*Lin Qingxia's own "Talking to the Heart" opening column:
My good friend Jin Shenghua, who holds a master's degree from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, was a former trustee of the Chinese University in Hong Kong and the president of the Hong Kong Translation Society, and has written dozens of essays and books on translation. She was the first scholar I had ever been in a relationship with who was so learned and became a good friend. We often meet for tea, eat and talk on the phone, chatting for hours in the day, we talk about reading and writing experience, talk about friends, talk about life feelings, unconsciously have gone through eighteen years hand in hand.
That day we talked about writing, she wanted to write me, said that there are too many materials, one can not finish, I said it is better to come up with a book, the more the two talk the happier, the name is also thought out: "Talk about the heart - eighteen years with Lin Qingxia." From the perspective of a literati, she intimately wrote about my life with her, reading her words made me feel warm and comfortable, inspirational and humorous, real as if I was in the scene, like reading someone else's story, forgetting who I am. Suddenly I remembered that it was me, a mirror of mine, so I looked forward to the appearance of this mirror every day.
If my fans and readers want to know the real Lin Qingxia, please follow me to explore Jin Shenghua's "Talking to the Heart - Eighteen Years with Lin Qingxia".
Qingxia October 28, 2021
Jin Shenghua (left) and Lin Qingxia, who have known each other for 18 years. Deng Yongjie photography
Talking with the heart - eighteen years with Lin Qingxia
Text/Jin Shenghua
(1) Dependent arising
On March 17, 2021, I had a phone call with Qingxia, as usual, we were all over the world, talking about everything, starting with a joke she told to the fan group "Ai Lin Quan", talking about the poetics of this year's Nobel Prize winner Louis Gluck (Glick), because at that time, I was using zoom to teach the "English-to-Chinese Translation Workshop" of the Master of Translation at the University of Chinese, Hong Kong, and a male student in Guizhou chose to translate Glick's comments, and such an academic serious content, Qingxia actually listened to it with relish. At the end of the call, I said to Qingxia that I wanted to write an article about our many years of intersection, and as I talked, I felt that there was too much information to carry an article, and she suddenly suggested, "Why not write a book?" "Now, it seems like a flash of inspiration, suddenly awakened, by the way, why not write a book?
Therefore, there was an incentive to write a book. We all believe that today's world is changing rapidly, today does not know tomorrow's events, any idea, must immediately sit on the words and deeds, say and do, otherwise, delay the wrong thing, in vain to leave regrets!
Of course, this book is not easy to write, first think of a title, the name I temporarily thought of is: "Synchronous GreenEry - Eighteen Years with Lin Qingxia". The book plans to record the bits and pieces of our acquaintance and intersection for eighteen years, as a witness, and present Lin Qingxia's mental journey from a star to a writer. Who knows with Qingxia, with a cheerful personality, she thinks that "synchronous greenery" is not prominent enough, and she said that the title of the book is best straightforward and attracted at a glance. I said that we have been talking for many years, the topic is not finished, but unfortunately, such a good title of "Talk" has long been used by Lin Wenyue, we discussed it, and thought it would be better to use "Talking to the Heart"!
Eighteen years ago, due to the introduction of a friend, we first met, and at that time, there was no special vision and expectation for each other. Friendship develops naturally inadvertently, just like a tiny seed, delicate and weak, at the right time, sown into the appropriate soil, after many years, in the breeze and drizzle of the moist, gradually sprouted, grown, and now bloomed a brilliant and colorful purple and red!
Eighteen years ago, Qingxia was a retired star who had washed away the lead, the wife of a successful industrialist, a mother of two young children, and the little daughter under her knees was still a toddler. Having just completed the task of having children, she intends to find her own direction in life. What about me? At that time, he was still teaching full-time at Chinese University, and he had always been busy working in the academic garden, and rarely traveled with the bustling world outside, especially the film and art circles.
What is absolutely unexpected is that two people from different circles like this suddenly met, and in the subsequent journey of life, they actually moved forward synchronously and enjoyed countless pleasant and pleasant scenery hand in hand. Over the years, we have supported and encouraged each other, and we have a new understanding and understanding of life, literature, and views on how to live in the world.
From the second year of acquaintance, Qingxia tried to write down her inner thoughts and feelings, and since her third article "Little Flower", I became her first reader, watching how she concentrated on writing, how to waste sleep and forget to eat when writing, how to humbly ask friends from all sides after writing, and then from the flow of goodness, change and change again, be sure to change the article to excellence, before giving up.
