Baseball is a "homecoming" sport in which batsmen hit the opponent's incoming ball, run past first, second, and third bases in turn, and safely return to home plate, that is, complete a home run, which is one of the most exciting moments on the baseball field. Throwing, hitting, catching, running, sliding and returning to home plate, 13-year-old Mohalsey has been practicing for three years.
A circle of trees was planted around the white wall of the base, and the creeping grass grew violently on the wall, and the branches and leaves were closely attached to the white wall. The sky grew darker, and after training, Mhalsey sat alone on the grass, playing with the club, and the silence and faint thoughts roamed her face. She had sat like this for countless nights in the mountains, when she didn't understand what "future" meant, but now she did, but she didn't know where the future was.
Leave Daliangshan's
"Soma flower" girl
One day three years ago, Mahalsey, as usual, went to school after feeding the pigs. It was also on that day that she met Coach Sun Lingfeng from Beijing. Eleven-year-old Mahalsey followed Coach Sun from Daliangshan to the Mighty Baseball Angels baseball base on the outskirts of Beijing, but at first Mahalsey was reluctant to leave the house. A few years ago, Mahalsey's father injured his spine after an accidental fall from the roof and stayed in bed, and since then, the burden of the family has fallen on his mother's shoulders. Dad, two older brothers, and the youngest Mohalsey all live on the money my mother earns from farming, raising cattle, and raising pigs. Mahalsey doesn't like going to school because she has to walk more than two hours to get to school every day, and every time she walks out of the house, she is afraid that when she comes home, she will never see her mother again. Like the reason he doesn't like going to school, Mahalsey doesn't want to go to Beijing.
There are 30 children like Mahalsi, all of whom are Yi girls from Daliangshan. At first, the Mighty Angels only targeted 7-9-year-old boys in distress, but in several visits, the girls' situation made Coach Sun unable to turn a blind eye. In the mountains, some of them have to climb several mountains and walk for hours to go to school; Some people are less than ten years old, and they have to support the labor of the family and take care of the old and young. Feeding pigs in the morning and herding sheep in the afternoon, the cycle goes through every spring, summer, autumn and winter of childhood. Most girls have to give up their studies after graduating from junior high school and work in factories to earn school fees for their younger siblings and money for their parents' medical treatment. Their future ends before they are yet minors. Coach Sun took some of the children to a baseball base thousands of kilometers away from home and formed a women's baseball team named "Soma Flower". Soma flowers are the family flowers of Daliangshan, symbolizing beauty and kindness, tenacity and simplicity. When Mahersi was at home, he often heard old people say that when the Soma flowers bloom, it was when joy came.
The "Soma Flower" girls who left Daliangshan did not quickly adapt to the environment of the base. When he first arrived at the base, Mahalsi was full of discomfort and doubts. For these children, who have been insecure since childhood, adjusting to a new environment is a long process. They studied culture classes every morning, practiced baseball in the afternoon, ate on time, went to bed on time, and grew quickly. Accompanied by base coaches, teachers, logistics uncles and aunts, they used to be "little adults" in the family, and they became more and more like children. Those Soma flowers, which used to be on cliffs and wilderness, and unattended people, worked hard to grow in baseball bases.
In July 2022, the strong baseball Soma Flower team won the National Soft Baseball and Softball Championship and the runner-up in the mixed category. In the face of taller boys, the gap in physical fitness makes them need to put in more effort. Before the competition, some children will cry because they run too slowly, wipe their tears after crying, pat the soil on their buttocks and continue training. In the moonlight, they played one stick after another against the net, only the 7.5-centimeter diameter ball in their eyes. I couldn't move, so I took off my gloves, blew the blisters on my hands, and then practiced. Children's baseball uniforms shine in vivid colors in the night, and laughter rolls in the wide silence, like the light of several flashlights shaking in the dark night.
And fate to argue
opportunities
In many people's impression, baseball is a middle-class sport, and many parents hope that learning baseball can be the icing on the cake for their children's future admission to famous schools in Europe and the United States, but for children in Daliangshan, this may be the only opportunity to challenge their fate. In Coach Sun's view, more than 80% of the world's sports stars come from poor families. Children who come out of a difficult situation have a "momentum", and they need to have such an opportunity to change their destiny. In this world full of the logic of the strong, although the story of the fate of the board is hot, in the invisible corner, there are still children looking for the way barefoot. In the long youth that followed, they had to learn how to admit that they were neither the sports genius nor the legend who changed their lives against the sky, just an ordinary person. Women who can be tough but can also be vulnerable.
From Daliangshan to Beijing, baseball is an outlet for their life possibilities. This year marks the fourth year of the Soma team, and girls are slowly realizing their physical limitations and thinking about the future and turning to rhythmic gymnastics. Mahalsey remained on the baseball team. When she first started learning baseball, the 11-year-old held a heavy bat and couldn't figure out what she was playing every time she swung it. Where can a ball fly hard, and how far can it fly? For three years, Mahalsey ran to the next base after every shot, sliding fast enough, and climbing up with a body of dust, holding his heart.
When the base was fine, Mahalsey went to the library to read books, she learned to question, she learned to try to find meaning in herself. Sometimes we think about questions that have no boundaries, such as whether we are dreaming while we are alive, and where we will go after we die. For a 13-year-old, the question is something more important than the answer. Oyama is no longer her lingering shackles, the confusion and panic of youth follow, and Mahalsey begins to yearn for the world beyond the walls of the base, what will he do if he doesn't play baseball in the future?
Since the only thing you can hold now is the club in your hand, hold it tightly, hit it hard, and let the ball fly for a while.
The farther the ball flies, the greater the hope that Mahalsey will run back to home plate. Now that Mahalsey isn't running the base that fast, let the ball fly a little longer and we'll be able to look up with her and grow in our imagination. "World Fashion Garden ELLE" 35th anniversary specially planned "Imagination is the Road to Breakthrough" women's short film series, objectively recording women's rebellion and tenderness, tenacity and vulnerability, to feel, to understand, to accommodate women's specific life experience and profound life tension. In real stories, in light imagination, see women.
Storyteller: Mahalsey
Executive Producer: Shu Xiumeng
Director: Zhang Yueying
Producer: Chen Xiaohan
Production Assistant: Yu Yihan
Director of photography: Yu Wenyu
Photo by Daisuke: Cai Shuai
Photography Assistant: Li Xinghan
With the crew: Feng Shaomin
Recording director: Bai Chenyu
Editor: Zhang Yueying
Sound design: Zhang Ye
Dimmer: Xu Shuohang
Digital Imaging Engineer: Yang Zilin
Edit: Shortbread