Chapter 119 rehash

Today, participating in this symposium, I remembered that in 1955, we responded to the call of the People's Daily editorial "Creating, Publishing and Distributing a Large Number of Children's Books" on September 14th, in the "Give Children More Good Books" Under the topic, some comrades made speeches at the Children's Literature Writers Conference, and these speeches were published in the fourth issue of "Book Monthly" that year.Today, twenty-three years later, we meet here again.After the test of the "Cultural Revolution" and the ravages and blows of the "Gang of Four", everyone survived and is still in good health. The determination to contribute to the prosperity of children's literature remains the same as before, which makes me very happy!Twenty-three years ago, we expressed our desire and determination to create for children, and I think we should not forget this.A few days ago, a child gave me this monthly newspaper to read, and I was both touched and even more joyful after reading it!The first of these short essays was written by Ye Shengtao Yelao, and his title was "Everyone Pick Up Your Pens".He said: "This response to the call is a start. In the future, we must use part of our strength to serve young children, 'forever'—" His "forever"

His spirit is worth learning, and I congratulate Mr. Ye!Next was Comrade Yan Wenjing's speech. His topic was "China's Future Demands Us".He said: "Write more good works for children", "This is the future of China calling us". "China's future is asking us to work, work twice as much."China's "future" today is the "future" of building our country into four modern socialist powers at the end of this century. This task is more urgent and important. I think Comrade Wen Jing will definitely "redouble his work"!The third is Gao Shiqi, a scientist. His topic is "What Kind of Science Books Do Children Need?"He said that for children's science books to have the power to move people, it is necessary to "in-depth understanding of children's psychological characteristics, thoughts and feelings, and must also be familiar with their language."Comrade Shiqi understands children's psychology very well.I remember that once a doctor saw my family. The patient had a fever. The doctor tested the white blood cells and said that the white blood cells were too high. There must be an inflammation in the body.

The children in my family asked: What is the high white blood cell count?He told the children that red blood cells are like ordinary people in a country, and white blood cells are like the army and police in a country, and they are tools of dictatorship.Under normal health conditions, white blood cells only maintain a certain amount. If there are too many white blood cells, it means that the "country" is unstable, and there are enemies coming to invade or internal turmoil, so the army will come out to resist, and the police will come to suppress it.The blisters on the human body are inflamed and suppurated. This pus is the white blood cells that died heroically in the battle against bacteria!In this way, the children listened with interest and remembered clearly.This can be regarded as image thinking.

The fourth one is mine, and the title of my talk is "It should be time to do it quickly".Now that I think about it, I am ashamed that I haven't written much to children over the years. During the "Cultural Revolution", the "Gang of Four" engaged in cultural despotism and put various hats on us.I have also written some bad things in the past, such as "Send to Young Readers" I wrote before liberation, because it was selected into the elementary school textbooks at that time, and it was criticized as "the poison is very widespread and the harm is extremely deep".Over the years, many middle-aged or young people have seen me and often mentioned this book. I think this format can still be used.On May 4th, I went to attend the 80th anniversary celebration of Peking University, and I was very touched.After returning home, I wrote "Three Letters to Young Readers" and sent it to "Children's Times" in Shanghai, because my "Resend to Young Readers" was published there.An American friend once told me that there are 200 million children in your country, more than the population of the United States.

It is a great honor to serve them!After the "Gang of Four" was defeated, the spiritual shackles were lifted, and now "should be the time to act quickly."Although it is difficult for me to go to primary school to experience life, I can still meet children everywhere in my life. As long as I work hard, I can still write more things for children. Next is Comrade Chen Bochui's "Starting from "Prosperous Creation"" and Comrade Yuan Ying's "More Criticism is Better".Comrade Yuan Ying said: "I hope to be able to recommend some good works to readers on a regular basis—rather than by accident—and criticize some works with shortcomings or mistakes."This is very important.Comrade Yuan Ying is engaged in newspaper work, we hope that you can often recommend some good works, and also hope that you will be "picky" and criticize more.

The seventh one is Comrade Jin Jin, and the topic of his speech is "My Hope".He said: "I still need to study hard, and I need to work harder..." He is now hosting "Children's Literature", and he is making great efforts. I also congratulate him! The eighth one is Comrade Wei Junyi, talking about the issue of discovering new forces, which is also what Ye Lao said in his speech just now: it is an important issue to discover the Bole of Chollima!The ninth is Comrade Bao Lei. He hopes that experts in various fields will create more works for children. These are very important issues for the prosperity of children's literature.

I am repeating an old saying today. I think we will not forget what we have said, and we will work together to do this job well and write more and better works for children.In the past, people often compared the attitude of work to three kinds of beads, one is wish-fulfilling beads, which move without being pulled;Our attitude in working for children must not be like abacus beads, which can be dialed and moved, let alone like Buddha beads, which cannot be moved, but should be as active as wishful beads.Dedicate our whole life energy to the future generations of the motherland, and continue to work hard to serve the children, as Ye Lao said "forever"!

(This article was originally published in Guangming Daily on June 1, 1978.)