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【MK socks】Literature helps understand the essence of life

Source:MKsport time:2025-01-18 11:22:09

Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

Illustration: Liu Xiangya/GT

Xiji,<strong><a href=MK socks China's first 'Hometown of Literature Photo: Courtesy of Literature Association of Xiji county " src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-01-12/53aad113-95b4-4bdd-9d31-bf8c67ad9a87.jpeg" />

Xiji, China's first 'Hometown of Literature Photo: Courtesy of Literature Association of Xiji county



 Writer Shan Xiaohua was mediating with her pen in hand in a room. Above her thin back, a banner saying "Literature lights the heart" was particularly eye-catching. Ma Jun, the youngest laureate of 2024's Junma Awards for Ethnic Literature in the prose category, was leaning back with a relaxed expression on his face, exploring the world of literature with his cellphone. In a massage shop, blind writer and masseur Zhao Ling was listening to classic works with customers while working...

These scenes take place in the urban and rural areas of Xiji county in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. As night falls, the river of literature flows forth. 

Located in Xihaigu, an impoverished mountainous area in southern Ningxia, Xiji has a population of half a million, however, it is home to more than 1,600 people working on literary creation, including 300 to 400 farmers. 

This has won the county the name Hometown of Literature. How is it that literature can be as bountiful in this land as are the crops? Why did such a small county become a granary for literature creation?

Historically speaking, the region has deep cultural roots. The Xihaigu area was once an important passage along the Silk Road, with active cultural exchanges and flourishing folk arts such as folk singing hua'er, storytelling and Qinqiang Opera, as well as events like blessing events during the Spring Festival. For thousands of years, diverse cultures have complemented and blended with each other, creating a unique humanistic atmosphere here, which influenced and guided people born and raised here to turn their thoughts about the land, nation, homeland and themselves into words on the page.

Reality has always been a source of inspiration. Deemed "one of the most unfit places for human settlement" by the UN in the 1970s, Xihaigu once had nothing but the barren land, droughts and a fragile ecological environment.  

People living here had no choice but to suffer the hardships of life. It was literature that gave them strength. Shan said that literature can help "change the mood" when writing about mountains and villages, land, cattle and sheep. She can open up her heart by writing about her feelings and even her depression. It is literature that gives her life light and fire.  

People can write about everything in life, from building houses to good harvests and the hope of changing their destiny through words and knowledge. Through the honest work of literary creation, many people have improved their living conditions and opened a new way to "the other side of the mountain."

Clean and tidy roads, public squares with well-equipped facilities, academies full of books, factories with orderly production... Great changes have taken place in Xihaigu. In the past, poverty stopped people from writing as they struggled to feed themselves first. Now, writing reflects their aspirations. 

A writer once described Xihaigu as "a dry sea without water." Now, people living in large parts of Xihaigu have access to water from the Yellow River. The fast development and changes have not only opened up space for creators to dream, but also united people's hearts. 

Born in 1995, Ma Jun became a wheelchair-bound writer who shares his touching story under the pen name Liu Kexing. Disabled since birth, and severely shortsighted, Ma has faced immense challenges throughout his life and although he was admitted to university at the age of 21, his health situation prevented him from enrolling. Ma embarked on his own literary journey, pouring his experiences into his writing. His award-winning book, Qing Bai Shijie, also known as The Green and White Stone Steps, captures the complexities of life through the lens of his personal struggles.

Looking at the future, there is motivation to move forward. Promoting the revitalization of rural areas requires both shaping and soul-building. In Yanghe village, Xiji, the Mulan Academy, a cultural landmark of the county that was established in 2019, adheres to "cultural empowerment of rural revitalization," builds a communication platform for peasant writers, invites culture celebrities to visit, and is open to villagers. Now, more students in the village aim to take the college entrance examinations, and there are fewer conflicts and disputes among villagers. The Dawukou Xinmin Community, which is mainly composed of immigrants from Xihaigu, focuses on employment and culture at the same time, making the people's lives more prosperous. 

Culture educates people, encourages more people to create literary works and work in the field. The revitalization of the countryside is gaining a momentum.  

There are hundreds and thousands of ways of creating art, but a most fundamental, crucial and reliable method is writing about people and life.

Besides of literature, the Xihaigu area is also the "hometown of calligraphy" and the "homeland of poetry." All kinds of cultural and artistic activities come from the people and return to the people, with the majority of farmers as the main force. Practice has shown that allowing people who love literature to explore deep into life, bringing people who love life close to literature, and promoting creators to better feel the pulse of the times and understand the essence of life can nourish more exciting works.

A closer look at a statement by the Chinese Literature Foundation of the Chinese Writers Association for the Hometown of Literature in Xiji county reveals a very impressive mindset: "Here, the flowers of literature bloom everywhere, with brilliant fragrance; here, literature is the land that grows the best crops." Standing on the earth, stirring up emotions, reflecting the times, and leading the new trends of the times, we will surely make the "flowers of culture" bloom wonderfully across this vast land.

Xiji, China's first 'Hometown of Literature Photo: Courtesy of Literature Association of Xiji county

Xiji, China's first 'Hometown of Literature Photo: Courtesy of Literature Association of Xiji county

The writer is journalist of the People's Daily. This article was first published on the People's Daily.