Chapter 74 A song from the bottom of my heart - Notes on the National Work Exhibition

In front of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, there is a broad street running from east to west. On both sides of this street, there are several brand-new towering buildings lined up behind the sunflower-like lampstands one tree after another, and when people walk to the west end of the street, they will always notice a towering 13th law building in amazement. tower building.Its emerald blue glazed tile roof, set against the white brick exterior wall, looks like a slim white lotus flower, which looks extraordinarily bright and straight under the blue sky.This is the newly built Palace of Ethnic Culture. In an area of ​​30,700 square meters, it consists of six parts: museum, library, auditorium, entertainment hall, restaurant and guest house.Now, the "Exhibition of Ethnic Work in the Past Ten Years" is being held here.

Walking up the granite steps, you will be faced with a tall gate with carved patterns loved by people of all nationalities painted in gold on a light green background, with four gold characters "Unity" and "Progress" embedded on the left and right.How profound are these two nouns to the fifty-two fraternal nations in our big family! China has been a multi-ethnic country since ancient times. Among the fifty-two ethnic groups, except for the Han nationality, which has the largest number of people, the total population of the various ethnic groups only accounts for 6% of the total population of our country, and their population distribution The area accounts for 50% to 60% of the total area of ​​the country.In China's thousands of years of history, there has been a long period of ethnic oppression and struggle, which has caused long-term disputes and estrangements among ethnic groups.After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, under the correct leadership of the Communist Party of China, the disputes and barriers left over from history were gradually eliminated through the efforts of the people of all ethnic groups, and at the same time a brotherly harmony was formed. friendship to promote the economic and cultural development and prosperity of various ethnic minorities.According to our Constitution, under the principle of ensuring national unity and realizing ethnic equality, we have promoted ethnic regional autonomy and successively established four autonomous regions including Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uyghur, Guangxi Zhuang, Ningxia Hui, and the preparatory committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region. Twenty-nine autonomous prefectures and fifty-four autonomous counties have been established in the minority-inhabited areas of Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan, and Sichuan provinces.

The founding of the People's Republic of China ushered in a new era in the history of the ethnic minorities. They are like what the Tibetan compatriots sang: Chairman Mao, the sun of the Communist Party's blessing shines on the hills. The speed of their economic and cultural prosperity and development is astonishing. With the unstoppable vitality of springing up with dead trees and rushing to the river thirsty for dragons, they got rid of the shackles of darkness and embarked on the road of happiness and light.In terms of the number of people receiving education, according to statistics in 1958, there were more than 22,000 college students, more than 390,000 middle school students, and more than 4.23 million primary school students nationwide.At the first National People's Congress, among the ethnic minorities with a population of 35 million, there were 178 deputies, accounting for more than 14 percent of the total number of deputies.Our compatriots from ethnic minorities have sat proudly at the seat of masters and managed state affairs together with other members of the big ethnic family.

This vigorous and progressive atmosphere can be felt as soon as you enter the gate.Pass through the white marble porch and enter the four-story hall with tall white marble reliefs at the four corners. These four large reliefs are in the direction of where they are, representing the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest of the country. .They are carrying out all kinds of peaceful productive labor with joy and enthusiasm. From the hall to the north is the comprehensive hall, facing the inscription of Chairman Mao engraved on the white marble: "All nationalities of the People's Republic of China unite".This golden and stone-like good saying is not only engraved on stones, but also engraved on the hearts of people of all ethnic groups, and has become the source of all strength and happiness!

There is an ethnic tower in the comprehensive hall, on which are embedded photos of fifty-two ethnic groups, but the most moving one in this hall is a large one, Chairman Mao and the 74-year-old Nong Ku from the foot of Kunlun Mountain in Xinjiang Photo of Urban Turum shaking hands. Turumu wore a red-rimmed cap and a red belt around his waist. His wrinkled face was filled with a moving and joyful smile.Chairman Mao held his hand tightly with a warm and kind smile. This "poor ghost" and "lowly person" who had been a serf for decades, suffered from hunger and cold, and was homeless. After living a life of abundant food and clothing that he could not have dreamed of, he knew that all his happiness was brought to him by the Communist Party and Chairman Mao.In addition to writing a few letters to Chairman Mao and sending several times the grapes and melons he had harvested in his fields, he also wholeheartedly thought of visiting Beijing to express his gratitude.He bundled up his luggage, carried dry food on his back, and stopped cars by the road several times, asking for them to be loaded. After being persuaded to go back, he wanted to ride a donkey to Beijing.Today, his wish came true. At the happiest moment in his life, he held Chairman Mao's hand with tears in his eyes, and felt the heat of the sun spread throughout his body!He brought this heat back to remote Xinjiang, told everyone about this happy meeting, and everything he saw and learned in the interior. He called on everyone to study hard, strive for a greater harvest, and let the Kunlun Mountain Bloom all over the flowers of socialism.

Turum's gratitude and enthusiasm for the Communist Party and Chairman Mao are by no means individual, and he represents the feelings of 35 million ethnic minorities. Among our fifty-one ethnic minorities, only twenty-one such as Mongolian, Manchu, Tibetan, and Uyghur have writing. Those ethnic groups who have no written language, some use plant leaves, which are homophonic and expressive, to convey their thoughts. For example, the Jingpo people use a leaf of Xilanhan to represent: "I will wait for you forever", and the leaves of Pannier to represent : "Our love will never be separated"

Wait, but as social life becomes more and more complicated, this kind of communication tool is not enough. People without words always feel endless distress.After liberation, the state organized seven ethnic minority language investigation teams with more than 700 members from more than 20 ethnic groups, went deep into 16 provinces (regions) across the country, and conducted investigations in 33 ethnic minority languages.Then 19 kinds of ethnic minorities' writing schemes were designed. In order to benefit the unity and friendship of the ethnic groups, it was determined that the writing alphabets created for ethnic minorities should be based on the Latin alphabet, and the pronunciation and usage should be as consistent as possible with the Chinese phonetic alphabet scheme.The ethnic minorities who have introduced the new language have newspapers and textbooks printed in their own language. Their happiness is indescribable!

