In mid-January, the second issue of the "Breeze Benefiting Together" public welfare short film series "
Sing the poems out of the mountains
" went live. In the past few months, we have been to Zhishui Town many times, listening to the voices of the little poets in the mountains again and again, and exploring the traces of the influence of poetry in this land. With the release of the short film, the voice and poetry of the little poet crossed the mountain and brought it to the family who worked far away from the mountain.
There are two young photographers in ELLE's accompanying photography team, they are students of the invited photographer Zhang Boran, and they use the cameras in their hands to record children who have similar growth experiences to them. It was their first time on a plane, leaving their hometown and coming to another mountain.
During the filming process, they chatted with the little poets about each other's hearts and hobbies, and until now, Junyi and Chunyan still share their daily lives with the little poets, just like finally meeting their families during the New Year, as well as the little poems written, the latest paintings, the beautiful moments captured, the children have the energy to express outward due to the change of inner perspective, and this energy is affecting each other to look farther away.
Fu Junyi and Fu Chunyan saw their former selves in the little poets of Zhangshui Town. They recalled the mountain that carried their youth, surrounded on all sides by water, and had to take a small boat to slowly walk out of the mountain. The village is closed, and the new things outside the mountains seem to stay only on TV. Fu Junyi remembered that there were 40 classmates in the class, but few were admitted to high school, and the topic was postponed to her father, who failed to enter high school because of a 2-point difference, and began to study on his own after falling off the list. Later, Fu Junyi said that her father pinned almost all his hopes on her, hoping that she could get out of the mountains and be admitted to high school and university. There are no interest classes in the mountains, there is no place to cultivate specialties, and after the homework assigned by the teacher is completed, she is accompanied by those plants in the yard and mountains, and she spends her weekends doing plant specimens. For a long time, Fu Junyi asked her father what the world outside the mountain was like after being admitted to high school and college, and her father looked at her and was just speechless.
One summer vacation, the village became lively, Fu Junyi said that it was a summer camp held by the Gonggeng Academy in the village, and the teachers of the Gonggeng Academy took everyone to learn calligraphy, photography, painting... It was also in that year, 2017, that Fu Junyi first came into contact with photography.
In the 2017 photography class
Photo by Jun Onno
Three teachers and students take a group photo at Lien Fu Primary School
Photo by Shou Nan
In the past, she only knew that plants could be specimens, and after coming into contact with photography, she learned that plants can present different states in different light and different angles. The plants in the photo are once again brought to life.
Fu Chunyan and Fu Junyi are in the same village, and she also came into contact with her first photography class in 2017. The photography in Fu Chunyan's memory is not only a hobby in a course, but more often she feels that photography brings her a kind of temperature and the power of outward expression. "Maybe our parents over there don't take much care of their children, and my dad doesn't care much about me. After learning photography, Teacher Zhang has been urging us to study, and I will feel that someone finally cares about me and cares about me. ”
Chunyan and Junyi at the opening of the photography class in 2017
Photo: Zhang Boran
Fu Junyi also feels the same way, in the past, she used to hide behind her grandmother, but many subtle changes occurred after contact with photography. She is no longer cowardly, but will instinctively observe the emotions of those around her. While filming the little poet in the town of Zhangshui, she saw a little boy sitting alone in the classroom crying, "He was crying on the table, but he didn't make a sound, so he sobbed silently." I asked him what was wrong, and as he spoke, he suddenly looked up, and the moment he looked up, he felt a little scared, and there were tears in his eyes. I remember him wearing a black outfit and hugging himself, really timid. That moment poked Fu Junyi, she understood that children who were not by their parents' side and whose personality was silent and timid needed to be actively cared for, even if it was just a greeting.
