Ningxia writer Ji Dongliang's reportage "Notes on Xihaigu" (published by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House in February 2022) shows the human miracle created by the major measures to overcome poverty under the leadership of the Party in Xihaigu in the grand historical background and dynamic process of rural change. The West Sea gully is deep, and there are nine droughts in ten years, which is one of the most harsh natural environments in the great northwest. After 8 years of targeted poverty alleviation and 5 years of poverty alleviation, the place where "the sky is dry and dry", "long and red and yellow" and "stagnant water is afraid of spoons and spoons", now "pigeons, sparrows, pheasants and unnamed birds are singing, jumping around in the forest, swinging in the wind", and the Zhongzhuang Reservoir is "as clear as jade, embedded in the mountains".
The author who came out of the countryside of Xihaigu witnessed and personally experienced the vicissitudes and great changes that took place in his hometown. He "stepped into the dirt of life" with both feet, and went deep into Xihaigu for 40 times to conduct interviews and research, accumulating a large amount of first-hand information. Documentary brushwork, detailed data, panoramic perspective, and poetic text make this work have an epic character.
Deep in the mountains of Xihaigu, the once bare loess soil is now paved with green. Xinhua News Agency
Ji Dongliang went deep into the spiritual depths of the rural people, not only touching their pragmatic and romantic, straightforward and humorous emotional pulses, showing their tenacious, simple and stubborn personality characteristics, but also showing the huge life energy contained in them. Li Zhiyuan, a farmer in Pengyang County, has a disability in both legs and is paralyzed on a kang. But he likes to plant trees, and he wants to "plant a flower and fruit mountain and a peach blossom garden" in his hometown. He "climbed and moved to plant trees voluntarily for 24 years, planting 100,000 trees and greening 350 acres of barren mountains." After the age of the flower armor, he was alone, and every tree was his child. He lived a simple life, spending all his income on planting trees, helping the poor and supporting students; Bai Chunlan, a hero of sand control in Yanchi County, fought with the wind and sand for decades, experienced the 3-year-old daughter almost buried alive by the flying sand, the husband who ruled the desert together died of illness, the death of the eldest son and other severe pains in life, but she still did not want to leave this cold wind and sand. Bai Chunlan's persistence and struggle in the desert for decades has finally turned the vast "one tree" of the sand sea into an oasis of melons and fruits, cattle and sheep, and is known as "a model of human conquest of nature".
This series of vivid images of Xihai Gu villagers, true and cordial, natural and great, not only embodies the excellent moral demeanor of Chinese peasants who have been industrious and simple, stoic and persistent, down-to-earth, and indomitable for thousands of years, but also embodies the spiritual outlook of the new socialist peasants who are good at thinking, challenging themselves, eager to make meritorious achievements, and blooming themselves to the fullest. It is they who represent the solid and profound public opinion foundation for the fight against poverty.
Workers carry the wine grapes they have picked in the vineyards of Xige Winery in Ningxia. Xinhua News Agency
The structural setting of "Notes on Xihaigu" is unique and ingenuity, and it also contains deep meaning. In addition to the wedges, each chapter of the nineteen chapters focuses on one problem, one link and one link. "Wedge" opens the story in the poetic mood of "thousands of mountains and mountains stacked on top of each other, flowers and seas of flowers competing for beauty" in Xihaigu in June. The Xihai Gu, which used to be the "crown of poverty in China", is synchronized with the times and enters the grand movement of moderate prosperity with the whole country. The first chapter begins with a stroke of ink and ink, moving from reality to history, telling the ancient and heavy past of Saikaigu, who is known for its "poverty" throughout the country. The second chapter explores "Why Xihaigu is so poor", the author pulls the family, tells stories, leads the reader into the depths of history, and exposes the shocking poverty and suffering of Xihaigu with rich details of life. The third and fourth chapters turn from history to culture, from the Great Wall Museum to the Silk Road Ancient Road, from the Anxi Wangfu to the Nine-Sided Town, from the Red Army's Long March to Liupan Mountain to the Victory of Jiangtai Fort, the barren land of the West Sea has a long and rich cultural heritage. From the sixth chapter, "Millions of Immigrants," to the nineteenth chapter, "Rebirth," the author selects representative major events to describe the tremendous changes in Xihaigu's peasants who have been economically lifted out of poverty and spiritually baptized. The setting of this narrative structure finds the red gene of the people's will to grow from the combing of history, and also shows the great fit between the people's pursuit of a happy life and the original intention of the Founding of the Communist Party of China from the contrast between history and reality.
In Longde County, Guyuan City, Ningxia, the fitness trails on both sides of the Yu River, green landscape and other facilities are perfect, becoming a good place for residents to relax and entertain. Xinhua News Agency
The on-site interviews, cultural traceability and historical combing in Xihaigu have also made Ji Dongliang's creation undergo important transformation and growth. In the successful experience of Xihaigu's poverty alleviation practice, he found a way to solve the problems of rural China in the context of urbanization, so his works are full of the joy and pride of a wanderer returning to the countryside and rediscovering the countryside, whether documentary or freehand, it naturally shines with poetic brilliance. The author's narrative language is clean, concise and delicate, and the personality temperament of the interviewee is outlined in three words and two words, jumping on the paper. The author is also good at salvaging folk literature materials such as folk songs, folk songs, colloquialisms, proverbs, and slips of the tongue that have been conceived and passed down in the folk, highlighting their lively vitality and earthy atmosphere, which not only shows the wisdom and artistic creativity of folk life, but also makes the language of reportage vivid and long-lasting.
For example, "there are many high mountains and ravines, climb hills when you go out; the ditch is pulled and grinded, and the mouth and legs are broken", which highlights the deep road dangers of the high mountains and ditches in the Xihaigu area in a funny and humorous way; and as the Xihai Gu people often hang on their lips, "cats eat grain, always scratch and dig on the mouth", vividly showing that they were always busy with the survival dilemma of eating. What is particularly amazing is that in this once barren and desolate land, a high-pitched, bold, gentle and melodious flower was born, "the flower should be the original sound, listen to it in the narrow world, let it wander between the mountains and ravines, without the need for sound accompaniment." The author met the old man "ManHua'er" in the style of collecting wind, and that kind of momentum sang the optimistic and stoic, cheerful and heroic character of the people in the west, and also sang the enthusiasm for love like fire, and sang the praise for the new era.
Ningxia Guyuan City Xiji County Xinglong Town single set livestock trading market. Xinhua News Agency
Socialism is done, happiness is struggled, and the Notes of Xihaigu vividly and vividly show this truth. It is precisely under the meticulous deployment of the national poverty alleviation strategy, relying on the wisdom of labor, with the help of modern science and technology to revitalize agriculture, green agriculture, and industrial agriculture, Xihaigu people have made unremitting efforts to move from poverty to prosperity. The history of poverty alleviation of the Xihai Gu people, which was once called "the world of bitter ridges", is a new type of "entrepreneurial history" in the great cause of rural revitalization in the new era, and it is also a history of the party's unremitting pursuit of struggle for the people's happy life.
(Author: Yi Ying, Associate Professor, College of Literature, Hunan Normal University)
Welfare moments
What new changes have taken place in your hometown over the past few years? What are some touching poverty alleviation stories? Please leave a comment below this article to share your thoughts and feelings. The top 6 readers who leave messages and likes can get a copy of "Xihaigu Notes" provided by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, and the like time is until 12:00 noon on April 2.
Source: Guangming Daily (2022-03-30 14th edition)
Editor-in-charge: Wang Zimo
Editor: Wu Yaqi Wang Yuanfang