The Red Flag

When I was a child, my grandparents had books with pictures in their house. There were many books in the west room.

Because the paintings, many of which were in color, attracted the eyes and curiosity of children. On the book covers, many were tall portraits, some in gray Zhongshan uniforms with eight-horned hats; others in green uniforms with bright red lapel pins sewn on and military caps. He often stood alone majestically, sometimes sitting on a chair, standing in front of the city tower, holding the hand of an old farmer. Grandpa said that was Chairman Mao, the greatest man in the world.

Many of the book, the design is very simple, is a large white paper on the bottom of a red line, the middle of the off-side printed with two large words of bright red, like a burning fire, like a fluttering silk, like a boiling spring. Grandpa said these two words read "red flag", like the flag on the wooden pole in the courtyard of the elementary school. That flag, very magical, every week the whole school older children have to wear the red scarf to salute the flag. Many years later, in the library of the old campus, the highest school in Lucy, I found a lot of books in this shape, and slowly learned that the word "red flag" was written by Chairman Mao himself, and he wrote more than 20 headlines for "Red Flag" as an alternative, and later selected one of them as the official "Red Flag" magazine. Red Flag" magazine. Red Flag" magazine was also launched on June 1, 1958 at the initiative of Chairman Mao.

It was the time of the year, the day of the wheat sun, hot and windless, early in the morning when there was no sunlight adults went to the wheat field yard to harvest. In the beginning, it was a sacred "task" to watch the door in grandpa's house: open the chicken coop and mix the chicken food, yelling at them not to grab their mouths and paws; open the lid of the pot and take out the mixed flour steamed buns (cornmeal-based, with a thin layer of flour on the outside) that were hot in the grates, find a piece of pickled radish, and start eating breakfast; turn over the straw that was drying in the aisle of the gate and wait for the The adults come back to make up a straw rope to bundle the cut wheat; play with the wooden sticks and bamboo knives and apricot kernels, and "admire" a few New Year paintings on the wall. ...... There is really nothing to do in the north room of the main house. The west house is a side room, according to mother said here was once our home, many years ago became a warehouse. Open the door, a black, musty dust smell full, the corner of the "rattling" sound, which is the sound of mice running back to the nest. After getting used to the light, I gradually saw the miscellaneous things in the house, farming tools and cooking utensils, old clothes and broken bedding, a wooden loom in the middle of the house, and a dirt bed without a stove stacked with miscellaneous things.

I couldn't find anything to play with on the ground, so I climbed onto the kang and found a window on the east wall, which was covered by a wooden board to protect it from the rain. The blinding sunlight immediately shone through the prism of the window after it was removed, as if the house was cooled by the wind. There were a lot of sacks on the bed, I don't know if they were filled with cotton or not, but they were bulging horizontally and vertically, but it was very comfortable to sit on them. In the farthest corner from the windowsill, there was a wooden box with the lid unlocked. Opened, saw the neatly arranged books - these are "Red Flag" magazine, at that time do not know the word only know is the book.

The day of reading "red flag" began.

In addition to some of the book covers with human drawings, how so many words ah, really boring ah, read a couple of books, put aside. Then look for another game, alas, disappointed, there is really no ah, or look at the paintings. How many times have I looked at the paintings! Anyway, the books in the box were taken out from the top to the bottom and put on the bed after reading them, and then taken in. In the middle of the day, the family came home from the wheat field to boil water, and gave a good scolding to those who were looking at the paintings in the west room, because the door of the main room was not closed properly and the chickens in the yard had a good place to go. Learn from the lesson to close the door and go back to see, and then the next time it took a miscellaneous bread to see, over and over again, pouring and turning over and over again. This painting is really beautiful, there are single, there are many people, some painted tractors, painted crop fields, painted bridges and big boats, painted with the most appearances of that grandfather and planting people talking, next to a surprisingly smaller than their own dolls standing. This grandfather has the most paintings, full body, half body, only one head, writing in front of the window, smoking in a chair, waving towards many people. Later, I saw a painting of this grandfather, who seemed to be very old, with a red cuff on one arm with a pin, waving to many, many brothers and sisters. There is also a black and white painting, that grandfather's head filled the book cover, surrounded by a black line frame, it looks hairy inside, after this one of those books rarely see his paintings.

The book cover is finished, look familiar, pick up the top one know what the next book painted. Only one book to open, turn the page to see, turning and turning without purpose, but also see the painting. The most is the flashing light of the grandfather's badge (later known as the highest instructions of the picture), a city building around the radiating a lot of lines (later known as the editorial picture); some head wearing a lamp hat, clutching a large fist, several adults holding hands, very powerful (later known as a propaganda painting to defeat the class enemy and so on); some of the bottom of the paper without words there are paintings, look like a lot of buildings and lighthouses and tall and strange shape (later learned that it is the new achievements of socialist construction photos). A few books have a lot of paintings in the middle part of the book, so it's a pleasure to pick out these books and read them for a long time. I remember that the wheat harvest was over, and even though the adults were at home, they still went to read these books with pictures when they had time. Sultry annoying cicadas just outside the window days passed, heavy rain wet the windows of the west room, blocked on that board-like material house is very dark, take the book and sit at the door to read, often wet by the rain driving rain, autumn breeze cool fallen leaves floating to the windowsill, chilly thick add clothes, sitting sacks can also keep warm.

What kind of images do you see? There are soldiers draped in white sheets, around the jungle trees flew in the snow; there are big braids of sister, in front of a grandmother holding a snowy lamp; there are rows of female soldiers wearing red clothes, holding a barge gun tied with often red silk; there are full of white hair dressed in rags end long guns can not drive men and women; there is a water vendor on the edge of the reeds, three badass-like people smoking and gesticulating; there is a big On the boat, a lot of people are noisy look; some neck surrounded by snow-white towel, towel and red five stars ...... and some can not remember. These paintings, as if there is magic fascinating, that the spirit of the characters, that the people in the stand, that the gestures of the people in it, is also now in sight. What is particularly interesting is that some of them can be seen together, hazy to know that a battle was fought, some of them can see that a person died, can see the sadness, can also see the fierceness, many times see the unexplained excitement, see the last picture surprisingly long breath, as if watching a movie as enjoyable. Now I know that these are the stills of the Peking Opera "Wisdom of the Mountain", "The Red Lantern", "Shajiabang", "Cuckoo Mountain" and the ballet "The Red Army of the Lady", "White Maiden" and so on. Back then, the magazine "Red Flag" published the full text of the scripts or performance photos of these "model plays".

Even found the secret. In some of the books, the book covers were of the grandfather and another thin man, whose head and eyes had been stabbed and poked with a pen or other sharp object, and the text inside, many of the two or three or more words had been smeared with black pencil, and some of the paper had been torn out. When I asked my grandfather about it, he said that they were bad people, the "Gang of Four".

Later, I learned that "Red Flag" was discontinued, and now "Seeking Truth" is a designated publication for learning and education, theoretical improvement, and forging party spirit. "Read" "Seeking truth" is the style, is the condescending look. "Look" "red flag", is the memory, is the inner most tender corner of the touch. Although the time is not long, it is not easy to grow spiritually, and there must be a lot of dismay to record. The sun is shining at the end of the day, and I remember the earthen bed in the west room, and the books in the corner of the bed away from the window, with pictures on them, for the rest of my childhood. Thanks to my grandfather who joined the Communist Party of China before 1949, I was able to recite so many lines of the model opera.