Chapter 71: Land of Hope
From the 1980s to the early 1990s, the most popular people on university campuses were writers, poets, singers and other literary stars. They could be warmly welcomed by college students just by their fame, and it was not a problem for them to get free food, drinks and accommodation.
When Ai Da Jin and Lao Lang went to Hainan to make a living, they failed and ended up in Xiamen. He relied on his fame to be supported by the girls from Xiamen University for a while. Even many years later, he still misses that time very much.
So in the movie "The Flowers Bloomed in That Year", people fondly recalled the good old days: the universities at that time were like the brothels in the Tang and Song dynasties, where wandering poets, singers and painters were often successful.
This line comparing the university to a brothel is indeed inappropriate, but it also indirectly reflects the aesthetic preferences of college students at that time.
As a nationally renowned writer of youth literature, Gao Jialin was naturally warmly welcomed by Sun Yat-sen University when he came to them. He soon met the student leaders who stayed behind during the summer vacation.
This is normal. Nowadays, transportation is inconvenient, and many students from ordinary families or who are keen on studying will stay in school during the winter and summer vacations. For example, Song Yunhui in "A Flowing River" only went home once or twice in four years of college.
Sitting in the dormitory of Chang Jianhui, vice president of the Student Union of Sun Yat-sen University, the dormitory was packed with students who rushed there after hearing the news, listening to Gao Jialin's conversation. When it was time for lunch, everyone dragged Gao Jialin to the cafeteria for a delicious meal.
After returning, he took a nap in Chang Jianhui's dormitory. After waking up, Chang Jianhui heard that Gao Jialin wanted to see the changes in Guangzhou during the reform and development period, so he contacted several local classmates in Guangzhou and took Gao Jialin around the city.
Gao Jialin saw pedestrians hurrying on the streets and cars flowing constantly, full of vigor and vitality. There were obviously many more people doing business than in inland cities. People either set up stalls in crowded places or pushed carts and shouted, and everyone's face was full of yearning for a better life.
Tired of walking, Gao Jialin invited them to have tea at a roadside tea stall. A small detail caught Gao Jialin's attention. He saw an eye-catching banner hanging under the ceiling of the tea stall, which read "If you find that the tea cup is not sterilized, you will be rewarded with 5 cents."
In stark contrast to the warnings in other places that say "Do not beat customers without reason", Guangzhou has now realized that service awareness is the key to the survival of the service industry.
After 7 or 8 o'clock in the evening, most inland cities have gone quiet, but Guangzhou is still bustling. Small vendors set up stalls under the street lights, displaying jeans, sunglasses and other goods, and loudly shouting gimmicks such as "export and sell domestically", which immediately attracts a large number of customers to buy.
When they were selecting, they would occasionally mention a few names of Hong Kong and Taiwan stars. Due to their geographical location, Guangdong people can be said to be the first group of people to be exposed to this information.
While people in other places were still fascinated by Gong Xue, Zhou Liqing and Tang Guoqiang, they were talking about Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Xu Xiaofeng and Teresa Teng.
After visiting the street stalls, Chang Jianhui mysteriously took Gao Jialin into an alley. Each of them paid fifty cents and went in to watch a video. As soon as he saw Gao Jialin, he was no longer sleepy. The silhouettes of Li Lizhen, Qiu Shuzhen and others kept lingering in his mind.
Unfortunately, the movie broadcast today was not the kind he had in mind, but a martial arts film starring Ti Lung. There was a line in the film that opened Gao Jialin's eyes.
The protagonist played by Ti Lung raped the heroine played by Lin Zhenqi. After waking up, the heroine said aggrievedly, "When I first saw you, my whole heart was already yours. Why did you rape me?"
Dillon wiped the sword coldly, "I'm used to it!"
Gao Jialin slapped his thigh when he saw these four words. This line is so amazing. Who on earth came up with it? After visiting Guangzhou, he took a train to the Special Economic Zone and went straight to Shenzhen University after getting off the train. He used the same trick again and found a group of free guides to accompany him around.
The vitality here is more vigorous than that in Guangzhou. Slogans such as "Time is money, efficiency is life, everything is managed by someone, and everyone has something to do" can be seen everywhere. There are bustling construction sites everywhere, and the whole city changes almost every day.
Even the public toilets are different from those in other places. In addition to men and women, there are also words like Gens and Lady on the toilet doors. I think there must be foreign guests who went to the wrong toilet. Being able to notice such small details and correct them in time may be one of the reasons why the Special Zone can take off so quickly? When passing by the Special Zone Middle School, Gao Jialin happened to meet students leaving school. He looked for a while, but unfortunately he didn't see the child named Teng Teng. Otherwise, he would have asked him for directions and heard him call him uncle. This must have felt good.
I visited during the day and returned to the dormitory at night to quickly record what I saw and heard. After the visit, I planned to organize these materials into an article in the form of documentary literature and ask Zhang Lifeng to help submit it to suitable newspapers and magazines.
He did not intend to be just a writer, he had other ambitions, and this article was just a stepping stone.
After visiting the special economic zones, we went to Hainan. Hainan has not yet been established as an independent province and is still under the jurisdiction of Guangdong. However, its administrative level is rather special. It is not managed by a regional administrative office like other regions, but is integrated into the Hainan Administrative Region.
Now the whole island is in a frenzy, and local people are frantically chasing after car approval documents. As long as they can get one and resell it, they can make tens of thousands of yuan.
No one was going to class or working. No matter if they were kindergarten teachers or government officials, everyone was scrambling for approval documents and reselling cars. Even some college students got involved, and they didn't even have time to attend classes. Many students failed their final exams.
After staying in the south for a whole month, Gao Jialin boarded the train back to Shanghai. Lying on the hard sleeper bed, Gao Jialin looked through the materials he had collected during this period and began to wonder what name he should give to this article.
After thinking for a long time, Gao Jialin took out a pen and wrote four words in his notebook - "Land of Hope".
It takes thirty-six hours to return from Guangzhou to Shanghai. During this day and a half, Gao Jialin spent all his time sleeping and organizing the outline of the article. By the time the train stopped at Shanghai Station, the outline was already completed.
After more than 30 hours of train ride, Gao Jialin was a little tired. After getting off the train, he simply took a taxi. When the driver heard that Gao Jialin came back from the Special Economic Zone and Hainan, he immediately became excited and kept asking if it was really easier to make money there than in Shanghai. When getting off the train, he was reluctant to leave immediately and forced a business card to Gao Jialin, asking Gao Jialin to take him with him if he had the opportunity to make money.
When he walked to the front of the house, Gao Jialin saw that it had changed a lot compared to a month ago.
(End of this chapter)
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