China News Service, Hohhot, August 13th: "Post-80s" writer Liu Xiao: Use the novel "The Last Poverty Alleviation Captain" to record the feat of poverty alleviation
China News Service reporter Li Aiping
The 41-year-old Liu Xiao has many unexpected events in his life. He never thought that his life would be related to poverty alleviation. He also never expected that the novel "The Last Poverty Alleviation Captain" written by "Xinma Youjing" won the spirit of the 15th Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Civilization Construction "Five Ones Project" Award.
On August 13, Liu Xiao said frankly in an exclusive interview with reporters in Hohhot, "In a sense, these unexpected things are actually the best feedback for his two and a half years of working in the village." "I can record poverty alleviation with the pen in my hand. It is an honor for a writer to tackle this history.”
What makes Liu Xiao quite excited is that after the publication of the novel "The Last Poverty Alleviation Captain", the critics gave the book high praise.
Some critics said, "From a literary point of view, the core of the novel "The Last Poverty Alleviation Captain" is close to local literature, which can read Liang Xiaosheng's simplicity and Liu Liangcheng's loneliness." "Part of the plot has the legendary color of Mo Yan's novels... It is a novel. It adds a lot of cultural and geographical colors, and also makes the boring poverty alleviation work vivid and exciting."
As the deputy editor-in-chief of the County-level Rong Media Operation Service Center of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Liu Xiao has previously published a collection of essays, essays and short stories "A Q's WeChat Moments", essay collections "A Dog's Life", "Meet You, So Love" ".
It is worth mentioning that the collection of essays "Meet You, So Love" was jointly recommended by Jia Pingwa, a famous contemporary writer, Yan Lieshan, a famous essayist and winner of the Lu Xun Literature Prize.
"The unit suddenly asked me for my opinion and wanted me to go to the village of Keyouzhong Banner, Xing'an League, Inner Mongolia, to help the poor. That was one day in April 2019." Liu Xiao told reporters that after the unit found him to talk, he finally went to 2,000 miles away. The Keyou Middle Banner outside the village does the poverty alleviation work in the village.
"I was born in the countryside and lived in the countryside for more than 20 years. I am very familiar with the countryside. I think I am qualified for this job. Another important reason is that I have always had a strong rural complex." Liu Xiao explained his participation in the village. reasons for poverty alleviation.
The picture shows Liu Xiao's work "The Last Poverty Alleviation Captain".
Photo by Li Aiping
"Although it seems easy to talk about all this now, it was not that simple until I really went to the front line of poverty alleviation." Liu Xiao recalled that in the two and a half years from April 2019 to September 2021, his accommodation It can be described as simple, "I live in a bungalow next to the local village, with a bed, a set of luggage, and that's all."
"The toilet is a dry toilet, and there is no place or equipment for bathing. In desperation, I found a large plastic bucket, filled it with water, and placed it on an iron frame. During the day, I heated the water and flushed it at night, which was considered a bath. "
"In addition, there are often snakes in the yard. When the snakes are not hibernating, I can see snakes almost every day. At most, I saw four a day." "We live in an area of more than 70 acres. Mu, it is very empty. During the daytime, there are very few people except when the workers are working. At night, when the wind blows, the iron sheets and windows squeak, and no one who is timid dares to stay."
Under such conditions, how to do a good job of poverty alleviation in villages is a test of one's determination.
In an interview, Liu Xiao said that in the past two and a half years, he has been admonishing himself to "endure loneliness, poverty, and loneliness." He revealed that this is also the time when he wrote his novel "The Last Term". The earliest motivation of "Captain of Poverty Alleviation".
However, he stressed, "During the period of poverty alleviation in villages, writing was an occasional idea."
Liu Xiao told reporters that when he did not go to the village for poverty alleviation in Keyouzhong Banner of Xing'an League, he would conduct accurate identification, exit sequence, renovation of dilapidated houses, infrastructure construction, and industrial poverty alleviation for the village work team, the first secretary, and the poor households that were registered. ...these terms are relatively vague.
"These words were learned through news reports before, and they lacked real experience." Liu Xiao said that through two and a half years of poverty alleviation experience in the village, he understood the complexity and arduousness of poverty alleviation work, which was completely in line with the outside world's imagination. "The grassroots work must be realistic, not as shown in the documents, nor as simple as what is shown in the report materials."
Faced with the complex side of poverty alleviation work, Liu Xiao felt that "the feat of poverty alleviation, which will surely be recorded in the annals of human history, can be said to be a good natural material. It would be a pity if it could not be better recorded."
"I think it is necessary to record the great event of poverty alleviation in the form of literature." Liu Xiao revealed that in the specific writing, it is relatively easy to write because he is a witness. The place names are all virtualized, and the characters in the works have no corresponding prototypes.”
In this novel, the reporter noticed that although Liu Xiao appeared in the form of a novel, the background of the writing was the precise poverty alleviation, one of the "three tough battles" proposed by the Party Central Committee, so the content involved in the book is all It is a true portrayal of poverty alleviation.
In writing this novel, Liu Xiao sighed with emotion, "When I wrote that on the morning of February 25, 2021, when the National Poverty Alleviation Summary and Commendation Conference was grandly held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, my tears suddenly stopped. At that moment, I felt that I participated in the poverty alleviation and wrote a book, how lucky I am.”
"More importantly, this novel can let future generations or those who have not participated in the great project of poverty alleviation understand this magnificent miracle in human history." Liu Xiao concluded.
"Although this book only takes one village as the starting point to start the narrative of poverty alleviation, it is a microcosm of the poverty alleviation in China as a whole." Inner Mongolia critic Zhang Xiao said.
(Finish)