A work of truth seeking against the inertia of thinking

Author: Cui Xinping

"The Empty Valley After the New Rain" is a work of truth-seeking that constantly "opposes" the inertia of thinking. This is not only a kind of "confrontation" of the creator's thinking inertia, but also a breakthrough in the thinking inertia of contemporary people when they recognize and treat children's problems. In the process of "confronting" the inertia of thinking, "The Empty Valley After the New Rain" guides us to explore what the truth of the soul is.

A director and a videographer planned a reality show called "Splendid Adolescence", targeting some "problem children" and sending them to the countryside to receive hard exercise, hoping that they could achieve transformation. In this work, the writer circles several typical children: Yu Feng, Ma Dongming, Yu Ge and Xiao Pang, and their so-called "problems" are very complex. Some of these problems are the swaying of children's self-positioning in the process of growing up, and some are family problems. When these family problems pour out on the children all at once, they show an attitude of "not cooperating". Can this kind of "non-cooperation" be simply characterized as "rebellion"? Perhaps, this is first and foremost a question worthy of our vigilance.

When children reach the so-called "rebellious period", parents feel at a loss and send them to "change", which is the process of parents seeking a way to resolve it. But the way "The Empty Valley After the New Rain" is handled is worth pondering, every child who is sent here is not completely passive, and these children have taken the initiative to make choices in their hearts. Yu Feng and Yu Ge even stood on a higher ideological standpoint, resolving the embarrassment for their father, and in order to save themselves, they also created opportunities for their father to move towards a new life.

In the work, after the inertia of thinking about the first story structure is broken, we find that behind this confrontation and offensive "problem" is "truth". This real question requires us to put adults and children in a fair and omniscient perspective, and judge this matter without adult authority. Breaking the authority of adult discourse, the complex causes behind the "rebellion" of children's adolescence can be truly highlighted. A lot of times, it's not just a child's problem.

The second level of thinking inertia comes from the direction of the story. This story easily makes us fall into a pattern: send a city child to the countryside, the simplicity and beauty of the countryside touch the child, the hard work of the countryside makes the teenager achieve a perfect transformation, the child re-understands the value of life, and the goal of adulthood is achieved. This has become a kind of stereotyped thinking, but "The Empty Valley After the New Rain" also breaks this inertia. The protagonists are "derailed" after arriving in the countryside, and they are out of the presuppositions of adults and directors. They have their own opinions and ideas, and they firmly dominate the direction of the show. It is also an accurate grasp of the characteristics of contemporary childhood.

Among these children, Yu Feng's endurance is amazing. Urban children are not necessarily synonymous with squeamishness, and Yu Feng even used patience to "fight poison with poison" to resolve the pain in his heart. In Yu Feng's story, it is not the adult who takes her to "transform", but the child who takes the adult to "fly", and the parents in the countryside re-release their nature, feel the beauty in life, and realize self-repair in this pure beauty. Most of the children in the novel don't follow the script of adults to create conflict and emotion, and they are "out of control". At the end of the show, they will also be moved by the simple feelings in the countryside, and will hug and cry with their parents in the countryside, but they have not become "good children" in the definition of adults because of this, and they will return meekly, but confirm their own path and achieve their own choice. Yu Feng's choice to leave home and Yuge's triumphant return are all self-confirmation and choices. This kind of "loss of control", in other words, this kind of spiritual growth, is the biggest surprise in my reading process. "The Empty Valley After the New Rain" writes about the problems and growth of contemporary teenagers.

The third broken inertia of thinking comes from the ending of the story. If we had only read the first four chapters, we might have given a good review of the work, but if we missed the last chapter, we would have missed a great work. This work is very unique because of the presence of the last chapter. In the first four chapters, when the writer sets up four stories of four children in parallel, we will habitually consider how the writer can better bring together and interweave the stories of these four children, so that they can finally be integrated into a whole. Yi Ping's work obviously breaks through this habitual design. In the last chapter, the writer suddenly pushes the "behind the scenes" to the "foreground", and exposes the director and cameraman behind the scenes with a "final chapter", whose thoughts and ideals are to make a different and "real" reality show - this subtly explains why the director can tolerate children jumping out of the program presuppositions and insisting on the "original intention" of shooting records. Directors and videographers who pursue "authenticity" give children space for themselves. The directors and videographers with idealistic light who do not aim to win ratings let the children in the show walk out of their own and real growth trajectory.

Reality TV shows are prevalent in this era, however, "real" is scarce in this type of program. The writer keenly captures this phenomenon, and in "The Empty Valley After the New Rain", he pursues the real growth of children from the perspective of reality shows, and writes the real and constantly searching and confirming his own spiritual path of the young protagonist from the standpoint of a "watchman", giving children an inclusive and trusting growth space. There is such a sentence in the book: "There will be some beautiful spiritual factors in every growing soul that gradually grow, and the abnormality and rebellion of external manifestations may be the palpitations and restlessness of growth!" I think this is exactly what the writer wants to call for a kind of understanding and respect based on children and trust based on growth.

In the final chapter, the author cleverly designs a character - the director's teacher, who repeatedly asks the director and the cameraman, what do you want to do? In fact, this is also a warning of "inertia" and "prejudice", and it can also be regarded as the writer's constant warning and questioning of himself, whether he has slipped into inertia, whether he has deviated from his original intention, and whether he has arrived at the truth. These interlocking designs give people a serial and surprising reading experience.

(The author is a professor at the School of Liberal Arts, Taiyuan Normal University)

Source: Literature and Art Daily