Cao Huoxing: It is my duty to write for the people.

In his later years, one of Cao Huoxing's most satisfactory photos was a profile photo of him. This photo only captured the right half of his face, making people unable to see his broken left eye.

Cao Huoxing is not tall, he is in his early 7' s and has an oval face. When he was young, he was handsome. In 1938, 14-year-old Cao Huoxing joined the Iron Blood Drama Club and became a soldier who promoted anti-Japanese war. At first, there was no actress in the drama club, and the female role was reversed by Cao Huoxing. In order to have a realistic effect, Cao Huoxing deliberately grew long hair.

In addition to being an excellent actor, Cao Huoxing's main identity is a composer. After nearly 8 years, Cao Huoxing's "No New China without the * * * Party" is still widely sung.

From the first song "Going to the Battlefield", Cao Huoxing wrote more than 1,6 songs in his life, some of which were written by himself. In different historical periods, in line with the Party's policies, Cao Huoxing created a series of songs that were easily accepted and sung by ordinary people. During the war, I was busy with the party's propaganda work during the day, and these songs were mostly written under kerosene lamps. After the founding of New China, Cao Huoxing was engaged in administrative leadership, and he could only write at night. In order to refresh himself, he often soaked his feet in a pot of cold water. During this period, Cao Huoxing also created or participated in the creation of large-scale operas, such as the Great Wall of the South China Sea, the dance drama "Shiyi Chopping Wood" and "Tears on a Dress".

Because of overuse of eyes and diabetes, Cao Huoxing was blind in his left eye and his right eye vision was only .6 in his 6s. Even so, he still holds a magnifying glass in his hand and continues to create with one eye.

Cao Huoxing once said: "It was the Party that trained me from an ignorant teenager. Since I am a composer, I should write for the people. This is my duty. No matter how busy you are at work, you can't forget your duties. "

The pen in his hand is also a gun

In 1924, Cao Huoxing was born in Gangnan Village, Pingshan County, Hebei Province. Since childhood, he was shy and liked reading. In 1937, at the age of 13, Cao Huoxing was admitted to three middle schools, including Baoding Middle School. The whole family is very happy. Holding the six oceans given by his father, Cao Huoxing intended to embark on the road of studying in Baoding, but he did not expect that the "July 7 Incident" broke out and Cao Huoxing was forced to drop out of school.

When the dream of "saving the country by studying" was shattered, Cao Huoxing joined the Youth Anti-Japanese Salvation Association led by the China Producer Party, and became the director of the Youth Rescue Association in the village, helping the militia to collect food and taking children members to stand guard.

In early 1938, Cao Huoxing, a young boy, secretly ran out late at night to join the revolution in Pingshan County Farmers' Association. In April, Pingshan County Youth Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Association set up a propaganda team-Iron Blood Drama Club (later called Mass Drama Club), and 14-year-old Cao Huoxing also became one of them.

Cao Huoxing was originally named Cao Zhi. In 194, the drama club went to North China General Assembly to study. In order to show their attitude of not being afraid of sacrifice in the war of resistance, many young people changed their names. Zhang Xuexin, a fellow villager and a member of the drama club, changed his name to "Zhang Xuexing" and Cao Zhi changed his name to "Cao Mars". "Fire" and "blood" are both red, which expresses teenagers' desire to be a red star and a proletarian soldier.

Cao Huoxing loved music since he was a child, and he liked to listen to villagers playing flutes, playing huqin and banging gongs and drums. When he was in primary school, he was very interested in the organ played by the music teacher. Later, after the school holiday, he borrowed a zither and played it every day, and learned to know the notation. As the only person in the drama club who can read musical notation, Cao Huoxing was assigned to the music department after he entered North China United University.

when he first entered school, Cao Huoxing was slightly depressed. "He is bent on going to the battlefield with a gun and destroying the Japanese aggressors, thinking that that is the revolution," said his daughter Cao Hongwen. Lu Su, a teacher of Cao Huoxing and a songwriter of "Unity is Strength", was keenly aware of the teenager's mind and said to him, "The pen in your hand is also a gun. You can write good songs with it, inspire everyone to resist the Japanese war and destroy the enemy." Hearing this, Cao Mars was relieved. Soon, he wrote his first novel "Going to the Battlefield". After reading it, Lu Su thought it was good and encouraged him to publish it. This song was published in the school journal.

