Hou Jun's signed copy of "Those Little People", very sorry, I love books to read the articles, but through WeChat, it is really "reading" to hate late.
When I first read "Little People", I tried to assign a couplet to each text, both as a post-reading feeling and a slight evaluation of the article. Later, I felt that this was too short and long, so I decided to write some words to explain myself who was "tearful" after each reading.
After reading "Those Little People", I couldn't help but think of Lin Haiyin's "Old Things in Seongnam".
Lin Haiyin created "Old Things in Seongnam" with the background of his life from the age of 7 to 13, and Mr. Hou Jun created "Those Little People" against the background of his life from the age of 6 to 12.
"Old Things in the South of the City" is written about the people and things in a small alley in Beijing in the eyes of the little girl Yingzi, and "Those Little People" is written about the people and things in a small alley in Tianjin in the eyes of the little boy Laizi.
Similar story venues, the same children's perspectives, the same touching hearts.
However, the two are expressed in different ways:
"The Old Story of Seongnam" writes novels in prose tones, and "Those Little People" writes prose in documentary tones.
"Old Things in Seongnam" is like a pure prose film, the euphemistic poetry, the tranquil artistic conception, but also makes it almost a plain, indifferent, simple Chinese ink painting, full of human fireworks, but without half a bit of fame and fortune; "Those Little People" is like a wonderful prose documentary, the plain language that abandons all rhetoric, the words and sentences reveal the documentary tone of the information, but it is a vivid, image, and thick historical picture, full of warmth in the misery, all of which show the deep consolation of the past.
As a novel, the narrative structure of "Seongnam Old Things" consists of two layers, the surface structure is beaded, with growth as the line and the story as the bead, connecting the five stories of Xiao Yingzi's childhood experience. Just as in a series circuit, once one lamp fails, the other lights will all go out, if a story is extracted from it, the whole book will be a fragmented "old thing". The deep structure is the expression and sustenance of the author's inner creative emotions, and the novel organizes the plot with continuous "departure" to promote the development of the story. Under the combination and complementarity of the internal and external structures, the novel leads people to relive the life of the 1920s that was shrouded in sad clouds and mist.
As a collection of essays, the narrative structure of "Those Little People" has only one layer, and its structure is linked, and each "little person" can be independently written. Just as the individual lights in the parallel circuit do not affect each other's independent illumination, any one or more of them will not affect the integrity of the collection. Nevertheless, "Those Little People" takes the characters as beads, takes the story as the line to first connect the "circuits" of their respective closed loops, and then takes the author's deep reflection on the special era as the main line, and connects the "circuits" one by one. Although the "little people" are all independent, they are cared for between the chapters because of the author's consistent compassion.
The impact of "Seongnam Old Things" has long been far-reaching, and the influence of "Those Little People" has just begun.
But the tide of influence is already raging, and the people who are touched seem to be young and old. Judging from the netizens' comments compiled and sent by the WeChat public account "Sending Tsuen Tang Tang Hui" opened by Mr. Hou Jun and the netizen comment articles compiled and sent by "Send Tsuen Tang Hand Talk", it is not only the old people who feel empathy for that era, but also the participants and witnesses who are currently in their prime and various sports in that era, and even those who have no knowledge of that era.
Why is that?
People have a variety of interpretations of this. But I think that, like "The Old Story of Seongnam", "Those Little People" should not only move people's sorrows and joys in the adult world in that special era shown by the author, but also the naivety that pervades the text, and the vicissitudes of the world but cannot be said. Because, in the eyes of a thousand people, there are a thousand Hamlets, but a thousand people have a "old affair in the south of the city" that is also full of innocence.
July 28, 2017 at Oki Ju
Review: Sun Shijian