What kind of feelings does a poinsettia carry in the old Beijingers? How has the taste of Fortress Garden been remembered for decades? What are the moving legends of Wang Yaoqing, the master of the "Four Famous Dans"? One book per year, 10 stories per book.
Over the years, the "Hutong Story Collection" of the Stone Community in Dashilar Street has reached its third book. The changes of old brands, well-known historical figures, and the good deeds of ordinary people around the residents, these vivid stories full of Beijing flavor are all excavated, recorded, preserved and disseminated in the "Story Collection".
"The golden rooster did not call the soup first hot, the red sun rose to the full hall", in the hearts of many old Beijingers, the bathhouse in the hutong is a lingering sentiment. For the 71-year-old Huo Yanping, going to the overpass to watch a performance and going to the bathhouse for a bath can be regarded as the two mainstream ways of leisure and entertainment in the past.
At the intersection of the west entrance of Xiaochunshu Hutong and YuanxingJiadao in the stone community, the plaque of "Yipinxiang Bathhouse" is inscribed above the archway, which has been weathered to some extent. "The second floor is a relatively high-class private room, the price of washing once is not cheap, and there are guys waiting." Downstairs is a large north-south long pool, divided into three pools of temperature, heat and heat, and neon lights flash at the door. There is a window on the opposite side with the store department selling some daily necessities, and in the summer there are watermelon sellers..." Although the bathhouse has disappeared, from Huo Yanping's memories, you can still glimpse the lively time here more than half a century ago.
When it comes to the long-established Fortress Garden Hotel, which is still booming in the community, everyone is even more happy. Li Yonghai, 72, has lived in Peiying Hutong for a lifetime and witnessed the original appearance of The "High-rise Courtyard" in Fortress Garden.
Compared with the Changdeokkan next to it, Fengzeyuan, which specializes in Lu cuisine, is more upscale, and it is quite rare for ordinary people to go once. When he was six or seven years old, Li Yonghai opened a meat with his father, and the feeling of "delicious" made him still not forget: nine turns of fat intestines, crystal elbows, thick and soft, even if the eighty-year-old man, with his mouth gently "sucked", the entrance melted. Gold silk rolls and silver wire rolls are large, and the noodles exposed at both ends are clearly rooted, and they are sweet and moist in the mouth... What makes the old man frequently lament is that in that era of material scarcity, people showed a satisfied smile because of tasting delicious food, and that simple and real happiness.
Open the "Dashilar Stone Community Story Collection", these vivid stories told by old residents and witnesses are everywhere. The ordinary bricks and tiles in the street corners and alleys are three-dimensional and vivid because of the attached past memories, which arouses the people's strong feelings and resonances–
Wang Jinghu, the descendant of the "Master of the Tongtian Sect", fondly recalled how the great ancestor Wang Yaoqing came out of the stone community and grew into an outstanding Peking Opera educator, and the "Four Famous Dans", including the Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang, all studied under his grand situation.
In 1982, Mr. Man Rongqing, who was transferred to Brown Tree Street Primary School, described the school building as a "four-story building, which is very conspicuous in the bungalow area." It is said that the building of the house was made of the remaining materials for the construction of the Great Hall of the People, the materials were the best, and the flat cement floor was polished and shiny, which was the best primary school in the Dashilar area at that time. "This elementary school, which no longer exists, seems to reappear in front of you through the words and lines.
"In the hearts of Beijing people, the Dashilar area is particularly famous. Collecting these stories is actually a kind of excavation of community culture. Touching the three beautifully bound "story collections", Li Xiaohui, secretary of the Party Committee of the Stone Community, sighed with emotion. She confessed that she did not expect that this project could be done for several years, and the "stories of the people" became richer and richer.
Li Xiaohui recalls that the idea of collecting community stories originated in the summer of 2015, when she participated in a community building training that talked about the concept of "community culture map", which made her realize that culture can actually unite people's hearts. Living in Dashilar in 1992 and serving as the community secretary in 2000, Li Xiaohui lived and worked in the hutong for a long time, but many things were only heard and not very clear. For example, the current office courtyard of the neighborhood committee was first said to be the dowry given to the girlfriend by Rui Fengxiang's treasurer. In fact, many things are related to things in the past, but we don't know much. ”
In Li Xiaohui's view, there are 13 hutongs in the stone community, and it can be said that each family and courtyard has a story. In recent years, as residents have gradually moved away, or the elderly have died, perhaps this information has been cut off. "Organizing community stories is to preserve these valuable experiences and insights. It also hopes to let the current residents better understand the people and things in the community and enhance their sense of identity with the community. ”
The idea is there, whether it can be done specifically, how to do it, and we must advance it from the truth. "Combined with the resources we have mastered, we invited people who are older and more aware of the situation, have strong expression skills, and may have stories in the family yard to the neighborhood committee to chat, and also put up posters and sent messages in various WeChat groups to collect messages extensively." Li Xiaohui said frankly that at first, everyone was not sure what the "story collection" looked like, in order to make the content cover wide and rhythmic, it was necessary to expand the topic field as much as possible. "We plan to write 10 stories in a book, and we have to understand nearly 20 topics at the call for work, and then select and determine which ones are more suitable."