In 1943, Chiang Kai-shek published a pamphlet entitled "The Destiny of China", which preached that "you must settle down from outside", undermined the anti-Japanese United front, and advocated that China's fate depended entirely on the China Kuomintang. Yan 'an Liberation Daily promptly published an editorial "Without the * * * Party, there would be no China" to fight back.

At that time, mass drama clubs were broken into parts according to the development of the situation, and formed several teams to go deep into Pingxi area to publicize the anti-Japanese proposition of the * * * production party. In the autumn of that year, Cao Huoxing and his party set out from Fuping, Hebei Province, the headquarters of the border region, and went to Tangshang Village on foot to carry out mass work.

Tangshang Village is a remote village which belongs to Xiayunling Township, Fangshan, Beijing. There is a kang in a small room, and a small table with a kerosene lamp on it. This is the slant hall of a nave Temple and the residence of Cao Mars.

During the day, Cao Huoxing participated in the work of the drama club, and at night, he lit kerosene lamps and sat on the edge of the kang to write. At that time, the drama club wrote four anti-Japanese war songs in Tangshang village according to folk tunes, but felt that the folk songs were not strong enough to express the anti-Japanese determination of the party and the people, so Cao Huoxing began to write new songs.

He conceived for three nights, and finally spent one night writing "Without the * * * Party, there would be no China". Seeing the sky was a fish-belly grey, Cao Huoxing pushed open the door and taught this new song to a little soldier of the Children's League who was standing guard outside. "Without the * * * Party, there would be no China. Without the * * * Party, there would be no China. The * * Party worked hard for the nation, and he was bent on saving China ..." After that, this song was widely sung in the village. Cao Huoxing felt that the popular performance of overlord whip was very imposing, so he asked the people to sing this song while playing overlord whip.

Singer Wang Wei wrote in the article "A Composer Grasping the Pulse of the Times-Mars": "If you carefully analyze" Without the Party of the Communist Party, there would be no China ",you will find that this song is surprisingly simple. There are no gorgeous words in the lyrics, which are the truth in the hearts of ordinary people, smooth and catchy. " At first, "Without the * * * Party, there would be no China" was sung in Xiayunling, Laishui and Yixian. After the lyrics were published in the Jinchaji Daily, the song flew from Xiayunling to the Jinchaji Border Region, and after the liberation war, it spread all over China. After the founding of New China, the title of this song was changed to "Without the * * * Party, there would be no new China". In the original lyrics, "He persisted in the war of resistance for more than six years" eventually became "He persisted in the war of resistance for more than eight years".

"The hatred of my country and my family taught me"

Cao Huoxing is handsome and white, with a gentle personality and a thin voice. At first, there was no actress in the mass drama club, and Cao Huoxing was often cross-dressed. Cao Hongwen told an interesting story about his father. Once, the drama club went to the army to give a condolence performance. Two heads sat under the stage and bet that Cao Huoxing was a man or a woman. One guessed it was a man and the other guessed it was a woman. After the performance, guess that "it's a man" won. Cao Huoxing's dress can often achieve the effect of confusing the real with the fake. In order to play a good role, he grew long hair, and the drama club often went to various places to publicize, and it was inconvenient to sleep outdoors and wash his hair. Later, Cao Huoxing had lice on his head. "He is a child's heart, very sincere, and feels that this is a task given to me by the Party, and I must complete it to the letter," Cao Hongwen said. It was not until later that an actress came to the drama club that Cao Huoxing stopped playing the actress and cut her long hair into short hair.

