Generation Z Artists

Chapter 14: Semi-finals Essay
Fang Xinghe's mind, bombarded with postmodern information, quickly identified the most valuable idea.

The ideas of imperfect beauty, destroyed environment, etc. are too common. They are easy to write, but boring.

The most impressive way of writing is, of course, to explore the subtle aspects of human nature, or to write social and political criticisms. However, considering the audience the article will be written towards, it should not be written too profoundly.

Fang Xinghe spent some time making choices and finally decided on the idea -

The nature of the human body is neutral, neither good nor evil.

It is our circumstances that determine what kind of people we eventually become.

Once we clearly realize this, we can create the "me" we want to be through "cultivation".

Knowing your destiny but not obeying it is the right way.

……

Such an intention is obviously rebellious yet positive.

It is consistent with the idea of the article "Youth".

The effect it may have on teenagers is probably... being confused does not hurt their brains?

It may be difficult to understand, but not understanding does not stop them from feeling cool, I guess.

Being a handsome guy who is top-notch in both appearance and thinking, and attracting fans, is exactly what Fang Xinghe intended when he started writing.

Of course, because he doesn't know enough about the current young ecology, he is not completely sure and can only try his best.

Hope the result is the best one...

Decide on the core and start writing.

……

[A teacher took out a beautiful red apple in front of me and took a bite of it.

Tooth marks are ugly.

The apple was originally round and could be preserved for a long time, but after half a minute, the broken part began to oxidize. I could already see its end: it would quickly rot.

What is infecting its wounds?

It's all in the air.

So, what is infecting us?

It is everything in civilization.

Philosophers, lunatics and young idiots always want to change the world, but the world never cares. Objective existence is neither happy nor sad. Only civilization will give them feedback. Only the people who make up civilization and the various consciousness, behaviors, emotions and desires born from people will sculpt and shape, and even play with and destroy the young individuals in civilization.

This is infection.

This process is sometimes good, sometimes bad, and most of the time it is neither good nor bad.

What does a good infestation process look like?

Perhaps it is because it is well cared for, that beautiful skin has never been damaged, and it has been absorbing nutrients correctly and filtering out toxins effectively.

I'm not sure, I haven't seen it, I'm just guessing.

What about the bad infection process?

Just like what is happening right now, after being bitten and a piece is missing, everything from the outside can penetrate directly, and the wound will quickly fester, and in the end it will either rot deep into the wound or form a hideous scar.

Many of my peers who I often interact with have been bitten before they even knew me.

Therefore, I always feel that they are not well developed and look a bit weird.

However, in fact, they also saw me in the same way. This strange situation of "crows can only see the blackness of pigs but not their own blackness" inspired me to think and finally let me dig out a cruel truth -

The fundamental reason that determines what we, the wild children who are not well cared for, will eventually become is precisely determined by what stage we are in, what happens, and what bites us.

Some of the reasons are poignant, others are downright hilarious.

Maybe it was just because the mother was ridiculed by a gossip, or maybe the father lost money playing cards, or even because the teacher answered the question a little slowly out of fear when asking the first question, and then a big, vicious mouth would suddenly bite over.

There are always some inexplicable reasons that cause us to become the punching bag, and until the pain pierces our minds, we innocent people are still confused.

It's sad.

What’s even more tragic is that the hurt goes far beyond venting one’s anger. The trauma caused by special circumstances such as parents’ constant fighting, affairs, divorce, or even accidental death can really hurt deep into the bone.

I don’t want to write this paragraph, you can figure it out for yourselves.

Anyway, no matter how many reasons there are, the results are always the same -

The missing piece can no longer resist external infestation, so no matter how good the people we meet in the future or how well we are cared for and protected, the rotten part will still spread deeper.

So we go from the ultimate purity and harmony, the natural shortcuts, in the infancy, to the confusion, resentment, entanglement and contradictions in adolescence, and finally to the hypocrisy, numbness and meanness of adulthood... down and down all the way.

Let’s not talk about what happened later. Some people die at this stage and are only buried many years later.

Who invented the idiom "The Walking Dead"? It's really wise.

The beginning of the festering is always most tragic when it occurs in childhood. Childhood deprivation is a disease that takes a lifetime to treat, but no one can guarantee that it can be cured.

It is better if it happens in adolescence, as the child has some ability to accept things and may even be stimulated to develop the second form.

For example, I am very fierce in fighting. My second form is like thirty wolves and forty tigers, extremely scary.

I call the harm that occurs to this age group juvenile frustration. The severity can be mild or severe, depending on how the offender is taken.

Finally, there are the setbacks that occur in youth. I think it is not necessarily a bad thing for a twenty-year-old man to experience more setbacks. The beatings that were not suffered in youth can be made up by society, which should be quite tempering. Anyway, don't temper me. I have had enough of setbacks. Now I just want to see other people laugh at me.

After summarizing "at what stage" and "because of what terrible thing", the remaining "because of what" made me very hesitant, and I didn't know how much to scold.

Because 99% of the people who can bite off a piece of our flesh are our parents, relatives, friends, and teachers.

