Female college students teamed up with villagers to launch the artwork "Guanzhong Impression: The Daughter-in-law Kneaded the Noodles"
Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Xie Xiaowan Intern Luo Yinfang
Photo / provided by the interviewee
"The noodles kneaded by the daughter-in-law who hit them" means that you have to keep kneading them in order to knead the noodles with muscles; You have to keep beating in order to beat an obedient and virtuous daughter-in-law. This proverb, which is widely circulated in Shaanxi and Gansu, once shocked Qiu Shangxian, a student at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts: domestic violence, a bad habit and even a suspected crime, has been placed on the same level as the extremely important local noodle culture, and has long been implicitly rationalized and interesting. Behind this proverb is how many local rural women have suffered from physical or mental violence!
After further in-depth research and research, Qiu Shangxian decided to use the local traditional culture - flower buns and blood community fire to reproduce this suffering. In June 2024, the artwork "Guanzhong Impression: The Daughter-in-law Kneaded the Noodles" will be exhibited in Xi'an, and a "domestic violence social fire" jointly completed by villagers and artists will be on the hot search, attracting attention.
"The dough kneaded by the daughter-in-law who hit it"
"My impression of my mother is kind and loving. Such a soft image is placed in this sentence, like a beaten and kneaded dough. This violence shocked me, and this contrast also unnerved me. Qiu Shangxian recalls how he felt when he heard this saying, "Later, I talked to many local women and found that they grew up listening to this saying. ”
Qiu Shangxian, who was studying at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts, began to reinterpret this proverb in the form of art, and she chose two traditional Shaanxi cultures, flower buns and blood and fire. Rural women in Guanzhong can make noodles, and Qiao women will use noodles to make hundreds of shapes, steamed into flower buns, for different purposes during festivals, weddings, funerals and other activities. "Flower bun" is also known as the art of motherhood, and the mother who inherits and promotes the noodle culture has become the "noodle" that is kneaded.
"I think it's particularly ironic, so I hope to use flower buns to present domestic violence scenes." Qiu Shangxian explained, "The blood fire is a popular type of social fire in Guanzhong, and the performers' makeup will be very bloody and terrifying, such as a knife on their heads, blood holes on their faces, etc., but most of the content of the performance is to punish evil and promote good, and the final point is justice." She wanted to move the domestic violence scene presented by Hua Bao to the blood fire and complete a social fire performance.
From April 2023, Qiu Shangxian began to conduct in-depth research according to the initial idea. In her sophomore year, she had the experience of working in a village at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, and she was familiar with the way, and now she has returned to this village. A friend runs a homestay in the village, and when he is free, he rides a small three-wheeler, takes Qiu Shangxian around the village, and comes to communicate with the women in the village. "It's just chattering, slowly telling them about our ideas, and I hope to invite them to make such a unique flower bun." Qiu Shangxian recalled, "The aunts were very simple and kind, and they were reluctant to participate at first, but they actually supported me in my heart to do this, because they were worried that they would not be able to pinch it." Later, Qiu Shangxian found Sister Zhang, a teacher of flower buns, to be the "art director", and when he learned that someone had some guidance, the women in the village gradually relented and agreed to join.
"Auntie supports you in doing good"
In July 2023, in this small village at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains, Qiu Shangxian found seven women from Guanzhong in Shaanxi Province gathered around a table, tied aprons, poured water and powder, pulled out the dough, and kneaded it repeatedly on the board - they grew up listening to the proverb, "This person is the same as the noodles, that is, the daughter-in-law is obedient, and the noodles are kneaded".
