Chapter 8 “Our Dayabao”

The last time I met Mr. Keran and his wife was at a meeting at the beginning of this year.I gave him some British watercolor ocher paint, which is very effective for painting human skin, and it is more delicate than the Chinese paint in front of me.He has always believed in my words, but he has no chance to hear whether it is easy to use. To their kids, I'm pretty much their real uncle.Respect, trust.When meeting me suddenly, I will stand up and call uncle seriously.Dayabao's children are always like this when they grow up. This is not an ordinary relationship.Lang Lang, David, Few Few

, Maomao, Xiaodi, Sha Bei, Sha Lei, Yisha, Yuan Ji, Yuan Cong are like this, Xiao Ke and Li Geng are even more like this.We got along too well, too close, it makes me cry when I think about it. After the "Cultural Revolution", apart from being invited by the state to live in a good place with Zuoren, Mr. Shufang, Mr. Keran, Mr. Peizhu, Mr. Huang Zhou and his wife to paint task paintings, I remember only going to Mr. Keran's house once. Why only once? Just can't bear it.An old man has his own specific way of life, creative atmosphere, and a logical clue of artistic thinking.It's not just a matter of time.When the guests come, I am sincerely happy; when the guests leave, it is impossible to return to the original interest.Not maliciously damaged, not disturbed, just lost.I am also old, and I have to imagine for him if I have this feeling.

However, in the past ten years, there have been several gatherings in our house.That's because the two children are abroad, and when they go home during the summer vacation, they invite their uncles and aunts to have a meal.As usual, invite Keran couple, Zuoren couple, Junwu couple, Miaozi, Yufeng couple, brother Ding Jingwen, brother Zhou Baohua, occasionally woodcarver brother Li Shaoyan, and some good friends who come from other places by chance.The dishes made by Meixi are very prestigious in your mind.It's also fun for everyone to be together, and there is no end to talking and laughing.At 9:10 p.m., the car came to pick them up and they were reluctant to leave. Keran and Zuoren even had a boxing match, and whoever lost would leave first.Once Yang Fan's younger brother happened to be there and took a lot of photos.

"There is no banquet in the world that never ends."The children have grown up, and the uncles and uncles are getting old day by day. Although they understand that this is common sense, they can't help feeling sad. Mr. Keran and his wife talked about every little thing in Dayabao Hutong many times. They were so excited and full of happy memories. They said that my memory is good and they asked me to write it out quickly.Of course, they hope to relive that sweet life through my memories.I agreed, I thought that Mr. Keran would live to be at least ninety years old, "a benevolent man lives long"! Unexpectedly, he didn't have time to watch these clips of mine.I hope that one day this article will be enshrined in front of his spirit...

Of course, I would also like to ask readers to forgive me for the style of this article.I wrote it for the living Li Keran. It was a chat between our two families, reminiscing about our life in No. 2 Dayabao Hutong during the nearly ten years we spent together.In 1956, when I published an article on Mr. Ye Qianyu under Jiang Wen’s pseudonym in Shanghai’s Wen Wei Po, when people asked about him, he said, “It was written by someone from Dayabao!” "No. 2 Dayabao Hutong No. 1" is not a painting school, but a circle of people, a circle of interesting life of old and young.The old ones wither, and the young ones grow up all over the world. When we meet each other, we will inevitably say:

how how... There are many old people "walking" in Dayabao today! Kuchan, Xiwen, Yuan Mai, Shangren, Chang Jun, and Buwen are now added to the list. I heard that the red pomegranate tree that Peizhu planted has grown into a big tree.In the past forty years, we have experienced so many hardships.Fear can shorten life, no wonder those unfortunate days of the "Cultural Revolution" seemed to pass quickly.In fact, the days after the collapse of the "Gang of Four" are also fast.It was a day of real laughter and real comfort that we had never had since liberation.If the tree knows, it will remember this long period of ups and downs.

Therefore, we must first write about all the people and life in our big yard.Li Keran's activities are among us.Only when you click on the article do you know what it means. There were movements one after another at that time, and people's emotions were full of revolutionary content, full of passion in their stomachs and minds.Conversations are inseparable from these themes.Rather than saying it is hypocrisy, it is more accurate to say it is childish and ignorant plus a little fear.Like everyone hiding in their own tents and talking to each other, it is inevitable that they are all separated by a layer.Because I'm used to it, I don't feel embarrassed at all.But the conversations with Li Keran were all artistic discussions, and I talked a lot, and we went straight to each other, but we got a tacit understanding with infinite sincerity.