#头条创作挑战赛#
Gold elimination
Xue Xiaokang
Somehow, lately, whether it's day or night, as long as I'm idle and sitting alone in the house, I'm always stunned to recall some fragments of my childhood over and over again. Whenever I recall what I think is wonderful, I can't help but giggle a few times, or even mutter something to myself. Suddenly came to his senses, looked around, made sure there was no one around, and then continued to remember, then smirked, and then muttered to himself. What are the signs of Alzheimer's disease? Maybe.
What I remember the most in the past few days are some of the experiences I had when I participated in literary and artistic activities as a child, but I was repeatedly eliminated. First of all, when I was in the nursery school of the Tibet Military Region, I was selected by my aunts to participate in a "four pests" (flies, mosquitoes, sparrows, and mice) program when I was in the nursery school, and I played the role of a mouse, and the lines I appeared on the scene were: "I am a big mouse, running east and west all day long......" I performed while reading the lines, and the audience laughed, which germinated my original desire to perform in my life. Unfortunately, I was sent to the General Hospital of Chengdu Military Region due to a cold and fever, and when I was discharged and returned to the nursery, my mouse role had been replaced by Wei Yibing, a child in the same class. But I didn't feel any resentment, who made me sick and hospitalized? This is an accidental elimination.
Not long after, I went to Chengdu Bayi School of the Tibet Military Region. At that time, some of the teachers and staff of this school were retained by collective transfer, and they inherited an old tradition of the army that loved literary and artistic work, and often organized rehearsals and performances for teachers and students. However, the "Four Evils" program was not favored by the teacher and was not allowed to be performed again. Later, the teacher selected a few students from our class A and taught us to rehearse a "carrot pulling" program. This program is also called "big-headed doll dance", that is, each person wears a big-headed doll mask painted on a cardboard shell, wears an apron-style performance costume, and each big-headed doll looks very festive and cute.
The little cast consisted of five girls and a boy, and needless to say, that boy was of course me. Unfortunately, I only participated in one performance on stage in the student cafeteria, and I was immediately eliminated. The teacher said that I was dancing completely randomly, and the whole dance rhythm was messed up, which was very destructive. I don't know what rhythm is not rhythm, just eliminate it, no way. After that, I could only sit in the audience and watch the show, applauding with the teachers and classmates, but I was very confused. More than 50 years later, one day in 2017, our class A class reunion, including Liu Gesha, Wang Lili, Guo Yi, Huo Ning, these four female classmates were the little actors of the "Pulling Carrots" program, they showed the cute appearance of the year at the party site, which once again evoked my beautiful childhood memories, and it seemed that I also smelled the smell of paste emitted from the mask of the big-headed doll, which was extremely kind.
It was probably when I was in the fourth grade that my music teacher, Zhang Jiying, asked me to participate in a program called "Three Cups of Wine to Honor Relatives". Interestingly, I am the only boy among the young actors. I went to a few rehearsals in a daze, but I didn't expect this time to be even worse, I didn't even have a chance to participate in a performance, and I was eliminated directly.
Just when I was thinking about not going to any rehearsals from now on, a music teacher named Lin Maoying came to me and led me to a small classroom. She is a returned overseas Chinese, with a kind face, and taught me to sing "Young Hero Liu Wenxue" while playing the piano (before, the school's teachers and students had already performed a drama singing Liu Wenxue). This is a juvenile choral song composed by our school teachers, and Mr. Lin means that I should sing the opening part as the lead singer:
The stars in the sky are winking at me
How sweet the cool evening breeze is
The crops in the field are full
The sea peppers of the commune are lush
I have a beautiful ideal
When I grow up, I want to drive a tractor
Running on the fields of the Motherland
Turn up patches of fertile land
Dear Chairman Mao
I will always listen to you
(Together) the beloved Chairman Mao
I will always follow you
Take everything I have
Dedicated to communism
Suddenly
A black shadow flashed into the sea pepper field
Liu Wenxue hurried forward
……
I studied very seriously, learned quickly, and according to Mr. Lin's request, I held my urine every morning and went to the school's fish pond to practice my voice. One day, Mr. Lin called a few teachers to listen to me sing, and they all shook their heads after listening. Some people say that my voice is not open yet, and my voice is not so good. Some say that a certain girl in the senior class has a sweet voice, so let her sing. Teacher Lin explained that Liu Wenxue is a boy, and it is better for a boy to lead the singing. But the other teachers disagreed, saying that my voice was about to change my voice, and I would be hoarse after singing for a long time, and I was not very safe during the performance. Teacher Lin had no choice but to say, you see that he is so well-behaved, it's a pity not to lead the singing on stage. Otherwise, make him a preparer.