If you are bitten by a stray dog on the roadside, it will not leave any internal injuries.

Just bring a few friends to kill it and then enjoy two meals of dog meat, and you will understand that this thing is a pet when it is obedient, but just food when it is disobedient.

But close people are different, especially parents. They are discordant, biased, ignorant, and violent. What can a child do?
There's nothing we can do, right?
At first I was very confused, but later I finally found the answer in Taoist classics.

We cannot control people's fate.

What kind of family we are born into, what kind of environment we grow up in, what kind of education we receive, and what kind of gaps we have been eaten away by: before the age of 18, we cannot decide anything.

This is what is called destiny.

Taoism talks about fate, and Chinese people also believe in fate, but Taoists are never negative about this, and the ancient philosophers of the Chinese nation have never been negative about it.

Ge Hong was the first to shout out "My life is in my hands, not in heaven" in "Baopuzi", which was a wake-up call.

Before the Qing Dynasty's Wenkang propaganda of "following the will of Heaven and knowing one's destiny", our ancestors had always believed in "going against the will of Heaven and changing one's destiny". From Zhuge Liang setting up the Seven-Star Life-Extending Lamp all the way to Dayu's flood control, these are all examples of "there are many things in the world that are not as I wish, I shall fight for them with my life".

There are also specific methods.

Lao Tzu tells us in the Tao Te Ching: "Knowing its masculinity and keeping its femininity, one becomes the stream of the world. When one becomes the stream of the world, one's virtues will never depart, and one will return to being a baby."

It doesn't matter if you get bitten. Just learn and practice slowly, be worldly-wise and know good and evil but don't follow the crowd. Keep your heart and spirit, and repair yourself little by little, and eventually you will return to the state of returning to nature like a baby, which is close to the Tao.

I think this is a very pragmatic approach to solving the problem.

When you find yourself bitten, don't panic. Look carefully at where you were bitten and how big the cut is. Think about why it happened, and then make a promise to yourself - I will never let this happen again.

Next, start the fight.

Work hard to become stronger, grow wildly, and when you become strong enough, if anyone opens his mouth at you again, you will slap out his rotten teeth.

Sufficient power can solve all problems, and power can be superficial money, profound knowledge, a great reputation, or even an extremely strong physique.

In short, anything is fine, just don't be scared and stop moving forward.

The day when we stop and give up resisting, the "I" that has been born from the mother's womb and developed to this day with great difficulty is really dead. My name has been registered in the Book of Hell, and the comment is two big words: waste.

If I were that apple, anyone who wanted to bite me would have to be prepared to have to eat porridge for the rest of his life.

mad?
A young man is a madman.

Of course, the more likely scenario is this - when you are strong enough, you don't have to use strength, and wherever you look, you will see smiles.

I have a deep understanding of this.

Before the first semester of the second year of junior high school, I often got into fights because if I didn't fight, there would always be people who would take advantage of me and try to gain a sense of status by taking advantage of me. Until I did something big, the campus immediately became quiet and peaceful. Occasionally, when I went out for a walk, everyone was nodding and bowing to me, which was very boring.

That's why I turned over a new leaf, put down my knife, picked up my pen, and wrote these ridiculous and sour articles.

At this moment, I suddenly felt a little irritated, and couldn't help asking myself: Why should I, Fang Xinghe, a mini big brother who has swept the junior high school, sit in this shabby place and rack my brains to use my clumsy language to talk about these great principles that essentially have nothing to do with me?
After thinking about it carefully, the answer is obvious -

Oh, I want to be famous. If I become famous, I can make a lot of money. With money, I can grow freely and do whatever I like.

That's no problem.

In order to become stronger, I can accept a lot of temporary unhappiness and keep persisting until I achieve complete success.

Just like a tiger lying on a deserted hill, its minions are lurking to endure.

Pretty good poem, right?
I also like the last two sentences, but it is not convenient to write out the original text, so I will summarize the general meaning for you.

——One day, when I become powerful, I will take revenge if I have revenge, and I will pay back my grievances if I have grievances. I will grind all of you beasts who bite me into pieces, and then scatter your ashes!

A little petty, but that's who I want to be.

It is not recommended to imitate, but you can learn from it.

As I write this, the truest emotions in my heart suddenly begin to surge and gradually become clear.

I am not a good child, but a wild child who is cursed and feared by many people. But I am not a bad child either. I am just fighting against some malice that comes from no idea where it comes from.

Now I am fine, living a hard but colorful life.

May you be the same, not be tamed, not be infected, not succumb to fate, and take the initiative to become the you that you most want to be.

If there were more people like this, none of us would be alone anymore.

Just like the torch that Mr. Lu Xun mentioned, it does not need to wait for others to light it up, but only emits its own light, which may not be very bright, but it still shines brightly among its scarred peers.

In this way, this is probably our golden age, right?

……

Look, now I am also a philosopher, a madman or a young idiot who wants to change the world. If you think about it carefully, there is nothing particularly bad about it.

That's it, then.

I hope to see that day soon. 】

　In order to write a novel, I specially wrote an essay with a given topic. Who understands, my family members?

　　I'm really crazy...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)