Of course, there are naturally brave children who make her envious, "At that time, there was a fence in front of the kindergarten, and I stood outside the fence and saw a little girl in kindergarten with the corners of her head raised and her mouth raised, looking at me with a very cool expression. She was so small but had a confident and brave aura, and looked at the stranger in front of her without scruples. Then I squatted down and took several pictures of her. And when Fu Junyi was queuing up in the cafeteria to eat, she met a girl, "Everyone else in the cafeteria didn't take chopsticks, they were all spoons." I saw that only this girl was holding chopsticks, and she told me that it was her personal habit. Although it is a simple food tool, she has not given up using chopsticks because of her personal habits to others. So I recorded the moment when she knew how to accept herself. ”
In addition to the change in personality and perspective, Fu Junyi also noticed that her father began to appreciate her photography, just as the expectations placed on her many years ago were fulfilled. She remembers the New Year, "My dad took me to a very high mountain in the village, and I took some pictures. I was picking out pictures and retouching pictures and my dad saw them and he said let me send them to him. He seemed to be very happy, and sent the picture to others, saying that this is the mountain taken by my daughter, do you know which one? And the mountain that his father said, Fu Junyi understood, was far more than the mountain in front of him. Because of photography, Fu Junyi was admitted to high school, and then when she faced the college entrance examination to choose a volunteer, she applied for the photography major and was successfully admitted to a university in Shanghai. It was the first time in her life that she went out of the mountains, the first time she flew on a plane, and the first time she had a close connection with the world outside the mountains, all from photography.
Those changes brought about by photography, Fu Chunyan was also deeply impressed. Going to Zhangshui Town, Yunnan, to photograph the little poet in the mountains, was the first time Fu Chunyan went out of Zhejiang. She still remembers in the first-grade classroom when she saw a light fall on the face of a little girl reading a poem she had written.
She remembers that when she went to Qihuiping's house to shoot, Huiping's brother was painting alone in the corner, and she understood the loneliness so she spent an afternoon painting with her brother. She said that she would remember her past self, and when she was lonely and had no one to talk to, the teachers of the academy would take her to the lotus pond to sketch and take pictures, so she understood that the poems and paintings of the children in Zhangshui Town hid their hearts. "After learning photography, you will find that before someone is unhappy, he may have a series of expressions, which I saw on my brother's face." Fu Chunyan said. So until one afternoon after the shooting, when she was about to leave Zhishui Town, Brother Qihuiping would come running and ask her with a bag of snacks when she would come again.
However, Fu Chunyan and Fu Junyi feel that compared to the children in other villages they know, the children in Zhangshui Town have the power to express themselves and call out. Fu Junyi remembered at the poetry concert, "I remember a child reading a poem "Yanzitou Yanzijiao", which was about missing my grandmother's poem, and I wanted to cry when I heard it, but I held back because I would also think of my grandmother. Fu Junyi has read the children's poetry books many times, and at first she just wanted to instinctively pick typos and tease the children, but reading them one by one, she felt the longing, kindness and courage that the children pinned on in the poems.
This is also the "light poetry" Kang Yu in the days and nights in Zhangshui Town, deeply felt that children's emotions need to be expressed, so she spent many years teaching more children to write poetry, at least the poem can have some gentleness, courage and stretch, at least the poem can carry imagination and inspiration, with the wind over the mountains, to reach all the places they want to go. "If you are happy, we write it down; If you are sad, we are sufficiently sad. So what really matters about writing poetry is that we can slowly start walking with our hearts, we can cross mountains, even through time and space, and the next time we are only alone, we can also feel that the wind is accompanying me, I can see the little boat where we met, and the story continues. Kang Yu once said this to the children in poetry class.
Children living in the countryside, most of whose parents work outside the home all year round, prematurely experience the sense of separation from their parents, and their inner perception of loneliness also changes from ignorance to concreteness. The turmoil in the human heart urgently needs to be balanced by something firm. We do not know the long development opportunities of individuals in the future, but the perception, thinking, expression, imagination and aesthetics of children's inner perspective can not be limited by the mountains. Because they have their own unique expressions and reflections, they have the courage and desire to explore the outside world freely. All art forms, such as photography or poetry, are at the heart of what underpins them.
Perhaps not every child in the mountains will go out of the mountains to teach art education in thousands of villages, so that more children can perceive the existence of beauty around them, so as to expand their expression, imagination and self-confidence, and establish correct values. Freely express what you think and feel, know how to accept yourself, and will not become more and more withdrawn due to inner isolation. With a broader cognition and spiritual sustenance, you can also be calm and calm when dealing with your relationship with the outside world. The mind will also go out of the mountain, not limited by the embarrassment and hardship in front of us.
Executive Producer: Shu Xiumeng
Photography: Fu Junyi, Fu Chunyan
Director of photography: Eric Zhang
Assistant teacher: Shou Nan
Editor: Meng Yi
Designed by Mika Zhang