Editor's Note:
This article is included in "Everyone's Youth", which is Zhang Ping's novel published in "Youth" and Zhang Fanru, a student of Nanjing Normal University, after reading the feelings. The Youth Reading column will successively introduce the works of everyone's youth and a college student book review to seek new knowledge and entertain readers.
"Everyone's Youth" is a collection of essays commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of "Youth", which selects the works of 17 famous writers published in "Youth" magazine in their youth: Liang Xiaosheng, Jia Pingwa, Su Tong, Yan Geling, Ye Zhaoyan, Chi Li, Wang Anyi, Liu Heng...
These works, all published in the 1980s, have a huge impact, such as Zhang Ping's "Sister", Liang Xiaosheng's "Tonight There is a Snowstorm", and Jian Jia's "Female Cook Class Leader", all of which have won the National Short Story Award.
This book is not only the memory of the youth writing of these literary people, but also the memory of the fiery era at the beginning of reform and opening up, and the memory of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.
About Youth Magazine
"Youth" is the only nationally distributed literary journal in Nanjing, which is supervised by the Propaganda Department of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China and sponsored by nanjing publishing and media group. Founded in 1979, the magazine is a literary journal famous "Four Little Flowers". The purpose of the magazine is to write and read by young people, to face contemporary youth, to pave the way for the unknown, to cultivate new literary talents, and to inspire people with excellent works.
About the Author
Born in Xi'an in November 1954, he graduated from Shanxi Normal University. He has published more than 8 million words of various literary works, the main works are "Sacrifice of Wife", "Sister", "Murderer", "Orphan Tears", "Red Snow", "Law Shakes Fenxi", "Skynet", "Choice", "Ten Faces Ambush", "State Cadres" and so on. He has won dozens of important literary awards such as the National Outstanding Short Story Award, the Zhao Shuli Literature Award, the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award, the Golden Shield Literature Award, the China Book Award, the National Book Award, the "Five Ones Project" Award of the Central Propaganda Department, and the Mao Dun Literature Award. The main works have been adapted into film and television series. The film "Tengu", adapted from "Murderer", has won the Golden Rooster Award, the Hundred Flowers Award, the Huabiao Award, and the Gold Medal of the Shanghai International Film Festival. The film and television dramas adapted from "Orphan's Tears", "Red Snow", "Law Shakes Fenxi", "Skynet", "Choice", "Ten Faces Ambush", and "State Cadres" have won the "Five One Project" award issued by the Central Propaganda Department eight times. The film "Life and Death Decision" adapted from "Choice" won the Special Award of the "Five Ones Project" of the Central Propaganda Department. "Choice" was awarded as a gift work for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and won the 5th Mao Dun Literature Award. He was awarded the title of "People's Writer".
He once served as the chairman of the Shanxi Filmmakers Association, the chairman of the Shanxi Writers Association, the chairman of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the China Democratic League, the vice governor of the Shanxi Provincial People's Government, the vice chairman of the 9th, 10th and 11th Central Committees of the China Democratic League, the vice chairman of the 6th (co-opted), 7th and 8th Chinese Writers Association, the 9th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Standing Committee of the 10th and 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress. He is currently a member of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress, the vice chairman of the 12th Central Committee of the China Democratic League, and the vice chairman of the 10th China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
Sister
It was almost the Spring Festival, and my father instructed me twice in a row to write a letter to my sister in the countryside, that my sister should come to the city for the New Year, and that my sister bring her children and let my sister's family come.
Maybe it is because of the near and the resentment, the distance is the reason, the father to him in front of me and my brothers and sisters, always this is not right, that is not the right, but when the mention of the distant sister, it is undisguised to reveal infinite love and longing.
Last year, Dad celebrated his first birthday after returning to work. My siblings and I each gave my father a very heavy gift. Dad accepted it silently and didn't say anything. When my sister sent my father a small bag of drunken dates, it made my father emotional. He said over and over again, "You know, your sister sent me a drunken date!" You all taste it. look at! How big is this, how thick is the meat! It's really hard for your sister, how good her memory is! I haven't forgotten that Dad loves to eat drunken dates! ......”
