Almighty painter

Chapter 632 Where to Go (Part )

Koko threw the plastic bag on the floor.

Open the locker with your name tag on one side.

A racket, a training suit, two pairs of dance shoes, a small jar with a green lacquer base and a golden bird painted on it, a Sony CD player, a literary book called "Burmese Days", and two physical music albums by Swift, "Fearless" and "Midnights".

This is what she sorted out after so many years of campus life. When it’s time to leave, this is all the things worth taking away.

Needless to say, there are rackets, training clothes and so on.

That little green-painted pottery jar was an assignment from the handicraft class.

Koko used to put it in her locker to hold bubble gum.

Later, the bubble gum was eaten up, but the small clay pot was left.

Although she felt that the golden bird was painted wrinkled, it looked like a wilted and half-dead pigeon.

A bit too ugly.

But when counting the items, I took a long time to consider.

Koko still couldn't bear to throw it into the trash can, so she planned to take it home and use it as a pen holder.

As for the music player, Koko once felt that holding a physical CD player and wearing a pair of large earmuffs to listen to music seemed more "old school" than using wireless headphones.

The best part is.

Headphones are not considered headwear.

Since it does not constitute illegal accessories, there is nothing the fools in the student union who take chicken feathers as tokens of authority can do.

and so.

For a while.

Koko likes to hold a player very much. She wears a huge, colorful headset on her head and walks in front of Mona.

Glancing at the student union president's unhappy look, wanting to catch a rat but unable to do anything, she smiled smugly in her heart.

"Hey."

Koko smiled and bared her teeth.

She wrapped the CD album in a small box, wrapped it in her training clothes, and threw it into the bag from the locker.

Koko shook the plastic bag.

It was very light, and a few items made rustling sounds in the bag.

"That's it?"

Koko originally thought there would be a lot of things.

She specially dragged an extra-large plastic bag from home.

After finally sorting everything out, only a small package was left in the big black plastic bag.

Like the ashes of youth after it has burned out.

"Well, you can keep the training clothes and dance shoes and continue to use them. The Fearless album is a signed version from Meimei's concert tour. It might sell for a lot of money, but it's hard to sell these things here. Let's see if I can ask my classmates to sell it to me when I go to college..."

Koko counted the things one by one.

till the end.

She picked up the copy of Burmese Days from her locker.

She stood there quietly facing the title of the book for a moment.

The girl suddenly raised her head and looked towards her classmates on homecoming day, hoping to seize the last moments of high school and chat about memories with her good friends.

No matter how unpredictable the external situation is.

In the past, once the gates of international schools were closed, they seemed to become an independent world isolated from the rest of the world.

All the wars, hunger, turmoil, separations, broken homes, all the pain and suffering happening outside have nothing to do with life inside the school.

In return for the high tuition fees.

When they put on the uniforms of prestigious private schools, they feel as if they have some kind of privilege.

You can discuss Maupassant and Alexandre Dumas in French class, play tennis in a white casual T-shirt and black shorts, debate whether a short-term study abroad camp in London is worth spending thousands of dollars on, and discuss who lip-synced in Taylor Swift's latest concert or Rihanna's.

Even in a turbulent country, they live a relatively peaceful life, just like students in other campuses in Zhuhai, Bangkok, Singapore, Seoul and the European headquarters education group network.

Koko was once one of them.

It's a bit of an exaggeration to say that she "did all the work I was supposed to do in my life when my father became a police inspector and lived in a big mansion."

But she is indeed the kind of student who says, "Teacher, teacher, look how cute I am, can you bear to fail me in my course?" and who acts cute and pleases people, and spends her time in class drawing little people, listening to music, and eating biscuits.

Who wants to chat with Koko about beauty, musicals, and celebrity gossip?

She could chatter all day long.

If you were to talk to her about "A Brief Discussion of the Scientific Prometheanism in Spencer's Poetry and Miniatures".

She must have drawn circles in her eyes, and her mind was wandering, chasing deer and fishing for frogs.

The compulsory "Comparative Literature Course" at Dulwich University has made Koko very difficult.

The girl still remembers.

During the final exam, I was doing a feedback report on George Orwell's novel about life in Rangoon.

Mona spoke incessantly at the podium, analyzing the historical policies of the colonies and the influence of Orwell's childhood experiences on his life's work.

Finally, the student union president ended with a famous quote from the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore's "Stingy Birds": "Only by going through the trials of hell can you develop the power to create heaven; only fingers that have bled can play the world's finest sound."

