SIAS Chapter 12.2

“Okay, we’re just ahead. That’s the educated youth point. Before, it was the village assembly hall or a brick house.” Zhao Youtian said, pointing to a house that was obviously taller than the other houses.

The house was built on a small slope, with the village behind it.

Although there was only one floor, it was more than one meter higher than ordinary private houses, and it looked quite spacious.

The book mentioned that this assembly hall was built during the original struggle against the landlords and was made of fine green bricks that were demolished from the landlords’ homes.

It was big, but there were not many windows, and the lighting was not good. It was dark in the room in broad daylight.

Later, when the situation became less serious, the place became too gloomy and was abandoned.

Later, more and more educated youths went to the countryside and there was not enough accommodation, so this place was converted into an educated youth point.

In fact, the interior of the assembly hall was divided into several small spaces with adobe bricks, and some adobe Kangs were built.

The only advantage was that it was cooler in summer.

The space was also large enough and was divided into many small rooms. Basically, everyone could have their own small room.

When Yi Qingqing and the others walked to the gate of the educated youth point, there were many educated youths eating.

“Xiao Zhou, Xiao Zhao, come here!” Zhao Youtian shouted.

A boy with a Chinese character face and a girl who looked several years older than them stood up.

“They are newly educated youths. You two will take them to settle in.” After Zhao Youtian said to the two people, he turned back to them and said again.

“You have just arrived and you have no work points. According to the previous practice, the team will lend you some food first and you will return it later. However, you guys came early and there is still a long time before the autumn harvest, so you still have to find a way to get some food yourself.”

“I think you can exchange it with the villagers in centimeters or go to the county to buy it. Otherwise, I’m afraid it won’t be enough for you to eat. I will send you the grain I lent you later.”

A few people nodded. Their feet were weak and they couldn’t stand for a long time. They didn’t have the energy to think about whether they had enough food or not.

The full names of Xiao Zhou and Xiao Zhao in Zhao Youtian’s mouth were Zhou Qiang and Zhao Fang. They were the oldest educated youths here.

Zhou Qiang had been in the countryside for almost five years, and Zhao Fang had been there for three years.

Yi Qingqing followed the two of them into the house, while Zhao Fang introduced them to the situation of the educated youth.

“In recent years, some of the previously educated youth have returned to the city through relationships, and some have married villagers or girls from the village and moved out of the educated youth point.”

“There are a total of eight educated youths living here now, five male educated youths and three female educated youths. The locked rooms are occupied by people. You can choose the others as you like.”

“The lighting in this house is not good, so we took off the tiles on the roof of the alley in the middle, and the kang is also in the alley.”

“When it comes to cooking, some of us work together as a partner, while some of us start the fire by ourselves. We all set up the stove ourselves.”

“You just came here now, so you still borrowed the food. It is estimated that none of the old educated youths will be willing to partner with you, so you have to find a way on your own.”

“When you go to the countryside, you have to rely on yourself for everything. You have also to make a choice of your own house!”

Zhou Qiang and Zhao Fang took them through the foyer and into the alley that they mentioned and then let them choose where to live.

*****

Translator’s Little Encyclopedia:

The Kang

The Kang (Chinese: 炕; pinyin: kàng) is a traditional heated platform, 2 metres or more long, used for general living, working, entertaining and sleeping in the northern part of China, where the winter climate is cold.

It is made of bricks or other forms of fired clay and more recently of concrete in some locations. The word kang means “to dry”.

Traditional Chinese Dwellings (Zhongguo chuantong minju) (a bilingual text) has a few line drawings of kangs. It says that the kang is used to cook meals and heat the room, making full use of the heat-retaining capacity of the loess (soil used to make adobe). The kang produces radiant heat to indirectly warm the interior space as well as the bed mass itself. It has been speculated that one of the oldest forms of Chinese housing, heated cave dwellings known as yaodong, widespread throughout northern China would have been uninhabitable without the kang.

As an ancient home technology, a typical Chinese kang consists of a stove, a kang body (similar to a bed) and a chimney. It allows at least four different home functions of cooking, bed, domestic heating and ventilation being integrated into one system.

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