A few teachers had no opinion, so it was decided. However, until "Young Hero Liu Wenxue" has been sung by the Bayi School Youth Choir for a long time, and Sichuan Radio has also broadcast it many times, I, the preparatory lead singer, have not been able to appear on stage once, but I have been prepared there forever, which is a disguised elimination.
One day, I went to Ms. Lin's house to suggest if she could think of me, "Liu Wenxue". Ms. Lin lives in a row of bungalows not far from the infirmary, and I saw her moving out a wooden box containing a litter of more than a dozen newborn rabbits. She smiled and beckoned to me, "Do you want to see if these little rabbits are well-behaved?" Let them come out to bask in the sun, ouch, little rabbit little rabbit ...... "I understand, in the eyes of Teacher Lin, little rabbit must be much better than me, she has long forgotten to ask me to be the lead singer." I smirked at the bunnies and walked away. When I grew up, I gradually understood that Mr. Lin did not mention this matter at that time, most likely out of good intentions, for fear of hurting my self-esteem.
It seems that I am out of singing and dancing, admitting that I don't have that talent. Alas, it is better not to participate in the performance program, at least you can avoid the risk of being ridiculed by your classmates.
However, Wen Baisheng, our Chinese teacher in Class A, pulled me and insisted that he must teach me a money board program. It's hard to refuse, so I have to follow him to learn to play the money board, and read while playing: "There is a Xiucai, whose surname is Wu, and his nickname is known as a dead man." The people of Gengzi have read it all, and they are familiar with the Kangxi dictionary. One day, the old watch invited him to lunch, he hurriedly changed into new clothes, waisted waistcoat and bloomers, melon skin hat and hoops, a large number of books, and was busy on the road with great interest...... "It probably means that this scholar encountered a small river on the road, and he didn't know how to cross the river, so he hurriedly flipped through the book and found the word "jump", so he jumped into the river and almost drowned.
Mr. Wen taught very seriously, and I also studied very seriously, but I was never recognized by the school leaders, and gave the opinion that the show could not be elegant. This time, I was mentally balanced, because it was not only me who was eliminated, but also the respected Mr. Wen, and he was fully responsible, so I wasted a moment of expression at most.
However, the things that need expressions and those that don't always inadvertently entangle me. One day, Mr. Bai Zhiping came to me, who taught nature, geography and drawing, and said that he wanted to teach me how to draw. This reassures me because I don't need to have any expressions when I paint. He took an enamel cup and placed it there, taught me how to sketch, and gave me some basic knowledge about composition, black, white and gray tones, and the relationship between perspective. Although I didn't end up becoming a painter, I learned a lot from this common sense. After I joined the war in 1979, I changed from a military cadre to a political work officer, and I worked as a news reporter for five years.
I thought that Mr. Bai was just teaching me to draw, but I didn't expect him to insist on teaching me to talk about stand-up comedy, because he had heard me talk about money boards, thought I had a foundation in this area, and wanted to train me. In fact, I don't have any foundation at all, the money board is performed in authentic Sichuan dialect, but when I say that cross talk is in Mandarin, not only my Mandarin is not standard, but even the Mandarin taught by Mr. Bai can only be regarded as "Trump" dialect. I tried to learn from him. The general meaning of that cross talk is that there is a person who claims to be bold, but in fact he is timid, and others jokingly call him a "feather duster", who has a lot of foreign appearances and loses face.
