The last time I saw you was a short dream I had, and in the dream there was you and a group of winter winds - Shao Xunmei's "After the Season"
As we all know, the three sisters of the Song family, Qingling and Meiling, when they became adults, rarely got together because of their different political positions, but during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the three sisters gathered in Chongqing for the sake of anti-Japanese resistance, and the person who recorded this time was a blonde American journalist - Xiang Meimei
Xiang Mei's original name was Emily Hahn. Hahn was born in 1905 in St. Louis City, Midwest. Graduated from the University of Wisconsin. In 1928, she taught at Hunter Women's College in New York and began writing. At the same time, he was hired as a special writer for the New Yorker. In 1935, she came to Shanghai as a Chinese coastal communications correspondent for the New Yorker magazine, met shao Xunmei, and fell in love with him.
Shao Xunmei was born in 1906, and came from a family of officials and eunuchs, his grandfather was Shao Youlian, who was the inspector of Taiwan and the Daotai in Shanghai, and his maternal grandfather was Sheng Xuanhuai. He graduated from the Nanyang Road Mining School in Shanghai in early 1923 and went east to study English literature at the University of Cambridge in the same year. In 1927, he returned to China and married the famous lady Sheng Peiyu. In 1928, he opened the Golden House Bookstore and published the Golden House Monthly. He was a "beautiful man" who was on a par with Xu Zhimo at that time, and was called "Poetry Double Bi". Some people say, "Akimi seems to be more beautiful than Shima with glasses." ”
When they met Xiang Meili, Shao Sheng and the two already had a son and four daughters. Among them, the eldest daughter also took the name Xiao Yu, which is quite seen in Shao Xunmei's love for his wife. According to Sheng Peiyu's memoir "Shao Xunmei and Me", when she was engaged, she once told Shao Xunmei about three chapters: first, no other women; second, no smoking opium; and three, no gambling money.
It can be seen that Sheng Peiyu could not gladly accept Xiang Mei's intervention. The Chinese name "Xiang Mei" was taken by Shao Xunmei according to the transliteration of her name. Shao Xiang's cohabitation was completely public. Xiang Meili often went in and out of the Shao family, and she became friends with Shao Xunmei's wife, Sheng Peiyu, and got along with the Shao family in harmony. The Shao family nicknamed her "Honey"
However, at that time, it was very common for rich and noble families to have three wives and four concubines, and Xiang Meili had helped Shao Xunmei in her career, sheng Peiyu no longer minded that her husband had an American girlfriend, and the three of them often went to dinner and play together. Even Sheng Peiyu opened her mouth to let Shao Xun Mena Xiangmei as a concubine. Shao Xunmei was still a little embarrassed about the concubine proposed by his wife, but her heart longed for it.
He told Xiang Meili that he had inherited from his uncle since childhood, and was the son of two people, so he could have two legitimate wives instead of one wife and one concubine, and also proposed that he could pass on a daughter to Xiang Mei (because she only had one son), so that she could enter the ancestral tomb of the Shao family after her death. Xiang Meimei's love was a little crazy, and she even smoked a big cigarette with Shao Xunmei
After the Japanese soldiers entered Shanghai, Shao Xunmei could no longer be separated from "dirty politics", and he was eager to use words to do something for the anti-Japanese resistance. At this moment, Xiang Meili was obliged to choose her husband to sing with her wife. As the two men prepared, they jointly published the anti-Japanese monthly magazine "Liberty Tan" and the English monthly magazine "CandidComment".
While in Shanghai, Xiang Meili, accompanied by Shao Xunmei, visited Song Qingling. Song Qingling provided him with a lot of precious information and photos. These materials were translated into English by Shao Xunmei for her. This provided important material for Xiang Meimei to later write the book "The Three Sisters of the Song Family".
In the spring of 1939, the situation in Shanghai was critical. Song Yiling is in Hong Kong, and Song Qingling and Song Meiling are in Chongqing. In order to complete this work, Xiang Meili prepared to go to Hong Kong first, and then to Chongqing to meet the three Sisters of the Song Clan. Shao Returned to Shanghai from Hong Kong. The Three Sisters of the Song Family was published in the early 1940s. Because the three sisters of the Song family provided a large number of first-hand materials, some of which have precious historical value, this book was quite popular with readers as soon as it came out, and Xiang Meimei became famous.
