[Phoenix PEN] Chen Hongying: Read "Back View" with students

[Phoenix PEN] Chen Hongying: Read "Back View" with students Phoenix City Chen Hongying Mr. Zhu Ziqing's "Back View", I have read it since I was a child...

Phoenix City Chen Hongying Mr. Zhu Ziqing's "Back View", I have read it since my childhood, and I can't forget it for a long time. The deep emotions contained in the simple narrative, and the unspoken words between the lines, deeply moved me every time I reread it. I remember that there was a literary appreciation article at that time that said that in the era of the Cultural Revolution when all emphasis was placed on "class sentiments," this article still touched everyone's hearts. To call it "petty bourgeois sentiment" really underestimates the depth of this prose. I think so. After I went abroad, I once heard a Korean friend who studied Chinese say that she liked "back views" very much. I identify even more with the human depth of this article.

Based on this, I have always wanted to introduce this article to my students in North America, but I have always been hesitant. Because I know that the author's historical background is thousands of miles apart from the living environment of these children. It is not easy for these children to understand the beauty of the emotions and artistic conception in the article. However, I believe that such an article about deep father's love can span time and space, and it should also be able to span cultural gaps, if given appropriate guidance. The opportunity finally came. Last month I specially held a literary appreciation class to introduce this article to my students.

I sent the article to parents a week in advance and hoped that parents would have time to discuss it with their children. This article is probably familiar to all Chinese people regardless of whether it is cross-strait or three places. When the students came to class, I read the article and explained it roughly in a way that the students could understand. I said: "The author of this article lived in China in the 1930s. What was China like at that time? Everything was chaotic, a bit like the American Civil War. No one knew where the country was going, and no one knew where a person's future would be. It was not like you now, knowing that you would go to college after high school, work after college, and then find someone you like, start a family, and live your whole life happily. It was not like this at that time. No one knows whether they can finish school tomorrow or whether they will have a job tomorrow. When the author's father was about to retire, he suddenly lost his job and had no pension. He could only stay at home every day. At this time, the author's grandmother passed away, and the house at home could not be saved. This house has been the ancestral home for several generations. It seems that one of you knows a friend who is currently studying in another state. His father is in his forties and fifties and suddenly lost his job. It was going to be sold. Suddenly, my grandma passed away, and this friend rushed home by train from thousands of miles away to attend her funeral. Seeing that the warm home in the past was now full of garbage, how did the father and son feel when they met in person? "As he talked about it, the students were a little moved, because although they didn't have much feelings when they were reading, they could understand it more when it was related to the real life they could understand.

"The father was not too depressed," I continued, "but comforted his son and told him not to be too sad. If you were this son and had such a father who comforted you like this when you felt that you could not face some realities, what would you do?"

The students seemed to understand it better. Although they are still children in middle and high school and have not shed their childishness, these troubles in life that will only occur when they are older are still too far away from them, but from the solemn expressions on their faces, it feels like they have entered the role.

" Later, this friend was leaving home to go back to school. His father changed his mind and had to go to the train station in person because he didn't trust the person he had entrusted to him in advance. Think about it, your father originally agreed to ask one of his friends to send you somewhere, but later he insisted on sending you himself, right? I love you very much and care about you? "

" I sent you to the train station, but I was worried that you would be thirsty on the way, and I wanted to buy you some fruit, but the fruit selling place was a bit far away from the station, and it was not easy to walk there. You had to lean down and climb to the ground. Will you be moved when you look at this scene? "

……

Finally, I conducted a public opinion survey and said to the students: "If love can be measured, please use the two numbers in the middle of 1-10 to represent your father's love for you and your love for your father respectively." The students listened and reported the numbers one after another. Of the fourteen children in the class, about eight children gave 10 points to "Father's love for me", and five children gave a number between 7 and 9. The reason is that some fathers are always away from home, and some fathers are too strict. One child said that people cannot be perfect and gave his father 9.9 points; but one student gave his father 11 points. In the item "My love for my father", no student gave a score higher than "My father's love for me". Those who gave their father 10 points mostly gave themselves 10 points, and a few gave a little less. I asked them, "Do you think you love your father more than your father loves you?", "No!" The whole class answered unanimously. "What does your father do to make you feel loved?" The answer is summarized as follows: my father tells me that he loves me; my father spends time with me; my father encourages me when I fail.

I think my literary appreciation class is an attempt. I don't expect all these children to understand, I just hope to open a window for them. To be honest, for those living in the United States, a country with a popular fast food culture, what is "feeling in love" and what is "silent love"; for a young person living in an era of material abundance, what is "the joys and sorrows of the world, the unpredictable changes in life" and what is "a decadent life in a turbulent era", it is indeed difficult to understand. However, I also feel a little comfort in my heart. That opinion poll is the best explanation. I hope that as the students grow older and gain more life experience, they will be able to recall that in their previous Chinese class, a teacher once read an article to them, telling them about a father and son on the other side of the world, at a certain moment in China’s modern history, who were about to part ways. The father’s few words and the son’s tears came to his eyes...

(This article was written in 2009 while teaching at Hope Chinese School in Arizona. It is now republished on the online media "Sunbird" website)