When reading the ancestors, we are also reading the true true life

Wu Genmei is an ordinary labor woman. She was born in a poor farmer in 1952. In the hard years, hunger and poverty did not affect her love for life. She worked hard to improve the living conditions of the family, and then continued to "work hard" with her children in the city. The granddaughter of the "post -00s" feels like her grandmother's life experience, and recorded it in the way of oral history and remitted it into the book "Grandma and her house". This book takes us closer to Wu Genmei's interesting memory field, and also saw the subjectivity and creativity of ordinary women's trivial daily life at that time.

■ Fen Chenchen

There is such a sentence in Lu Yao's "Ordinary World": "People would rather care about the eating and drinking Lazar of an actor, nor did they want to care about an ordinary world of ordinary people." It is always difficult for us to have the opportunity to really get closer to an ordinary life.

And opened "Grandma and Her House" (October 2021 Edition of Oriental Publishing Center), I soon follow the tell of the protagonist Wu Genmei and an ordinary "post -50" woman. The house, and the dense life roads that are connected in the house.

My stronger resonance is also from, the protagonist's granddaughter is the interviewer and recorder of this oral history. Therefore, when I went in and out of the "grandmother's house", I always encountered a situation of acquaintance, thinking of the pictures about my grandma, and realizing those intergenerational misunderstandings we often have from our ancestors. In the intersection of different time and experience, we not only achieved a new understanding of them, but also touched the true life of life in a richer dimension.

Earn money to set up home: she cherishes the meaning of creation

I wrote a diary in elementary school entitled "The Feelings between Grandma and the Old Things". In memory, grandma is always reluctant to lose old things that have been moved repeatedly and can not be used. Every time my father tried to clean up, she was confused by her indignation: "These things at home are all messed up one by one ..." It is too annoying to say.

When I wrote this diary, I think my grandma is in love. When I read "Grandma and Her House", when Wu Genmei tried his best to eat hard and earn money, and set up a family, I suddenly realized that the grandmother and my grandma in the book had something that they cherished together. From the age of material scarcity, they care about the hard -to -come stitches, and they are concerned about their difficult youthful years, and the creativity that is full of enthusiasm and ingenuity.

Wu Genmei's way of making money and setting up a family is always admirable. During the planned economy period, after Wu Genmei married A Si, he found that A Si family accumulated a mussel shell that no one wanted (it can be crushed and polished as a button), so she started the first business. Wu Genmei, who was pregnant, knocked a hill -like mussel shell with her husband, and used the income to return the debt when she got married.

After the reform and opening up, the bulb factory was downturn, and Wu Genmei found the opportunity to carry out N kinds of sideline. The process of doing the sideline business in Wu Genmei's mouth is like a funny breakthrough: when scratching the yellow cricket, she fights wisdom with the catfish in the hot pot. When she is a small shoes, she studies from zero to study a comfortable and beautiful approach, or even Attracted overseas orders ... In the narrative of every tireless and overcome problem, she can see her constantly digging and recognition of her creativity: "I like to make money by my own labor and ideas, which makes me very A sense of accomplishment."

I then understood that the value imprint brought by "labor" and "ideas" may also be the meaning of my grandmother in the old things. Some female doctrines have proposed that under the inequality gender power structure, men are given the characteristics of creativity, transcendence and initiative, and women are considered to be repetitive, maintenance, and passive existence. When the outstanding women in history and reality are constantly challenging the above -mentioned structure, Wu Genmei's narrative tells us that the subjectivity and creativity of the capacity is also ubiquitous in the daily life of ordinary women.

Interesting "two sides": the inner world that labels endlessly

Wu Genmei's daughter and Teacher Shen Yifei of Fudan University said in the preface of the book that there is no special identity, which is precisely the identity of most people in life. She described her mother like this: "I found it difficult to label her mother because she often has two sides."

In reading, we did find that the grandmother in the book is often an interesting "two factions."

For example, she believes in science. During the college entrance examination of her daughter in the early 1990s, most parents did not care so much about filling in their volunteers. Only Wu Genmei, a primary school culture, spent a month, studied the doorway to help her daughter choose schools and majors. Essence At the same time, she asked God to bless her daughter and make a special trip to the county to worship the Bodhisattva.