After Xiang Meili returned to Hong Kong, she lived with the married British officer Major Bauxer and bore him a daughter. After the fall of Hong Kong, both Xiang Meili and Bauxer were imprisoned in enemy concentration camps. In December 1943, when the United States and Japan exchanged expatriates, Xiang Meili was repatriated to the United States and settled in New York. After the end of World War II, she married Bauxer and gave birth to another daughter.
When Xiang Meili left Shanghai, she left her belongings in Shanghai, including her pet monkeys, and she kept saying "I want to come back", but with the times, she has not been able to return. Until the end of World War II, Shao Xunmei also went to the United States to see Xiang Meimei, but she was already married at that time.
However, the fate of Shao Xunmei and Xiang Meimei is not yet over. Their last parting is in the United States. In the early summer of 1946, Shao Xunmei was entrusted by Chen Guofu to stay in the United States as a special envoy for half a year to investigate American films. In New York, the two men, who have been separated for seven years, meet again. Just as Shao Xunmei let Sheng Peiyu accompany him, Xiang's beautiful husband Bauxer also participated in their all-night long talk with great dramatic effect.
Baoxer had the heart to test, he pointed at Xiang Meimei and smiled at Shao Xunmei and said, "Mr. Shao, you have been keeping this lady for me for a few years, and now it should be returned." Shao Xunmei also replied with a smile: "I haven't made arrangements yet, and I have to ask you to keep it again." It was another seemingly gentle but resolute rejection. Xiang Mei heard that it was no longer hurt, but leaned forward and backward and laughed. He had his wife, she had her husband, and the time had finally come. Half a year later, Shao Xunmei returned to China as scheduled.
After liberation, Shao Xunmei did not live a good life of harmony with Sheng Peiyu, but took Chen Yinmei, the handmaiden of the old lady of Shao Province, as a concubine and separated from Sheng Peiyu. After that, Chen Yinmei gave birth to four children for Shao Xunmei. Without the support of his wife's dowry, and without much achievement in his career, Sheng Peiyu could not return there, and Shao Xunmei's life became more and more difficult.
He thought of Xiang Meimei again, and wrote her two letters asking for financial support, all of which fell into the hands of the relevant departments. Because xiang's beautiful British husband was identified as a spy. As a result, a generation of talented people were imprisoned for the crime of "Teite suspect".
After Shao Xunmei was taken away, Chen Yinmei took her four children to Huaihai Road to live with Sheng Peiyu and her children. After Shao Xunmei was released from prison in 1962, she lived in a pavilion in Shanghai with her eldest son, Shao Zucheng, and died six years later. A few days before his death, he got some opium essence from nowhere and took it every day. The son persuaded him, and he just smiled. After eating until the third day, he left, and no one knew what kind of comfort these opium spirits had given him. What did he think of at the end of his life?
Xiang Meili often reminisced about Shanghai's past on the other side of the ocean. What Bauxer gave her was a happy marriage of 52 years. The New Yorker magazine, which she contributed to when she was young, kept her studio after her retirement as a tribute to her achievements.In 1995, Shao Xunmei and Sheng Peiyu's daughter Shao Xiuhong went to New York to visit her familiar "Honey".
Xiang Mei was plump, still with short hair and a smile. Two years later, Xiang Meimei died at the age of 92. However, she never forgot Aboutmi, he always existed in her deep mind.
Beginning with Mr. Pan in 1943, Xiang Mei wrote about Shao Xunmei in at least ten books, at least three of which featured him as the protagonist. Among them, the book "My Chinese Husband" records in detail the interaction between the two. His hair was silky and black, oily, unlike the hard brushes of other men.
When he wasn't smiling or speaking, the ivory-colored face was nearly perfectly oval. But when you see those eyes, you will feel that it is really perfect, and it is glorious in anticipation. His face was almost pale, and he flaunted under the beautiful eyes of those flying wings..." Xiang Meili often said that she was a bad girl.
The collision of the two legends reflects a special history of Shanghai, and also attracts the attention of the Canadian writer TarasGrace, who has come to China twice to visit Shao Xunmei's descendants, search for Xiang's beautiful footprints, consult a large number of archives, newspapers, diaries, letters, and spend 4 years to write "Xiang Beauty and Maritime Celebrities", which is not only a biographical work, but also a record of an era.
White clouds and dogs, the passage of time has not moved. In this place in Shanghai, there has been the most beautiful romance, but also the most brutal war; there is a moving sea oath and mountain alliance, and there is also the last side of the determination; the encounter between two people has added sadness to the turbulent times, but it is this sadness that makes the legend more profound.