Chapter 8 place of exile

If I had been in Wuhan and hadn't entered that "exile place", it would be impossible for me to be where I am today. ——Zhang Hongjiang Zhang Hongjiang's "starting line" is somewhat special, it is a "place of exile" for intellectuals. Thirty years ago when Hong Jiang was a little boy, his family left Wuhan and came to Huangyingpo in Ye County, Henan Province. This place is the place where Ye Gong lived in the ancient Chinese fable "Ye Gong is a good dragon". At that time, it was a small town with more than 2,000 people. A "place of exile" exclusively for intellectuals and cadres to undergo labor reform.

My hometown is the largest and most prosperous city in the south-central region, but my new home is a poor and isolated place, so this relocation is a turning point in the life of this family.It's not their choice.My father is a skilled worker in a factory under the Ministry of Electronics, and my mother is also a worker. She is neither an intellectual nor a cadre, and she has nothing to do with ghosts and monsters. But when the organization gives orders, there is no other way but to obey. However, in the later years, Hongjiang always regarded this migration as the starting point for his future. "If I had been in Wuhan and hadn't entered that 'exile place', it would be impossible for me to be where I am today." He said.

He spent both primary and middle school in the "Cultural Revolution". From the perspective of age, he is closer to Kaifu, Yaqin and Xiangyang, but from the perspective of experience, he always classifies himself as a child born in the 1950s. that generation.This is because, when he was sensible, the "Cultural Revolution" began.He wants to go to school, but the school has turned upside down, the class is not available, the desks and chairs have been smashed, the teacher was tied up and pushed onto the stage, and he confessed to the crime of "teacher's dignity" and "has become an enemy of the students." ", the students raised their arms and shouted: "The phenomenon of bourgeois intellectuals ruling our schools can no longer continue."Then they took to the streets, tied the teachers in a string with ropes to show the public, and then scattered back home, no longer studying, no longer attending classes, no longer doing homework, and no longer taking exams.Hongjiang has experienced all this.

At least throughout the years of "great turmoil", Hong Jiang was no different from his peers. "I spent my childhood in a staff compound in Wuhan," he recalled.Generally, Westerners will not understand that there are infinite meanings in this sentence.The Communist Party entered the cities from the countryside in the late 1940s, and while establishing its own political power, it also established large courtyards.The compound is surrounded by walls, with a messenger room and guards at the entrance, and the government, army, enterprises or schools inside.A city usually consists of a number of large courtyards, which are also called "units".People work together because they are colleagues, and they stay together after get off work because they are neighbors. The "big courtyard" became the typical way of life of most urbanites at that time, and it also included the whole life of Hongjiang.He goes in and out every day, and what he sees is always the gate, the guard, the colleagues of mom and dad, and their children, and they always talk about the same topic.

The essence of a city is often not its treasures, but its people.Although Ye County is a small city, more than 100 kilometers away from the provincial capital Zhengzhou, it has now become a "place of exile" for intellectuals and technicians.People come here from all over the country, and Hongjiang has also been brought in by this trend.He immediately felt that he had changed to a new world. There was no "courtyard", no high walls, no guards, and there were fresh faces in front of his eyes, and different dialects in his ears. He had more contacts, and his vision and space were much larger.After Zhang Hongjiang became an adult, he could not always compete for the first place, but he always had a broad vision. First, he had the belief of going abroad, then he believed that Denmark was too small, and then he said that Singapore was also a "small temple" and could not accommodate him at all. Because of his imagination and passion, he gave up his superior material life and went to the United States.In this way, he made himself a big circle in Europe, Asia and America, and then returned to China.When others hear about his experience, they say that his world vision was established during his travels around the world. In fact, this is not unrelated to his childhood experience.

So, if you want to stand on the starting line of "E students", then establish the fifth idea: How far you can go in your life depends largely on the size of your childhood world.