For example, she has a valuable judgment. When she helped her daughter -in -law watching a house in Shanghai, others said that the house has risen fast in recent years. It is not cost -effective to buy it now, but she believes in her observation and thinks that the quality of the house is far better. But when decorating the house, she listened to others and "Tibetan gold" (golden and silver coins) in the floor to pray for the fortune in the family.

For another example, in the face of her father -in -law's usual difficulties, she has always worked hard and not complained. She seems to be a very conservative filial daughter -in -law, but she is very opinionated. When facing the grandfather's savvy calculation, she boldly proposed to divide her in -laws. He defended the independence and rights of small families.

These contradictions and tensions on the describer made my grandmother's question mark appear again: she resolutely supports women's independence and believes that "women must have their own work", but when discussing women's lifestyle, she is very traditional. , Sneak at the trendy dress; she resolutely supports the collective interests higher than heaven, and struggle for collective work in her life, but she always feels "never lived for myself" ... Once, I stubbornly believed that the two seemingly opposite characteristics of the opposite seemed to be the opposite. I wo n’t appear in the same person, and I also bring the pride of young people, relentlessly criticizing these two sides of my ancestors. However, "Grandma and Her House" uses orally to really restore the contextualized person. Let us see that the individual's thoughts and behaviors have a specific situation of rooting, which cannot be used or conservative or pioneers Or the definition and exhaustion of the traditional or modern, selfish or selfless label.

It is precisely the significance of the history of civilian oral oral history that is exactly important in this moment that is full of symbols and labels. By retaining the leaves and leaves that are not neat in life, it helps us throw a label that is self -righteous, re -understand the complex soil of each era, and insight into the rich heart of each individual.

Vernacular "philosopher": Her nagging is closely linked to the big narrative

Entering the 21st century, in order to help her daughter -in -law, Wu Genmei came to Shanghai from his hometown to start a new life after retirement. From uncomfortable, to gradually like Shanghai, Wu Genmei's narrative also makes me feel extremely familiar. Although my hometown cannot be compared with international cities such as Shanghai, under the tide of reform and opening up, the continuous process of modernization and urbanization brings the feelings of the ancestors is generally similar.

Property and supermarkets are the starting point for Wu Genmei to understand and like big cities. The story in the book is very interesting. One day, the water pipe was leaked. Wu Genmei, who was new to Shanghai, was very worried. Later, the son -in -law taught her how to find a property to solve the problem. Wu Genmei first realized the convenience of division of labor and service: "A phone can solve the problem. I started to feel the goodness of Shanghai."

And visiting the supermarket has become her biggest joy. She voiced the new enjoyment that the supermarket brought to her. What impressed me most was, "Before paying, no matter how many times I regret, no one will lose her eyes. This feeling is too free."

After reading this, I can't help admiring that the feelings of my grandmother and the journey of entering the big city in the book, isn't it exactly the modern issue discussed by philosophy sociologists? From the acquaintance society that has been adhered to by blood to the society of strangers, the discomfort and sorrow of grandmother are the characteristics of high liquidity and high risk of modern society. The gospel brought us with efficiency.

I re -understood my ancestors again. Wu Genmei, and many of our ancestors, may not have read "Consequences of Modernity", and do not understand which faces there are, but in a sense, they are all "philosophers". I used to think that there were some pedantic, some unsighting and anger. In fact, it was the fresh context of the grand social change issues, which was the true impact of history on individuals. I used to have a hard -to -speak theory in the institution of high school, perhaps it was broken by my grandmother.

In the last section of the book, my grandmother reviewed her life and was conscious. And her curiosity about new things, the excavation of self -worth, and the perception of the great era still did not stop. She is studying the piano, and the next goal is to attend the concert before the age of 80. I am very grateful to read the enlightenment that this book brings me. Just as the sincere expression of the author Shang Chuyu: "I finally met my grandmother, the former familiar stranger, I finally saw an era." Also very much. Looking forward to more ordinary women becoming the main body of narrative, taking us closer to their interesting memories.

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