After the rehearsal, Mr. Bai was very satisfied, and the "Trump" words I said were basically similar to what he taught, and finally ushered in the opportunity to perform on stage. On this day, according to the arrangement of the school leaders, our student performance team went to the No. 1 Guest House in Chengdu of the Tibet Military Region to give a report and performance to more than 10 officers who had just come out of Tibet. Before leaving, Yan Shiming, the political commissar of the school, specially explained that these officers who watched the performance were passing through Chengdu and then going to Beijing for a meeting, and hoped that everyone would perform seriously, and if the performance was good, maybe they would be selected to go to Beijing to participate in the show in the future. In addition, there may be fathers of several of our students among these officers, but we can only meet and talk to my fathers, and we cannot stay overnight in the guest house, and all of them must return to school immediately after the performance, so as not to affect the rest of the officers who go to Beijing.
The Tibet Military Region Office in Sichuan sent a large transport vehicle to take our performance team to the No. 1 Guest House. There was no stage, and there was a high staircase where more than a dozen officers were sitting, and we performed on an empty dam at the bottom of the staircase. The drum and bugle corps is the "face" of Bayi School, and they are the first to perform and win bursts of applause. This was followed by dancing and singing programs. I heard the announcer report a stand-up comedy, and hurried to the stage. An important reason for my nervousness was that I found my father sitting among the officers. In fact, I can't talk about cross talk at all, I can only memorize lines. The burst of laughter made me nervous, because I didn't know if it was due to my "Trump" words or my helplessness. The final finale was the chorus "Song of the Young Pioneers", and the students were very serious and hardworking.
The officers came down the steps to shake our hands, but none of them shook hands with me. Maybe I'm too small for others to bend over? However, each of the officers laughed and stroked the top of my head a few times, making me blush and feel like my hair had been messed up with me. My father's eyes narrowed into a slit with a smile, and he said that when he came back from Beijing this time, he would take me to a guest house for a few days, teach me to sing Henan Henan Opera, teach me how to play the erhu, and teach me to play the harmonica and flute. I didn't show how happy I was, and I thought, what are you doing here? Why don't you bring me some delicious snacks from Beijing?
At this time, I heard the teacher announce: "Students, today we will not take the bus back to school, but walk to exercise." You are all the successors of communism, and you must learn from the spirit of the 25,000-mile Long March of your revolutionary predecessors, and you are not afraid of hardship or tiredness. Can you do it? ”
"It can be done!" The students answered neatly and loudly.
As soon as I heard this, I was stupid, and I didn't dare to speak out with my mouth wide open. Because the people in the performance team are all senior students, all of them are in good health, and I am the only one who is a junior student, how can I do it? But there was no way, I couldn't do anything special, so I had to follow the team hard.
From the guest house to Bayi School in the suburbs, it was at least more than ten miles, and I had never walked such a long way before. The more I walked, the more tired I became, my feet hurt, and a resentment against my father and the more than ten officers rose in my heart: "If you want to watch a theatrical program, don't you just come to Bayi School?" Isn't it heartbreaking to toss us dolls like this? Really. ”
Halfway through the journey, I was so tired that I was falling behind, but I persevered, grinning and limping forward. Of course, there is some performance in this, mainly to sit on the curb and take a break. Why didn't the teacher tell everyone to take a break? The Red Army also had to rest on the Long March.
Teacher Bai turned around and ran back to help me to look, hurriedly borrowed a bicycle from a family on the street, put me on the back frame of the car and sat down, and pushed me forward quickly. Suddenly, an unfriendly voice came from the team: "So squeamish, let the teacher push the bicycle to take him, thick-skinned!" The most impressive thing is a senior classmate named Wang Shuyang, a handsome young man, who plays the trumpet in the drum and bugle team, he shouted: "He only performed a tattered cross talk, and he was embarrassed to ride a bicycle." Come down and go on your own! ”
Teacher Bai immediately stopped: "Don't talk like this, the teacher has taught you, the big ones let the small ones, the men let the women, forget?" With that, he told me to sit down, get on my bike, and head forward. I glanced back at the team that was left behind me with some pride, and secretly snickered: "Who made you not speak cross talk, you deserve to be unlucky." ”
My tattered cross talk has only been officially performed this time, and I don't blame Mr. Bai, but I resolutely stopped acting by myself, which is in the nature of self-elimination.
