The main content of the past in the south of the city

Old Things in the South of the City is an autobiographical work by Lin, a famous female writer. It is a novel set in her life from the age of seven to thirteen, and it is also her masterpiece.

It describes a warm and happy Eiko family who lived in a quadrangle in the south of Beijing in the 1920s. Through the childish eyes of the protagonist Eiko, the joys and sorrows of the adult world are shown to the world. There is an unspeakable innocence, but it tells the complicated feelings of the world. Old Stories in the South of the City was selected as "Top 100 China Novels in the 20th Century" by Asia Weekly. It was put on the screen in the 1980s and won many awards such as "Golden Rooster Award for Chinese Movies", which touched a generation. Full of nostalgic tone, it expresses its multi-level emotional color in a natural and seamless way. Everything in the book is so orderly. Slow flowing water, slow camel team, slowly passing crowd, slowly passing years ... The perfect combination of scenery, events, people, things and feelings is like an elegant and implicit poem. More than half a century ago, the little girl Lin followed her parents across the ocean from Taiwan Province Province to Beijing and lived in an alley in the south of Beijing. The battlements in the ancient capital Beijing, camel bells in the sunset, back streets and alleys in downtown areas … all these make Eiko feel novel and fascinated. The crazy woman in front of the guild hall, covered in striped little female companions, thieves haunting in weeds, Ma Song, the wet nurse who accompanied her day and night, and her loving father who was addicted to dying underground ... all played, laughed and lived with Eiko, and their voices and smiles were still there, but they all quietly left. Why is the world so miserable? The unreasonable Eiko pondered for a long time but could not understand.

After more than 50 years, wanderers in Beijing are still obsessed with all this. That faint sadness, that heavy lovesickness, was deeply imprinted in her childhood memory and never faded, which deeply touched me.

I. Introduction to the author

Lin (19 18—200 1), formerly known as Lin, was born in Miaoli County, Taiwan Province Province, and his parents had gone to Japan for business. Lin was born in Osaka on March 8, 200819/KLOC-0, and soon returned to Taiwan Province. At that time, Taiwan Province Province had been occupied by Japanese imperialism, and her father didn't want to live in the hands of Japanese invaders, so his family moved to Beijing, where Lin grew up. He studied at Changdian Primary School in the south of Beijing, Beijing Journalism College, and worked as a reporter for the News of the World after graduation. Soon, he married his newspaper colleague Xia. 1In August, 948, she returned to her hometown in Taiwan Province Province with her husband and three children as the editor of Mandarin Daily. 1953 as editor-in-chief of the supplement of United Daily News, and started literary and artistic creation. He also served as an editor of satellite magazine and a teacher of the School of World Journalism. 1967 founded the pure literature magazine and later managed the pure literature publishing house.

Lin's creation is rich. So far, 18 books have been published. Prose collections Window (in cooperation with He Fan), Two Places, Visit to the United States, Night Reading in Cloudy Windows, Silhouette on Literary World, Head of the Family, Living on the Edge of Bookstore, Essay Collection Holly Tree, Short Stories Collection Candle Heart, Marriage Story, Old Events in the South of the City.

Second, the introduction of "Old Things in the South of the City"

In the late 1920s, a six-year-old girl named Lin lived in a small alley in the south of Beijing. Xiuzhen, a "crazy" woman who often stands in the alley looking for her daughter, is Eiko's first friend. Xiuzhen once had a crush on a college student. Later, college students were taken away by the police, and Xiuzhen's daughter, Xiao Guizi, was left at the foot of the city by her family. Life and death are unknown. Eiko is very sympathetic to her. Eiko learned that the little girl's life is very similar to that of the little devil, found the mark on the back of her neck, and quickly took her to Xiuzhen. Xiuzhen knew her daughter who had been separated for six years, and immediately took her to find her father. As a result, the mother and daughter died tragically under the train wheels. Houjia moved to Xinlian Hutong. Eiko met a young man with thick lips in a nearby desert garden. In order to pay for his brother's education, he had to steal. Eiko thinks she is kind, but she can't tell whether she is a good person or a bad person. Not long after, Eiko found a small bronze Buddha on the barren grass, which was discovered by the police spy and took the young man away with the police. This incident made Eiko very sad. When Eiko was nine years old, Feng Daming, the husband of her wet nurse Ma Song, came to the Lins. Eiko was very sad to learn that Ma Song's son fell into the river and drowned two years ago, and her daughter was sold to someone else by her husband. She couldn't understand why Ma Song left her children to wait on others. Later, Eiko's father died of lung disease, and Ma Song was picked up by her husband with a donkey. Eiko took his family on a long-distance carriage and said goodbye to his childhood with all kinds of doubts.

Third, the influence of the work.

Old Things in the South of the City is a classic work by Lin, a famous literary artist, who has been fighting alone in the literary world for more than 30 years. Since the publication of 1960, it has sold well not only in Taiwan Province province, but also in Chinese mainland.

With his detached and magical writing style, Lin observes the joys and sorrows of the adult world through the immature eyes of the protagonist Eiko, an indescribable naive, natural and unpretentious emotion, and perfectly blends the Nanjing scenery in Eiko's eyes into his lines, showing the real and vivid citizen life and setting a clear time and space background for readers. The book is filled with profound poetry in the light sadness, which makes people think about its profound meaning repeatedly.

Over the years, Old Things in the South of the City has touched readers from generation to generation. In addition to many novel editions, this book was also put on the screen in Chinese mainland 1985. The film "Old Things in the South of the City" won the Golden Rooster Award for Chinese films, the Golden Eagle Award for Best Feature Film at the 2nd Manila International Film Festival and the Best Film Thought Award at the 14th Berger International Children's Film Festival.

The children's picture book version of Old Things in the South of the City was created by Guan, a representative watercolor painter in China today. With his elegant and poetic style and unique techniques, he completely integrated the created picture into the story. All the costumes, utensils and buildings in the painting are well documented, without any randomness or ambiguity. The nuanced expressions of the characters, the light and pleasant rhythm and the mellow and rich timbre make the words and pictures present an impeccable echo. As soon as the picture book "Old Things in the South of the City" was published, it was selected into 1993, 1994 Bologna International Illustrator Exhibition, 1993 Bradis International Illustrator Biennale and 1994 Catalonia International Illustrator Biennale.

From novels to movies, from adult books to children's picture books, Old Things in the South of the City is a story and a dream. It reads like music and touches people's hearts gently. The deep meaning implied between the lines is even more shocking, and I can't control myself for a long time.