Music Background of Orchid Flower

Orchid Flower Flower's original name was Ji Yanling, a native of Linzhen, Yan'an County. She grew up with a good hand, and was very handsome and lovely. In 1936, the Red Army liberated Linzhen, and the man was recruited to fight in the war. Lan Hua Hua's parents forced her to marry an old scoundrel. The villain died soon afterward, and her parents then married her off to a rich man with a pockmarked face. Lan Hua Hua was abused day after day and finally died in 1942.5 It should be said that Lan Hua Hua's story is a living tragedy of the present, which reveals the miserable fate of the women of the lower class in the old society, and reflects the reality of the old rites that killed and maimed human nature and obstructed the free emotional life of human beings. In those days, events like this often happened. However, when people's minds were still alive to pursue freedom and strive for happiness, they could not help but take practical actions to try to break through the barriers and realize transcendence. Such practical actions are often spontaneous, blind, and reckless, and inevitably go astray, resulting in tragedy. (I will also deal with the phenomenon and understanding of this later.) The tragedy of Orchid Flower Flower began to be enacted from the time she was born.7 "Green thread that orchid thread, orchid a ying ying cai." The lyrics of this song contain a very strong folklore meaning. China is a typical society with a small peasant economy, where men plow and women weave and are self-sufficient. It is in this kind of material life that the ideology of the Chinese people is nurtured. Perhaps there is an element of chance, but what greets Lan Huahua is indeed the reality of female inferiority under the program system, which dooms her to a miserable fate. Allow me to envision it this way: Orchid Flower was born while her mother was spinning and weaving. This child's first impression of the habitat is both, long cotton thread, pulling up and down; black shuttle, left and right trance; the weaving of life begins from now on. Orchid Flower was born, in addition to have to shirk the culture of the country created her tragedy, another fault that can not be ignored is that she "really love death". Some may ask: "Is there anything wrong with being beautiful?" Yes, indeed there may be. In a particular historical period and cultural climate, any aspect of human nature can be condemned. The trajectory of Orchid Flower's life is practiced in such "original sin". As she grew older, Lan Huahua was able to participate in productive labor, and the starting point shifted from the home to the fields. "Jade grain, that field seedling, counts on the height of the sorghum". One of the properties of labor is to signify that the subject has socially acceptable qualities. The implication here is that Lan Hua Hua is not only good-looking, but also good at labor, and definitely a good "family handler". In the view of the ideology of labor as beauty, this is simply a special thing.8 Therefore, the society's evaluation of Orchid Flower is: "Daughters of thirteen provinces, you can count on Orchid Flower to be a good one." Such a talent was naturally a rare commodity in society, and it is not surprising that the matchmakers were excessively sexually excited. The arrangement of the marriage was so compact that it probably had a literary construction involved. I will leave this aside for the moment. What I want to focus on is the value identity and institutional tension embodied in the many folkloric meanings of the wedding ceremony. Here, I would like to focus on the matchmaker. There is a saying in Chinese tradition that there are six kinds of women in society who should not be touched, the so-called "three nuns and six women". They are sharp-tongued, gossipy, streetwise, right-and-wrong, deceitful, and a scourge to society. Matchmakers (generally referred to as matchmakers, which they are) are of this type. 10 I would also like to emphasize the enormous amount of social communication work done by the "three aunts and six ladies" as the transmitters of information.11 The enjoyment of information is a human nature, and the activities of human beings in the making of history can be roughly regarded as the business of information, by both men and women, young and old, without exception. Unfortunately, for a short period of time, men have enjoyed too many social rights and interests and women have not enjoyed enough of them, which has created a unique opportunity for the creation of the "three nuns and six women" in China. What is sad for us moderns is that these phenomena, which emerged in a particular historical period, are in turn a manifestation of institutionalized social distortion.12 Moreover, the historical activity of the matchmaker, which has led to the creation of formalized matchmaking customs and terms such as "clear-cut marriage," is a folkloric force of value that should not be ignored. In the lyrics of the song, there is a line that reads, "I left my love brother behind and carried him to the Zhou family's door." If we don't have the background of the story, the impression is not impressive. In fact, there is an extremely rich content implied