The story of Wu Qingheng and seagulls

Kunming is a "spring city" with four seasons like spring, and the "heart" of Kunming city center is Cuihu, which is called "Little West Lake". It has more than 200 acres of water, beautiful lakes and towering old trees. 1985 In the early winter, a rare wonder in the world suddenly appeared: from Siberia, thousands of miles away, countless seagulls suddenly flew to the Emerald Lake. This winter, the Emerald Lake is still green as flowers. During the day, about 50 thousand seagulls gather here. They either hover over the Jade Lake, swim in the lake or chase each other. In the evening, they all flew to the nearby Dianchi Lake, Yangzonghai Lake and Fuxian Lake for the night, and all flew back on time to gather in Cuihu Lake after dawn. These seagulls are as big as pigeons, with white feathers and red mouths as blood. They are loved by everyone and are affectionately called "red-billed gulls". The arrival of the red-billed gull, like a gentle angel, surprised people at first, and then distressed them; Since then, thousands of people have come to Cuihu to watch it every day, and food stalls have gathered in the nearby streets to facilitate people to buy food for seagulls. When people throw food into the air, or put it on the lake embankment, or even put it in their palms, red-billed gulls will fly to feed, and people and gulls have formed an inseparable "love between people and gulls." The municipal government also issued a ban: it is forbidden to kill seagulls and set off firecrackers to scare seagulls. In order to keep seagulls forever, the municipal government spared no expense to allocate 654.38+million special funds every year, which was later increased to 200,000, and designated food enterprises to produce food suitable for seagulls. Employees of the Environmental Protection Bureau continued to feed seagulls. The white clouds in the sky are constantly changing, the epiphyllum on the ground disappears instantly, and the river flowing eastward is gone forever. In the past 20 years, things have changed, and mulberry has undergone earth-shaking changes. But these gentle and lovely elves, like wanderers returning home, fly back to Spring City on time every early winter, painting the green lake in winter into colorful scrolls full of vitality. People enjoy water and music, live in harmony with nature, and love each other with gulls, adding beautiful scrolls to Spring City.

There once happened a well-known touching story "The Seagull and the Old Man"-a retired worker named Wu Qingheng, who graduated from Revolutionary University in the early days of liberation and was proficient in English. After liberation, when working in the unit, he was radical in thinking, had the ability to think independently and did not listen to other people's opinions. He was branded as a rightist because he expressed some personal views when talking with people. Later, he was sentenced to prison because a soldier's family cooked several meals for him and was accused of breaking the military marriage. After he was released from prison, he returned to his hometown of Kunming and was assigned as a worker in a chemical plant. Since then, he is unwilling to communicate with others and has been living a lonely life. Since the seagull flew to Kunming, he has also retired! Thus, seagulls became the sustenance of his life and spirit. For ten years, he went to Cuihu every day to watch seagulls, feed them and become bosom friends with them. The retirement salary of the elderly is only 200 yuan per month, and later it is increased to 308 yuan. Every year, when seagulls come to Kunming for more than four months, the old people spend half of their wages to buy seagulls' food. Every morning after breakfast, the old man takes the food cooked the night before and goes to the city to feed the seagulls. The distance from Kunming Chemical Plant to Cuihu Park in the western suburbs is more than 10 km. He is reluctant to take a 50-cent bus and always walks into town. He often arrives at Cuihu Lake around noon 12. Old people don't want to spend money to eat a bowl of rice noodles or bait at noon, but bring their own dry food and water for lunch. Feeding a seagull, the old man had to walk back to the factory before 3 pm. When he was eating in the factory canteen, he picked up some steamed bread thrown away by others, cut it into pieces at home at night, made seagull food with flour, sugar and eggs bought for seagulls, and fed it to seagulls the next day. Life is like this.

