The author of this book is Chang Xiaohu, 1984, from Beijing. He is the author of novels such as "Shaanxi Opera" and "Shoushan", and won the first prize of the 4th China Film Novel Award and the nomination prize of the 5th China Young Writers Award for novella award. Most of his novels are set in Beijing in the 1970s and 1980s, showing not only the old times, but also some reservations about the traditions that are about to be broken.

"Guanshan" began in the late 1970s. It conveyed the scenes of old Beijing restaurants, the ups and downs of three generations of chefs in Beijing Wantangju, and wrote the joys and sorrows of an era with delicious food.

Tu Zhuguo has two masters, one is Ge Qing who gave him everything about the roast duck in the palace, and the other is Yang Yuejun who entrusted Wan Tangju to him. Some people say that it is his blessing to worship the names of two masters at one time, but Tu Zhu Guo didn't think so at that time.

At that time, Ge Qing was the most annoying person in Wan Tangju. He was alone in the duck house, guarding a group of ducks, a roast duck stove and court roast duck. As the general manager of Wan Tangju, Yang Yuejun sent two of his apprentices to learn the palace roast duck, and was kicked out by Ge Qing in a few months. Now it's Tu Zhu Guo's turn, and everyone is wondering how long the slow donkey owner can stay in this duck house.

When Tu first came to the duck house, he couldn't even talk to Ge Qing for several days. Ge Qing has been hiding in the roast duck room with the door closed, turning a blind eye to what he is doing outside. Tu Zhu Guo had to take the initiative to tidy up the duck house, sitting in the yard staring blankly.

Although he could only raise ducks outside, he didn't give up. Yang Yuejun said that the most important thing for Master is filial piety. In order to meet Ge Qing, Tu Zhu Guo even set up a berth in the duck house. Gradually, Ge Qing was moved by him and began to teach Tu Zhuguo the skills of palace roast duck step by step.

Ignoring his love from the beginning, I followed him later. Tu Zhu Guo not only persisted, but also passed on the skill of palace roast duck to Ge Qing. With the secret recipe of palace roast duck, Tu also successfully obtained the position of manager of Wantangju.

Since the palace roast duck was handed down, the chances of seeing Ge Qing began to decrease gradually. It seems to be back to the beginning. One is busy in the duck house and the other is sitting in the yard, but the identities of Ge Qing and Tu Zhu Guo have been changed. Later, Ge Qing was arrested on suspicion of arson, locked up for a year and sent back to his hometown. The big trouble in the shop disappeared, and so did a master of Tu Zhu Guo.

Tu Zhu Guo also has two apprentices and two younger brothers, all of whom are apprentices under Yang Yuejun. Master brother Feng Gebing, with a Chinese face, straightforward personality and a wife who is fierce enough to eat people; Chen Qi, the second brother, is ill at home all the year round, often disagrees with Master and often steals things from the shop. The fourth brother Qu Baihui is more like a scholar than a chef. He cooks much better in theory than in practice. Later, he taught cooking methods everywhere. Brother Wu Huabei used to be one of Master's favorite apprentices, with a bright brain. Later, I went to Guangdong to study Cantonese cuisine, and finally returned to Beijing to invest in Wantangju.

There has always been enmity between the five brothers and the master. For master, the most unforgettable thing is that one year on his birthday, five disciples gathered neatly at master's house for a meal, without resentment or kindness. Even on the last night of Master's death, she bought mutton jiaozi and wanted to get together again.

But disciples always have their own small abacus. Yang Yuejun said that whether an old master can harvest mountains with dignity does not depend on what he has done in his life, but on what his disciples have done to him. From this point of view, the five apprentices may not have done well. As the manager of Wantangju, Tu was sandwiched between several people and didn't do well. In the face of Ge Qing, Tu Zhu Guo didn't do well either.

With the development of the times, many traditional crafts have changed. In the face of the torrent of the times, Ge Qing can't stop it, and neither can Tu. From the beginning, the duck house was demolished, and Ge Qing couldn't stop it. When selecting the qualifications for foreign reception, he can only express helplessness with a little obstruction.

Later, Ma Teng, the new manager, pursued profit and demanded the speed of serving. The soup that has been hung up for 10 hours is gone, and so is the newcomer who calmed down. They even asked if pigment could be added to the roast duck to make it look better. Zhu Guo can't stop these outbursts.

Only then did he realize that,

Only then did he understand why another old master took his craft into the coffin, and Ge Qing began to teach him the palace roast duck word for word.

Gradually, Tu sounded more and more like Ge Qing and didn't want to appear in the front hall. He just stays in his roast duck workshop, doesn't talk to people much, and acts more and more like Ge Qing.

Later, Wuge Huabei invested in Wantangju and turned Wantangju into a healthy gourmet restaurant, hoping that Wantangju would become a restaurant without a chef. Today's Wantangju is not the original Wantangju.

Mountain mining refers to the retirement of the master, and it is also the retirement of the traditional craft of an era.

Not only cooking, but also a large number of intangible cultural heritages are under the impact of the times, or there are no heirs who are willing to learn this craft, or they are replaced by modern industries. Once-respected teachers and fathers are getting lonely, keeping the traditional old craft, just like the precarious candlelight swaying with the wind in the dark, I don't know when it will go out.

Chang Xiaohu's works are more like trying to catch a pair of traditional hands in a rapidly changing era, but what he caught and what slipped through his fingers are regrettable.

On the whole, this is a great book. Although as a young reader, some idioms in the book are obscure at first, with the deepening of the plot, the relationship between several characters becomes more real and attractive. In addition to hotel stories, there are some love and affection stories in the book, which are warm or sad, but inseparable from the truth, and are worth reading.

By the way, this is the authentic old Beijing palace roast duck. I hope that one day, I can take a sip of salt and take advantage of the heat, which probably won't waste my life.

This is Mr. Rabbit's bookstore.