Qingxia is a person who knows how to be grateful, and as long as her friends have ever offered advice and encouragement to her, even if they are only a little bit, she is grateful. As a result, there are a large number of high-ranking strategists around her, who is "Bole", who is "teacher", who is "Zhiyin", she often hangs on the side of her mouth. In the beginning, she said that I was her "muse" because as soon as I told me stories, I had the inspiration to write articles. In fact, she herself had already become a bamboo in her chest, but she had to find another pair of ears to listen to. Over time, sometimes she is busy with things, she will stop writing, I am on the side for her readers to do a hurry, occasionally quietly urge, she is quite refreshing, as long as a gentle urge, it will urge a good article, so that the readers who want to wear and the journal boss who are looking forward to the best work are particularly happy. One day, on a whim, she called me her "invisible soft whip" (a title that later became her third title for the preface) and would often smoke her when she was slack. This is a very wrongful statement, where do I make the material for the whip? My children said that when I was a child, I did not obey them, and even if I made a gesture to physically punish them, it was like an itch, and it did not work at all; and I have been a teacher for so many years, and I have never hardened my heart to fail any student. Therefore, even if I make this soft whip rise, I will never be a tiger or a tiger. Since 2011, Qingxia has published three consecutive collections of essays in a busy schedule: "Outside the Window", "The Clouds Go to the Clouds", and "Behind the Mirror", such a bright result is mainly due to her self-improvement and self-encouragement.
Three years ago, I published a collection of essays at Shenzhen Haitian Publishing House, "Bees In Butterfly Clothes", the meaning of the title of the book is to pay tribute to all the female pioneers (such as Simon Pova and Yang Dai) and friends in the world who are diligent and unremitting, pursuing beauty and kindness, but also inside and outside, and taking both appearances and appearances. These friends, who look like flower-wearing butterflies in colorful clothes, are actually toiling bees that work hard to make honey. Lin Qingxia is definitely such a "bee dressed in butterfly clothes"! Perhaps, in the eyes of others, she is a pampered queen, a queen bee that everyone worships, beautiful and indispensable; in fact, when she works, she is a full-fledged worker bee, who can work day and night, sleeplessly, as long as it is something she loves, she can do more than anyone, more diligent than anyone!
Lin Wenyue once famously said, "I don't do it if others don't do it", which refers to meaningful work, including academic criticism, literary creation and literary translation. Writing this book is also what others do not do me to do, and what is recorded is an enduring friendship, a kind of literary edge that pursues creation synchronously, the unknown true face of a legendary figure, and the story of how the superstar of the shadow from the red carpet to the greenery, on the road of life, cross-border turns, self-improvement story.
Lin Qingxia, who turned from a famous movie star to an intellectual writer. Deng Yongjie photography
(2) Initial meeting
I don't remember what day of the week it was, it should have been a weekend, otherwise I wouldn't be free. The date is clearly remembered, March 8, 2003, Women's Day!
The car is on the Flying Goose Mountain Road, the road is winding and twisting, because it is the grandson Alan who is driving, slow and steady, and it feels good to be full, otherwise, with a little curiosity and nervousness at the time, if you take a taxi on the flying car, you may be dizzy!
Soon, came to the door of a large mansion, checked the house number, honked the horn, the gate slowly opened, the car slowly drove into the yard, stopped in front of the house, at this time, she appeared. Greeted by a smiling plain face, without heavy makeup; a milky white casual dress, light and simple, but also makes people shine!
Over the years, I have met Lin Qingxia twice on the street: once when I was watching a show in the Great Hall, I was sitting, and she passed in front of me; once on Queen's Road, waiting for the traffic lights to turn green to cross the road, she happened to be standing next to her. Even so, seeing the legendary emperor superstar appear in the line of sight, he would not stare at her without regard to politeness, so whether she looked as good as the camera was the first time to take a look.
