In modern times, the external crisis of the Chinese nation has led to the connection between the "nation" and the "state", so that the Chinese has increasingly condensed into a whole. Among them, the red classic works created and published in the 1940s and 1950s, such as "WildFire Spring Wind Fighting Ancient City", "Lüliang Hero", "Armed Workers Behind enemy lines", "Bitter Cauliflower", "Plain Gunshots", etc., vividly and profoundly express the feelings of home and country, local complexes, and national will, which are worthy of serious combing and study.
Homesickness
"Home-country isomorphism" is an important idea of Chinese culture. The narrative mode of "family hatred + national hatred" that exists in many red classic works is a concrete embodiment of this idea.
For example, in "Wildfire Spring Wind Fighting Ancient City", Yang Xiaodong has no father, Jinhuan and Silver Ring have no mother, Han Yanlai only has two brothers and sisters, and Uncle Zhou is single; in the novel "Bitter Cauliflower", the mother's family is also crippled, and the reason for the mutilation is persecution from the landlord; in the novel "Gunshots in the Plains", Ma Ying's sister and father both died at the hands of the landlord and traitor Su Jinrong, so he said from an early age that he "wants to avenge his sister and father".
The protagonist's spirit of resistance and revolutionary will have the firmness of not being shaken because of the family's blood and deep hatred. At the same time, the traditional idea of "repaying the favor" also makes this struggle have a natural and ethical justice.
The idea of "home-country isomorphism" in the red classic works is also manifested in the collectivist spirit of actively promoting the sacrifice of personal and family interests for the country and the nation. Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China's rural society was still a patriarchal society based on blood kinship. It is the Communist Party of China that has condensed the "scattered sand" into a firm force in the anti-Japanese national united front.
In the harsh war environment, "there is a complete egg under the nest", and the interests of each family and individual are closely related to the country and the nation. In the novel "Bitter Cauliflower", the slogan shouted at the mass meeting really reflects the relationship between the individual and the state: "If you want to live a peaceful life without being a slave to the country, you must have someone to defend the motherland, and if you don't fight away the devils, you don't want to live a stable day!" Kind of come with me! Join the Eighth Route Army! ”
Local complex
Land is the foundation of the homeland and an important geographical space for the formation of national identity. In the red classic works, there are a large number of descriptions and expressions of the natural scenery of the countryside, expressing the sadness of the departure and the thoughts of the homeland.
Writer Feng Deying was born in Rushan, Shandong, and called himself "the son of KunChengshan". In his novel Bitter Cauliflower, he devotes a great deal of space to the beauty of the Kuncheng Mountains throughout the year and the dialects and sayings related to the mountains.
For example, "all kinds of wild flowers, a moist breeze blowing, the rich smell of pollen and grass, straight into the human heart." Whoever it is, they will open their mouths, breathe deeply inwards, and feel intoxicated and refreshed like drinking nectar." Such a text permeates the author's personal aesthetic experience and even emotion, and should not be interpreted entirely from a political perspective.
The movie "Heroes of Lüliang" expresses the style of The Lüliang Mountains in Shanxi Through character narratives, scenery close-ups and songs. Director Lü Ban grew up in Shanxi and later engaged in anti-war propaganda work in the Taihang Mountains, so "Heroes of Lüliang" infiltrated his love for the landscape of his hometown.
The white clouds and mountain views that are constantly flashing back in the movie give people a sense of distance; young men and women under the blue sky and white clouds hum a relaxed and cheerful Shanxi minor tune, accompanied by the wheat harvest scenes of the villagers, and the idyllic scenery that comes to the face gives people the enjoyment and infection of beauty, and also has a contrasting narrative function with the loss of the land in the smoke of the flames.
If the pastoral scenery belongs to the local society at the material level, then the folk customs and folklore can be described as reflecting the local society at the spiritual level, and the description of the folk customs carries the desire for a stable life.
The colorful narrative of the Spring Festival in the novel "Wildfire Spring Wind Fighting Ancient City" reflects the significance of the chaotic new year festival for ordinary people.
