Reprinted from: People's Daily
It is necessary to find the source of abundance and find fiery chapters in life and people, and also to overcome the problems of writing in life and people, and to temper the novelty and depth of works.
"I hope that the vast number of literary and art workers will adhere to the people's stand and write an endless people's epic." General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech at the opening ceremony of the Eleventh National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Tenth National Congress of the China Writers Association put forward great expectations for literary and art workers in the new era. To adhere to the people's position, we need to plunge ourselves into the people's magnificent struggle to create history and take the road of writing for the people. The experience of writing the long-form reportage "Notes on Xihaigu" made me feel this point particularly deeply.
Xihaigu was once a land that had long been shrouded in poverty. This land has witnessed the opening of the curtain of the national "Three Wests" poverty alleviation strategy, witnessed the nearly 40 years of assistance, and witnessed a series of major national measures such as Fujian-Nanjing cooperation and poverty alleviation, which have achieved remarkable results, until 2020, Xihaigu has entered a well-off society and opened a new chapter.
I have lived in Xihaigu for more than 30 years, and I am well aware of the confusion and pain of my fathers and fellow villagers in this land, as well as their struggles and pursuits, dreams and hopes. Later, although I left this land, I would go to Xihaigu several times a year to interview and investigate, have a deep understanding of its poverty alleviation policies, measures, and process, and also accumulated many true and vivid stories. It is full of people with stories, local people, grassroots cadres, poverty alleviation workers, volunteer teachers... It can be said that everyone has a history of poverty alleviation, which makes me have a strong sense of mission in writing.
However, Xihaigu poverty alleviation is not easy to write. Why? First, because Xihaigu's poverty alleviation has attracted the attention of the society, relevant reports have been overwhelming, to write, must be new! Second, Xihai's poverty alleviation is a major event recorded in the annals of history, and the theme undoubtedly has the courage of "people's epic", but how to write this "epic" courage through words? Third, in terms of writing intentions, I especially hope to write about the spiritual poverty alleviation of the Xihaigu people. Freed from the shackles of poverty, the spirit of the Xihaigu people returned, becoming open, cheerful, confident and enthusiastic. This change touched me the most, and it is also the one I want to re-perform the most.
The way to overcome the above writing problems is not elsewhere, but in life, among the people. The preliminary interviews of several months made me more determined to find the source of abundance in life and the people, to discover the fiery chapter, but also to overcome the problems of writing in life and the people, and to temper the novelty and depth of the work. "Life is the people, and the people are life." I hope to take the ordinary people who live at the most basic level, are at the forefront of poverty alleviation, and benefit the most, and record and describe them in an authentic way; I hope to take root in the deep West Sea and solid land, capture the most subtle social cells, and let the works maintain the earthy atmosphere and heavy poetry.
Through this interview and writing, I first gained a lot of details. Rich, authentic and vivid details are the key to a work that moves people. Details cannot be imagined and imagined, nor can they be obtained on a casual basis. Three meals a day, the flow of the four seasons, the details are hidden in people's daily life, the writer needs to step into the soil of life, close to the realistic characters, in the field and the house kangtou to find details, feel the details, think about the details.
In addition, I also gained language. The people are masters of language art, and learning language from the people is the consensus of writers and artists. The language of the people overflows from the bottom of the heart, or the image is vivid, with the breath of life, or simple and natural, containing the philosophy of life. In the land of Xihaigu, the influence of flowers, Xintianyou, and Longdong minor keys makes the locals speak like songs, and there are many wonderful points that make people reminisce. An old man with a long beard and a fluttering beard pulled us by the car and said excitedly: "Before, I used to bark my feet, now I am a sports car, and you say that the change is not big." Oops, in the past, a pair of pants was worn by several people, a quilt was covered by several people, and now even the space quilt is covered, you say that the change is not big. During the interview "Four Good Rural Roads", a villager said: "There must be a road before the car reaches the mountain, and there is a road or a 'four good road'." The road is open, the people are rich, and the people who come are uncles. Lao Liu, the first secretary of the village, introduced: "You see if it is good, as long as you do things, the people will give you a summary." ”
With Xihaigu as the background, I have written many works such as "Shangzhuang Ji", "Splendid Embroidery", "Haiyuan Book", "Spring Good of Wild Wheat Stacks" and so on. "Notes on Xihaigu" is the one that I have paid the most patience and respect, and it is also the one that I am most warm and most comforting to homesickness. Through the historical event of Xihaigu's poverty alleviation, I hope to write the spirit of creating a better life with great ambition and write my respect for the land and people.
