Song King by Levi S. Gibbs

Author:Levi S. Gibbs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Published: 2018-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

While Li found this metaphor fresh and new, he also found it lacking: a lamp could only illuminate a cave dwelling (yaodong, the typical style of home in northern Shaanxi Province), or one household, and thus could not reflect the greatness of Chairman Mao. Su Jian (2007, 48) narrates the story as follows: “At night, Li Youyuan went home and sat beneath the light of an oil lamp. Lost in thought, he took off his hat and covered the lamp. Right away, the interior of his cave dwelling was immersed in darkness. He thought, ‘If a lamp can be extinguished this easily, how can it be compared to Chairman Mao?’ He made a decision to himself to write a yangge song praising Chairman Mao that was better and more fitting.”

Like the “Emperor Yao” metaphor before it, the “lamp” metaphor was also found lacking (Zhen et al. 2003, 54). There are several versions of what happened next and how Li came upon the metaphor that would better capture the essence of Chairman Mao’s greatness. One reads, “On a winter’s night in 1942, as Li Youyuan rested after carrying buckets of excrement [used for fertilizer] on a shoulder pole, his body shivered with cold. Just at that moment, a huge red sun rose from the East, casting a bright-red light over the entire earth, casting its warm rays over Li Youyuan. Inspired by this, he composed, ‘The East is red, the sun has risen, China has produced a Mao Zedong’” (Wei 1994, 36). Another version of the story has this: “One morning in the early winter in 1942, Li Youyuan woke up at dawn and carried a set of buckets into the city. When he had almost arrived at the county town, suddenly, he saw that the East was bright red. A huge, majestic red sun emerged from the clouds, rising slowly. It shined on the old city of Jiaxian, shined on the northern Shaanxi plateau, shined on the entire Motherland, causing him to feel warm all over” (Su 2007, 48, emphasis added). A third version goes as follows:

This morning, as Li Youyuan climbed from the western slope to the summit of a loess ridge, just then, a huge red sun arose from the East. This scene and this feeling sparked an inspiration in a folk singer talented both in composition and singing. Moved by the scenery, what a beautiful and magnificent mood it was! Look—the sun rose slowly from the East, bright red and exceedingly dazzling in its splendor, shining on Li Youyuan and filling him with happiness. He put down the hoe he had been carrying, held his breath, and focused in appreciation at the sight of the sunrise. The golden sunlight shined at an angle on the thousands of mountains and hillsides of the Loess Plateau…. As he looked and looked, a spirit of absolute sincerity surged in his bosom, and he burst forth in song. Using the melody from “Riding a White Horse,”13 he sang out, “The East is red, the sun has risen; China has produced a Mao Zedong.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.