Unexpectedly, through this performance, I attracted the attention of Wang Hulin, the leader of the drum and bugle corps, who absorbed me into the drum and bugle corps to play small drums. I've been practicing for a while, and I don't think it's interesting. This was mainly due to the fact that there were several students playing the snare drum, and they couldn't satisfy my vanity of wanting to perform alone, so they asked to leave the drum and bugle corps. Teacher Wang didn't agree with me leaving, so he led me to his dormitory and brought me a bamboo flute and a pack of flute membranes for me to practice hard. I said I didn't want to learn to play the bamboo flute, I wanted to learn to play the flute. Because the flute is a Western musical instrument, it is strangely beautiful with silver shining. The drum and bugle corps has only one flute, which was given to Bayi School by the Tibet Military Region Art Troupe (and some other musical instruments were also sent). Mr. Wang patiently told me that the bamboo flute is a traditional Chinese national instrument, and after learning it, it is very helpful for learning to play the flute. Besides, playing the flute requires not only a certain lung capacity, but also a certain length of fingers, but I can't meet these two conditions at the moment. I had no choice but to agree to try playing the bamboo flute, and as soon as I had time, I went to the pigsty at school and practiced fingering and playing with the bamboo flute in a decent manner. There is an idiom called "playing the piano to the cow", the cow does not understand, but I invented the "flute to the pig", and the pigs are full of joy when they listen to it.
The drum and bugle corps has more opportunities to show their faces, not only to participate in some activities outside the school, but also to appear in the school's group activities. My level of playing the bamboo flute is too average, and I can only play a few tunes prescribed by Mr. Wang, but I can barely pass the test when I mix in the drum and bugle corps. But one day, Mr. Wang gathered the students of the drum and bugle corps for an assessment, and no matter what instrument you used, each of them had to play a piece on the spot.
When it was my turn to play, I had just adjusted my nervousness and adjusted it, and I only blew a few bamboo flutes before I came out of the foreign appearance, and the flute membrane was broken. Teacher Wang said that it doesn't matter, change the flute membrane and play it again. I stammered and said, "I forgot to bring it." Immediately attracted a collective laughter, especially the trumpet-playing classmate Wang Shuyang, who leaned forward and laughed exaggeratedly. Looking at his gloating appearance, I remembered that he said that the cross talk I played was "tattered cross talk", and at this moment I really blew the bamboo flute into a "tattered bamboo flute", which made me feel embarrassed. So I threw down the bamboo flute, angrily and ashamed, rushed out of the rehearsal room, and vowed never to join the drum and bugle corps again. To hell with the bamboo flutes, flutes, snare drums, drums, drums, gongs, trumpets, trombones, French horns, clarinets, accordions, and so on.
I became suspicious of my literary and artistic talents, and thought that my teacher would never ask me to participate in the rehearsals of literary programs again. That's fine, if I were to be eliminated again, then I might be mentally stimulated and get seriously ill. However, I never expected that I was once again called by my teacher to participate in a rehearsal for a show. I didn't say no this time because the show was so tempting.
At that time, there was a song and dance program called "Laundry Song" that was very popular, and the Tibet Military Region Art Troupe sent a few people to the Bayi School, and Uncle Luo Nianyi, the composer of "Laundry Song", also came to teach our selected students to dance "Laundry Song". When I saw it, I was secretly happy, because it was the same as the previous dance of "pulling radish" big-headed dolls, I was the only boy, playing the role of the leader of the People's Liberation Army, and the others were all senior girls, playing the role of Tibetan turned-female serfs. This made me happy and nervous at the same time, worried that I wouldn't rehearse for half a day and then be eliminated like the previous times, so this time I rehearsed very seriously.
During the rehearsal, the aunt of the art troupe repeatedly emphasized that everyone must understand what serfs are, and how happy the serfs are to be liberated. To this end, the teacher led us to visit the exhibition hall of the Southwest University for Nationalities to understand how miserable the serfs in old Tibet were. The teacher said to us: "In this dance, you should not only think about the movements, but also the expression on your face is very important, and you should fully express the joy of turning over the serfs to help the People's Liberation Army wash clothes." "I thought ignorantly, I was playing the leader of the People's Liberation Army, and I probably didn't need to understand the mood of turning over a serf, and I couldn't understand it, I just had to do a good job of dancing moves.
