What is it like to do a job for 7 years?
Numbness, sluggishness, exhaustion. ——In 2016, the literary and artistic youth who appeared on the head of the chicken nest and wore slippers was not afraid to expose his preferences and biases truthfully.
You might guess it, Xu Zhiyuan.
His "Thirteen Invitations" has spanned 7 years, made six seasons + two extras, and talked to nearly 70 people.
On March 1, the seventh season of "Thirteen Invitations" was launched, and Xu Zhiyuan confessed his predicament.
Standing at a fork in the road
Awareness begins to dull
Therefore, in the first issue, he went to Changsha, Hunan Province with the "hope" that he wanted to continue, visited another life, and even a hypocritical point, and walked into a peach blossom source.
In addition to the score (Douban 9.5), word of mouth.
Harvest, more than expected.
In this issue, Xu Zhiyuan seems to have become a little boy who has just entered the kindergarten.
Hold a tree.
Picture painting.
Leave a sickbed.
On his face, he always showed an expression of envy and even a little adoration.
Talk about eating throat candy, tangerine peel, and drinking water.
Finally, calmly and soberly sigh.
Words beg words
Feelings inspire feelings
Behavior stimulates behavior
Well, Xu Zhiyuan, who helped Neiyu cover the bottom line of the conversation, finally had someone to grab him when he was confused and powerless.
Wait, it's definitely not just him.
It is also a coincidence that when the manuscript was issued, it coincided with the end of Women's Day, when some people were celebrating, some people were vigilant, and they talked about women's power.
The so-called independence, equality, self-improvement, no amount of adjectives, is not as good as sinking into the heart, and savoring her - Cai Gao.
01
Who is Cai Gao?
If you can sum it up by profession, she worked as an elementary school Chinese teacher for 17 years, became a children's book editor in her 30s, and became a children's picture book master when she retired.
Especially the latter, the name is even louder.
The famous painter Huang Yongyu opened her voice for her.
It's a good picture
Blessed is Hunan
1989 picture book "June 6th in Dragon Robe"
At the age of 47, she became the first Chinese author to win an Oscar in the illustration industry. ("Baoer" won the "Golden Apple" Award at the International Illustration Biennale Bratislava (BIB)
Later, her "The Story of Peach Blossom Source" was selected for inclusion in Japanese textbooks.
Honor is added, but the name Cai Gao is not familiar to you and me.
Like a picture book that has been neglected, most people see it as just an illustration for children.
Cai Gao's daughter is also skeptical of her mother's career, believing that her mother has made picture books all her life, but she has never done anything about exhibitions, and her remuneration is not much.
In the domestic art world, illustrations and picture books are at the bottom of the chain of contempt.
Among the books published by Cai Gao, most of the Douban scores are above 8.0, among which the more well-known picture book "The Story of Peach Blossom Source" has not exceeded 400 people, and most other works have only double-digit ratings.
If you only know her by numbers, it is really bleak and pale.
Come, see her paintings.
This is her essay.
This is the cover of her art book.
Cai Gao once painted the cover of the art textbook for grades 1-6 of Hunan Fine Arts Publishing House
This is her children.
The illustration is from the "Hyakuzi Nafu" notebook of the "Dialogue with Cai Gao Notebook Series"
This is the peach blossom source in her mind.
"The Story of the Peach Blossom Source" is an excerpt: The fisherman enters the peach blossom source
The lines are free, the colors are idyllic, and the pen is interesting.
Cai Gao's paintings have a solid pyrotechnic atmosphere, which also makes the childish style in her picture books self-contained.
To paint the peach blossom source, she tried many methods, tore up a lot of drawings, and injected her experience when she went to the countryside as a teacher to do farm work, and only after 3 years, she drew a satisfactory final draft.
At that time, she lived in a similar earthen house, working in the fields, and harvesting in the spring and autumn.
The small courtyard where Cai Gao lived at that time was painted by her husband Xiao Peicang
Originally, at the beginning, I worked only to integrate, but more often, it was the grievances and unwillingness of being banished.
When she slowly adapted, nature and the land healed her, those tea pavilions, paths, people carrying burdens, temple bells... They were all carefully spread into the peach blossom source she wrote.
The people in the painting pick burdens, feed chickens, make tea, nag... There is both busy work and leisure.
Take a closer look at this picture, what is different about the boy from ordinary people?
The boy's eyes were blue, as clear as seawater.
Because she feels that children's eyes on the world are open and transparent.
She cherishes her childlike heart immensely.
In "Baizi Nafu" and "Little Mr.", she depicts the nature of children and their postures.
When talking about childhood, it does not mean naïve, it is a pure, pure pleasure, pure life experience, which any abstract vocabulary that grows up cannot cover, nor can it describe this feeling of freedom. Together, we need to protect the purest part of our hearts. Only in this way, no matter how the world changes and how turbid it is, there will always be a spring of water gurgling out of your heart.
——China Writers Network "Interview with "Treasure Grandma" Cai Gao"
In this life, Cai Gao has been trying to restore his childhood.
As everyone knows, childhood has been growing in her.
02
How did she save Xu Zhiyuan.
One word, specific.
Cai Gao lived truly and concretely.
Xu Zhiyuan hugged the tree and appeared at the beginning of the show, which was the picture he did when Cai Gao asked him to feel the power of the tree.
As soon as she spoke, she attracted me.
The speed of speech is slightly faster, the tone is lively, and the hand always moves with the words.
Listening to Xu Zhiyuan, when I saw the stone bench, I remembered my childhood, but I was not real enough, and I missed my childhood.
