For me, only four numbers and eight Chinese characters are a history of China's victory, but in Bai Xianyong's Taibei People, I can feel the hardships and sufferings of hundreds or even millions of China people who have left their homes as a China compatriot.
Among them, Huaqiao Rongji depicts the life images of the proprietress of Huaqiao Rongji rice noodle shop in Guilin, Guangxi and her hometown in Guangxi as "outsiders" in Taiwan Province Province with a fresh and gentle style and an objective and peaceful perspective.
In this group of Guangxi villagers who often provide meals in the proprietress's shop, Mr. Lu is undoubtedly the most important one, and the deep tragedy that readers feel is revealed through comparison. According to the proprietress, Mr. Lu was "gentle and gentle all the way" and "should have had a decent appearance". The word "should have" shows that Mr. Lu's appearance has changed, but he is still decent and tidy. But in the later period, Mr. Lu "dyed his white hair black, bad and stiff;" My face is probably covered with cream, so it's white. "This neither fish nor fowl vulgar appearance is really heartbreaking. As mentioned above, "but somehow, I turned my hair white first." "It can be speculated that premature white hair is Mr. Lu's pain and hope for the past. He dyed his hair black to cover up the wrinkles, which was a bitter redemption of youth and reality after disillusionment.
In the past, Mr. Lu came from a superior family, was "educated" and "gentle", and even his wife, who was mean and mean, was "protective in every way". Mr. Lu laughed six times in the article. For the first time, he leaned over and said with a smile, "It's not your fault, boss"; The second time is to introduce the wrinkles on Mr. Lu's body that make him "old"; The third time is to "answer with a smile" the proprietress; The fourth time, when listening to the boss talk about the feeling of "Xue Pinggui returning to the kiln", she "laughed without a word"; The fifth time, he "smiled" when talking about Miss Luo. Finally, after learning the news of Miss Luo, I was "dumbfounding". Mr. Lu is polite to others, often with a slight smile, but this smile is also bitter. Listening to the silence in Xue Pinggui Returning to the Kiln, we can see that Mr. Lu's heart is mixed, but he chose to endure life silently and laugh it off. Only when we talk about Miss Lu can we see Mr. Lu's genuine happiness in getting rid of the depression of life.
The great change of Mr. Lu's temperament is most directly reflected in his attitude towards children. Twice, he took care of naughty pupils patiently like a rooster, and called himself Lao Zi, beating and cursing his young girl and desperately shouting, "I'm going to kill her!" I want to kill her! "Mr. Lu's rage is a grievance and catharsis of everything he endured in his previous life, and his disillusionment with his dreams is unacceptable. How can a person live as usual after the spiritual pillar of survival is abruptly broken?
Miss Luo is the only spiritual support for Mr. Lu's arrival in Taiwan Province Province. It is with this belief that Mr. Lu can be "satisfied without gossiping" and not get into trouble like other people who are full of complaints; You can live a monotonous and miserable life like a monk. Teacher Lu helped raise chickens and saved ten gold bars for fifteen years. A big shot with a rich background will even think about raising chickens to make money. I believe it is difficult for ordinary people to persist, but Mr. Lu did it. How distressing and pitiful his patience and perseverance are, because he has Miss Luo in his heart. So after being cheated out of his hard-earned money by his cousin for fifteen years, his spiritual world was cheated out together. He lived with the vulgar and pungent washerwoman Chun, and fell into dirty sensuality from the love of the soul. Empty and lonely souls have nowhere to go and nothing to rely on. He could only try to save himself through vulgar indulgence, but he went to hell step by step.
Mr. Lu's tragedy is clearly visible, but the tragedy of another protagonist is hidden in the glory of Huaqiao, that is, the proprietress of the title of "Brilliance of Huaqiao". This article takes the proprietress as the narrator. Readers can see what the proprietress sees and know what the proprietress knows. She seems to be a narrator hiding behind the scenes, but in fact she is involved. The proprietress seems to have adapted to a very different life from the mainland. She runs a rice noodle shop, gives blind dates to her husband's niece, and chats with Mrs. Gu about other people's gossip, just like all ordinary women's homes, but we can still appreciate the bitterness of the boss's happy life from the narrative words.
Unlike Mr. Lu, the proprietress is not always immersed in the memories of the past. She can keep the memories of the past in her heart and live in the present. Because she sees the reality clearly, she is not so easily defeated by the reality, but we can still see the boss's memories of the past and her love for the former people. First of all, I am proud of my hometown Guilin, and I am proud of being a Guilin person. Guilin has beautiful mountains and rivers, and "the characters will eventually be different." Even people in other parts of Guangxi are "where can we fight for Guilin people", not to mention the troubled Taiwan Province Province; For Mr. Lu's appreciation, use the sentence "You don't have to ask (Guilin people)". Secondly, I remember my glorious past. The first sentence at the beginning is "mention our overseas Chinese honor, that signboard is very famous." Noble status after marriage, "as a battalion commander's wife for several years". A natural proprietress is also confident in her looks and abilities. When I was a child, I was called "handsome" by Mrs. Kuo and "a famous beauty outside Shuidongmen". For her rice noodles, "I dare say that Taipei can't find a second one." The proprietress boasted not only the pride in her heart, but also her dissatisfaction with her present life, her yearning for her relatives in her hometown, and the passing time of her happy family reunion.
Mr. Lu has Miss Luo, and the proprietress also has her beloved husband. The lingering love is another important reason for the tragedy of the proprietress. The proprietress "often dreams about my husband". After listening to Xue Pinggui Back to the Kiln, she dreamed that my husband was riding a horse. The proprietress never mentioned her feelings with her husband, but from this dream, she could feel that she loved her husband deeply and even worried about his niece Xiuhua, but the person who loved her so much was gone, even separated by Yin and Yang.
The proprietress can be said to be "Mr. Lu" in another sense, and has been waiting for her husband. She is persuading Xiuhua to say, "If I had known this, I would have made another plan more than ten years ago." She said so, but the proprietress still didn't marry anyone else and couldn't let go of her husband. She is always looking forward to the day of reunion. Listening to Mr. Lu sing until he was eighteen, he still felt "a little stinging". Isn't this a metaphor? The proprietress also kept Rainbow Baochuan's husband in this "bitter kiln" in Taipei, but after all, she is not Wang Baochuan, and it is Xue Pinggui who can't wait for her.
The death of Mr. Lu and the life of the proprietress are both tragedies of "mainlanders" who fled the mainland in Taiwan Province Province. In the war, they may have temporarily avoided Taiwan Province Province with a confused mind, but they never thought that it would take a long time. From then on, the past was like smoke, just like the last photo. Mr. Lu and Miss Luo, dressed as students, are still smiling sweetly, but now they can't bear to elaborate. One era, two tragedies.