Li Yanguo, the author of the reportage "Zhang Guimei", tells the story behind the writing of the principal of Huaping Girls' High School
A 300,000-word letter to Zhang Guimei
Zhang Guimei is the recipient of the "July 1st Medal". She was rooted in the mountains of central Yunnan and devoted herself to education. At the beginning of the establishment of Huaping Girls' High School in 2008, there were no canteens, dormitories, and no toilets. Students washed their clothes at the back of the school. irrigation ditches.
At its worst, 9 out of 17 teachers resigned, and the school's teaching work was almost paralyzed.
However, Zhang Guimei used her hands covered with pain-relieving tape to get through the "last mile" of education in Huaping, bringing justice and hope to Dashan, and the fate of more than 2,000 girls in the mountainous area has undergone earth-shaking changes here.
They thrived in Huaping Girls' High School, and then spread to the north and south of the country to become part of the backbone of the great country - female soldiers, female doctors, female teachers, female judges, female police officers, female engineers, female technicians, female village cadres...
The 300,000-word long reportage "Zhang Guimei" was recently published, and it has been reprinted six times in just two months.
Write a long letter to reportage in the second person
Talking about the opportunity to create the reportage "Zhang Guimei", Li Yanguo introduced that his old friend and national first-class screenwriter Wang Baoshe has been in contact with Zhang Guimei for more than ten years.
The play "Teacher Guimei" directed by Wang Baoshe was shown in Yunnan and Beijing last year, which aroused great response.
In recent years, there have been many news reports about Zhang Guimei's personal deeds and fragmented information on the Internet, but no official biographical literature has been published.
Therefore, Wang Baoshe recommended Li Yanguo, who is good at writing reportage, to Zhang Guimei.
"I learned in CCTV's character interview column that Zhang Guimei, who was seriously ill in bed, asked if she could pay her funeral expenses in advance when the county leaders came to condolence, and she wanted to use the money for the children in the mountains. Education." Li Yanguo said that Zhang Guimei's words shocked him - this is a dazzling lightning in the materialistic society, he decided to go to Yunnan to see what kind of person Zhang Guimei is.
In April 2021, Li Yanguo went from Shenzhen to Lijiang, Yunnan at his own expense, and met Zhang Guimei at Huaping Girls' High School.
She stood on the campus talking to teachers and students, dressed very plainly, with pain relief tape on the back of her hands, and looked like a very ordinary street aunt - this was Zhang Guimei's first impression of Li Yanguo.
After more than a month of interviews with Zhang Guimei, after sorting out the notes given by Zhang Guimei with another author Wang Xiuli, they finally wrote a 300,000-word reportage "Zhang Guimei".
The whole reportage "Zhang Guimei" is narrated in the second person "you", which is rare in literary creation.
Li Yanguo explained that this reportage, this is a long letter he wrote to Zhang Guimei, using "you" to appear more cordial. His purpose is to write a three-dimensional, diverse and down-to-earth female role model in the new era. Not deified.
Record the delicate and fragile side of strong women
There is no honorary certificate in Zhang Guimei's office. She has successively won honors such as "National Top Ten Teachers' Morality Model", "National Outstanding Communist Party Member", "Model of the Times", "Moving China 2020 Person of the Year", and the "July 1st" Medal for the centenary of the founding of the party. But in Zhang Guimei's office, Li Yanguo did not see a single honorary certificate or trophy displayed.
In this reportage, Li Yanguo recorded Zhang Guimei's strong, daring and responsible side.
"I saw that some families prioritize boys over girls and do not let girls study, so she does ideological work. The parent even said in cold blood that the girl was not his own. Zhang Guimei immediately said that she would pay for her own purse and accompany him to do it. Paternity test. One sentence blocked the parent who only knew about alcoholism all day long."
In addition to being strong and responsible, Li Yanguo also recorded the delicate and fragile side of strong woman Zhang Guimei in his reportage: On February 24, 1995, Zhang Guimei's husband was killed by stomach cancer.
After the body was cremated, Zhang Guimei endured grief and buried her deceased husband's ashes on the high peak of Cangshan.
At that time, there was no money to erect a stele, so Zhang Guimei found a piece of Cangshan stone and borrowed an iron chisel and an iron hammer to carve a stele for her husband.
Li Yanguo specially created a long poem "Baitou Chan" to accompany this tragic story to express Zhang Guimei and her deceased husband.
Li Yanguo was so shocked by Zhang Guimei that he burst into tears
"Compared with news reports, the advantage of reportage is that on the basis of respecting the facts, it can describe the psychological activities and thoughts and feelings of characters in a large space and in detail, making the image of a news personality like Zhang Guimei more plump and down-to-earth." Li Yanguo admitted frankly .
As he learned more about Zhang Guimei, Li Yanguo was shocked more and more strongly, so much so that he burst into tears while eating in a small restaurant.
Today, the school conditions of Huaping Girls’ High School are much improved than before. There are five or six kinds of dishes in the cafeteria, but Zhang Guimei eats almost the same meal every meal: a bowl of boiled pumpkin with no oil stars. One serving of minced pork stir-fried with vegetables, and half a bowl of white rice.
Li Yanguo was very puzzled by this.
Under questioning, Zhang Guimei explained, "The meals in the student cafeteria are subsidized by the state." Later, Li Yanguo learned that Zhang Guimei's meals were delivered by an aunt in the orphanage.
"Is the food at the Children's Welfare Institute so bad?" Li Yanguo was puzzled.
After going to the bottom of it, I finally learned that Zhang Guimei never eats meals from the Children's Welfare Institute.
Although she has serious leg problems and can only walk on one leg when walking up the stairs, Zhang Guimei still sets her office and dormitory on the third floor of the sixth floor instead of the first floor. Zhang Guimei said that living on the third floor is more convenient to visit classes on each floor , solve the problem in time.
There are also six girls living with Zhang Guimei.
They are basically poor at home, lack parental care, and have particularly sensitive and fragile personalities, requiring special care from Zhang Guimei.
Because of living with the students, Zhang Guimei keenly discovered the suicide note written by a girl - the pain of losing her grandmother and younger brother, the disappointment of her father's alcoholic mother's illness, her confusion about her future and her resolute abandonment.
Then, she immediately took the teacher to the girl's house and saw the drunk girl's father.
After he sobered up, Zhang Guimei handed his daughter's suicide note to him and told him, "See for yourself, your daughter committed suicide and died!" Lost is worth knowing, family affection is awakened, the father burst into tears, While crying, he shouted, "Baby, you are killing your father..." At this moment, the girl's mother rushed back from the mountain and cried together.
Seeing that the "fire" was almost over, Zhang Guimei told them the news that the girl had been rescued in time.
After that, the girl's father quit drinking, began to repent, and worked hard to earn money to support the family.
Text / reporter Zhang Enjie