Cai Gao said seriously, "I must find it back."
Because that's what she's been doing.
Coming to Cai Gao's house, Xu Zhiyuan was extremely curious about her notes.
Those drawings, simple lines, embellished with text explanations, have a wide variety of categories.
From the arrangement of stitches, the practice of insoles, the singing of nursery rhymes, and even how to draw a rabbit or wolf dog with your hands.
Even, it was an essay that she found interesting when her youngest son was a child.
Lines and lines outline those memories that belong to the past.
She especially loved her childhood with her grandmother.
No. 7 Qingshi Lane, Old Changsha, was once Cai Gao's home.
There is a bluestone well in front of the door, and my grandmother often uses the well water to make cool scraping powder, cool mung bean juice, and sweet wine for the children.
Grandma is skillful, and every solar term, she will also make various delicacies such as Laba beans, Xionghuang wine, and Mada rolling rice balls.
She can only read enough to write letters to her relatives, but her grandmother has a belly story, as long as she sits down and pulls the thread, the story is the same as the thread, and it can't be finished.
"The Moon Goes, I Go"
In addition to looking back at the past, her brush will also be used to freeze the present.
She loves her balcony the most.
Who wouldn't like such a balcony.
Wisteria climbing shelves, eight treasure flowers, auspicious grass, blue butterfly flowers at your feet...
Eggplant, bitter melon, pepper...
In her steaming little garden, beauty grows and life is allowed.
Uncle Meat was most impressed by the next moment.
They were strolling around, and suddenly, it rained.
Xu Zhiyuan avoided it and wanted to pull Cai Lao in, which is our normal person's reaction.
The old man's reaction was the opposite.
She laughed and whispered to the sky, Here it is.
As if greeting an old friend.
Thunder makes the rain clear, rain makes the plants distinct, and the plants make people feel distinct.
——Excerpt from Cai Gao's essay "A Rain, a Harvest"
Some people describe her joy and anger as "like a child".
She accepted, even secretly rejoicing.
When you are a child, "innocence" is the easiest, and the older you get, "innocence" is difficult and precious.
The most harmonious are children
There is no discriminating mind
Adults take a lifetime of hard work
It can't be done without discrimination
03
Do you think that Cai Gao is lucky in his life and can retain his childlike interest when he is old?
How is it possible.
Cai Gao's grandfather worked as a county order, and later studied abroad, plus when his father was a student at Southwest United University, he helped the Flying Tigers as a translator.
The family is divided into the "black five" category, and he has been blinded since childhood.
Even if she got into a good school in the province, she couldn't go.
After graduating from Hunan First Normal School (then a secondary school) at the age of 19, she went to the countryside and was assigned to a remote place in Zhuzhou County, "Temple Village" under Lake Taihu, to work as an elementary school teacher.
With resentment and reluctance, she could only go to the fields and farms with the local villagers.
What happened there, Cai Gao did not say much in the show.
But it can be seen that mistakes have been made, and losses have been suffered, in short, they are not happy.
Otherwise, I would not have been happy to be like that 18 years later, when I was transferred to Hunan Children's Art Publishing House as a book editor.
I remember that day, all the formalities were done, I went into the courtyard of the publishing house, walked under the shade of a tree, felt so sweet, my feet were about to take off, the person was very light, a few steps down, I was afraid, I said don't worry, you slow down, enjoy it, this is really a happy moment.
——One: "76-year-old "National Treasure" picture book grandma: children's books, there can be no 0.01% error"
Different from other bright works, the overall color of "Bao'er" is based on the big red and green on Bao'er's body to compete with the entire black in the surrounding environment, which is actually the heaviness that Cai Gao has really experienced.
Even so, she doesn't call this black dirty.
In childhood, it became Cai Gao's peach blossom source.
It's not that childhood itself is beautiful, it's that she has to do it intentionally.
I don't have a peach blossom source
My peach blossom source is a forced peach blossom source
Back at the beginning of the "Thirteen Invitations" program, Cai Gao pointed to a large straight tree in the yard.
It was once sawn off by the barricade, but now there are no visible scars.
Xu Zhiyuan asked, is it better to see the scars, or is it better not to see them?
Her answer, in the painting of the past.
She kept its wounds, but she also felt that it didn't want to talk to people.
I believe it has consciousness, which can be seen from the wound.
Large branches leave large scars when they are cut, and it takes years for large trees to repair themselves.
The rough bark will slowly heal, breaking bread and finally forming an undulating hill
Place the scars inside the tree.
It is also a matter of mind that does not want to speak to others.
After all, the instinct of trees is to grow straight.
But even if suffering is not mentioned, TA can still give people strength.
I hope that when you look at my art, you can have something warm, it jumps out and hugs you.
Uncle Meat strongly recommends that you watch this episode when you have time.
Look at this lovely woman who lives so quietly and warmly.
Xu Zhiyuan never expected that he, who originally came to look for "hope", also became Cai Gao's "hope".
Someone would like to hear me say that
No one has followed me for many years
Like you
Came so far to talk to me so much
We need to hug each other.
We can hug each other.
Like this dead wood.
Xu Zhiyuan thought it would die, but Cai Gao knew it would live.
When the tree withers, then water a lot, a lot of water.
Wait for the rhizome in the ground and wake up slowly.
You and I can too.
Xu: It will come back to life
Cai: Yes, it will live
Worker of the day: Xia Yu
![Only 5 episodes have been broadcast, and Douban has received rave reviews, which is worthy of being an urban drama that you have been looking forward to for a year and a half[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)