For example, from the child's point of view, I have seen the New Year: "Xiao Yan likes the New Year very much, and feels that the time under the Year is more chic than usual." During the day, boys gather in the streets to kick iron balls and shake empty bamboo, and girls buy red aya flowers to tie bows and wear flower clothes. At night, the lights are lit up and the firecrackers are fired in unison, which is even more interesting. Xiao Yan has no money to buy many firecrackers, and always buys some drops of golden rat to put away. In addition, at the end of the year, she has to do the least expensive game, that is, to buy gourd whistles from the small market, tie the pigeons to the tail, and let them fly freely in the air. She likes to close her eyes and listen to the melodious music. After a while, she grabbed a handful of feed and waved into the air, and the pigeons swooped down and the music suddenly stopped. She loves to listen to the afterglow of this moment. ”
Another description of Yang Xiaodong's mother preparing Food for the New Year reflects the human affection contained in the Spring Festival culture.
In order to realize the ideal of letting her son go home for the New Year, "the mother made all kinds of preparations very early: she planed out two pieces of white ocean buried under the water tank for six years, and ran to a distant market town to buy New Year goods." On the twenty-fourth day of the twenty-fourth month, she swept the house, cleaned up inside and out, steamed steamed steamed On the twenty-seventh day she steamed the sticky bean cake and the pig's blood cake, and twenty-eight cooked the blood sausage with green onions and pepper. That night he chopped up the minced meat, wiped the lamps clean, twisted the flowers, filled them with oil, and picked out even the most neat firewood for cooking."
Such a detailed description that is not trivial shows the customs of the northern countryside on the one hand, and on the other hand, it expresses the importance of family reunion. Similarly, the author here, through the details of the preparation of the New Year by his mother, also conveys the nostalgia of the people who have fought abroad for their hometown, the desire for reunion and family affection, and also paves the way for the separation below.
The book reads: "Yang Xiaodong is very considerate of his mother's mood. I grew up watching my mother, and after six or seven years, I can't miss my mother. He himself was emotionally willing to go back to the hut where he grew up for a new year, and if he had a silver ring to go with, his mother would be very happy. Maybe My mother had already discussed this matter with Silver Ring. This depiction further reflects the revolutionaries' emphasis on the New Year, family affection, and desire for home.
However, when the nation is in danger, local traditions and daily life are forced to change, and personal emotional needs have to give way to the interests of the state and the nation. Yang Xiaodong was out on a campaign and had not returned for the New Year for many years. This time, Chinese New Year's Eve night, he still had the work to complete against the enemy, and had to sigh: Mom, when I was young, didn't we all say "where is the country and the family broken" when we were young? Promise your son "first for his country, then for his home"!
When the mother heard this, she did not express her position at first, and continued to be silent... When the silence, silence, silence was difficult, the old man stretched out his slightly trembling hands and gently groped and straightened his son's hair. There were a few strands of gray in her hair, and she wordlessly pulled them out.
The mother slowly raised her head, looked at the rising sun in the middle of the sky, and said, "Dong'er, my mother understands your heart, I promise you, you will first do our national affairs, and the days when our mothers meet are still long!" ”
This touching narrative presents China's humane feelings, the righteousness of home and country, and it is also the moving charm of Chinese culture. As a result, the previous annual customs as folk daily life sublimate the narrative function.
National will
In the related red classic theme works, the "first villain" is usually a variety of traitors. They often rush to the front line of killing chinese people, and are the main antagonists of contradictions and conflicts in novels or film and television dramas.
On the one hand, such a choice of narrative weight reflects the historical facts of the struggle against the traitors during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and on the other hand, it also reflects a national sentiment immersed in traditional culture.
In the novel "Bitter Cauliflower", there is a description of the psychology of the masses in the only time of the Public Trial King, which vividly reflects the hatred of the betrayers and invaders: "People are very excited, glaring at this group of Oriental slaves... Their idea is: Japanese devils are born bad... But these scum of the same land and nationality betray their homeland and compatriots and become accomplices of the enemy; they are like people who have lost their humanity and become jackals, more hateful than wild beasts. ”
Based on this indignation, the traitors in the red classic works are generally morally corrupt and have a low personality. For example, in the novel "Gunshots in the Plains", the traitor Wang Baishun first offered his wife to Su Jinrong, and then "subleased to Wang Jinlan's name", and the Japanese came and then dedicated it to the devil Nakamura.
A phenomenon worthy of vigilance is that some contemporary film and television dramas have appeared to beautify foreign invaders in terms of human nature and morality, while doing their best to belittle and vilify traitors. The former often appears to have cultural content or even heavy feelings and blood, while the latter is inferior and spineless, and only knows how to bow down to the former. This undoubtedly goes to an extreme, a clear departure from historical facts.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Huang Wei Text Editor: Xia Bin Title Image Source: Visual China Image Editor: Xu Jiamin
Source: Author: Won