The seven scenes are inspired by Yau's collection of cases of national violence, including scenes where a husband drags his wife's hair, a husband slaps his wife in the street, and a husband hits his wife on the head with a bamboo stick. Chatting while making flower buns, Qiu Shangxian hopes to hear more: "But the aunts were very evasive at first, and they were reluctant to talk about these things, and they would suddenly stop talking about them, even if they hadn't experienced it, they would say that it was not good to talk about other people's things." ”
Sister Zhang, the teacher who was still invited, first told the story of her friend: "A brick is a blood hole, the blood is flowing loudly, and a roll of toilet paper borrowed from next door is not enough, and I can't cover it!" Everyone asked about the follow-up, Sister Zhang sighed and said that the woman who was beaten did not dare to leave, "She said, I have not been with him, and my son may not be able to marry a daughter-in-law." She also has a shadow, she said, as long as I can't disappear in this world, he can find me wherever I flee. She wouldn't dare! ”
Qiu Shangxian remembers that the women present were silent after hearing the story. "It's a natural empathy for women, and we all know what the woman who was beaten was afraid of." "One of them started talking, and the aunts started talking slowly," she recalled. ”
"Her old man punched her and knocked out her four front teeth." "The son of the family next door, trampling his mother on the ground and beating him" "I gave birth to a daughter, and my mother-in-law said that no one picked it up if it was thrown on the Guanzhong Ring Road"...... More and more stories are unfolding, and those who hear them are shocked; Seven groups of flower buns also gradually took shape under the skillful hands of the peasant women, "The aunts can make steamed buns, but most of the scene-based flower buns are made for the first time, but they are very attentive, and they will carefully put the eyes of the beaten woman and apply the wound." Qiu Shangxian said.
In order to thank the peasant women for their help, Qiu Shangxian also prepared some eggs and laundry detergent, "Later, I found that the preparation was less, and an aunt didn't receive it, but she said, it's okay, auntie supports you to do good deeds, it doesn't matter." ”
"Don't Ignore Their Suffering"
On July 17, 2023, the weather was hot and humid in the afternoon, but a special blood fire show was taking place in a small village at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains. A straight and wide road, connecting two villages, seven groups of performers took seven small tricycles, plus a gong and drum team, and walked along the road, using the form of blood and fire to restore the domestic violence scene on the flower bun.
"I found the Qin Xiang Zile class in the village, and they were happy to participate in this activity, and they gathered seven groups of men and women to perform, plus seven people who helped drive the tricycle." Qiu Shangxian mentioned, "A day or two before the performance, a gong and drum team knew what we thought, and drove over to help play the music that day. ”
Most of the bloody and terrifying appearances of the blood society fire, but because they are amateur teams, they are not professional in the final makeup design, and they are more borrowed from their techniques, although the dark eye sockets and the bloody corners of the mouth are slightly rough, but they seem to have suffered scars after domestic violence, which is shocking.
On this road in the countryside of Guanzhong, simple amateur actors packed up their appearances and performed a series of domestic violence scenes in gongs and drums: the husband kicked his wife angrily with a hideous face, the old man pulled his daughter-in-law's hair vigorously, and even cut people with knives...... "Without too much narration to explain, they walked all the way, but some villagers understood it at a glance and said that it was domestic violence." Qiu Shangxian said. The fire lasted for about three hours, and hundreds of villagers watched and discussed.
"The blood fire also has a sacrificial use, and we hope that through such an artistic performance, we can comfort the women in Guanzhong who have suffered domestic violence, and pray that there will be no more domestic violence." Qiu Shangxian completed her work, and after adding more research, the group of artworks was exhibited the following year.
This group of works has made Qiu Shangxian gain a lot. An aunt in the blood fire performance team has been silently enduring domestic violence for more than 20 years, and she is physically and mentally exhausted. After the performance, she finally spoke and told Qiu Shangxian about her years of suffering. "Many women who have been subjected to domestic violence feel that this is a family matter, and I am ashamed to say to outsiders that this time I can release their hidden pain, and I feel very lucky." But Qiu Shangxian didn't expect the work to have such a high popularity.
After viewing the exhibition, many citizens were moved by "Guanzhong's Impression of the Daughter-in-law's Noodles", and posted it on social platforms, which once rushed to the hot search. Many messages told their experiences and observations, about the cruelty and harm of domestic violence, and said "no!" to domestic violence. Qiu Shangxian said in the top message: Domestic violence has no gender, and I hope more people will pay attention to this public issue.
Among the many messages, Qiu Shangxian was particularly touched by a sticker. In an ordinary noodle restaurant in Gansu, there is a saying on the wall: the daughter-in-law who hits the noodles kneaded. This phrase has been circulated for many years, and it may have been hung up by the store store as an ornament, a local cultural promotion, and the store and many customers may still not realize the "abnormality" behind this everyday saying.
Editor: Wu Jiahong
Source: Golden Sheep Network