We had a few sisters, and none of us thought that this was Dad's eccentricity.
In 1978, My parents corrected the rightists, and the hukou of the younger brothers and sisters was brought out. Although I was older, I was admitted to college this year, and after graduation, I was also assigned back to my parents. Only the older sister remained in the countryside, in a remote county thousands of miles away, as the wife of a peasant, the housewife of a large family, and the mother of four children.
To be honest, in Dad's thoughts of his sister, in addition to the love of his children, it is more admiration and guilt. I often think that in terms of my sister's wisdom, talent and perseverance, if there is no gap in these decades, maybe she would really be a great talent!
When the family moved to the city, my sister came to see her off. When he was about to break up, his father looked at his sister's thin figure, his face was slightly pale by the cold wind, and his eyes were flushed: "I will definitely apply to the leader, and strive to get you a quota and move the hukou out." ......”
"Oops, Dad!" The sister interrupted Dad, "You just started working. Think about what this is all about. Besides, even if you let me go, I won't be able to go at this time. ”
Fan Xinruo,"Snow Walk"
In 1981, when Dad was appointed vice dean of the college, he finally applied for a place for his sister.
The overjoyed father, who was too slow to call, made a long-distance call to his sister overnight. It was past eleven o'clock in the evening when my sister received the call, and in the winter, my sister didn't even care about the scarf. When he ran to the brigade office in a panic, he was breathless and could not even speak clearly: "Daddy! Yes, is it you, home... What happened? ”
When Dad told her about the situation, she was relieved and said, "This, Dad, you really scared people to death!" How is Mom? What about younger siblings? ”
"Good, all good!" Dad was a little impatient, "Can you hear my words clearly?" I'll open your account in the team tomorrow. I've got it all done here. When the formalities arrive at your place, it will only take two days, and it will be fast..."
"Oh, Dad, didn't I tell you that!" How can the family be separated at this time..."
"I'll tell you again, but this time even the hukou work has been solved." Don't forget, you're almost forty years old, and if you drag it on, this life will be over, this is the last chance, did you hear that? ”
"Dad, listen to me..."
"I don't listen to anything! I'll get my account tomorrow. Within five days, complete the formalities and start the journey. Take a telegram and I'll pick you up at the station. Dad was so angry that he didn't allow my sister to say anything more, so he hung up the phone with a click.
Three days later, Dad received a letter from my sister.
Father:
I haven't been mad at you. Even when, with the acquiescence of her father, her daughter's fate was handed over to a mountain village farmer, and your daughter was never angry with you. Dad, I know, I don't blame you at all.
But today, Dad, I'm mad at you. I never expected my father to behave so arbitrarily and irresponsibly on the issue of his daughter.
Dad, the daughter is no longer the daughter of the past. Her daughter's fate is not tied to herself alone.
Dad may have done this to be worthy of his daughter. Then the daughter, the daughter should also be worthy of the children, worthy of the family.
Dad, people have feelings, and people have consciences.
……
Two months later, my father and I returned to the mountain village where I had lived for twenty years. Of course, the main thing is to visit and persuade the sister.
My sister is indeed not the same sister as she was.
My sister, who is nearly forty years old, although she is radiant and bright, her face is already covered with fine wrinkles, and her back is also a little awkward. The brother-in-law seems to be older, and the tracheitis that he had acquired when he was young has developed into asthma, although he still has hands and feet, but his face is gray and yellow, his eyes are puffy, and he is already sick.
As soon as Dad saw his sister and brother-in-law, tears immediately poured out.
My sister also cried, but she cried differently than my father. My sister burst into tears with a smile. While wiping away her tears, she complained to her father: "I thought you would really ignore your daughter and not send me a letter for two months." ”
Dad wanted to say something, and before he could say anything, several grandchildren pounced on him. Dad hurried to dry his tears and asked me to open the candy package I had brought.
Looking at the brother-in-law's sick and crooked appearance, no one would have thought that several of his children would grow so strong. All white and fat, with a lively and cunning appearance, gathered around the brother-in-law, like many vigorous and vigorous new shoots born next to a decaying tree!
