Reflections on Teahouses and Longxugou

In the era when the Qing Dynasty was about to perish, Yutai Teahouse in Beijing was still a scene of "prosperity": caged birds, fortune-telling, selling antiques and jade articles, and playing cricket.

In the early years of the Republic of China, due to years of civil war and turmoil, there were only a few teahouses in Beijing that used to be everywhere. Under the management of shopkeeper Wang Lifa, the surface is still prosperous, but the essence is full of holes. Foreign goods flooded the market, rural women were sold, eunuchs bought wives, and patriots were arrested.

Survival of the fittest, survival of the fittest, there will always be a turbulent period in the alternation of old and new things, and the teahouse describes such a social period. After reading it, I have some feelings in my heart, but the biggest feeling is to cherish our peaceful and prosperous times now.

Longxugou tells the story of a stinking ditch in the east of Beijing Tianqiao before liberation. Four families live in a small miscellaneous yard by the ditch. Aunt Wang's mother and daughter, the honest and helpful plasterer Zhao Laotou, Cheng Madman and his capable wife were originally a complete family of four.

By describing the life of four families in a small courtyard, the author embodies the purpose that China people are masters of their own affairs. Before the construction of Longxugou, there was a slum near Longxugou, which was seriously polluted and messy. Chick's death made me angry and hate the man-eating Longxugou, and the powerlessness of the poor at the bottom was vividly expressed.

The hard days are finally over. After liberation, the new government thoroughly managed Longxugou, making it clean and tidy, allowing citizens to drink tap water and sing praises to communism.

After reading Longxugou, I was deeply touched, especially in the case of the outbreak of novel coronavirus epidemic this year, China showed its demeanor as a great country incisively and vividly. China citizens received free medical treatment and did not give up any life, truly putting people first, which made every China citizen feel supreme glory and pride.