The theme of the story is fixed, how should the residents' straightforward recounting fall to paper? The community has mobilized resources extensively to join hands with the Xinyi Community Construction Research Center of Tsinghua University, which has been carrying out practical activities in the Dashilar area for many years, and the Beijing Xianhe Social Work Service Center and other institutions to invite university volunteers, professional social workers, and senior media people. For several months, everyone visited the "target residents" and repeatedly revised the manuscript. By the beginning of 2016, the first "Story Collection" came out, and "Bada Hutongs since ancient names, Shaanxi Baishun Stone City" finally had a folk version of the expression.
The first issue was successful, the "Story Collection" continued to work hard and continue to excavate, and the second and third issues came into being, and the latest one was printed in the early autumn of this year. 500 copies were printed in each issue and distributed to community residents for free reading.
Browsing the current thirty stories, in addition to the contents of time-honored old buildings, historical and cultural celebrities, etc., the "mortal acts of kindness" that reflect the residents' own deeds also occupy a considerable weight, of which the story of the "Stone Community Elderly Service Team" is the most moving. Chinese New Year's Eve make dumplings at night, send rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, and hold a "party" on birthdays... This volunteer team of residents, which has been running for eight years, not only makes up for the lack of children who are busy with work or have no time to care for the elderly in the field, but also improves the inaccessible details of community public services.
Yang Shuxiang, the 67-year-old captain of the elderly service team, recalled that the opportunity for the establishment of the team dates back to 2010, when the community party committee convened a meeting of resident activists to discuss how to carry out the "walking a hundred doors" activity. She felt from the experience of taking care of the elders in the family and the elderly in the neighborhood on weekdays that the elderly were most afraid of loneliness, so she proposed to form a team to accompany the elderly to "chat".
Yang Shuxiang's proposal was echoed by more than 30 retired aunts, and with the support of the community party committee, everyone quickly established an organizational structure of "one president, five branch presidents", and "contracted" 12 key elderly people in groups. "Basically, they are over 80 years old, childless, low-income, and they enter the house once a week." Yang Shuxiang introduced that with the continuous growth of the service team for the elderly, the age of the service object has been relaxed to 75 years old, and finally reached the community over 65 years old, with full coverage of the elderly in need.
Of course, summarizing the responsibilities on the shoulders as "chatting" is just a half-joke. Over the years, in addition to providing companionship for the elderly served, buying things, doing housework, cleaning, etc., has long been the daily life of the team members. These trifles, which are regarded by everyone as "a show of hands", are too many and too detailed, and Yang Shuxiang has no intention of listing them all. What she sighed even more was that she and the team members faced the old man, and the pure sincerity that often surged in her heart ——
"There were weaving masters among the team members, and they knitted gloves for the old man to send. One day we went to the old man's home and found the old man asleep in bed, wearing the gloves we sent and not taking them off, and it was particularly touching to see. ”
"Now the weather is the command, wind and rain worried about the old man's fear or the house leaks, the team members in the WeChat group about, on the old man's home." Some old people saw us and couldn't help but cry and said, 'My son hasn't called me yet, you're here.' In fact, what we do for the elderly is really ordinary, but their kind of appreciation makes people feel particularly accomplished, and they can no longer put it down. ”
In Li Xiaohui's view, while providing practical help for the elderly in the community, the elderly team has also driven the harmony and closeness of the entire community. "Although I used to live in an alley, I was limited to a few acquaintances at the door, and I greeted him with at most 'have you eaten'. If you want to organize something, you have to persuade people to go, and you can get a piece of soap. "She laughed and said that now it is obvious that residents have increased their enthusiasm for community activities, and even residents who have moved away have come back on the bus to participate in activities." A harmonious and intimate atmosphere is formed, and everyone spontaneously volunteers to be enriched and happy in the process of giving. ”