True "national reading" does not stop at the coverage of the book list, but also lies in the broad diversity of the reader group.
Poster of "CMG National Reading Festival"
April 23 is the 30th "World Book Day". The "CMG National Reading Festival", a national cultural event created by China Central Radio and Television, brought together hundreds of cross-border recommenders, using light and shadow as pens and the stage as paper to reconstruct the current public expression of reading. As the host Bai Yansong said: "Reading is not to become a certain kind of person, but to find the real self."
At the reading festival, writer Liang Xiaosheng responded to the article "Mother" with the spirit of "The World"; actress Sarina's affectionate reading awakened the memory of her mother's era; and Shan Jixiang, director of the Academic Committee of the Palace Museum, brought "The Story of Beijing's Central Axis", sharing how he completed the spiritual inheritance of the "guardian of culture" through reading.
Archaeologist Wang Wei told the civilization code of "Earth Book" in "Origin: Follow Archaeologists to Explore the Origin"; Teacher Kang Zhen extended "The Biography of Su Dongpo" from text to image through the live interaction of "Kang's Painting"; Hou Jingjian, the lead actor of "Awakening Age", shared his insights on playing the Chairman 17 times through "The Biography of Mao Zedong"; screenwriter Long Pingping even told on the spot how the famous novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" became the "original" of his creative soul.
At this moment, profession, art, emotion, and knowledge interacted with each other and answered a question together:
How books make us who we are today.
There is a special guest in the program: Geng Yukun, a Silk Road painter who is still "starting a business" on the Internet at the age of 91 and has millions of fans.
Since 1975, Geng Yukun and his wife Zhao Yixiong have traveled on the "Silk Road" more than 20 times for sketching, investigation and creation in the past 40 years. They have traveled through 8 countries and 238 cities, covering more than 500,000 kilometers, writing more than 8 million words of notes, and collecting, sorting and copying more than 1,000 Gaochang murals that have been lost abroad.
Geng Yukun and Mr.
"The greatest wish of my wife Zhao Yixiong and I is to show everyone our nearly 10,000 works. Our original works are not for sale. This is my wife's will and my future will as well." Geng Yukun and his wife are the first Chinese Silk Road painters and travelers to complete a journey around the Taklimakan Desert and survey the entire Silk Road at home and abroad.
The opportunity for the two to embark on the Silk Road was reading. The couple both love reading, and they read the biographies of Xuanzang, Jianzhen, and Marco Polo together, and got to know the Silk Road. Teacher Zhao said to Teacher Geng: "When you read about the Silk Road in history books, you can only see a faint flash of glory. Only when you really set foot on the Silk Road, read the silent history books, and look at the natural painting, will you have awe for it. You are a painter, and the Silk Road needs you to paint with me." In this way, they set foot on the Silk Road together, walked for fifty years, and painted nearly ten thousand paintings.
Geng Yukun and his wife's album
"Reading thousands of books is like traveling thousands of miles." Teacher Geng Yukun said that the Silk Road painting trip is not a "trip that can be taken at any time." First of all, you need to plan and read books, read books to guide your journey, and walk to verify your reading. You need to follow the footsteps left by your predecessors and measure the land step by step. In order to paint a satisfactory work, you need to experience and paint at the same time. Although you have experienced countless hardships and dangers, encountered tornadoes, were chased by snow leopards and wolves, stayed in bandit dens, and experienced gunshots in war, you have never thought of giving up.
Looking back on the hardships of the journey, Geng Yukun's most unforgettable experience was the experience of traveling on National Highway 109 on the Qinghai-Tibet Highway at an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters. The oxygen in the high-altitude military station was thin, and he had to move around from time to time to increase oxygen when he slept at night. His wife Zhao Yixiong was a light sleeper, and he would call out from time to time: "Geng Yukun! Geng Yukun! Are you still alive?" Geng Yukun replied with a smile: "Alive!"
Geng Yukun and Mr.
"At that time, my husband Zhao Yixiong held my hand and said something I will never forget: 'If you die on this road, I will put your ashes in the passenger seat, and we will continue to walk this Silk Road, and then I will take you home.' He did bring me home safely, but six years ago, he left me forever."
Teacher Geng put her and her husband's random notes and representative works into the album "I've Painted the Silk Road for a Lifetime" to preserve the eternal memories. Her next dream is to find a "home" for the nearly 10,000 paintings they created, to build a Silk Road Art Museum open to the public, to popularize the spirit of culture and art to more people, and to let everyone feel the charm and power of culture and art.
I've spent my life painting the Silk Road: Zhao Yixiong and Geng Yukun's art collection
In Mr. and Mrs. Geng's study, there are various books that accompanied them on their journey along the Silk Road. A note is posted on the door: "After we leave, please keep the study intact. This is our spiritual home and the enlightenment point of the Silk Road. If you borrow books for reference, please return them to their original place." These few words show the two old men's almost pious reverence for knowledge.
Teacher Geng Yukun shared a passage with contemporary youth: "Children, each of us is a book, and each book is unique. Look, isn't my toothless face also a book? It contains the vicissitudes of the past, the happiness of the present, and the expectations for the future. I want to tell the children: reading is not only about reading books on paper, but also about going out to read books on the earth and writing your own life story. No matter how old you are, you must shine and be useful to society!"
It is worth mentioning that the "CMG National Reading Festival" does not stop at telling books, but actively introduces various media forms such as radio, film, dubbing, animation, and painting, so that the "content power" of books can return to the public's vision through "audio-visual expression". The director team consciously breaks the gap between "paper books" and "new media", making "listening to books", "drawing books" and "acting books" equal cultural participation methods, thereby activating the resonance and participation of different age groups in reading.
The first episode of the program will be broadcast on CCTV-10 at 19:31 on April 23, and the second episode will be broadcast at 21:21.