He was the first person to report on the "July 7 Incident", and suddenly disappeared from Li County, Hebei Province, two months after returning from the scene of the incident in 1937. To this day, Xiao Fang, who is always 25 years old, still warms people's hearts and has a persistent vitality.
| Feng Xuesong (oral)
| Reporter Li Xue (Finishing)
| Editor: Curry
An umbrella, a blanket, a backpack, a camera, Xiao Fang set off. It was July 10, 1937, three days after the outbreak of the July 7 Incident. Riding his bicycle alone through the artillery fire, Xiao Fang became the first journalist to arrive at the scene, and he used shocking words and pictures to report the real situation of the Chinese people's war of resistance. But two months later, he disappeared forever.
Xiao Fang's original name was Fang Dazeng, who was one of the most active war correspondents in the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and was well-known along with Fan Changjiang and Xu Ying, contributing articles to "Declaration", "Liangyou Pictorial", "Ta Kung Pao", "Time" magazine in the United States, and "London Picture News" in the United Kingdom.
Since Xiao Fang suddenly disappeared after returning from the scene report of the "July 7 Incident", many years have passed, and there have been people who have been persistently searching for news about him.
Today is the 84th anniversary of the "July 7 Incident", the 84th year that Fang Da disappeared on the front line of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the 22nd year that CCTV reporter Feng Xuesong searched for him.
Feng Cedar has never stopped for so many years. From the 1999 documentary "In Search of Fang Dazeng" to the 2014 book "Fang Dazeng: Disappearing and Reappearing", he has been tracking down and reporting on Xiaofang.
The following is a compilation of the content after the "Global People" reporter interviewed Feng Xuesong in 2014, from his mouth, a small party of historical fragments has become a three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood youth.
Use the fee to buy back film and camera
Xiao Fang took a lot of photos, but he left only more than 10 photos. From the photos, he is dressed in a fashionable way, with a flight hat, cargo pants, and leather shoes.
Xiao Fangsheng lived in a solid home, and his father, Fang Zhendong, graduated from the Beijing Translation Academy and worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His family has a house of more than 600 square meters in Peking's Xiehe Hutong.
When it comes to the impact on Xiaofang, the mother is more. She was a housewife, but very enlightened; she knew Chinese medicine, and anyone in the hutong who had a small disaster or illness would come to her and did not charge money—this should be the source of Xiaofang's democratic ideas and civilian consciousness. When he was in elementary school, Xiao Fang liked photography, and his mother bought him a camera with 7 oceans.
Photographic works by Fang Dazeng.
At that time, most photographers were satisfied with taking pictures of wind and snow in the salon, but XiaoFang loved to photograph coachmen and coolies. His sister Fang Chengmin told me that Xiao Fang rarely gave photos to friends and family, and others did not ask him, afraid of touching soft nails. Xiao Fang often hikes everywhere to take pictures and rinses himself when he returns. After the photos rushed out, he went to newspapers and magazines and used the fee to buy film. His "Wedding Photo of the Four Sons' Palace" was published in a British magazine, and the money he earned bought a high-end "Lu Lai Fox" camera.
In 1930, Xiaofang was admitted to the Department of Economics of Sino-French University. A year later, the "September 18 Incident" broke out, and he joined the "Great Anti-Imperialist Alliance" and participated in the editorial work of the organ newspaper "Anti-Imperialist News". Since then, he has been running outside every day, often leaving home with only an umbrella, a blanket, a backpack, and a camera, and is active in Pingjin and the Areas of Ji, Jin, Cha, and Sui. In the corner of his yard, he made a gray darkroom out of wood. Sometimes the younger sister Fang Chengmin also helps to fix the shadow and play the hand.
After graduating from university in 1934, Xiao Fang was first recruited as an officer of the Peking YMCA and then transferred to Tianjin. Later, he and several friends formed the "Chinese and Foreign News Society". In those years, Xiao Fang reported on smuggling in Dalian and filmed the "12.9" movement; he also went deep into the seat of the puppet government in eastern Hebei, and prostitutes, gambling, tobacco and drugs, and smuggling all ingested footage of him.