After the rehearsal of the show, the school leaders and teachers came to review the show, and the girls' performances were praised, and only I was questioned. Some teachers pointed out that the squad leader in the show is too short, shorter than the students who played the turned-over female serfs, and the girl who played Xiao Zhuoga is as tall as the girl, which is completely inconsistent with the tall image of the squad leader. So it was decided on the spot that the role of class president had to be changed to a tall student. The student who replaced me was a transfer from a school in the north, named Chen Dongming, he was handsome, tall, and spoke Mandarin standardly, and he quickly learned to be a "class leader", which was well received by the teachers.
Although I was eliminated because of my short stature, I didn't feel so embarrassed and frustrated this time because I had been a little numb and used to being eliminated many times.
More than 20 years later, I became the director of the creation office of the Political Department of the Tibet Military Region, and Luo Nianyi, the composer of "Laundry Song", served as the leader of the creation group of the Tibet Military Region Art Troupe. One day, I talked to Mr. Luo Nianyi about the past when I was selected to play the role of the class leader but was eliminated, and he explained again and again: "That's not my opinion, it's none of my business, I just compose music, regardless of choosing actors." Oh, you're going to laugh at me......" he hugged me and laughed with me to tears.
After I had the experience of being eliminated several times since I was a child, I ignored the feelings of others about being eliminated. It was in the 80s of the last century, and one of the responsibilities of the creation office of the military region was to guide the literary and artistic work of the troops in the whole region (the Ministry of Culture of the Military Region was downsized to the Cultural Department in 1971, and the Cultural Department was abolished in 1985 during the major disarmament), and I was also responsible for reviewing the newly rehearsed programs of the art troupe. One day, Lianxun, deputy director of the Political Department of the Military Region, and I went to the art troupe to choose a few programs to participate in the show in the mainland. Due to the time limit for performances stipulated by the higher authorities, several must be reviewed and eliminated in the whole program. The actors are working very hard, and they all perform very well, which shows should be eliminated? It's a bit of a dilemma. Of course, the deputy director of the bureau, who has always paid attention to ideological work methods, does not want to offend anyone, and he resolutely wants me to make the decision. I had to think about it and announced the elimination of a show for girls to sing solo. The actress had just been recruited from the mainland, and I didn't think the soft pop songs she sang were very appealing. When she heard this, she started crying on the spot, which frightened me. Think about it, the superiors stipulate that after going to the mainland to participate in the show this time, the actors can go home to visit their relatives for a month. My announcement is tantamount to extinguishing her opportunity to visit her family. I hurriedly said, "If you don't eliminate it, you can rehearse a song to participate in the show." Stop crying. ”
However, no matter how much you have to symbolically eliminate a show, right? At that time, a senior named Mo Yan in my Department of Military Art and Literature had already published a novel "Red Sorghum", which was made into a movie by director Zhang Yimou, and became popular all over the country. For a while, many people were singing the theme song "Sister Boldly Walks Forward" in the movie. As a result, Dong Hai, the dance captain of our military region's art troupe, organized a rehearsal of a song and dance program for this song. As soon as I looked, I saw Donghai shirtless, leading a group of actors who were also naked, with red ribbons around their waists, slapping their arms and legs on the stage, shouting and dancing while singing, I was dumbfounded, I felt that what kind of song and dance this was, completely dancing with demons, it is estimated that Mo Yan and Zhang Yimou will be stupid when they see it. I immediately noticed that I would eliminate this show.
After the review of the program, the deputy director of the official convened the leaders of the art troupe and the main actors to hold a summary meeting. At the meeting, I thought that Donghai was an old actor who had been eliminated without accounting, but he was not reconciled, and he also gave me an example: "Once, we went to a border company to give a condolence performance, and this program was very popular with officers and soldiers. At the time of parting, a little soldier chased our car with tears in his eyes and shouted, 'Long live the art troupe!' 'Look......"
