Warmth Coming From Countercurrent

Recently I read a new book of Mr. Xie Hualiang, a collection of short stories, "I have a horse" (Zhejiang Children Press, published in February 2012, belonging to the series of "Bingxin Writing Award Winners of Books"), from which I feel the author''s love to children. This love is in stark contrast with the grim reality. It reveals the difficulties and setbacks encountered in a child''s growth. The warm love expressed by the novel is pretty moving, just like an avalenche from the cold snow and ice.

Children, as the power of future, are often constraint too tight and asked too much by society, school, and family. However, the nature of children longs for free development, like the "horse" in the title. Running freely is the nature of the children. But how do parents treat this nature in their children? In "I have a horse", the little protagonist keeps me guessing, like storytelling, and let readers to imagine where exactly his horse is. With the child''s thinking, the author leads readers to the actual attitude towards the child:" If my parents know that I keep a horse, they would try every means to find it out and kill it in front of me." What shocked me is that the parents who did everything possible to make their child’s talent are so intolerable to the horse the child likes. Ma Ye (Mr. Horse), the cleaner, is a good friend of the child. The author intentionally names the old cleaner Ma Ye, who also raises a horse. All these imply that Ma Ye''s bold and uninhibited personality is deeply connected with the child''s heart that longs for freedom. The intimate relationship between Ma Ye and the boy has been suspected by the parents. Using the form of dialogue, the author depicts the parents'' "war of words" in front of the boy, who is so wronged and not able to get rid of his parents'' blame. At that time, the boy was like in an ice cavern and no one understood his hardship. However, when he sees Ma Ye in school, his nature of freedom emerges. His greatest pleasure is learning riding a horse. Ma Ye, who is terminally ill, passes away finally, leaving a real horse. The novel uses a lot of dialogue to perform the conflict between the boy and parents and the intimate relationship between the boy and Ma Ye, the one who knows the boy and the one who brings warmth to the boy.

"Who loves me for ten thousand years" is also a story about looking for "warmth". A boy, who never worries about food but lacks of parental care, often stays lonely in the room. He meets an "elder sister" when he charges for his phone by mistake. The novel uses a large number of psychological descriptions, truly and naturally, to illustrate the boy''s feelings after picking up the phone - first spectacle and perturbed, then regret and guilty. The boy treats the sister on the other side of the phone as someone who loves him most. He always misses and thinks about her because he is in desperate need of emotional support. In reality, he is guessing if the sister is busy, what is she busy with, and if she goes home and celebrates the New Year with her family. If only she could set off firecrackers with us. The boy fills his empty life with this kind of imaginary care. At the end of the novel, parents repent:" My son, your mother must accompany you for a few days, me too. You are more important than business." The boy comes to realize that the one who loves him for ten thousand years is waiting for him at the other end of the station. The relationship between the boy and his parents is compromised by a call from a strange that never exist in actual life. Then the boy comes to reality from fantasy: "I understand that my parents love me. They are busy and tied up with the business every day. And that is exactly because they love me." Sometimes parents hide their love for children so deep that they try hard to make money instead of accompanying them. The words you repeat again and again are not comparable with chatting with them. The warmth in reality is better than the greetings over the phone. The important point is to recognize the people who love you for ten thousand years.

Mr. Xie Hua not only can create a clever plot and woven stories, but also, in shaping the characters, give teachers the color of love and beauty. Han Xiaoxiao(Han Smile) of , aptly named, likes to smile. He smiles back to his students beside the door when he labors; He smiles shyly when sweat mixed with the dirt drip down like the shape of a flower on his face. he smiles awkwardly when praised by Teacher Lin Xi; He smiles after silently shaking his head when the head teachers confiscate "books about love" of the Literature Union; He cannot help laughing because of the students'' behavior; He laughs, together with the others, bending his eyes, showing his white teeth, raising his neck; He also smiles when students are not able to attend the Literature Union due to various reasons; He suggests to replace the word "love" with " enthusiasm " when naming the Literature Union, with a smile; He holds his smile when Qi Wenxue classifies the "Golden Lotus" as four masterpieces; He smiles with tolerance when he looks at the student who bravely admits the fault; He chuckles when Teacher Lin Xi misunderstands him, after shaking his head. Teacher Xiaoxiao has many kinds of smiles. He understands the students so that he can give them understanding smiles. From his smiles, the students can see his simplicity, innocence and loveliness. He likes to smile because he loves the students: he encourages them to read, he plays ball games with them, and he helps them get out of one another hardships in their way of growth. The author uses "smile", a simple expression, to shape a good teacher who is just like a big friend to the children. This character is full of life and touch the hearts of many.