Report from the positions of the Twenty-ninth Army
In November 1936, in Suiyuan (present-day central Inner Mongolia), a war broke out between Fu Zuoyibu and the Japanese-backed Dewang and other Mongolian separatists, which was an important conflict in the early days of the War of Resistance. At the beginning of the war, Xiao Fang went to the front line, Beijing - Jining - Gaojiadi - Honggeltu - Jining - Taolin (located in present-day Ulanqab), and the 43-day trip was the starting point of his career as a war correspondent.
From Gaojiadi to Honggeltu is a 60-mile wasteland, where bandits often appear, but Xiaofang insists on going to this military stronghold. The commander of the garrison, Zhang, had to lend him a horse and send 30 cavalry escorts. When crossing the Yin Mountains to Taolin, Xiao Fang's only retinue, a soldier of the Thirteenth Army, almost turned back halfway, and he insisted on completing the interview.
Xiao Fang wrote about the frontline into a long newsletter" "Suiyuan Frontline Inspection Record", and at the end of the article, he wrote with compassion and anger: "War is so cruel, but the crazy invaders are desperately creating war. ”
On July 7, 1937, the "Lugou Bridge Incident" broke out, when Xiao Fang was on vacation at home, after learning the news of the Japanese attack, he decided to go to Lugou Bridge to have a look. On the morning of the 10th, XiaoFang sorted out the camera and film, took simple luggage, and hurriedly said goodbye to his mother and sister. Along the way, he rode his bicycle, passed the interrogation of the Japanese army, and arrived at Wanping Castle. He saw the Boy Scouts collecting donations from merchants, and people were burying the fallen soldiers; standing on the Lugou Bridge, he saw the vast white clouds and the wilderness on the banks of the Yongding River, and sighed that "the great Lugou Bridge may become the birthplace of the great national liberation war"; the small soldiers guarding the city pointed their guns at each other, and Xiao Fang was very pleased and felt that they would not give up their positions.
When Fan Changjiang, a reporter for the Shanghai "Ta Kung Pao", was invited by General Sun Lianzhong to the headquarters for talks, Xiao Fang had already appeared on the position of the Twenty-ninth Army, and he recorded how the soldiers pulled out their large knives and cut off half of the enemy's head, how they desperately pursued and killed after defeating the enemy, and the assembly number could not call them back... Xiao Fang wrote these in the long-form newsletter "Lugou Bridge Anti-Japanese War", which was also the first report on the "Lugou Bridge Incident".
Fang Dazeng's communication works.
With the development of the war, XiaoFang had difficulty returning home, and became a war correspondent of the "Ta Kung Pao" through the introduction of Fan Changjiang, with footprints all over Changxindian, Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan and Datong. From his articles and photos, you can feel the sound of gunfire, fighting and thick and pungent smoke from near and far.
At that time, Xiao Fang's brother-in-law was working in Shanghai, and he had to buy a "Ta Kung Pao" every day after work — the only source of information for the family to know xiao Fang's whereabouts. On September 30, after Xiao Fang's report from Li County, Hebei Province, "Changes in the Northern Section of Pinghan" was published, this enthusiastic young man completely disappeared...
After Xiao Fang's disappearance, his family and friends have been looking for him, but they have not been heard from — he may have died on the front line of anti-war reporting.
A calm observer of social life
In the two years before Xiao Fang's disappearance, a large number of photos were taken, and now there are more than 800 negatives, most of which are folk customs. The first time I saw these negatives was in 1999, and the tan boxes were neatly stacked with pink paper bags, all of which were printed with the font size of Tokkei Trading House. To this day, I still remember the feeling of taking the black and white negatives out of the paper bag, gently, as if afraid of alarming a sleeping person.
Xiao Fang's shots are simple, he shoots miners at the bottom of the well, porters in the city, porters naked under the scorching sun, a father and his 5 sons, a mother and her daughter who are too poor to wear pants, a laughing child in the sea, a cheerful little lama, a man carrying supplies walking idly under the mountains, a soldier standing in a bunker with a bayonet-mounted spear... The lower classes of people he photographed were healthy, and many of them were smiling, without the weakness and malaise shown by some foreign photographers. Moreover, Xiao Fang has a feeling for the people, which is from the heart of respect and trust, whether it is a beggar or a porter, or an ordinary soldier on the battlefield, he shows real emotions, that is a kind of love.