I sighed and interrupted him, "Donghae, that's what's wrong with you. You should not think that it is long live the art troupe, but long live the soldiers. You don't want to think about it, the border guards stay in such a high-altitude and difficult place for at least two whole years, to put it mildly, not to mention that there is no 'sister' at all in those border points, and even the rats running on the ground are male. The warriors were accustomed to this, but you incited them to follow their 'sister' boldly forward, and it broke their peace. Do you think that little warrior is crying because of his 'sister'? Miss by a mile. In fact, the little warrior was crying for himself. It is true that the border guards are moving forward every day, but it is climbing the ice and lying in the snow on the patrol road, drinking the snow and chewing the ice to move forward, and never regretting all this in silence, how many 'sisters' can really understand them? You, don't say anything like 'Long live the Art Troupe' in the future. There is nothing wrong with the soldiers shouting like this, which shows their simplicity and loveliness, and it also reflects their greatness. However, as a literary and artistic worker in the army, you must not talk so complacently. ”
Donghai looked sincere: "Oh, oh, that's the case, I know." ”
I said, "It's okay, although your show has been canceled, it will not affect you to go to the mainland to participate in the show, nor will it affect your return to Shanghai to visit relatives." Besides, you let those young actors dance topless, not worrying that they will freeze on the border? I think that our programs should still reflect the characteristics of Tibet, such as "Laundry Song", "Beautiful Tibet", "Sing a Mountain Song to the Party", "Visit the New Town", etc., should be our reserved programs and continue to perform them for a long time. Like the song "Sister Boldly Moves Forward", it has long been sung by people in the mainland, and it is nothing rare. Also, when I listen to you sing, how do you feel that you always have a mouthful of phlegm in your throat and eyes? ”
Donghai explained seriously: "You don't know, singing some songs requires a mouthful of phlegm in your throat and eyes. ”
"Ahh
Looking at Donghae's embarrassing appearance, I feel a little sorry for him, after all, he has worked hard to rehearse for a long time, and he is a very dedicated and good actor. I was thinking about how I could appease and encourage him, but the Political Department of the Chengdu Military Region gave me the task of filming a feature film that reflected the contributions of the student officers stationed in Tibet. I led the film crew to interview Luo Nianyi, Yang Xinghuo, Gan Xiling, Li Suzhi and more than a dozen student officials in various positions, including Donghai, and I spent a lot of time writing a commentary to introduce him, so as to express my apology and recognition to him.
The theme song of this feature film has nothing to do with "Sister Boldly Walks Forward", the title of the film is "People Go to High Places", and the theme lyrics use the verses of my friend Ma Lihua's eldest sister:
I heard that it is on this little earth
There is a large plateau
I don't know who said hello
People go to high places
……
After the feature film was broadcast on CCTV, it was praised by the leaders, but I made a request that I should never be allowed to review the programs of the art troupe again in the future. Because almost all of them don't have the experience of being eliminated as a child, they can't afford to be eliminated. If you want to maintain a flat attitude towards being eliminated like me, it also requires the kung fu of freezing three feet and not a day's cold.
Now, I keep the memories of those obsolescence, which are a personal treasure of my life, and the color of this wealth is gold, the golden color of fate. It made me realize that there are so many unexpected and unpredictable things in life, and some of the things that happened in my childhood are worth cherishing. For example, the elimination I experienced again and again really added a lot of highlights and happiness to my childhood life.
To this day, I often feel the feeling of "golden elimination" from my heart. I think that recalling the "golden elimination" from time to time may still be a good prescription to prevent Alzheimer's disease.
April 14, 2024
(Note: The illustrations in this article are all from the Internet)
About the Author:
Xue Xiaokang: The first batch of recipients of special allowances from the State Council in China, and one of the representative figures of contemporary military writers. Born in the Xikang Military Camp, he grew up in the nursery school of the Tibet Military Region, studied at the Chengdu Bayi School of the Tibet Military Region, and the Literature Department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts. He has successively served as a bugler, a radio operator, a radio station chief, a deputy company commander, an officer, the director of the creation office of the Political Department of the Tibet Military Region, and an editor of the Military Department of CCTV. His works have won many awards and have been translated abroad.
Author: Xue Xiaokang