Cao Huoxing was handy. At that time, the main points of performance were steam lamps at night, but the asbestos bulbs used for steam lamps were not easy to buy. When performing in the open air, the bulbs were often damaged by the wind. Cao Huoxing always uses tweezers to fill the used light bulb fragments in the cracks and holes of the light bulb bit by bit, and then drops wax oil. In continuous performances, such a "rescued" light bulb can be used for more than ten times. Besides fixing light bulbs, Cao Mars can also make violins. Put the sheep intestines into a small river ditch, scrape, rinse and dry them repeatedly ... and make them into strings. Thin the face plate and back plate of the piano with the broken bowl pieces, and then scrape and polish them with sandpaper.

In addition to composing and performing, Cao Huoxing is also responsible for the props, dancing and printing of the drama club. Cao Mars and Zhang Xuexin are also responsible for engraving steel plates, and most scripts and songbooks of the drama club are engraved and mimeographed by them. During the March, Cao Huoxing carried a heavy steel plate and wax paper in addition to his backpack, schoolbag and musical instrument.

in 1943, the anti-Japanese battlefield entered a stalemate period, which was also the most difficult period. The Japanese army began to sweep in the autumn, and the drama club had to jump out of the encirclement and move to the Pingxi area. According to Zhang Xuexin's recollection in the article "The Motherland is in My Heart-Miss Comrade Mars", one night, Cao Mars and Zhang Xuexin led the members of the drama club through the enemy blockade, and the Juma River was waist deep. They led the brigade in the drizzle, traveling at night for more than 7 miles, and arrived at the base area of the day before dawn. They sat back to back on their backpacks by the big tree at the edge of the village and fell asleep.

in order to carry out anti-Japanese propaganda, they should go deep into guerrilla zones and enemy-occupied areas, and perform, sing, shout and put up slogans under enemy bunkers. Cao Hongwen recalled that her father had told her that when posting slogans in enemy-occupied areas, in order to prevent the enemy from discovering them, they would first paste the front and back of the slogans, stick them on their backs, and lean against the wall when people were not looking, and the slogans would stick to the wall. "(God) it's dark in winter, and the enemy is ahead, so we are very happy to post it."

In telling his daughter, Cao Huoxing took his experience as a joke, but in fact, the battle he experienced was cruel. On a moonless night, Cao Huoxing and a comrade went to the Japanese bunker in Pingshan Wentang to make a political offensive and shouted to them, "You don't have many days, surrender quickly." The enemy fired at the propaganda place, and Cao Mars' comrades died in front of him.

In 1943, after a big sweep by the Japanese army, Cao Huoxing and his comrades helped the people to clean up the battlefield and found that the landlord and his little grandson were killed by the enemy with bayonets. "This has brought a great shock to his mind," Cao Hongwen said. At the end of the same year, a tragedy happened in Gangnan Village, Cao Huoxing's hometown. More than 1 people were killed by the Japanese army, and Cao Huoxing's father also died in this disaster. "Hatred of my country and my family educates me, impacts my emotions and arouses my creative impulse", Cao Hongwen quoted his father in the article Cao Mars and. In that year, Cao Mars wrote many songs, such as aiming at fascism, more shells are needed at the front, election chant, combat production work club and so on.

People's composer

Cao Huoxing and his wife Qi Yuzhen met in their teens and deepened their feelings in the revolutionary struggle. Qi Yuzhen is also a member of the mass drama club. In order to resist Japan, Cao Mars and his wife and several other couples in the drama club agreed that they would not get married unless they won the war of resistance. In 1945, after the victory of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Cao Huoxing and Qi Yuzhen got married, and their eldest daughter Cao Hongwen was born the following year.