If you look at these photos in conjunction with the reports written by Xiao Fang, you will feel more profound. He interviews miners and goes down the well himself. These miners not only ate and did not eat, but also worked very dangerously, but Xiaofang always left hope. "I think they'll always be liberated... Because there are tens of millions of people who are working, working hard, and fighting for the light of mankind! His picture was too, and the workers were smiling, not so sad.
Behind this simple people-oriented thinking, you can feel the kindness and optimism of Xiaofang. Can he not be sad to see those scenes? But he kept the subtext to himself and the hope to everyone.
In 1999, Feng Xuesong (left) was filming the documentary "Looking for Fang Dazeng", and on the right was Fang Dazeng's sister Fang Chengmin.
There is also a cute, reckless side
After Xiao Fang disappeared, his mother had been living in xiehe's old courtyard, and in 1969, the old man died. The old man once said that he would make a coffin out of the wood of the darkroom, and the two of them would always be together. But in the end, it did not happen, and over time, the wood in the darkroom was destroyed and used as firewood. Xiao Fang's sister has been collecting and sorting out his things, which has almost become her spiritual pillar. Now, his sister and sister have passed away, except for his nephew Zhang Zaixuan, the others don't know much about Xiao Fang.
Xiao Fang is a person whose deeds speak louder than words. He rarely talked to his family about himself, and many of them were only known to his sister after reading his correspondence. In 1933, Xiao Fang's classmate and poet Fang Yin was arrested for participating in the democracy movement, and after Xiao Fang found out, he found out about Fang Yin's secret residence and "swept" the documents and leaflets away. In our view today, Xiao Fang is a young man with noble sentiments and independent consciousness, who pursues progress, but there is no such thing as a party in his thinking, which is completely a simple idea of people-oriented and people-oriented.
Xiao Fang also has a cute and reckless side. He often washed his feet in his sister's room, and did not pour water after washing, but asked his sister to pour. Later, the two also quarreled over this and did not speak for a long time. At the time of Baoxing, Xiao Fang heard that the Eighth Route Army had advanced into Rehe, and even put down the work of the "Ta Kung Pao" and rushed to the interview, and finally gave up because the news was inaccurate, so he was criticized by Fan Changjiang.
Now when I am alone, I often think of Xiao Fang, thinking about these small things in his life, I want to laugh, how can this child be so "two".
【Afterword】
Feng Xuesong knew about Xiaofang because of a 1999 fax — Chen Shen, then vice president of the China Photographers Publishing House, wanted to ask CCTV to promote a book about Fang Dazeng, which was not originally sent to him. But the yin and yang were wrong, and he and Xiao Fang were related.
When he saw the fax, Feng Xuesong was under the pressure of work, confused about the future, and exhausted by his father, who was seriously ill. The young man, who was only 25 years old at the time of his disappearance, became a source of strength for him to forget his pain and move toward hope. For many years, he followed in xiaofang's footsteps, from Beijing to Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Datong, and Lixian; when he was stationed in Macau, he always carried materials about Xiaofang with him to facilitate the investigation of foreign-language newspapers; he did not know how much time and money he spent on this, others said he was stupid, he said that he regarded this as a public welfare undertaking; when he encountered setbacks and unhappiness, he would think: If Xiaofang encountered this situation, what would he do?
Many people ask Feng Xuesong why he spent so many years pursuing a young journalist who was almost forgotten by the world. He said that Xiao Fang is a very pure and even idealized person, and he can let you see your own personality.
After the publication of Fang Dazeng: Disappearing and Reappearing, Zhang Zaixuan said to him: "You have retrieved your uncle's soul from the battlefield. But in Feng Xuesong's view, the significance of Xiaofang is not only the pursuit of history, but also the exploration of the future. One should have a feeling for the people and the country, not because of violence and money, just like the small party.
Feng Xuesong felt that he was just a medicine primer, with the purpose of letting more people know about Xiao Fang. Xiaofang Photography Exhibition and Xiaofang University Lectures are all planning, and he also plans to use the royalties from books and the money from auctioning Xiaofang's photos to establish the Xiaofang Journalism Award, which is dedicated to promising young journalists. Some people found Feng Xuesong and said: I want to make an avatar for Xiaofang, and some people say that I want to make a movie for Xiaofang.
At the end of the interview, Feng Xuesong said he had a dream. In the dream, someone patted him on the shoulder and said, "How did you come here?" "And that person is Xiao Fang."
(The photos in this article are provided by Feng Xuesong)