Beijing, January 12 (Reporter Ying Ni) -- A book sharing event for "Gaga's Wooden House," themed "Growing Up with Grandma and the Sound of the Yangtze River," was recently held in Beijing, taking the audience back to the story-filled wooden house on the banks of the Yangtze River.
A scene from the book launch event for "Gaga's Wooden House". (Photo provided by the publisher)"Gaga's Wooden House" is a long prose-style children's literature. Ye Mei, president of the China Prose Writers Association, uses her own childhood experiences as the framework to weave a vivid picture of life in the small town of Badong in the Three Gorges area during the mid-20th century. The book features Gaga (Grandma) in a blue dress and with her hair in a "baba hairpin," her youngest uncle who can tell stories about the Yangtze River and the poems of Li Bai and Du Fu, a warehouse filled with "Cuban sugar," and cloth shoes that grow bigger every year and are embroidered with camellias.
When discussing her initial motivation for creating the work, Ye Mei said she wanted to preserve a "real and tangible life and love" for contemporary children. The wooden building is not only a home, but also a miniature cultural space: outside the window is the ever-flowing Yangtze River and the legend of the Goddess Peak; inside the door are the daily routines of "shoe-making," fetching river water, and eating lazy tofu; and in the streets and alleys echo the cries of corn candy vendors and the poems of Du Fu and Li Bai. Thus, personal growth stories seamlessly blend with geographical context, literary tradition, and the wisdom of life.
Critic Xu Dexia believes that what makes "Gaga" in the book so moving is that her love is "concrete and tangible." "This love is conveyed through embroidered shoes stitch by stitch, a hot meal, and a story told late at night. It is not abstract or didactic, but it gives children the most solid sense of security and a strong sense of value."
Ye Mei said that family traditions are not just admonitions hanging on the wall. "They are hidden in the casual conversations when Gaga is steaming rice cakes and saying 'Don't do evil, do more good deeds,' and in her thrifty ways of managing the household and her compassion for others. Children naturally inherit these qualities through daily exposure and imitation."
Peng Chunying, Party Branch Secretary of Beijing United Publishing Company, stated that the value of "Gaga's Wooden House" goes far beyond literary appreciation; it is a heartwarming "family history" and a vivid "cultural reader." "We hope that children will understand love, understand themselves, and also understand the culture and strength of this land through the story." (End)
