Dancer on the Arc (Golden Scroll): Golden Scroll

Author: Liang Xiaosheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: About my father, I wrote this loyal text to "erect a monument" for a farmer who became a member of the working class, and to preserve memories for the future that I would dedicate to my son. In my childhood, my father was the stern head of the family, an absolute authority, the one who sold his labor to feed and clothe me, a benefactor, and a man I feared. When my father frowned, my mother and the four of us brothers would become restless, like birds sensing a storm. My father rarely felt happy and rarely had a cheerful expression. At that time, my sister had not yet been born, and my grandfather was alive but too old to move, lying on the kang all day coughing nonstop but still very hungry. The highly efficient digestive system of the seven-member family relied solely on the sweat of a third-grade plasterer. As my mother said, the family "ate" my father every day. My father was a strong man from Shandong. He never complained about life or sighed. My father would bear our "eating" with a frown. My father's life principle—rely on no one. The neighbors would say, "The roof opens to the sky, and the courtyard has a well." I often prayed, hoping my father would complain a little or sigh. Because I once heard a fortune-telling old woman in the neighborhood say, "Everyone has a breath in their chest." According to my naive and childish thoughts, if my father sighed, he would be less likely to get angry.