behind it. From the Albatross itself alone, a large number of tracks are included in this content. In a sense, it has become almost ****ing obvious that folk songs are love songs (though of course it would be reckless to treat them as such alone). The same is true of albatrosses. The vast majority of love songs reflect the pure love of unmarried men and women (the "obscene songs" mentioned in the notes can be called the "turbid love songs" of married men and women), and most of the irrationally neutral sublimation of human beings is stored in these "truly revealing" innocent men and women. The majority of the irrationally neutral sublimity of mankind is stored in these "true outpourings" of pure love. I can also imagine that in the remote and precipitous mountainous terrain, Lan Hua Hua and her "love brother" are working on the emotional threads condensed in the field seedlings, the pure spirit of the potato lumps, and the heart of the sorghum ears. 13 In addition, there is a scene in which Lan Huahua sends off her love brother before she enters the Zhou family's house. The lyrics are not clear, but the list is endless, and most of them are the essence of history. The Chinese are world-renowned for the delicacy of their feelings, and parting is the most typical way of expressing them.14 The most representative albatross reflecting this theme would be Going West. The most representative reflection of this theme is "Going West", in which almost all of the traditional Chinese psychology of yin and yang and "strangeness" is contained in this sorrowful and heart-rending song. Here, one can see the unique aesthetic "three-pronged mirror" of ancient China, as well as the seven-colored rays of light placed under the sun.15 "Orchid Flower came down from the sedan chair, and looked east and west again". Strange people, strange things, Lan Hua Hua's voyage of life will finally drop the iron anchor here. "A big girl in a sedan chair - the first time"! The anxiety, shyness, thirst and restlessness of a newlywed is unspeakable but conceivable. In this mixed state of mind, there is a heavy emotion is the most most can not let go of, that is her brother in love. "Shine upon the old monkey son of the Chou family as if he were a tomb." This is the most realistic blow. That mood of lost love, two wrong characters, desire to give up, and remorse changes in a flash into the most vicious curse in the universe: "You're going to die and come, you're going to die early, you're going to die and come in the forenoon, and I'm going to go away in the forenoon, I'm going to go away in the forenoon, I'm going to go away in the forenoon." 16 The last two lines can be real writing, that is, Lan Hua Hua elopes to her brother's house on the pretext of returning to her mother's home, complaining bitterly about her heart, presenting her heart, and confessing her determination; or it can be interpreted as virtual writing, that is, Lan Hua Hua fantasizes that she is going to her brother's house with food, in order to recount her secret love. As a matter of fact, we know that her brother in love has already left for the army, so it is more realistic to interpret it as false writing. 17 What I would like to emphasize here is the powerful courage inspired by the love between a man and a woman. Whether Orchid Flower is only aware of it or it has already been transformed into an actual action, it shows the fatal weakness of ritualism in the face of the "true expression of sexuality".18 This phenomenon is the most typical in China, one of the reasons being the tension between the very mature ritualism and the freedom of the human nature, which has existed in Chinese history, and which has been missing from time to time. One of the reasons for this phenomenon, which is most typical of China, is that the tension between the very mature ritual system and free human nature that has existed in China throughout its history is sometimes absent. In a sense, of course, Lan Hua Hua's visit to her brother-in-law is essentially a "forbidden behavior". If she continues this behavior, she will produce another "obscene song" about "hitting on a friend. Putting aside the value factor, such a way of "true expression of sexuality" (or "free pursuit") is not a long-term solution, and it is not peaceful for oneself, and will eventually lead to a tragic end. The most ideal solution is to put forward a revolutionary program for the freedom of marriage, and to pursue it with determination and perseverance. At that time, the conditions were ripe for this in the historical reserves of power, and in fact, it finally joined the current of the agrarian revolution under the leadership of the Chinese ****production party. We know that Lan Hua Hua's lover enlisted in the army to fight in the war, which in itself gave us a signal that a new chapter in the destiny of Chinese women would henceforth be opened. Looking back at Orchid Flower, we see it at the turning point of a great change in history. The death of Orchid Flower represents the end of something old and foretells the creation of something new. It can be said that "Orchid Flower" is the last tragedy of women in ritual marriages in Chinese history, and its value of existence is here.