The brother-in-law's family, seven brothers, in addition to the second eldest who went to the countryside to be a son-in-law, the third and fourth elders have recently married their daughters-in-law, and this will be busy preparing for the fifth elder again. What is puzzling is that a large family of nearly twenty people has not yet separated their families!
After the publication of "Sister" ("Youth", No. 6, 1984), it won the Seventh National Outstanding Short Story Award that year.
Collective or family, the shadow that never dissipates
Nanjing Normal University Zhang Fanru
Although "Sister" often uses a jumping timeline for narration, its plot is still relatively straightforward and easy to understand. From the first paragraph of the text, the sentence does not depart from the "sister", telling how she was from a famous bridesmaid who was "pampered by her parents when she was a child, and regarded as a pearl in the palm of her hand", was spurned as a "five types of elements" for political reasons, and then had to marry a "short, morbid mountain village farmer", but surprisingly, she was able to support this peasant family with nearly ten people by her own strength, thus gaining hope for life.
To simply see this text as "women's struggle against fate" might seem too boring and meaningless. It is not difficult to find that the gender of the "sister" does not seem to be an irreplaceable setting in the story: although she is a "wife, housewife, and mother", more often she exists as an "individual" opposed to the two "big families", and her point of struggle is whether to let herself be swallowed up by the "family" or escape and compete with it. Here, gender becomes irrelevant, and anyone could have encountered such a dilemma at the time. Or further, when a particular context is erased, anyone is making a choice about their individual identity.
At first, the original family of the "sister" did provide a place for her to grow up and shelter, and if it were not for the sudden political turmoil, she might have been able to immerse herself in such a stable group forever. But such collective shelter is to some extent illusory, and it becomes the force that the "sister" needs to resist the most. Dialogue that arises within the collective always seems to be unequal, because dialogue tends to fail once it takes place between the "individual" and the "representative of the collective." Just like in this textual context, the sister as an individual, especially a being who has been completely dependent on the family since birth, is doomed to be powerless to dialogue with the group, even if she does not want to marry, she does not have the courage to resist, the absence of ability makes her desperate to take risks, to get out of this huge shadow, you must try to marry. Parents, on the other hand, seem to be the leaders of the family, but in fact they make decisions passively. They realize that the suffering of the "sister" should not exist, it comes because of the family, so this guilt is magnified by the concept of "family", making them constantly feel self-blame and eager to help the victimized sister. Their decision for their sister, then, is hardly pure, but a disguised form of self-redemption that requires some symbolic action rather than a real result.
The marriage of the "sister" is a game, from one family to another, although the existence of the collective is difficult to avoid, but it gives her a choice. She realized that it was a mistake to immerse herself completely in the family, so she chose to reject her completely at first. But this new family is more special, and it is constantly calling for her to join with a shaky weak vitality, and it seems that only she can revive this whole. So her choice was determined from that moment on that fleeing was not the best option, because she did not have the ability to survive independently, and if she could revive the family by her own scheduling, then she might be able to become a recognized family member, so that the family was attached to herself, rather than being held back by the family.
From the end of the novel, it seems that she has indeed done it—" the sister said that she had been from the city to the country for more than twenty years. This time she wanted to take a good look, have fun, and then give her brother-in-law a good look at the disease. Spend the Spring Festival here in comfort. Her "return to her hometown" at this time is in an independent posture, rather than the attachment and submission when she was married, and even further, she defeated the previous collective - "we have a few sisters, no one thinks that this is Daddy's eccentricity" "To be honest, Dad's thoughts about his sister, in addition to the love of his children, are more admiration and guilt."
However, is the shadow of the collective really gone? When my sister becomes such a "winner", how many people will be shrouded in the shadow of the new family she has created, and will she really be able to escape freely one day?
* Transferred from the "City of Literature" learning power platform
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Editor-in-charge | Jin Xin, Zou Yunxiang
Text | Zhang Ping, Zhang Fanru
Edition | Yu Ling
Producer | Entertained
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