One autumn more than twenty years ago, I was traveling in Gannan. In a small town near the Ganjiang River, I bought The Little Girl by the Window (translated by Julian) written by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi and illustrated by Chihiro Iwasaki. After reading this little book with simple and fresh words and lively and interesting stories on the journey, I deeply fell in love with this simple, kind and curious little girl, who is also very lively and playful. Over the years, in my bookcase, this little book has kept some of the best children's books in the world, such as Education of Love, How to Go to Prague alone, Anne of Green Gables, Little Heidi and so on. They are not only beautiful children's novels and growth stories suitable for children to read, but also "educational poems" written for parents, teachers and educators all over the world.
More than 20 years have passed, and the little Doudou by the window (in that old translation, the little girl's name was translated as "Dongdong") has always been a beautiful memory and concern in my heart. To my delight, in recent years, I have read several other books written by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, such as What I was thinking when I was a child, Little Doudou in an Incredible Country and Little Doudou and Me written by Black Liu Chao. The little Doudou by the window is very good. I also saw her photos as a goodwill ambassador of UNICEF in Afghanistan and other countries with poor children. My surprise goes without saying.
"I have a six-year-old son. At Christmas, when I wasn't looking, he stuffed a letter into the sock that received a gift from Santa Claus. The letter said: Santa Claus, please go to Africa, I don't want anything! As a result, on the morning of Christmas, my son found a message from Santa Claus in his socks: thank you, I'm going to Africa.
When Chief Cher grew up, she not only became a famous UNICEF writer and TV presenter, but also served as a goodwill ambassador for more than 20 years. During this period, she almost traveled all over Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia and nearly 30 countries, and went deep into tents in suffering villages and refugee camps ravaged by poverty, hunger, disease and war. The above incident is a detail that a mother told Tetsuko Kuroyanagi in a letter after the TV series Hungry Africa, which recorded her work in Africa, was broadcast.
"That little boy will imagine Santa Claus going to Africa in his mind and distributing all kinds of food in his big pocket to hungry children. Maybe he will also imagine that there is heavy snow in the arid desert and reindeer are running in the snow. " Tetsuko Kuroyanagi is also imagining, "If only all this were true!"
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi wrote many such details and short stories in the book Little Doudou in an Incredible Country. Some of these things are what she heard, saw, thought and felt as an adult, and some are what she "thought of when she was a child and still thought of when she grew up."
She is like a diamond miner with a sieve in the valley of Sierra Leone diamond mine in West Africa, sifting away the vain dust in the past years and life bit by bit, and washing away the glittering and most precious fragments in her memory. This writing naturally reminds me of those children who keep sifting small stones with small sieves, and the same question arises: "With so many trivial words, will diamonds be missed?" Or the child in her pen answered well: "Even the smallest diamond will shine ..."
What we see from her book is just such words that shine like small diamonds. During his working days in Africa, the Middle East and other countries and regions, Tetsuko Kuroyanagi witnessed countless human tragedies, witnessed the streets devastated by civil war, the bodies piled up into mountains due to ethnic vendettas, the endless scorched land, and refugees squatting on the ground in the heat of 50-60 degrees Celsius or the cold of tens of degrees below zero. In her book, the infinite love and moral sense of the goodwill ambassador, the gentle and delicate observation, discovery and feeling like a mother, the will of the suffering nation, women and children to survive, and their yearning and longing for a well-fed and peaceful life are all revealed through simple and meticulous words, and some touching details can be seen everywhere.