December 7, 2017 is a special day in the literary circles of Hong Kong, China, and the 99th birthday of liu Yihuan, a treasure of pure literature and a veteran writer. On that day, two of my colleagues, Wei Jing and Luo Dan, carried the chestnut cream cake that he loved to eat the day before, as well as a large bag of fruit, and went to his apartment in Taicheng To celebrate his birthday.
- Author
On Christmas eve, I was interviewing in the Middle East. That day in Jerusalem, I unexpectedly received whatsapp from Liu Yiman's wife Luo Peiyun: "Merry Christmas, december 2017". In a foreign land, a burst of joy. I told her I was in Israel. She quickly replied: Be careful, take care.
This past December 7 is a special day in the literary circles of Hong Kong, China, the 99th birthday of Liu Yihuan, a treasure of pure literature and an old writer. On that day, two of my colleagues, Wei Jing and Luo Dan, carried the chestnut cream cake that he loved to eat the day before, as well as a large bag of fruit, and went to his apartment in Taicheng To celebrate his birthday.
In the living room, Liu Lao was lying on a special small bed, with medical utensils on the side, and in the afternoon he had to go out to the hospital for routine review, and he couldn't bear to take a photo of him lying down. He was extremely thin, but in good spirits, and I took his hand and spoke loudly in Shanghainese in his ear. Liu Yihuan, a "generation grandmaster" who has walked for a century in the literary world, was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong in 1948. I still remember that in 1992, I was still working in Shanghai's "Literature Newspaper", came to Hong Kong to visit relatives, and asked him to meet one day, and he said that he liked to talk to Shanghainese in Shanghainese. Two years later, I also moved here, met him many times, and talked in Shanghainese.
In the winter of 2000, I and Li Guoyi, then editor-in-chief of Shanghai Literature Daily, recommended "Opposite" to the Beijing Writers Publishing House, and finally, the new book was published in Beijing in February 2001. I remember doing a lengthy interview at the time. For the first time, Liu Lao revealed that it was Mr. Ke Ling from Shanghai who took him to the road of literature, and he was eager to go back to Shanghai to see. At the end of Wong Kar-wai's film "Fancy Years", there are eye-catching characters "Special thanks to Mr. Liu Yihuan", and I asked Liu Lao why he thanked him. He said no one had ever asked him why he was "particularly grateful," and that was the first time he had answered that. In July 2010, the Hong Kong Book Fair selected him as the first Hong Kong Book Fair Writer of the Year, and had a deep conversation with him, and has not seen him for 7 years since. At this point, he was lying on the cot and seemed happy to see us visiting him. He sang a happy birthday song in English like a child, and at the suggestion of his wife, sang a Song in French. Mrs. Luo Peiyun is 79 years old and still maintains that beautiful charm. Liu finished singing with a beard, and the lady lightly clicked the tip of his nose with her fingers to show appreciation, a touching flounder's deep affection.
Some of Liu Yihuan's works
This residence, Liu Yi lived for 40 years, the living room two large cupboards are full of his own handmade miniature models. Madame said that she also remembered that I had facilitated the publication of the mainland edition of "Toppling Down" from it. In order to supplement the manuscript, she came to my home in Tsuen Wan to deliver the manuscript. She also often accompanies Liu Yiman to various conferences, lectures, forums, seminars, and new bookmarks, and is the officiating guest of honor of the event. People in the circle said that without the help of his wife, Liu Yihuan could not have published so many books. Liu Yiman began writing at the age of 17 and has been writing for more than 80 years. His works are stylized and distinctive. "The Drunkard" is a stream-of-consciousness novel, and "Opposite" is a two-line balance. He wrote entertaining works, i.e., "popular novels", on the one hand, and entertained works, i.e., "serious literature" on the other. In the 1960s and 1970s, Liu contributed to 13 newspapers at the same time, writing 13,000 words a day. For decades, Liu Yiman created tens of millions of words of literature. Whenever a book is published, he strictly selects them, and so far there are only twenty or thirty kinds published. He would carefully select and publish the novels he serialized in the newspaper. The original selected edition of "Opposite" was only more than 20,000 words, but the number of words serialized in the newspaper was 500,000 words. Most of the manuscripts he had to change and delete, deleting the watery and repetitive ones one by one. The search for briefings and materials on these works depends entirely on the lady, who searches, picks up, and copies from the vast sea of newspapers and periodicals. He always said that the readers of his works were older.
Liu Yihuan and his own work "The Alcoholic"
In 2010, he was selected as the first Author of the Year at the Hong Kong Book Fair, and after the forum, hundreds of readers lined up to sign his book, he sat and did not stop signing, and his wife stood on the side and opened the title page of the book from time to time. Most of the people who asked for autographs were young people, and afterwards, he said to me three times in a row: "I really didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it." Liu Yihuan has been disease-free and painless for many years, and he did not get into a wheelchair until two years earlier. Everyone in Hong Kong's literary circles knows that he walks for more than two hours almost every afternoon. It was already four o'clock after drinking afternoon tea, and he would walk around his home, look at bookstores, visit the mall, meet acquaintances, and stand and talk for a while. Filmmaker Huang Jinhui's "Liu Yihuan: 1918" recorded Liu Yihuan with light and shadow sound and image. This documentary is part of the "They Write on the Island" series. It is said that someone is planning to shoot a new documentary about Liu Yiman. In 2018, it was Liu Yi's centenary commemoration and wished the shooting success.
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