Hu Shi, China's modern thinker, writer, and philosopher, is famous for advocating "vernacular literature" and leading the "new cultural movement". After the "May Fourth Movement," he parted ways with Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, and other intellectuals who accepted Marxism, and changed his attitude of "not talking about politics for 20 years and not doing politics." Despite the persuasion of his wife Jiang Dongxiu, he insisted on entering politics. Unexpectedly, his decision also affected his later life.
1949 was a year of great political upheaval in the country. The 58-year-old Hu Shi did not choose to stay on the mainland or go to Taiwan, but to live in the United States. But his life in the United States was somewhat miserable. After Hu Shi and Jiang Dongxiu arrived in the United States, he was full of thought that he could become a professor of sinology at a school like Harvard University. However, the foreigners did not seem to want him to take his job, so they did not hire him as a professor. Hu Shi had to go to Princeton University to apply for the director of the library, nominally the librarian, but his status was very low, only equivalent to the director of the library in a department of the university. It is really emotional that a generation of literary heroes has been reduced to guarding books for people.
The previous income was good, but the family spent a lot of money, and Hu Shi often funded others, so there was no savings in the family. He and his wife were old and sick, and later they couldn't even pay for the treatment. The two friends once recalled: "Mr. and Mrs. Hu Shi, after arriving in the United States, they were sick. Hu Shi's economic situation, like his physical condition, slowly fell into a desperate situation. Later, the two could not even afford to hire servants, and they needed to do everything themselves. This is enough to show that Hu Shi's life in the United States is very difficult and difficult.
Jiang Dongxiu is not accustomed to the American diet, is not accustomed to Western food, and without money, she has some Anhui specialties, such as bacon, salted fish and so on. When these things are dried, they will emit a smell, and the neighbors are very dissatisfied with this. Hu Shi did not want to be preached, and he stubbornly hid these things from his wife and threw them into the trash can, but it was really "to die to face and suffer."
Hu Shi basically did not bring money when he went out, first, because there was no money to bring at home, and second, because he was old and could not remember it. Jiang Dongxiu thought of a way to bring two dollars a day in her husband's tie clip for him to use when he went out. This also disguised the poverty of Hu Shi's family, if he had money, would Jiang Dongxiu only bring him two dollars?
After a few years of wandering in the United States, Hu Shi returned to Taiwan Province and began serving as the "President of the Academia Sinica" in Taiwan in 1957. Although he returned to the embrace of the motherland, his living situation has not changed much, and his life is still very simple. A life of embarrassment lasted until death.
What was Hu Shi's life like in his later years? It can be seen from a sentence by Jiang Dongxiu: "It is appropriate to fund poor students, write checks like a millionaire, 'pretend' like a philanthropist, but treat me like 'poor and big'." Among them, "poor and big" is to describe a poor and sour student. Jiang Dongxiu's words revealed that Hu Shi's later life was not satisfactory.