Today, the people of Xihaigu, who have been freed from poverty for thousands of years, are continuing to strive for a better life with a high spirit. In the past, Xiaoguan Road, Yan (Tea) MaGu Road, and Xihaigu on the Silk Road have now changed into natural barriers in thousands of mountains and valleys, building a three-dimensional transportation network of highways, railways and aviation. The changes in the "road" reflect the changes of the times, the Xihaigu people are already on the road, and many of the Silk Road stories that have been preached in history have new annotations, and this is the next work I am writing.
Related books
Title: Notes on Xihaigu
Author: Ji Dongliang
Publisher: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House
Publication date: February 1, 2022
Co-produced: Palm Reading Technology
Ningxia Xihaigu, named after the three counties of Xiji, Haiyuan and Guyuan in history, is called the "Three Wests" region together with Hexi and Dingxi in Gansu. Once "barren in the world", it was designated by the United Nations Food and Development Agency as one of the twenty-two "least suitable areas for human existence" in the world. In December 1982, the state launched the implementation of the "Three Wests" agricultural construction poverty alleviation project, which set a precedent for China's regional overall planned, organized and large-scale "development-oriented" poverty alleviation. In 1996, the central authorities made strategic arrangements to promote east-west counterpart cooperation. In April 1997, Comrade Xi Jinping, then deputy secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee and head of the Fujian Provincial Leading Group for Counterpart Assistance and Assistance to Ningxia, led a team to Ningxia to inspect and personally deploy and personally promote the important strategic decision of "Fujian-Nanjing Counterpart Poverty Alleviation Cooperation", and then set foot on this land three times. For more than 20 years, the "Minning Counterpart Poverty Alleviation Cooperation and Assistance Group" has taken the initiative to shoulder the historical mission of counterpart poverty alleviation in Ningxia, expanded one-way poverty alleviation to the in-depth cooperation of the two provinces (regions) in all aspects, multi-level, and wide coverage of all fields, and created a "Minning Model" of counterpart poverty alleviation and cooperation and assistance in the east and west together with the people of Ningxia. The Xihaigu area has entered a well-off society at the same time as all parts of the country.
The writer Ji Dongliang is a native of Xihaigu and has a deep affection for this land. He clearly understood that the history of Xihaigu in the past half century is a history of poverty alleviation; the history of poverty alleviation in Xihaigu is the epitome of the history of poverty alleviation in New China. In "Notes on Xihaigu", he uses his own unique observations and delicate brushstrokes to express the vicissitudes and great changes of the land of Xihaigu in a panoramic and multi-directional manner, as well as the epitome of the times and the spiritual transformation behind the great changes, reaching the depths of history and people's hearts. The works witness the great historical process of poverty alleviation with realistic creations, and select the most representative events, such as "hanging village migration", "terrace construction", "salt pond sand control", "Yanghuang irrigation", "well cellar project", "labor export", "fungal grass planting", "Tanyang Bank", etc., through real life changes, with a large number of detailed data and data, convincingly reflect the great changes in the Xihaigu area, and write out the major themes of the new era.
About the Author
Ji Dongliang is a famous writer and vice chairman of ningxia writers association. He has published novels such as "Running Life", "Rouge Lane", "Shangzhuang Ji", "Spring Good of Wild Wheat Stacks", "Haiyuan Book", "Cangsheng", "Deep Scenery", "Splendid Embroidery", short story collection "Ancestors Plant Trees", "Night Is Longer than Day", "The Distance Between Me and the World", "Roaring Night", essay collection "Talking to Wood", "Population Hand", "Left Hand Meritorious Name Right Hand Beauty", "Returning from the Road That Will Leak", "Cangshan Distant Sunset" and so on. He has won the first prize of Ningxia Literature and Art Three times and won the title of "Virtue and Art Double Xin" literary and art worker in Ningxia. The essay collection "Talking to Wood" and the short story "Roaring Night" were shortlisted for the third and fifth Lu Xun Literature Awards, respectively. The novel "Shangzhuang Ji" won the 13th "Five One Project" Award for the Construction of Spiritual Civilization of the Central Propaganda Department and the "2014 China Good Book" and other awards. His works have won many awards such as the Selected Novel Award, the Beijing Literature Award, the Chinese Writers Literary Award, the Shuofang Literary Award, etc., and have been selected into the list of the Chinese Novel Society, the list of the Selected Novels and other lists and middle school textbooks, and have been adapted into movies and TV series, and translated into English, French, Russian, Japanese and other languages.
Editor: Wang Hao