Chapter 9 Korean restaurants on the streets of Beijing

Beijing is an international city with a great collection of food culture. Following the European style, Korean restaurants (specializing in barbecue) have quietly landed in the streets and alleys.I went to eat Korean barbecue with my friend, and my friend pointed to a line of big characters pasted with colored paper on the floor-to-ceiling glass window facing the street-"Body and Earth" and asked: "I have seen this sentence written on the windows of many Korean restaurants. , I don’t know what it means?” I couldn’t answer, so I guessed out of thin air: It’s definitely not the name of a special dish, and it’s not like an advertisement to attract customers, but it’s similar to an idiom with allusions and a warning slogan. Keep your mind clear, and at the same time give a kind reminder to the people who come and go...

These four enigmatic words make my imagination run wild.Body and soil are unique, understood only literally, it seems to reveal the inseparable relationship between human beings themselves and the land they rely on.The land gave birth to our bodies, and at the same time gave us our souls - human beings' dependence and nostalgia for their homeland are not necessarily weaker than plants.Especially for wanderers who are like duckweed, the soil of their hometown is even more precious than gold in spirit—the invisible roots of our lives are maintained in it.Almost all of our bloodlines, characters and qualities are deeply influenced by our hometown or past life.This is the thing and belief we cannot betray the most.Choosing to forget (there is a saying in China called "forgetting the origin") is tantamount to betraying memory, and it is shameful to be a traitor to memory.

Since then, every time I pass by a Korean restaurant with a unique style, I pay more attention to it, and look for the words "Body and Earth" written on their doors and windows.I also asked Korean students I met by chance.There are different opinions.But mostly close to my guess.Although I couldn't find the most accurate and well-founded answer, I firmly believe that I understand the meaning it entrusts.This thought-provoking riddle reminded me of an unfathomable cultural tradition, and I thought of the Chinese motto "When drinking water, think of the source".Koreans have traveled thousands of miles to Beijing to open restaurants and are busy making a living, but they still enshrine the ancient creed, the nostalgia for their homeland, and the worship of their homeland.This in itself is their dignity.I have always had a good impression of Korean restaurants in Beijing. I remember that there was a relatively famous "Sanqianli" restaurant on Wusi Street not far from my apartment. The waiters in it were all Korean girls in bright national costumes. I have entertained relatives back home many times there a few years ago.It's just that I didn't pay attention to whether there was a word "Body and Earth" written on the window at that time, and now it's too late to check: its facade has been changed to the prosperous "Sihe Decoration City".Every time I pass by the small building built with carved railings and jade, I always feel a sense of loss: where are those Koreans who are good at cooking?Are you still going to open the restaurant?Could it be that he set off to return to China because of the urging of nostalgia?For them, no matter how good Beijing is, it is a foreign land after all, unavoidable acclimatization, and the smoke from the home country will comfort and call the wanderers from far away at all times... Oh, the unity of man and nature, the body and the soil are the same!

I vaguely remember that Zhang Mingmin once sang a song "The Soil of My Hometown": "I heard that you will travel across the ocean and give you a handful of soil from your hometown... This handful of soil has been struck by spring thunder, burned by wildfires, and azaleas once bloomed. You and I walked hand in hand..." This proves people's feelings for the soil - it literally blends with our flesh and blood, and constitutes the cause of our happiness or sorrow.As Taiwanese poet Zheng Chouyu expressed: "A handful of loess can be molded into thousands of you and me. The artery is the Yangtze River and the vein is the Yellow River. Five thousand years of civilization is the endless pulse. Remind you, remind me,—we We have a common name called China." It can be seen that nostalgia and nostalgia are the common feelings of all wanderers on this planet, beyond the barriers of language, writing, blood or skin color.Whether it is yellow land, red land, or black land, they all inherit the simple truth of "leaves return to their roots" and "body and soil are inseparable" that have been planted, cultivated and harvested from generation to generation.It’s no wonder that many wanderers carry a small bag of hot soil from their homeland when they go far away and leave their hometown——as the guardian of the soul and the most primitive capital of the spirit.The country contains the epitome of the past.The confusion of looking at the hometown tortured the wanderer's eyes.Even if life will gradually cool down like a stone after sunset, a handful of hot soil that can be enshrined in the supreme position of the temple of the soul will still remain warm. "Why do I always have tears in my eyes? Because I love this land deeply." This is Ai Qing's ode to the land, and the poet also expresses his immortal feelings: "If I were a bird, I should also use hoarse My throat sang of this storm-beaten land... and then I died, and my feathers rotted in the land.” I believe that every nation and every country has a similar love song for the land—although the land It is silent itself, pressing its strong lips tightly in human memory and reality.

I seem to see that thousands of wanderers are like migratory birds in this world, flying on their own routes in their dreams and imaginations. No matter whether autumn or spring comes, flowers bloom or fall, they are trying to get closer to the face of their hometown.They fly tirelessly in an eternal admonition, experiencing the reflections of mountains, rivers, stations, docks, buildings and even shotguns, looking for the empty nests of their early years.Falling leaves to their roots, or "feathers rotting in the ground", is also the last happiness one can expect in one's life.

The body and the soil are the same, and the soul and the land stay together, just like flesh and blood.God gave them a pair of invisible wings - for wandering, but more for returning.They are forever longing to land on the lips of their native land.It should be said that this is a kind of spirit - and it is one of the greatest spirits of mankind.Not only from the instinct of life, but also a noble belief.