Hutong Culture Wang Zengqi (Take you into Hutong Culture in Old Beijing)

When it comes to Beijing, in addition to those famous tourist attractions, the first thing that comes to mind is hutong.

The hutong culture in old Beijing has a history of over 700 years. Every hutong is a scenic spot worth seeing. Brick by brick is the precipitation of history, the pulse of culture, and the fireworks atmosphere of every household living and working in peace and contentment.

In the hutongs of old Beijing, you can always hear the greetings from neighbors, and the full friendship between people is best interpreted in this not spacious square inch.

Ren Mei famous teacher Zhao Mo's works

Many famous writers, such as Ji Xianlin, Wang Zengqi and Zhao Danian, have lived in Hutong for decades, while others have only lived in Hutong for a short time. They have different views and feelings about Hutong. In their works, hutong life in Beijing has its own customs.

Whether it is more than 60 years or 50 years, it has become the past. Now the face of Beijing is changing every day, with skyscrapers and spacious national roads. However, those lovely hutongs are disappearing and being swallowed up by skyscrapers. It seems that in reality, the fate and status of hutongs are getting more and more depressed, which is irresistible and not necessarily a bad thing. But I still care about my fairway. Let them have a place in my heart, forever, forever.

I love Beijing's hutongs, and Beijing's hutongs love me.

-Ji Xianlin's "I Love Beijing Hutong"

Ren Mei famous teacher Zhao Mo's works

Hutongs and quadrangles are the carriers of this culture. We "locate" the environment of the novel in the hutong, and write it with ease, like a duck to water. People in Beijing pay special attention to benevolence and righteousness. We renamed Cui Hua Hutong Rende Hutong, and let the old Chinese doctor Jin Yi live here. He has an ancestral "recreating elixir" to treat Soong Ching Ling, Guo Moruo and Jiang Qing. He only needs to come once to cure the disease, so many important people are overwhelmed to come here. However, he takes one day out every week to see a doctor in his community, and he also provides free clinics for the poor. Didn't you say that under the impact of the commodity tide, you will recognize money and not people? No, Rende Hutong still retains a pure land. This warm and helpful neighborhood relationship is still tenaciously preserved in many small alleys in Beijing.

-Zhao Danian's The Charm of Hutong Culture

Ren Mei famous teacher Zhao Mo's works

The names of hutongs come from different sources. Some industries are relatively concentrated, such as handkerchief alley, which is probably the place where handkerchiefs were monopolized at the beginning; Hair Hutong is probably the place where wigs are sold. Some are royal storage places, such as Xijinsi Hutong (for storing firewood needed by the palace) and Piku Hutong (for storing furs). Some once lived here with a famous person, such as the boundless adult hutong, and this adult also wondered how to call it such a name; There lived an old lady, a midwife, in Shilaoniang Hutong. She must be a good midwife. It is said that the real name of Daya Bao Hutong is Big Dumb Hutong, because there used to be a mute here. Some are Xiao-shaped, such as Gao Yibo Hutong, formerly known as Dog Tail Hutong; Sheep Yibin Hutong was originally named Yangwei Hutong. Some hutongs don't know what they want, such as Shamao Hutong in Dali. Some hutongs are not called hutongs, but they are called elegant names, such as "Deep Flowers" where Qi Baishi once lived. Actually, there are no flowers here. As soon as you enter the alley, it is the public toilet! Some houses in hutong used to be special. Some people have cymbals nailed to their doors, and there are nails and horses in front of them to describe the prosperity of the past. However, with the erosion of years and wind and rain, the door cymbals are no longer paired, the horse-tied piles and the horse-mounted stones are also rounded, and the angular lines are blurred. Now most hutongs have become "mean alleys". The alley is very quiet. Occasionally, there is the sound of "shaking the boudoir" (more than a dozen pieces of iron are strung together and shaking), the sound of a blind fortune teller playing piccolo, and the old cry of selling hard flour cakes-"Hard flour cakes-A-BO!" "The mountains are as quiet as ancient times, and the days are as long as small years", and time seems to have stagnated here.

—— Wang Zengqi's "The Remnant Dreams of the Ancient Capital —— Hutong"

Ren Mei famous teacher Zhao Mo's works

How many hutongs are there in Beijing?

"The famous hutong is 3,600, and the unknown hutong cow."

It is these hutongs, large and small, that divide Beijing into Little Square, and it is these hutongs that connect every Little Square in the city.

Hutongs in Beijing are always lively and full of fireworks. Neighbors' greetings, food fireworks and vendors' cries make this narrow alley look like a big stage. Beijing's unique culture is being spread and passed down among hutongs, making people know more about the city's enthusiasm, exquisiteness and tradition.

People always say that art comes from life and is higher than life. The "drama" of life staged every day in this hutong is also the purest art.

Let's take a look at how Mr. Zhao Mo, a famous teacher in Ren Mei, interprets the purity of this inheritance with a brush.

Appreciation of More Zhao | Freehand Hutong Series Works

Teacher More Zhao expressed his understanding of Hutong culture through traditional Chinese painting. Hutongs are similar in appearance, but different in internal characteristics. They are not only the pulse of the city, but also the place where ordinary people in Beijing live. Beijingers have a special affection for Hutong, which is a passage for people to go in and out of their homes and a museum of folk customs, leaving many marks of social life.

★ Introduction of the instructor ★

More Zhao, Manchu, Ergenjue Roche. He is currently a member of Beijing Artists Association, an academician of China Ink and Wash Research Institute, an academician of Beijing Nanhai Painting Academy, and a special teacher of Ren Mei University Hall. In 2007, he graduated from the advanced class of landscape painting in the training center of China Artists Association, and graduated from the Long Rui Landscape Painting Research Class of Beijing Fenghuangling Art Museum on 20/0/4, studying under Long Rui.

Ren Mei University Hall freehand brushwork Hutong special network seminar will officially start on July 12. Teacher Zhao Mo, a famous teacher in Ren Mei, will explain the hutong culture, combined painting, different painting methods of the hutong scenery in the four seasons and the creative painting method of the hutong gatehouse from different angles.

For students interested in the course, click "Learn more" below to view the enrollment brochure.