—An interview onTeacher LiZanYang, the Writer of
TheOrigin for Local Lanes, at MengXiYuan Tourist’s Center.
I had thought that a book on the origin for local lanes could be no more than the edit of those plain introductions printed on those places, so I did not turn the pages until recently. It hadbeen raining for a whole day that I had to abandon my plan to go out for a walk and got the chance to bend over my desk and read the book casually. Soon I was attracted by the words.

“This street had run parallelwith the rail line with only a low wall in between. I was escaping along thewall while someone shouted in the back: ‘The prisoners are escaping! Escaping! ’‘I caught one!’ ‘I caught another.’ Then I turn westward and intentioned to runtoward the south…”“While mother alwayssaw ordinary tombs of infants and those died giving birth. She refused to lookat the tall tombstone of a well known British missionary…”“While you stand ashore observingthose rowing boats, the boatmen always row their boats in slow pace in spite ofthe scorching weather. They could always feel clear wind and work incomfortable manner. But in fact that is a hard job and no one with common willcould tolerate. There used to be a local saying: ‘The hardest job under heavenare among the three: boat man, Blacksmith and Bean curd maker.” ……

One after another vividstores revealed the origin for the streets and lanes in this city then crowned.The oral words from Teacher Li are as smooth as what printed in the book toretell those stores. He uses fluent local dialect to express himself freely. I let my mind went back to the scene this afternoon in MengXiYuan Tourist Center.

He is a retired teachercounted as communist cadre. After retired from his post teacher Li firstly tookhis camera to record the stores happening in the streets and lanes of our city.His lens left us pictures where the hero save others in spite of his/her ownsafety, the policeman doing his duty concerning foreigner in fluent English andthe old man taking care of his dog in brain paralysis……

In this era where photos occupied the main market of mass media Teacher Li gaveup his advantage in the area and took to traditional writing to recount thosevivid stores that happen in the history of the city. The stores all concern theorigin of specific street names or the names of the lane and for this heovercame many difficulties.