Old things in the south

Chapter 84

One summer, He Fan and I visited Zhang Xiuya who was writing under the "North Window" while we were in Taichung.She wanted to have dinner with visitors from afar, but she gave up because we had other appointments.Although she was disappointed, she still kindly prepared some refreshments for us.It's like this: as soon as you enter the door, there are freshly brewed tea and hot coffee. Although the weather is hot, we can quench our thirst and relieve fatigue with the hot drinks.But she suddenly remembered that the tea and coffee were too hot, and there were prepared fruits, so she took out canned pineapple and cold watermelon, and we ate them one by one under the kindness of the hostess. Ya must have me drink the soup from the can of pineapple.After talking for a while, she said again: "It's still early for you to go to your friend's house for dinner, you must be hungry." She went to the kitchen and brought a pot of steaming duck soup.We really couldn't refuse the hostess's frequent concessions, so we had to drink a bowl each, but the duck meat was really uneatable.Afterwards, I was a little worried, no matter how strong my stomach is, can it withstand the torrent of these five hot and cold drinks in my stomach? What kind of consequences will it produce?

Not long after, after August 8th, Xiuya wrote a letter, and she said: I filled you with five kinds of water that day, which is why the August 7th flood was so severe.Think about it, the August 1959th flood happened in 24, [-] years ago, a quarter of a century.We still talk about this past event, and still joke with each other!
In Taiwan, middle school students who loved literature and art in the 50s and [-]s were familiar with Zhang Xiuya's prose and were deeply influenced by it.Ouyang Zi is a good example. She said that she was a reader of Zhang Xiuya’s prose when she was in high school. Writing, and becoming an outstanding female writer, was she not influenced by Zhang Xiuya?Although the direction of Ouyang Zi's writing, he also broke through to his dreamy girlhood.When Zhang Xiuya wrote "Under the North Window", she had the most abundant works.She devoted her whole life to literature, and now she takes a little rest, and often goes overseas to enjoy the joy of "playing with her grandchildren" (she has four grandchildren), which is also appropriate.

In my essay on Ling Shuhua, I revealed that Xiuya and I were both "Ling fans". She even took the train from Tianjin to Peiping to find Ling Shuhua alone in the third grade of junior high school.Many readers were very interested in reading it, wondering what kind of little girl Zhang Xiuya would be in her teens.Recently, she happened to come back from the United States to visit her grandson. I told her the reader's words and said that I would write about her, but there are many photos of her in my photo album, and I don't know which one to choose.She took out a photo from the room with a smile on her face, and said, "You must not have this photo in your dozens of photo albums!" I took it over and saw what a precious old photo it was. Photo!It was a photo of a little girl she took shortly after her visit to Ling Shuhua.Life is also very scary, it is almost 50 years ago!But if we don't explain it, readers will think that this is a picture of a modern little girl!

In the second year of high school when the little girl hadn't grown into a college girl, she published a novel and essay "On the Bank of the Dalong River". I'm afraid the current high school girls don't have such courage!What Xiuya and I can talk about the most is recalling the study life when we were little girls. We are in the same era, and we are also in the north, and we love literature and art; Dreams, almost none at all, but she said her teenage dreams were a long, long time.Although we are both "Ling Fans", I can't stand the masterpiece "An Old Man on the Seashore" written by another famous writer in the 30s, Ms. Lu Yin, which she loves. This is probably because of her strong dreaminess!
Xiuya is a scholar, writer and teacher.Although she is in a busy society and a busy job, she has a room like the British female writer Virginia Woolf said, "If a woman wants to write, she should have a room of her own."To Xiuya, this room is not only practical, but also spiritual.When Xiuya translated Wu Erfu's famous book: "My House", she once quoted Zhu Shuzhen's poem in the Song Dynasty in the translation preface: "It's a crime for a woman to play Wencheng, but it's like chanting the moon and singing the wind, grinding through the iron inkstone is not a crime." My job is to embroider and fold gold needles, but it is meritorious." For Zhang Xiuya, I would like to change the sentence to:
It is gratifying for a woman to play Wencheng.

(End of this chapter)