Appreciation of Wei Honglian's Prose Beauty in Cloth

On the rolling hills in western Liaoning, there are five or six girls walking lightly on the mountain road. The oldest is eighteen or nineteen, and the youngest is fifteen or sixteen. They all wear long or short pigtails and blue trousers with different colors because of the difference between the old and the new, but their cotton floral jackets are brightly colored. Everyone has a neatly folded handkerchief in his pocket and even a small round mirror. Walking, I don't know who started, they began to sing, singing "Jinshan in Beijing" and "Jasmine" of northeast folk songs. The one wearing a red dandelion coat smiled and said something, which made the one wearing a green pear coat chase her and tickle her. When I caught up with her, I was caught by her hands. The two of them scratched and laughed and were rushed to the front in purple apricot coats. Their appearance makes the hillside colorful and lifelike. When they get to the top of the mountain, they will stop and look around and point out which village lives with their aunt and which village lives with their aunt.

This is a scene in the rural areas of western Liaoning in the 1960s and 1970s. Girls should be from the same village, about the same age, and usually form gangs. At the moment, they either go to the theater to watch yangko, or go to the market to visit the supply and marketing cooperatives, or go to the photo studio to take pictures, or go to the ceremony.

Watch opera and yangko. It must be in the first month. Don't go too far, it's less than seven or eight miles from Fiona Fang. On the stage, we didn't break up the gang. Such a small group is very noticeable. Several young people from other villages pretended to watch the play and spoke loudly with exaggeration, and their eyes swept from time to time. They don't look at each other, but concentrate on the stage, whispering while watching the play, who is the cousin of the young lady in our village and who is the third uncle who plays Hu Qin. Even if the joys and sorrows of love in the play make me cry, I am ashamed to admit it. I blinked a few times and smiled and said to my female companion, "The wind is so strong." Break up, never miss, turn around and go home.

It is not common to visit the supply and marketing cooperatives in the market. They don't have to go to the market town for more than ten miles, but their parents and brothers have to buy and sell things at home. But if one of them wants to add a flowered skirt, they will all go out and pour into the supply and marketing cooperatives, ignoring the non-staple food in the east, and only look at the long department store counter in front, where there are bright red hair bands, pink hair bands, small round mirrors, square flower handkerchiefs, white porcelain bottle vanishing cream and clam oil with shells. The destination is on the west side, and pure cotton cloth is placed on the wooden counter, which is divided into plain and twill. Plain cloth, thin and cool in summer; Twill is thick and windproof in winter. They whispered which color was new and which color was last time. Finally, I chose the one with a emerald blue background and clusters of pink begonia flowers for my partner, and smiled and watched the salesman tear off the measured cloth. They are never afraid of "bumping shirts". They are close friends. Just buy the same cloth, make the same style, and even make the same garlic button.

Taking pictures is a very grand thing, not just taking pictures, but planning some days. When you go out, find out your favorite cloth and put it on, comb your hair neatly, take some photos seriously in front of the mirror, and look at each other without flaws before going out. Of course it's a group photo. Listen to the photographer's arrangement There are two or three seats in the front row and three or four seats in the back row. This one turned his head slightly to the left, and that one raised his face slightly, looked forward, smiled, the lights flashed and clicked, and then he was relieved. I got the photo half a month later, perhaps thinking about what they looked like together after many years.

There are not many opportunities to accompany the ceremony, and girls don't want to go alone. The family that caught up with the wedding and funeral and the girls' families were all relatives and friends, so they got their consent and went together. They don't laugh or make trouble on the road. They are shy and steady in front of people: eight dishes and four bowls of seats, only the dishes in front of them; Obviously, I'm not full, and I'm too embarrassed to ask someone to add rice. When I catch up with the wedding ceremony, I will also blush and sneak into the new house hand in hand, look at the bride sitting on the kang and look at the dowry in the house.

These things add up to seven or eight times a year when we go out together, and we work as social workers on weekdays to earn work points for our family. When they work, they will get together, shovel from head to head with a fast ridge, turn to shovel two hoes for a slow ridge, and then sit around the ground to rest, so that the cloth coat will be saved into colorful flowers. At this time, their faces are rosy, their foreheads are slightly sweaty, and their breasts, which are imprisoned by underwear without edges and corners, are ups and downs, and they are as full as a flower bud that is about to bloom.

