There is a concept in drama research called "macro structure". I don't know if this is the case in Chinese. It is "거시구조" in Korean, which means that many works have the same core. For example, "The Lord of the Rings" and "Spirited Away" are both teenagers. The adventure finally returned to society, "The Legend of Chunxiang" and "Liangshan Bo Zhuyingtai" are both stories of love.
I want to talk about whether Pearl Buck's masterpiece "The Earth" and Mr. Chen Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain", Mr. Gao Mantang's "Crossing Guandong" and South Korea's "Cow" have the same macroscopic structure, which is to describe the rise and fall of a family in the historical framework. , record their suffering from the trivial perspective of life and thus reflect the macroscopic structure of people's sense of powerlessness in the historical process.
The difference is that as an American, it is even more difficult for Pearl Buck to vividly shape the big family of Wang Lung with such delicate techniques. In the decades she lived in China, she understood "family" with the eyes of Westerners. The traditional Chinese values such as "land" and "filial piety" were written into a book, which was recognized by Westerners and won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Reading this book will remind me of my grandfather, an ordinary and stubborn old Chinese farmer. Before going to bed, he must read the weather forecast because he wants to know if he will be able to work in the fields tomorrow; his sons and daughters have to pick them up and live with them, but they strongly disagree because the land is not taken care of; Grandpa shed tears when the family's cattle had to be sold because of age, because it was a partner who sold his life for the family's land...
That was Wang Long, a farmer in the early 20th century. This is my grandfather in the early 21st century. After a century, the Chinese people are still so attached to the land. Some people say that the essence of Chinese people is farmers. In the whole world, is it possible that the warlords from the king's land to the end of the Republic of China pay attention to the ownership of the land. The land is the soul of the Chinese people and the life of the Chinese people. A value carrier.
At the same time, when I see what Wang Long's eldest son has done, I will think of myself. Vanity loves face. "I have read books for so many years and have never stepped into the ground." It is very similar. They are all floating people who have never been close to the root of life. I hope our society will have less people like Wang Long's eldest son, and more calm and down-to-earth people who never forget where they came from.
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