Recently, the writer Sanger's work "When I Was a Child" was newly released. Written in colloquial language mixed with the Sichuan dialect, Sanger's semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of a baby girl's upbringing from a toddler to a big city in her twenties with 2,258 entries.
This is a tome of a little book, which inadvertently crosses more than twenty years of time while making the reader amused— it is an era that has been swallowed up by time, but the vivid image of this baby girl and her childlike heart are reflected in the changes of the times.
Screenwriter Shi Hang said: "'When I was a child' is like a joint code, reminiscent of the stories of growing up. Every look at a term is like a match, illuminating a piece of the past, with a little temperature, a little light. ”
■ A different kind of girl's growth story
Sanger was born in Chengdu in 1979, and his works include "When I Was a Child", "Black Flower Yellow", "Don't Pay Attention, Can't See", "Inverted Skin", etc., and now lives in Liangzhu, Hangzhou.
"When I Was a Child" is her famous work and masterpiece. In the book, the subjective world of a Chengdu girl jumps and unfolds: from rural foster care to factory children, from teeth and teeth to friends, from kindergarten to love, from being guarded by adults to guarding adults... Spanning more than twenty years, the whole book is a complete girl's growth record, hilarious, magical, sad and even a little black humor, evoking countless people's growth memories.
In this new edition, Sanger added nearly 150,000 words. The book is presented in the form of entries, jumping, light and echoing each other, and can be read at any page. This kind of scattered narrative method, like the inversion and triviality characteristic of children's memories, is full of fun and has a slight dreamy color.
There is a child's curiosity here- "My mother said that I picked it up in the garbage heap, and I was very sad, and I always went to the garbage heap to stand next to it, and when I saw the garbage picker, I cried and asked: Please, are you my father?" ”
There's a kindergarten anecdote—"Write my last name in the palms of a few farts and announce that you'll be my people from now on." A few of the ass worms also showed the palms of their hands to others and said mysteriously: Look, I am Sanger's man. ”
This Chengdu female doll grows up in a small world, but her childhood is not blindly happy and beautiful. Sanger can always use the simplest heart and the simplest language to resolve the imperfections of life.
She did not shy away from being a child of a single-parent family. On the day of her parents' divorce, dad drove a Dongfeng truck to take away half of the family's belongings, and the neighbors in the yard watched, and she also giggled and watched. Watching the truck become more and more full, those familiar cabinets, chests of drawers, sofas, and chairs were stacked into a hill in the carriage, she was in a hurry, so she climbed into the Dongfeng car, threw down the small things that could be moved one by one, and shouted upstairs while throwing them: Mom- come down! I'll help you get some things back!
"My mom ignored me, she was alone on the back balcony, taking a long feather duster and kept dusting the corner of the shan balcony, dusting and crying. I don't know why she kept dusting, the back balcony was not dirty at all. ”
While her peers were still in good school, she had begun to worry about reducing the burden on her family. Ten-year-old stalls selling fans, thirteen-year-old bus ride to Emei Film Studio to introduce themselves, high school to shoot advertisements for pig feed... These memories, far beyond her age, were written with great interest by her.
Only in the most casual corners will the child show a sensitive side: "'Snow Child' did not see the bunny's father from beginning to end, including at the end of the house, the fire broke out, and his father did not appear." Their family, is it that the mother and the old man are also divorced? ”
The attentive reader will be able to perceive a faint hint of sadness, but will not read a trace of self-pity. As one reader commented, "This book brings me great pleasure, and sometimes my eyes are moist because of sadness, but this sadness is bright." ”
■ The Sichuan version of "Mai Du Story", laughing with tears
Sanger is a descendant of the Chengdu 402 Factory (now Chengfa Group), and her small character group portraits are as vivid as peppercorns, adding a lot of color to the whole book. Their lives are difficult and imperfect, but they can also be elated.
In more than two decades, the fate of these little people has risen and fallen with the tide of the times. Mother He Anxiu divorced early, keen on blind dates but always dislike the blind date to eat too much; the third sister who once chased a small hooligan street with a kitchen knife, in order to raise children alone, quit her security job to sell mixed cold vegetables for a living; her father was a truck driver, and after remarrying, he went south to the north to support his family; the first dry father who went to Tibet to open a rental, sitting on the "Far East Global International Trade Center" with two rooms and one hall, liked to dance in the KTV; the girlfriend Doudou followed the Shantou Song and Dance Troupe in her teens, and her personality was spicy but always drifted to zero...
The lives of these ordinary people are not glamorous, but there is a kind of vitality in the roots, which gives "When I Was a Child" a rushing background of the times. "Sanger" is not an individual who exists independently, but a grounded child born from the life of the city. If they were taken away, the "Sanger" seemed to disappear as well. While the story of "Sanger" is recorded, the book also records a vanishing era and its worldly popularity.
The use of a large number of Sichuan dialects is a highlight of "When I Was a Child". This spicy and crisp style is unique in its own right. Writer Li Juan said, "I like the unscrupulous and muddy writing of "When I Was a Child". ”
■ Her innocence has not disappeared
"When I Was a Child" is not only about childhood, but also records Sanger's experience of leaving Chengdu and traveling to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai after growing up, recording her inner growth along the way.
Walking in all directions, Sanger had no other luggage except a child's heart. She did not have a high education, excellent appearance and superior family, was scolded in the crew, and studied from scratch in the newspaper. Like all newcomers to society, she strives to adapt to the rhythm of the city, and after sadness, turmoil, and fission, her inner innocence is still intact.
She has a lot of energy and recklessness in her, and when she doesn't like her life, she never lacks the courage to change her. "I think the process that everyone goes through from childhood to adulthood is the process of innocence disappearing, but from Gege's words, you can at least see that her innocence has not disappeared." 」 Wang Xiaofeng, a veteran media personality, said that it was he who first encouraged Sanger to write a book.
After growing up, Sanger returned to Chengdu and lamented that she had been gone for too long, and people thought she was a northerner. Even the taxi driver spoke pretzel Mandarin and asked: Wow, who came to travel? Has Du Fu Caotang ever been cut?
Mother He Anxiu is also old, alone at home, speculating in stocks every day to pass the time. There were rats in the house, and Sanger suggested that she have a cat, and she shook her head: Forget it, the rats eat less. In the end, He Anxiu adopted one of them as a pet and named it "He Inch Guang". Sanger was afraid that she would be lonely, and wanted to get her a set of Spring Festival Gala collections to relieve her boredom, and she waved her hand: Now it is suspicious to watch TV.
Every young person who stumbles in life and works hard in the city can find his own shadow in these experiences, see the story of himself and the past, and his family.
In the spring of 2020, Yi Qianxi said in an interview with GQ that one of his favorite books in 2019 was "Sanger's book, a small story about a little girl growing up, called "When I Was a Child", which I think is very cute." ”
(Yan Durong media reporter Song Yan)