My Distant Qingping Bay Author: Shi Tiesheng Publisher: Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House

"My Distant Qingping Bay" is a novel written by contemporary writer Shi Tiesheng. The novel depicts the story of a small mountain village on the Loess Plateau and a funny cowherd.

Content: When I was sent to work in the countryside, I fed cattle in Qingpingwan, a small mountain village in northern Shaanxi for two years. The old man who stopped the cattle with me was from Suide and had a lot of folk songs in his heart. When I drove the cattle up the mountain with him, I listened to him singing "Zou Xikou" and "Xintianyou" all the way. The old man was very kind-hearted. When he met the drummers and storytellers who made a living from village to village, he "especially gave a lot". He had done that job and knew the difficulty of recruiting workers. The old man lived with his little granddaughter Liu Xiaoer. Every night, when I and the old man added grass to the cattle at the farm, Liu Xiaoer kept asking me about Beijing. The old man had seen the world. He joined the party in 1937 and followed the team all the way to Guangzhou. It was during those turbulent years that the old man delayed his son's illness because he was reluctant to give the doctor a gift of "ten kilograms of rice or noodles", and he regretted it deeply. Therefore, although he fell in love with a widow, he did not marry her, fearing that he would let down Liu Xiaoer, who was left behind by his son. Later, I went back to Beijing for medical treatment. My fellow villagers asked my classmates to bring me various local products, including a handkerchief bag of cornflowers wrapped in a child. Finally, my classmate took out a ten-jin Shaanxi Province general food coupon, which the old man had exchanged for ten kilograms of good millet. He remembered how his son's illness was delayed. The old man, the child, and my beloved red bull and old black cow, Qingping Bay left me with infinite nostalgia.

The novel uses lyrical prose to vividly, naturally and appropriately depict the style of the revolutionary base area of ​​the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi through the memories of the old educated youth who went to work in the countryside. It shows readers the simple, honest, positive and optimistic character of the people in northern Shaanxi, and inspires people to think seriously about life and society. The novel is full of deep emotions and is narrated in a leisurely manner, which makes people have endless aftertastes.

The novel won the National Excellent Short Story Award in 1983.

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