Beyond the Sound of Goose

"Beyond the Sound of Goose" tells the story of Zhou Chuan's twenty-seven years from Dushan Village at the foot of the Dabie Mountains to the outside world. When his father was selling geese, he could only say "goose goose" at the age of three, hence his name "goose". He did not go to kindergarten and started studying in a village primary school with only ten students. He experienced peer bullying, being punished for stealing money, and school closures. After his parents went out to work one after another, he and his sister became left-behind children, living in an environment of material scarcity, family preference, and long-term lack of companionship. These experiences made Zhou Chuan feel inferior, timid, and playful, and also made him accustomed to protecting himself with selfishness and avoidance. His change has no clear starting point, let alone a turning point brought about by an exam. As he studied, left his hometown, and entered society, he realized his limitations through repeated setbacks, choices, and solitude. He slowly learned to bear the consequences and looked for ways to change his life. The novel is written until Zhou Chuan starts studying for a Ph. D. At the age of twenty-seven. It also writes about his parents' wandering, his sister's early marriage, the illness of his relatives, and the different destinations of his peers. What it records is not the legend of a person's victory over fate, but how an ordinary person slowly becomes himself with the traces left by the environment. Concept: "Beyond the Sound of Goose" is not about "walking out of the mountains" itself, but how a person is shaped by the environment in which he grows up, and how he gradually gains the ability to reshape himself. Material scarcity, unbalanced family relationships, parents' absence, limited educational resources, and unfamiliarity with the outside world all affected Zhou Chuan's initial character and behavior. These situations can explain his inferiority, cowardice, selfishness and avoidance, but they cannot automatically complete the change for him. Real growth occurs in a long and specific life: he gradually understands himself through studying, leaving home, frustration, comparison and reflection, and begins to take responsibility for his own choices and their consequences. The work does not glorify suffering into wealth, nor does it regard studying for a doctorate as a victory over fate. Instead, through the different lives of Zhou Chuan, his parents, sisters, ancestors and peers, it presents the changes in rural families, intergenerational relationships and personal prospects in more than 20 years. The work attempts to express that people's starting point and early personality are deeply limited by the environment, but growth means that after understanding these limitations, they still try to make their own choices and build their own life.