Children encounter many hardships during adolescent development. Some of them are from society, while some from themselves. Some can be resolved with the help of teachers and parents, but some have to be faced bravely by themselves. Children feel scared and strange about their physiological changes. The sudden change of Mark''s voice makes him hard to adapt. Teacher Zeng Ni, with her particular female warmth, brings infinite warmth to the boy. The author uses both action and language. Zeng''s bending wrist, slim and scented hands and friendly and beautiful smiles give the boy great encouragement. Mark has made numerous ideological struggles. The author depicts Mark''s indecision with an inside perspective and his suffering when he faces with the voice change with a lot of psychological description. When teased by Qin Lehui, his classmate, he is not able to utter a word back but only could fight back in his mind. Mark''s changing voice is a sign of maturity that every boy experiences. However, the author starts with psychological description, plus the dialogue between Mark and the teacher, the behavior of Qi Lehui, illustrating the hardship of a boy in voice changing period in front of readers. Similarly, a boy who usually blushes encounters such embarrassment. The author intentionally created an "enemy" - his cousin - for him. His cousin takes advantage of the boy''s blush and frame-up him. The author uses a lot of psychological description to illustrate a Grade Seven boy''s helplessness when framed by his cousin. His cousin even complaining to him as a "girl", "Super Girl", "long-tongued woman", and complaining "fairy". Eventually, the boy fights back in action - dressed like a real girl, making fun of his own to resist the bullying of others. The novel employs a series of actions: wearing his mother''s old cap, putting on a bright dress, using cosmetics and making a white face. His cousin and companions "run" to the wall, moving to the alley little by little and eventually vanished. At this moment, the boy makes a soul- searching smile and regained his self respect.

In real life, the children sometimes have to compromise to reality, have to grow up. They may experience hardships and suffers along the way. But in their hearts there is always warmth & strength, which is brought out by those people and things they are familiar with. Yangding, Xie Tiegan''s friend, shows his humourous feeling. In order to let Xie go to the Young Writers Conference at the provincial capital, Yangding volunteers to stay at home and help Xie''s parents with the harvest. But he just says the lyrics "for the mother''s smile, for the earth''s harvest" to show his sense of justice. In the capital, Xie doesn''t get along well with another little writer, Hao Yue, who is very arrogant. His arrogance can be seen from his language:" What''s your relationship with Guo Dongzhe? Why does he care about you so much"; from his psychology: he despise Xie very much; and from his action: he didn''t send a book to Xie. The more incompatible with the city''s life, the more homesick Xie is. He misses his parents, the wheat and his friend Yangding. The author let Xie recall his memory of the support from his parents and friends. At the end of the story, Xie leaves the city for his warm wheat field and return home.

Xie Hualiang tries to seek the warmth in heart in the real world. The warmth comes from beloved teachers or perhaps friends around them. Maybe the children know the truth of life after years of hardships. The tone of this collection of novels is real but the ways of expression are different and diverse. The author did a great job in the use of dialogue, the spreading of psychological description and the shaping of characters. The author seems to look back on his childhood memories. He is recalling something as well as looking for something. That determines the fact that this collection has more perspectives outside the original perspectives. Even when he describes a little hero''s mental activity, we can find that the heart of every kid is looking for a pacemaker, who, as teachers, guide them and lead them to the road of success in life.