They like to work in cotton fields. Cotton is a common crop in rural areas, but its flowers change into white, yellow, pink and purple, which is very delicate and charming, and it is a wonderful flower among crops. The one with big eyes lifted the skirt and compared the colors with the flowers, and patted her high nose across the ridge: "Smelly!" Her mouth smiled and answered, "They call it Xiang Mei!" The crisp laughter attracted the attention of passers-by, and he couldn't help praising: "These girls are really like Hu Die!" When picking white and soft cotton flowers in autumn, you will have a whim: "Do you think the cloth we are wearing is cotton planted the year before last?" "Oh, maybe there will be a few buses."

On the day of rest or cat winter, gather on a kang to sew, collect the soles of parents or siblings, or secretly prepare their own dowry. Like the previous clubs, they wore patched floral jackets and front cuffs on their shoulders, making up the scraps when cutting this dress. If you really can't bear to use a new cloth, find a clean old cloth with similar color. There is no such thing as a red coat mending green cloth in film and television dramas. The stitches are carefully sewn, so you can't see them without looking carefully. The patch was worn out again, and the whole dress was too old to sew, so we had to take it apart, cut off the stronger part as a patch, and pile up the remaining soles. Although the clothes are old, they are starched and close to the skin, and they can smell a faint smell of soap. They must have an unpatched flower coat, which is usually kept in the cupboard and worn when they go out to the village.

This "boudoir" with a kang is the freest place, where you can reveal a little secret to each other. If he has a fiance, he will blush and show everyone his little photo. Those who are not engaged will lower their heads and whisper that someone has made a match for her. At this time, their mood is very complicated, sweet and sad, expecting attachment, which they can't understand.

They are always shy in front of people, especially strangers. Passing through other villages, it is better to take a detour than to avoid walking in front of everyone. There will be no indecent words in the words, so solemn that others dare not speak impudently in front of them.

One day, one of them is getting married. The man asked someone to be a matchmaker, and her parents found out that they lived as a family and agreed. This is not the time for arranged marriages. Blind date in supply and marketing cooperatives is a fashion. She lowered her head and pretended to be looking at the cloth. Her face is like a red cloth on the counter. The bride price money was paid by parents for the famine of marrying her sister-in-law She only got two pieces of cotton cloth just to sew a quilt and make a jacket. The needle and thread sneered through the cotton cloth. She thought: quilts and clothes are all cotton inside, and cotton wool is inside. Even the thread on the needle is twisted with cotton. At any time, people cannot do without cotton. She thought girls were like cotton: seven or eight or nine years old were cotton flowers, dancing with the wind and not laughing; Fifteen, six and seven years old are cotton flowers, soft as silk, clean and warm; When you get married, it is cotton, which can be used as a single in summer and cotton in winter. When she was wearing a jacket with a big red background and golden red lilies, her friends held quilts with a big red background and green leaves and peony flowers in a big pink bowl and rushed to the farewell carriage. The onlookers can't help but admire: "I usually think this child is quite handsome, but I didn't expect to wear new clothes and look better." "Look at these girls carefully. They don't look like the beautiful women in the painting."

I call them printed beauties in my mind. These girls are as ordinary as cotton, as delicate as cotton, as warm and lovely as cotton cloth. They are like a piece of cloth, soft, breathable and comfortable. Not every flower is beautiful, but every flower is beautiful. The little flower in the calico jacket is as natural and simple as the first flower.

I thought the beauty of cloth would last forever. However, one spring, the rise of tall buildings in the city needed countless bricks. People who run brick factories in the suburbs ask relatives in the village for help and recruit a group of truly capable women workers. So they went to a big place and got paid every month. When they came back in late autumn, they wore blue jackets, lapels, glass buttons and covered pockets. When they came back the next year, all kinds of polyester shirts were exposed at the neckline of the blue coat.

The rural areas in western Liaoning, hidden in hills and folds, have not escaped this evolution. The calico beauty drifted away, and finally even the back disappeared into the corner. ...