In Cao Hongwen's residence, there is a book with a black cover, and the cover reads "Working Papers". The first one I opened was a table of contents written in beautiful and powerful fine print, divided by year, from 1943 to 1965. The fonts are neat and the same size, just like printed ones. The papers were written on thin tracing paper and pasted in the notebook, because the paper was yellow and brittle with age. This book was originally used for bookkeeping, and Cao Huoxing used it to sort out his works. However, the manuscript of Cao Mars' masterpiece "Without the * * * Production Party, there would be no China" is not among them. "When fighting, there is no idea of keeping the manuscript", Cao Mars once said to his daughter. Therefore, many of his works were lost in the war.

Cao Huoxing's songs are written in battles and workshops, and many of them come from life experiences and personal feelings. During the War of Liberation, Cao Huoxing wrote dozens of songs, such as "The poor are United" and "Going Deep into the Revolutionary War in Jiangying District". In different historical periods, Cao Huoxing wrote songs in combination with various policies publicized by the Party.

"Mars is not an artist in an ivory tower, but relies on more than talent and skills. As Comrade Zhou Weizhi said, he' grows through struggle and improves through hard study'", Zhang Xuexin commented on Cao Mars.

Cao Huoxing's creation has the characteristics of smooth melody and catchiness. Although it is for propaganda, it is not a lesson with a straight face, and it is easy to be accepted and sung by ordinary people. He wrote "Supporting the * * * Productive Party", which was a song widely circulated in North China after the liberation of the whole country. This song adopts the common fine-tuning style of northern folk songs. The melody is like a river running water, and the words and songs are closely combined, so it is as cordial as speaking from the heart.

Cao Hongwen revealed that his father had a habit of "never eating pears", which originated from his experience during the Anti-Japanese War. Once, he and several comrades went to the village to do mass work. On the way back, they met the enemy and several people ran away. Cao Huoxing ran to the mountains for three days, and had no dry food, so he could only eat pears from trees to satisfy his hunger. At that time, he had a high fever, and his body was like a pendulum, and he couldn't find his center of gravity. Finally, he fainted in the mountains and was found by a common people and saved him. Since then, Cao Huoxing has never eaten pears again.

After the founding of New China, restoring the national economy has become a new focus of the country. Cao Huoxing wrote songs such as "The Song of Explorers", which reflected the people's devotion to the cause of socialist construction. In order to write the song of exploration workers, he went to the exploration team in Inner Mongolia to live with the workers for a month. He said that only in this way can the things created be close to people's lives.

Cao Mars once said, "My life and all my achievements now are the result of the cultivation of the Party and the people".

"In people's eyes, this is' Mandarin', but it is his heart. He has lived this life, so he has such a cognition," Cao Hongwen said.

gentle and stern

Cao Hongwen was born soon, and because her parents wanted to continue the revolutionary work, she was raised in her hometown. It was not until Tianjin was liberated that she and other children in the old revolutionary base areas were sent to Tianjin Nursery School. When she first arrived in Tianjin, she had a sore on her head, and the old revolutionary base was short of water. When the enemy came, she had to move, so it was difficult to take a bath.

There are four brothers and sisters, Cao Hongwen, and the eldest brother is also placed in the hometown. When his father went to pick him up, his big brother was playing by the well. Cao Huoxing slowly held his son in his arms and shed tears.

in Cao hongwen's eyes, her mother is rough and enthusiastic, and she can make a lot of friends everywhere. Dad is introverted and inarticulate, but gentle and meticulous. They came from the revolutionary years together, with deep feelings and very complementary personalities. They have a sewing machine at home, which is always used by my father to make clothes for their brothers and sisters. My younger brother is growing fast, and my father will connect his trouser legs with cloth every so often.

In Tianjin, when Cao Huoxing's family got together for the first time, they lived in a house with a cabinet in the middle. The child lives on one side, and he and his wife live on the other. Since then, Cao Huoxing has served as the deputy head of Tianjin Music Troupe, and later as the vice president and dean of Tianjin Song and Dance Theatre. Busy during the day, at night,