When the old man feeds the gulls, he will talk to them endlessly and feed them. He didn't come out to see the gulls and feed them, but he really loved them. His eye contact with seagulls is a kind of spiritual communication. Seagulls are familiar with the old man. Like the seagull with only one foot rescued by the old man, the old man called it "one foot" As long as the old man shouts, that foot will jump out of the water. The old man also named other seagulls "Grey Top", "Tsar", "Bao Xiao" and "Xiao Li" ... The old man kept calling these friendly names, and these elves would fly around the old man to eat, and sometimes they would fly around the old man and even fall on his shoulders. When the old man fed the gull, the red-billed gull and his intimate real life scene became the famous "Cuihu scene" (many people also imitated him and put gull food on the railing by the lake, but the red-billed gull dared not fly to feed. There are always tourists and passers-by who stop to watch, appreciate and marvel.

1995 On the end of the day, photographer Li Zhixiong was resting in the shadow friend salon opened by a friend at Cuihu Lake. Chatting, he found an old man feeding seagulls across the Cuihu Lake. His way of feeding is different: instead of throwing away food, he puts it on the railing. After the seagull finished eating, he took it out of the food bag on his back and put some more. When feeding the seagull, he shouted something. Chatting with friends, I realized that old people often come to feed seagulls. He has been uninterrupted 10 years. Many people know him, but don't know his name, so they call him "Old Gull" in private. With his artistic sensitivity, Li Zhixiong knew that the old man in front of him would be a very important theme. So, I walked over with my camera and chatted with the old man. At first, the old man ignored him and was not allowed to take pictures of him. Photographer Li Zhixiong didn't cool the old man's artistic enthusiasm because of his indifferent attitude. From then on, he came to talk to the old man slowly every day, and constant contact finally made them friends. The old man's closed heart is open to him, telling his bumpy and desolate life experience; The old man also told Li Zhixiong that many red-billed gulls had become his confidants, and he could call them at any time. Li Zhixiong didn't believe it, so the old man called on the spot. They jumped out of the lake when they heard the sound. They flew around the old man's head and around him affectionately. The old man also told Li Zhixiong: Last year, a red-billed gull named Bao Xiao stopped on his hat three times, kept chirping and flew around him, but at that time he didn't understand what it meant. Later I learned, "It's saying goodbye to me! The next year, it never flew back to Cuihu! " ; Once the old man was feeding the seagulls, and a fellow villager in rags took a good look, so he reached out and grabbed a red-billed gull on a railing and smiled proudly. Li Zhixiong witnessed: I saw the old man pounce like a furious lion, sealed the collar of the gang and roared like a lion: "Bastard! Let me go. " The crowd around watching the old man feed the seagulls also condemned the bad behavior of this group. The gang was so scared that they quickly let go of the red-billed gull and ran away. ...

After knowing the old man, Li Zhixiong often visited the old man and the red-billed gull in Cuihu, but soon, Li Zhixiong found that he had not seen the old man for several days, and he missed him very much. Suddenly one day, he saw the old man wearing a brand-new hand-sewn suit, stumbling to Cuihu to feed the seagulls. The old man is very weak. When he sat by the Cuihu Lake and fed the seagulls, his body bent into an arch. The old man said to the photographer, "I was sick these days and only ate a bowl of noodles for three days." I came to see seagulls when I was in a good mood today, and I have been worried about these lovely elves. " At that time, Li Zhixiong didn't find anything after taking photos. The old man didn't come the next day, and he couldn't wait for the old man the third day. On the fourth day, Li Zhixiong suddenly thought that something might have happened to the old man! So, I immediately called my friends in magazines and TV stations. Everyone got together and immediately bought some tonics and drove to visit the old man. Who knows it's too late? The old man died the night before!