The teacher led a standing ovation, thinking that much effort had been put into the report, and gave Mona an "A" as the final evaluation.

Miss Sandano spoke passionately on the stage.

Koko was bored and was drawing a little dancing man with a pencil.

The matchstick-like little man, with long arms and legs, bends his knees and stretches his legs, and spins and jumps from one side of the page to the other.

There was nothing surprising in the results.

Koko's paper "Analysis of Changes in Eating Habits in "Burmese Years"" only got a C.

It seems that the teacher is not a devout food lover.

There is no interest in life.

At least, they were not very interested in whether the British civil servants liked to drink beer, absinthe or whiskey in the club, whether they ate grain-fed beef or grass-fed beef, and whether they preferred coffee from the African colonies or Darjeeling black tea, a specialty of the Indian colony, as gifts.

The reason why this book "Burmese Years" is placed in the locker.

The only reason was that Koko thought the set of dancing figures she drew on it was cute, so she allowed her not to clean it up with the other old textbooks.

This happened a long time ago.

Koko originally took it for granted that she had already returned all the knowledge she had learned in class to the teacher.

but.

The moment Koko picked up the book, she was suddenly surprised that she actually remembered a lot of the descriptions in the book.

In memories.

In the sunshine, the pencil was drawn across the paper, the figures of the matchstick men were dancing and jumping, and the words composed of the round and curved letters on the background paper suddenly became vivid.

Even the teacher who "has no interest in life" told a lot of background stories in a dry way in class.

Koko discovered this moment.

She hasn't forgotten.

Almost exactly one hundred years ago.

1921 years.

George Orwell, who graduated from Eton College, became a British civil servant and was sent to the Far Eastern colony of Burma as a privileged British police officer.

During his five years of service in Rangoon, Orwell was shocked by his observations of society.

He seemed to have returned to his childhood days living in India with his father, who worked as a clerk in the Governor's Office.

In his debut novel, Burmese Days.

The British rulers of the colonies were high and mighty, and tried, flogged, imprisoned, and hanged prisoners with little regard.

The chief judges, who were born in Yangon's local prominent families, pretended to enforce the law impartially, while they took advantage of both the plaintiff and the defendant. While serving as judges, they also controlled the surrounding armed bandits who attacked the villages - "In his territory, all the larger-scale robberies had to pay him a share of the spoils."

Senior civil servants stationed in Burma drank coffee every day and ate fried greasy veal in a European club, accompanied by frosted frozen beer shipped from the port in the newly invented Australian "freezer ship".

The gentlemen go to church together every weekend to worship, and even the topic they discuss is the big match between two high-profile British and French cricket stars that took place in Plymouth last week.

The result of the match had just been telegraphed from afar. Occasionally, names like "Chelsea" and "Manchester United" would appear in the discussion, but football was a new thing that had only become popular in the last fifty years.

The working class movement is too strong and, in general, is not very popular among chief executives.

Everything is so "civilized", everything is so "beautiful".

Except the house is bigger and the weather is hotter.

Life in Yangon is no different from life in London. It has been transformed by the British Empire into a pearl of the Far East, a beautiful and peaceful land of kingly rule.

Even some local residents have begun to worship white culture from the bottom of their hearts.

Koko remembers.

In the novel "Burmese Days", the protagonist's doctor friend from India fanatically worships everything about the British Empire and is deeply ashamed of his original skin color and nationality.

Everyone was concerned about the cricket match thousands of miles away and sent telegram after telegram.

But no one wanted to care about the hundreds of people dying in the mud right next to them.

It was exactly that experience.

It made Orwell doubt the society he lived in.

For the first time in my life, I began to think, "Where will I go?" and eventually I chose to leave the British colonial system.

History always repeats itself again and again.

What happened a hundred years ago cannot be compared with what happened a hundred years later, and it is unfair to lump a group of children in class together with colonial officials.

It's just that they appear somewhat similar.

A hundred years have passed.

White skin and a British nationality on the passport no longer connote privilege, but money and wealth still do.

Koko was a little surprised at the many thoughts running through her mind.

If her father was still a high-ranking official in the police force, perhaps she would always be that girl who just lived a carefree life and wouldn't think about so many things.

Only when scars happen to oneself will people truly know the feeling of pain.

Koko is probably really a very smart girl.

Maybe the books you have read, the knowledge you have learned in class.

She never remembered, she just didn't care.

Until one day, life turned into a beam of light shining in my heart, and memories floated to the surface of the lake.

It was the first time that she understood those complex and profound truths.

"Where will I go?"