Speaking of which, I'm not a fan of hers, and I'm not a fan of anybody at all. Besides, when she debuted, our generation had already passed the age of star chasing. When the movie "Outside the Window" was boiling, I was busy starting a family, and I would have spare time to take care of things outside of me. However, over the years, her beautiful appearance has been displayed in various media from time to time; her vigorous silver career is also thunderous and occasional. Therefore, when a friend mentioned it on the phone, Lin Qingxia wanted to find someone to talk about literature and introduce her to read some books in Chinese and English. It made me feel a little good and interested. I have always admired such a self-motivated person, especially she is now famous and profitable, the environment is good, in terms of material enjoyment, it can be said that she wants the wind to be windy, to rain and rain, if she purely takes eating, drinking and having fun as her life goal, she can live comfortably, why spend time to study and make progress, as Cantonese says, she "works hard"?
That day, when I walked into the house and looked around, I was really surprised. The room is large and spacious, but there is no expected grandeur or golden splendor, the furniture stands on the wall, sparse, almost all milky, so low-key, so calm, and the owner's humble easy-going, silent echo. Then, the hostess beckoned me to visit the backyard, the layout of the courtyard, is even more unexpected, neither the chinese courtyard common pavilions, small bridges and flowing water; nor the European palace-style flowers, brilliant, only gravel paths, wicker wooden benches, everything is still so quiet and peaceful, simple and plain, so that I suddenly remembered the "dry landscape" of the stone garden landscape in Kyoto's Long'an Temple, right, it is the kind of Zen beauty built with a sand and a stone, so clear, so ethereal! Time seems to be condensed in this court space, making people forget the troubles and disturbances of the outside world. There are trees around, and many large trees with shadows stand outside the fence, guarding this pure land like a loyal guard; when there is no flower, the heart is like a mirror, and there is no need for ordinary flowers to decorate it. Then we sat in the shade of the trees, on wooden benches, and chatted freely.
What exactly was we talking about that day? Today, eighteen years later, it is a bit vague to recall, only remember that we were in the north and south, improvised chat and constantly talking. In fact, the circles we live in are completely different, and there is a gap in age, so why do we talk endlessly as soon as we open the conversation box? I still don't know. Perhaps, because I am from Zhejiang, she is originally from Shandong, we are all "people from other provinces" who grew up in Taiwan, and then because of our different opportunities, we came to Hong Kong and married Cantonese. Over the years, we have all received all kinds of blessings from Hong Kong, so we have fallen in love with this blessed pearl of the Orient. We talk about parents, brothers, children, and bits and pieces of life, and of course, literature and creation. Qingxia seemed a little shy at the time, she said, idle like to read books like "Chicken Soup for the Soul", not much serious big articles. As for writing, it is a distant matter, but she often writes down some of her inner thoughts and feelings, writes them on pieces of paper, and locks them in a drawer. She also mentioned that there was once a foreign teacher at the University of Hong Kong who taught her English, and the two got along very well, but later the teacher went to the United States, and there was no following interaction between them.
That day, in the shade of the trees, in the breeze, in the sound of birdsong, we chatted for a long time, Qingxia was particularly hospitable, from the bottles and cans in the living room, took out a lot of snacks sent from all over the world, plate by plate on the table, let me taste. Maybe it was busy talking, the food didn't move much, and the tea was drunk cup after cup. We talked so happily that we didn't even feel that time had rushed by, and it had been several hours since we blinked. Therefore, once a week after the meeting, I will bring some Chinese and English articles or books that she is suitable for reading, and study and communicate together in a relaxed and pleasant situation without pressure.
It was time to say goodbye, and we walked through the backyard and into the house, and as soon as she turned and took out a large box of GOLDIVA chocolates, and then moved out a large, beautifully printed magazine, I don't remember much about the Contents, which seemed to be about the Duchess of Windsor's precious jewelry, saying that it was going to give it to me. I know that she is so courteous, so earnest, but also because I stated in advance, I have never had the experience of visiting and working, this exception is to make a friend, never charge!
"It's too heavy, I'll hold it for you first!" The big beauty without a shelf said kindly, dragged the gift over, carried it in his hand, and the other hand took me, and sent me to the car that came to pick me up home, and said hello to Alan politely. Thus, the first meeting was concluded.
After that, we got together a few times, I remember that I took O'Henry's familiar short stories, such as The Gift of the Magi, The Last Leaf, etc. to enjoy with her, just when everything was gradually on track, the "SARS" epidemic broke out in Hong Kong, Qingxia and her two young daughters, hurried to the United States to avoid the epidemic, so our budding friendship, in an unpredictable and helpless situation, abruptly stopped! (To be continued)