For two years, because my brother went to work in Guangdong, my elderly parents became left-behind elderly people, leaving them to live alone in their hometown. I really couldn't let go. So I brought them to the city where I work and live. It's just that my father has deep feelings for his hometown, and life in the city is always not that satisfying. Therefore, every time I go to work for a long holiday, I have to drive my parents back to my hometown for a walk, take a look, and buy some. A few "treasure CDs" to relieve my father's homesickness.
Every time he returned to his hometown and saw familiar scenery, his father’s eyes shone brightly. He would always open the car window and look at it affectionately. Especially when I heard the rhythm of "dong dong dong, dong dong dong, dong dong dong, dong dong dong, dong dong dong," coming from the folks on the roadside, my father would always ask me to park the car on the side of the road and sit quietly. Listen to the previous paragraph quietly and happily. This is a folk art unique to my hometown - Pingxiang Spring Gong.
I often listened to "Pingxiang Spring Gong" when I was a child. Every Spring Festival, there are always some spring gong artists who go door-to-door to "play spring gongs". They hang a cloth bag on their body, tie a small drum to their left abdomen, hang a small gong beside the drum, hold the drum stick in their left hand and the gong in their right hand. The mallet beats the rhythm of "dong dong dong dong...", which serves as the transition to the beginning of the song and the interlude between the paragraphs; they use Pingxiang dialect to praise people, things and things in Pingxiang dialect. After a spring gong is sung, countless words of blessing always make the host smile, and he happily stuffs a few dollars into the spring gong artist's bag.
"Spring Gong" has been circulated in my hometown for a long time. It originated from ancient farmers' vague understanding of seasonal changes and lack of information. In order to remind people to farm at the right time, the government sent special personnel to the countryside to send spring. In order to solve the problem of sending spring Regarding people's livelihood issues, it is stipulated that every household must give spring senders a certain amount of rice and money. Later, "beating the spring gong" became a means for the poor to make a living, an "art of begging." Through the inheritance from generation to generation, "Spring Gong" eventually became a local folk art that lasted for a long time. Chunluo artists not only sing whatever comes to mind and whatever they see, they usually also carefully craft the lyrics to make the language humorous, smooth and free in rhyme. As a result, there are some classics with certain stories every year. The jokes were recorded on discs and circulated in the market, and were deeply loved by the people. I remember when I was a child, my father bought back a piece of spring gong called "A Skillful Wife Brings Old Mandarin Ducks Together" and he played it "dong dong dong choking" at my house for a whole year.
From my father’s affection for Chunluo, I know that “Chunluo” means no less to my father than the Shaanxi people feel for “Qin Opera” and the Northeastern people feel for “Erren’s Legend”. The melody of "dong dong choke" has been deeply rooted in my father's bones. Therefore, every time when I was about to drive my parents away from my hometown again, I would go to the audio store to buy a few copies of all the "Spring Gong" jokes that had been popular this year, and play them to my father in the car and at home.
Every time I hear this familiar melody, it's like opening the emotional gate in my father's heart, and the strong flavor of his hometown rushes in...