In my opinion, everyone who has a great name should be somewhat mysterious or great, such as film and television, the underground characters in the novel always change their names. And those great writers, such as Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Mao Dun …… they publish their works like to use a pen name, not to mention those great people had Li Desheng, Hu Sui, Wu Hao and other great names.
The original thought is that pen names and great names mean the same thing, nothing more than adding an extra symbol to yourself. Who would have thought that we, the nameless mortals, would have the opportunity to feel the taste of a great name? I remember in the summer of 1966, the first and second graders had already gone on summer vacation, leaving only us, the graduating junior class, with about two hundred students insisting on “suspending classes and making a revolution” and studying the editorials of the “two newspapers and one magazine” endlessly every day. In order not to be left behind, they had to scour their hearts every day to write large-character posters exposing the teachers’ “anti-Party words and deeds”, and sometimes they even “ordered” the teachers to read aloud their own “words” in front of their own large-character posters. Sometimes, I also “ordered” the teachers to read aloud their “crimes” in front of their own large posters, read their names, but also forced them to change their names to “I”, to make incestuous, embarrassing, and now, looking back, I want to slap myself.
Faced with the long repetition of tired and boring days, the students really longed for some exciting action. Sure enough, on that unforgettable August 18, when the leader first received the revolutionary juniors, a female junior named “Song Binbin” listened to the leader’s top instruction of “Be martial! The revolutionary action of “changing the name” swept the country, and we, who were born in a small place, naturally did not want to be left behind and were moved by the wind.
One day at noon, a “leftist” student posted an aggressive “solemn statement” on the wall of the communication room at the entrance of the school, to the effect that in response to the call, with immediate effect, my original name was changed to “XXX “, to show the break with the concept of feudal capitalism. The new name is really very red and very revolutionary. This certainly gave a shot of stimulation to the stiff and dull campus. In less than half a day, as if by magic, the long walls of the communication room and the finance room were plastered with a thousand “solemn statements”, what treasure ah, expensive ah, wealth ah, beauty ah, Li ah, show ah, lotus ah names are “abolished”, the new name is no more! Gender differences and personality characteristics, a clear “Cultural Revolution” “Red Guard” “Red Star” “pro-army” “love the party” “defend the country” and so on.
I think, my name is more moderate, not too naked to seek wealth and blessings, probably not considered a feudal capitalist. However, a leftist classmate reminded me that the name was given according to the family’s generation, which means you are the filial son of the landlord class, which really scared me in a cold sweat. I thought, why not take this opportunity to break with the black five family, completely cut off this dragging my tail? So, I posted a statement to change my name to “Yang Bin”, my mother’s surname “Yang”, I could not give her up, but the use of the “Yang”, meaning to promote the ideals of both civil and military.
The name change farce tossed about a week, with a night of rain and wind, the wall full of red paper flowing black water, red water, sparse diffuse campus, so that those hot names have not had time to let people keep the memory, filed and registered. I was a little disappointed that people were calling the old names as usual.
What made me most sad was that at the “promotion recommendation” meeting, the school’s Cultural Revolution leaders still checked my file under my old name, went through my “old background”, and held on to my “black tail” as usual. Of course, everyone, like me, except for self-congratulation, to show that they have expressed their “loyalty”, the “former name” did not bring us any luck, we still do what we should do! But since the public statement has been made, you can’t “not pay back the debt”. I’m not going to lie since I was born in my mother’s womb.
I didn’t expect that filling in such a great name would bring me trouble later. The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to the public. I also honestly put “Yang Bin” in the great name field, as a result, a long review, always asking me why I have a great name, what I did with the great name? It took me a lot of words to get the word out. Afterwards, I talked to a friend about it, and he taunted me severely, saying that I was “too honest” and “had it coming”. When I thought about it, he was indeed more clever than me.
From then on, whenever I filled out a form and saw the column of my former name, I spit on it and put a cross on it, feeling relieved. After I engaged in literary creation, someone suggested that I use a tasteful name pen, I bowed and bowed, “Stop, stop, my name is Cai Shankang, in this life and in this life, the line does not change the name and sit not change the surname!”
Recent Comments