There is only one bed and an English-Chinese dictionary in the old man's room. The only valuable things at home are six eggs and a small bag of flour, which are for seagulls. Master Bao, the neighbor of the old man, said: The old man usually lives frugally. He likes listening to Beijing opera, but he is reluctant to buy a radio with a price of 10. He just asked Mr. Bao to turn up his voice when listening to Beijing opera. According to the master of the retirement office of the chemical plant, the old man has never reimbursed his medical expenses for more than 30 years, but he had a cold before his death. There is a small photo of Zhang Haiou hanging in front of the old man's bed. I heard that it was taken by a photographer in Cuihu Park for 3 yuan. The seagulls in the picture are very small. Looking at this photo, Li Zhixiong couldn't help but be heartbroken: he promised the old man two things, one was to send him a full set of photos of himself and seagulls, and the other was to show him where seagulls slept, but he broke his word because he had already left!

After the old man went to the west, local newspapers and TV stations reported the story one after another, and people all over Yunnan knew the touching story of the old man seagull.

After returning from the chemical plant, Li Zhixiong and others printed the obituary of the old seagull in Cuihu. Li Zhixiong enlarged the last photo taken for the old seagull to 24 inches and took it to Cuihu to hold a memorial service for the old man. Many people recognized the old seagull from the photo, and many people signed the photo and filled in all the blanks in the photo. The strangest thing is that seagulls stood neatly in front of the old man's portrait and refused to leave for a long time. Everyone who witnessed this scene shed tears. When Li Zhixiong and his friends tried to take away the photos, all the seagulls jumped up, and their wings almost fanned people. When Li Zhixiong and his friends saw the old man off, many strangers came. They came to the funeral home without eulogy or funeral. They put this signed photo in the old man's arms and turned to ashes with him.

This set of photos taken by Li Zhixiong for the old seagull won him the gold medal of "Man and Nature" in the sixth news award. The story of "The Old Man and the Seagull" will remain in the world forever with precious images. Every time he shows the burned film to the students, the students will cry. How can people not cry? In the sad and depressed life course of the old man, he pinned his rich spiritual world on the seagull, the spirit of nature, and he just wanted to return to nature and harmony. The life story of this little person who shines with the beautiful aura of human nature has aroused widespread voices from all the little people. The image of the old seagull has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts and has become a vivid image of the truth, goodness and beauty of the world. Red-billed gull has become the city emblem stuck in the hearts of Kunming people and the city business card of Kunming.

In the early winter of 2005, the vanguard of red-billed gull flew to Kunming again! On the day when the old seagull died for ten years, people seemed to miss this respectable old man again. A girl born in the year when seagulls flew to Kunming wrote to the local newspaper: a mermaid in Singapore became a national symbol, and the mermaid statue in Copenhagen made a fairy tale last forever; She cried when she first learned the story of the old seagull. She believes that a true fairy tale can bring such great warmth to a city, so a bronze statue should be erected for the old seagull on the side of Cuihu Lake, so that it can become the spiritual wealth of Kunming and avoid this true feeling being forgotten by people with the passage of time.

The girl's affectionate call immediately aroused enthusiastic response in the society: a wave of donations for seagulls and seagulls has been widely formed in the society: some entrepreneurs and enterprises where the elderly are located (this is a difficult enterprise) have donated tens of thousands; A blind man will never forget his acquaintance with the old seagull. Although his livelihood was difficult, he gave generously and donated 1000 yuan, refusing to leave his name. Even primary school students donated the pocket money they usually accumulated ... everyone collects firewood with a high flame, and the donation will soon be enough! As a result, local newspapers in Kunming collected the design patterns of bronze sculptures from artists in the city, published a variety of design patterns for the masses to evaluate, and finally elected recognized leaders from them; Professor Zhang Wenxun, director of the Chinese Department of Yunnan University, was invited to write an article introducing the simple deeds of the seagull old man. In the spring of 2006, the bronze statue of the old seagull was finally unveiled in Cuihu Park, and the touching story of the old man was engraved on the white marble tablet next to the statue. All visitors to Yunnan can see the bronze statue of the old seagull on the beautiful Cuihu Lake, which is probably the first, or at least extremely rare, in China.