Sanmao is undoubtedly a unique presence in the history of contemporary literature. In her pen, the desolate and barren desert has become a paradise for love and life, which has aroused the yearning of countless young people.
In May 1976, Sanmao's first collection of works, The Story of the Sahara, was officially published and was greatly welcomed by readers, and was reprinted three times in the following month and a half.
In this book, Sanmao uses fresh and natural, peaceful and simple language to record the life of her and her lover Jose in the Sahara Desert, full of exotic style, let us see her casualness, romance and tenacity, as well as her beautiful love with Jose.
To this day, Sanmao's story still attracts a large number of readers who yearn for a free and romantic life.
Sanmao has wandered the world all his life, and with the footsteps of loving life, he has awakened people's inner desire for innocence, love and freedom. The Sahara Desert was the soul's habitat for her short life.
Sanmao was born in Chongqing in 1943, his real name was Chen Maoping, and he later changed his name to Chen Ping. This name carries the mark of the times and also conveys the love of her parents for her. Her parents hope for an early return to peace, and they also hope that their daughter will have a safe life. Unfortunately, the name did not bring her good luck.
In 1948, Sanmao moved to Taiwan with his parents. Sanmao has been reading poetry since childhood, and when he was in junior high school, he had read all over the world, but his mathematics was not good. In order to improve her grades, she had to use the stupid method of memorizing questions. Sanmao, who has always been very poor in mathematics, actually scored a hundred points, and the teacher was incredulous, thinking that she must have cheated, so he drew two zero eggs on her face. Since then, Sanmao has suffered from depression and is reluctant to go to school again. Sanmao's parents were both intellectuals, so she received a better education.
Sanmao's emotional experience in life is bumpy, and meeting Jose is only a short-term beauty.
During the seven years of his suspension, Sanmao studied ancient poetry and English under the education of his parents, and successively studied painting with three painters and published some works. In 1964, Sanmao used a cover letter to get an opportunity to audit at the Chinese Culture University. Here, she meets her first love, Liang Guangming.
The relationship between the two lasted for more than two years, and finally ended because of Sanmao's forced marriage. Sanmao initially loved carefully, perhaps because of her lack of security, she repeatedly asked the other party to marry, but Liang Guangming refused on the grounds that her career had not become a success. Sanmao threatened to study in Spain, which led to their separation. In order to save, she even threatened her life, but let the other party get farther and farther away.
Sanmao felt that he had "become an indifferent flower butterfly" and flew away from this sad land to study in Spain. During her study abroad, she met Jose for the first time. Jose fell in love with Sanmao, who was eight years older than himself, and said that after six years, he would marry her after completing his military service. In Sanmao's eyes, Jose at that time was just a being like a younger brother.
Maybe it was fate, and six years later, they were indeed together. During this period, Sanmao experienced two more emotional pains. In 1970, Sanmao returned from studying abroad and fell in love with the painter Deng Guochuan despite his parents' objections, only to find that the other party already had a family. Then, Sanmao accepted a marriage proposal from a German teacher, but her fiancé died suddenly on the eve of marriage.
In his inner pain, Sanmao remembered the Sahara Desert he had seen in National Geographic magazine, which "belonged to the nostalgia of past life memories", and decided to return to Spain and invite Jose to live in the Sahara Desert with him. Jose has always loved Sanmao, remembered his promise, and was willing to give up better job opportunities and stay with Sanmao.
Through "The Story of the Sahara", we can see the romantic love and happy life of the two people. Sanmao finally found a lover who was willing to stay with him, harvested love, healed his inner pain, and radiated great enthusiasm for life.
Sanmao is a person who creates life, and the scavenging hobby she has had since she was a child has played a big role here, and she has built a warm little home with what she has picked up.
I think the most moving part of "The Story of the Sahara" is not in the exotic style, not even in love, but in the enthusiasm for life flowing in Sanmao's text. She tells us that one can pursue the life one desires.
I think that's why Sanmao is loved by readers. All along, there have been many people who have traveled thousands of miles to the Sahara just to see where Sanmao once lived. Sanmao has become an idol in the hearts of countless literary youth.
Among the people who follow the footsteps of Sanmao, there is a person who is self-righteous and unkind, and he is Ma Zhongxin, a travel writer known as "contemporary Xu Xiake". He spent 5 years re-walking the Sanmao Road and wrote a book "The Truth of Sanmao", just to expose what he believes to be the lie of Sanmao.
When asked about the intention of doing so, he said: "First, it is to 'correct the rumors, with my heart of curiosity', and second, I really can't get used to those simple boys and girls being blinded by illusions." ”
Obviously, Ma Zhongxin is looking for evidence with presuppositions. He interviewed many people along the way, piecing together a hypocritical, narcissistic, ugly, and neurotic Sanmao who said that Sanmao and Jose's love affair was fake.
He believes that Jose actually only has a high school education, family situation and other aspects of the conditions are not good, Sanmao will not really fall in love with such a mediocre person, Sanmao also fell in love with Jia Pingwo and Wang Luobin after Jose's death.
How ridiculous! Looking at love with a secular eye, where will there be true love? Sanmao was devastated after Jose's unexpected death and came out of the haze a long time later. In the book "How Much Do You Know About Flowers in Dreams", we can see her inner grief. How could the subsequent emotional experience prove that she had not loved Jose?
From the eyes of others, it is never possible to piece together a complete and real person, not to mention that the author originally has a malicious presupposition.
Thus, we see such a book full of vicious language, and the author even concluded at the end: "Sanmao has today, self-pity, sorrow, and human sorrow, which are the causes planted in the past life, and there is a reward in this life: Kef, no queen, self-hanging." "I visited the field for a while, but finally I went back to fatalism, saying that this was Sanmao's retribution." The viciousness of its language is outrageous.
Ma Zhongxin wants to tell people that the so-called poems and distant places in Sanmao's book are false, and the real life is only a place of chicken feathers. But he did not understand that life belonged to each person's own feelings, not the eyes of others.
Sanmao did not need to beautify her life to others, she wrote about what she saw and felt in it. No matter how false it may seem to others, it is her truth.