Like the writers a hundred years ago, Koko looked at the bustling classmates around her and asked herself in her heart.

The situation is not good now.

Although Dewei's decision to consider withdrawing was somewhat abrupt, it was reasonable and expected.

For students at their level, it has almost no impact.

And for those lower grade students.

Some families asked them to transfer to the Dulwich campus in Bangkok, while some looked confused.

People always realize the importance of thinking when they face changes in life.

Fortunately, Koko is not confused.

She looked at the acceptance letter in her locker.

There were several thick envelopes. Due to the special circumstances this year, the results of the campus recruitment fair came out very quickly.

She had been hurt and felt pain.

But Koko is not a pigeon in a cage.

Every time the pigeon in the cage flies out, it will return to the same path, and finally hover and indulge in the pain of the past, unable to leave.

She is a little phoenix.

The phoenix, even if it is a wrinkled phoenix, will transform into new feathers in pain and flames, evaporate the rain and mist, and gain a more beautiful new life.

Koko's fingers slid across the small bracelet on her wrist.

She held the acceptance letter in her arms.

I glanced at the book "Burmese Years" in the locker.

Turn around, close the door and leave.

……

Yangon International Airport.

Starbucks coffee shop.

Katsuko Sakai looked at the famous twin-tailed mermaid coffee shop sign at the door of the coffee shop across the street.

The Starbucks logo is based on a 16th-century Norwegian hand-engraved woodcut. Its green-background, white-painted style is derived from the printing style of old-fashioned monochrome prints.

Shengzi is very familiar with this.

As early as the Taisho period, Japan's high-quality green tea, Tobe ware or some expensive and exquisite handmade pastries.

All of them are made of woodblock prints for product posters and packaging, and are exported overseas.

A scholar once told her that the value of prints lies in exchange rather than collection.

Shengzi couldn't say whether this view was correct or not.

However, the spread of woodblock printing from Dongxia to Japan directly influenced major changes in the artistic style of modern Europe.

In the field of cultural communication.

Printmaking is undoubtedly the most influential form of painting, without a doubt.

Legend has it that mermaids would use their singing and seductive gestures in the sea breeze to lure weak-willed sailors into their trap.

From the perspective of trademark design.

Starbucks' world-famous print LOGO trademark is actually quite tempting.

When it was founded in Seattle, USA in 1971, the mermaid's tail was opened high to both sides.

Naked.

The breasts and navel are all exposed, full of "erotic" suggestions.

Later, it was revised several times. First, the chest was covered with hair, then the belly button was covered with a round "STARBUCKS·COFFEE" frame, and now related design elements of "diversity" and "globalization" have been added.

This is also very similar to the history of the development of printmaking.

The efficient artistic communication ability of printmaking means that it is often the art genre that is most closely integrated with social customs and aesthetic habits.

Wherever it arrives, it will quickly merge with local artistic elements, undergo new changes, and be given different elements by different people.

There were also some erotic themes in the early days of Ukiyo-e, which can even be attributed to a red-light district art form. Gradually, it was sublimated to use exquisite beauties, landscapes, flowers and birds, and waves to set off the cycle of life and death and the vanity and impermanence of the world.

This is what is called "floating world".

No matter how the Starbucks logo changes, the main body of the mermaid with her hands holding her fish tail back on both sides is still retained, although the current version looks like she is holding two crescent-shaped scimitars, ready to float up and be cut, rather than the mermaid's seductive and charming spread of her thighs.

But one can still see the shadow of the charming "temptation" in the earliest prints.

Toulouse-Lautrec, the Post-Impressionist master who like Renoir painted the Moulin Rouge ball scene, died of alcoholism.

Balzac died of high blood pressure caused by excessive coffee drinking.

The doctor had clearly told him that drinking in this way would cause high blood pressure and damage the heart, but Balzac ignored them and continued to drink large cups of brown drink that was enough to fill the entire Seine.

Alcohol and caffeine.

The two most difficult addictions to get rid of in modern society are the companions that many artists cannot live without throughout their lives.

Dangerous yet hard to give up.

It is just like the ethereal singing that the sailors of ancient ocean-going merchant ships heard faintly among the misty waves and sea fog.

Katsuko Sakai didn't know why, but when she was standing across the street, staring at the sign of the coffee shop, her thoughts were wandering so far.

Perhaps because of the current situation, even private education groups like Dulwich College are considering withdrawing from Yangon. The Starbucks near the airport is still bustling with people and traffic.

Let Ms. Sakai be distracted for a bit.

It is also possible that the person who invited her really took her by surprise.

(End of this chapter)