A Miao girl wrote to Chairman Mao: "The newly created Miao script is easy to write, and I learned it in just over a month. I love Miao script just like I love my embroidery needles. May it be like an embroidery needle in the construction of socialism, embroidering the flowers of national culture and shining forever. "What a deeply emotional and poetic letter this is! In the Northeast Pavilion, we cannot fail to notice the Hezhe ethnic group with the smallest number.This ethnic group was originally called "fish skin tartars" because they wore clothes made of fish skin.They live in the Wusuli River, Songhuahong and Heilongjiang River basins, and live a primitive fishing life in small boats on the river all day long.Before liberation, the Japanese destroyed their villages and destroyed their production.They lived in extreme poverty, and their number was as few as four hundred.Now the population of the Hezhen people has increased to more than 600, and all the children have gone to school.Now on the Heilongjiang River, all the happy and brave fishermen of the Hezhen ethnic group are driving small motorboats. What a change, no wonder the girls of the Hezhen ethnic group will sing loudly:

High mountains, blue water, blue water, wild beasts on the mountains, fish in the water, fish in the water, how good the leadership of the Communist Party is, the days are getting better and better, the better! Visiting the museums, there are too many examples of this vivid contrast between the old and the new.We saw that among the nine ethnic groups in Sichuan Province, the Liangshan Yi people who lived in slavery society before liberation, their children (slaves) lived extremely miserable lives. They slept in cage-like wooden cabinets at night, Iron chains were tied around the neck, boulders were placed on top of them, or guards were sleeping, and other methods to prevent escape were extremely cruel.A young man who worked in this museum was snatched up the mountain from the Jinsha River in Yunnan when he was twelve years old. He spoke gloomily about the pain he had experienced, but immediately said cheerfully, "Daliangshan liberated more than 690,000 slaves, and an autonomous prefecture has already been established there." These slaves, under the leadership and support of the Communist Party of China, bravely got out of the wooden cabinets, broke the shackles, and lived a happy life , healthy, human life.They thanked the party for the strength they had given them. They sang: the power of the cow is on the neck, the power of the horse is on the back, and the power of the Yi people is under the leadership of the Communist Party. It is also under the feudal chieftain system, living a life that is not as good as a cow and a horse.There are one hundred and eight chieftains, who are hereditary serf owners. They are pampered and pampered. There are groups of serfs who live in special villages and do different jobs for them, such as weaving villages, carrying sedan chairs, and carrying water. , Raising Horses Village, Song and Dance Village, Firecracker Village, Grave Guard Village, Baby Back Village, etc., with many names.All in all, the serfs have worked their whole lives for the chieftains of the past, present and future!After peaceful negotiation and reform, they have also been liberated from heavy labor.Among the ethnic minorities in Yunnan, there is also the Wa people who stay in the primitive commune system. They slash and burn, kill their heads to sacrifice grains, and pray for a good harvest. When they are sick, they only invite wizards and kill chickens to sacrifice ghosts.After liberation, the culture and life of these ethnic groups flourished day by day, and everything started from scratch.They now have 90 kinds of books in ethnic languages, 57 kinds of newspapers and periodicals in ethnic minority areas, more than 16,000 clubs, 67 cultural centers, and seven professional ethnic song and dance troupes.The Wa people who cultivated slash-and-burn farming also had new-style farm tools, as well as electric lights for lighting and new-style doctors.

Finally, we went to the Tibet Pavilion downstairs, which was originally the cultural entertainment hall and restaurant downstairs in the West Wing. Now it displays everything about the serf system in Tibet, including the feudal serf owners who used to torture the serfs. The tools of torture, such as the eye-cutting knife and stone hat, the standing cage, the wooden frame that can clamp four serfs at the same time, the peeled human skin, the severed human hands, and the most appalling thing is that they were poisoned by the reactionary living Buddha and molded into The corpse of the little girl of "Auspicious Heavenly Girl".In the other corner, we see the stark contrast between the serf owner's clothing and the serf's food and clothing.When we were angry, we thought that this evil system of exploitation had been overthrown, and we couldn't help cheering for the success of the Tibetan revolution and the rebirth of the Tibetan people!

When the Tibetan people started to live a happy life, they could never forget the source of their happiness. They sang: the past days were bitterer than buckwheat, and today’s life is sweeter than honey. The days thrown in the Nu River don’t forget the happy days Chairman Mao, the literature and art of our ethnic minorities are the most colorful, their music, singing and dancing are the most graceful and lively, and their handicrafts are the most beautiful. Embroidery, brocades of the Zhuang nationality, silverware of the Dai and Tibetan nationalities, etc., all make visitors linger.But what I longed for in my heart was the passionate poetry written and sung by the ethnic minorities that I remembered.People who have come from the darkness to the light see their hometown and the motherland leaping forward together, and see the beautiful and bright future of their own nation. Their poetry is more unrestrained and more beautiful.When I walked out of the National Cultural Palace and looked back at the silver-white and blue-roofed tower, I suddenly remembered a verse in a Tibetan folk song in the Lhasa Valley: Beijing is a city of silver. It is said that there is a silver pagoda there, which is not silver. The pagoda, which is the handsome colossal statue of Chairman Mao. How beautiful the imagination of our Tibetan compatriots is!