Resurrection from the Dead "Say Eileen"

In 2015, Jiang Qing was in front of the Eilean bust in the hall of the Royal Academy of Dance.

2016 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Mr. Dai, and the 10th anniversary of the dancer's death, I thought about it in 2014, and two years later, I dedicated "Say Eileen" to commemorate the teacher. At the same time, I was born in 1946, and I published this book at the age of seventy, which should also be a generous gift to myself that "life has only begun in seventy". Mr. Hidden Land promised erya publishing house to publish a traditional version, and the People's Publishing House promised to publish a simplified version, which was published in Beijing when "commemorating the centenary of Dai Ailian's birth", and now writes down the book's soul - the "fate" of reviving the dead.

A book goes from conceiving, creating, editing, typesetting, proofreading, printing, binding, to becoming our spiritual food, in the process of saying that a grain of rice from the farmer to cultivate seedlings, ploughing, planting, irrigation, harvesting, threshing, drying, bran, and then purchased by the farmers' association, transported, through the large plate, the middle plate, the rice shop to our home, is exactly the same.

This passage is the senior founder of Taiwan's "Erya Publishing House" and the elderly writer Mr. Yindi said in "The Dream of the Publishing Circle", he so cleverly and accurately described the birth of a book, speaking of my heart, so I borrowed this phrase.

First of all, from the conception of the book, I want to write the life legend of Mr. Dai Ailian, who is also a teacher and a friend, I do not want to write her as a "dance god", although she has countless firsts in the Chinese dance industry: the first president of the All China Dance Association, the heroine of the first dance drama "Peace Dove", the first head of the National Dance Troupe, the first principal of the Beijing Dance School, the first head of the National Ballet, the first head of the National Ballet, and the "mother of Chinese dance". But in my mind, what is more important is that she is a "person" with a pure heart, great compassion and love, a pure artist with no distractions. She loves Chinese culture, loves the nation, and in her emotional life, she follows her heart and fearlessly loves, and this feeling of love runs through her life. The Northern Song Dynasty scholar Zhou Dunyi wrote an argumentative essay "Ai Lian Said", and many articles written about Dai Ai Lian are taken as "to give the only ai lian out of the mud without staining, Mao Qing Lian without demon", comparing her character that is not affected by the environment and is high wind and bright. Therefore, the title of the book "Speaking of Love Lotus" not only coincides with the world of Love Lotus created by Zhou Dunyi, but also gives me a more relaxed scene. The book is divided into two parts, The Gate: The Story of Eileen, and The Lower Que: Mr. Dai Eileen and I.

Eileen is not easy to say, she spans a long and wide range of years and regions, involving many people and things. In order to keep the book true, I walked thousands of miles for "Say Love Lotus" for two years, harassed many people, visited Mr. Dai's birthplace of the West Indies, flew to England, where she grew up, China is the place where she "recognizes the ancestors and returns to the roots", of course, she needs to visit relevant people and things in China, and she also has many relatives and friends in the United States who can understand the situation.

The library of the Beijing Dance Academy and the reference room of the Royal School of Dance have given selfless assistance to the best of their ability. Mr. Cheng Jian, Director of the East Asian Library at Columbia University, enthusiastically introduced me to the library collection, mr. Weng Wange's documentary on the Dai Ailian Dance and Ye Qianyu paintings, and enabled me to continue with the elderly Mr. Weng Wange, from his mouth, the situation of the couple's visit to the United States in the mid-1940s to perform and organize art exhibitions, as well as the causes and consequences of making documentaries in the United States.

Wu Jingshu, the director of my Beijing Dance School, has been by Mr. Dai's side for many years, and has bowed to Mr. Dai from beginning to end, and most of the people and things involved are well known. At that time, she was sick and weak, and not only answered my questions one after another, but also helped me contact one person after another. With Dai Ailian as a mother and daughter, the painter Ye Qianyu's daughter Ye Mingming and her husband Jin Zhengping also spared no effort to support me, and every time they interviewed her home in Beijing for a long time, they did their best to help. Ming Ming not only allowed me to include in the appendix to the article "Remembering My Mother Dai Ailian" that she wrote in 2011, but also signed a power of attorney to provide the precious materials, photographs and paintings of my father painting Dai Ailian dance that I needed in the book free of charge.

Close friend Professor Gao Yougong agreed to write a "preface" completely by accident. As we all know, he is very low-key, and he is good at Chinese and Western performing arts, but he has never liked to be "nosy", especially since he is old and energetic, he is not as old as before, and he also has to patiently read the manuscript of "Say Eileen", which is difficult to measure my encouragement.

Receiving the invitation of the organizer Oft National Ballet of China to "Commemorate the Centenary of the Birth of Dancer Dai Ailian", I went to Beijing at my own expense to participate in the event. During the day, we visited the former residence of Mr. Dai's overseas Chinese apartment, where a photo exhibition of his life and works was arranged; in the evening, a large-scale performance commemorative event was held at the Tianqiao Theater, which staged Mr. Dai's most famous works", "Lotus Dance" and "Flying Sky", and also showed the famous works of Mr. Dai's mentor Anthony Dowling, who studied ballet in britain: Pas de Quatre and Variations for four. In 1983, Anthony Dowling went to Beijing and personally rehearsed for the National Ballet of China. Mr. Dai is a pioneer in processing the dances naturally transmitted from ordinary people into stage artworks, and has promoted and promoted the Chinese folk folk dance "Everyone Dances" all his life, so he uses "Everyone Dances" as the finale of the performance.

Unexpectedly, the publishing house has other major tasks to complete, and it is only possible to print ten sample books of "Say Eileen", indicating that it will be published on schedule, of course, it is impossible to open a new book launch or do sharing activities with readers. First of all, I need to give these ten books to my daughter Ye Mingming, Mr. Dai Ailian Foundation's nephew Adrian Isaac, the nephew of Mr. Dai Ailian Foundation, who came from Qianlida to participate in the grand event, the National Ballet of China, mr. Peng Song and Ms. Wang Kefen, who were young and rare teachers, who entered the dance under the guidance of Mr. Dai in the 1940s, they accepted my interview and provided valuable information to the book, I was afraid that I would not know if the old predecessors would still be alive next time. Wu Jingshu was so ill that she lost her immunity and did not participate in the commemorative activities, so I specially sent a book to her house to thank and say goodbye. Returning to New York, there was only one copy of "Say Eileen" left to accompany me, and I felt that the handbag was heavy, and after more than two years of hard cultivation, a new book was born, but a sense of loss struck along the way. Not long after returning to New York, knowing that the senior Wu Jingshu had passed away, I was very emotional, and took Zhou Dunyi's description of Lian's "straight in the middle and straight, not in the branches" in the article "Ai Lian Said" to compare with Wu Jingshu, she left me with an elegant impression of self-respect and self-love and a style of behavior that was not flattering and followed the world. Every time I look at "Say Eileen", I have to remember her friendship and righteousness!

A few months later, I received a book donation from the publisher and quickly sent it to my friends and family in New York, when I had already begun to plan the script for the "Eileen" movie, and for many reasons, the film has been unable to do anything. I had a strong interest in writing, and there were a lot of things and people worth writing down, so I started writing about others.

On the morning of September 17, 2021, I was in Sweden, and very suddenly I received a letter from the responsible editor of the simplified version of "Say Eileen" in my computer mailbox:

Greetings for a long time, are you all right?

The distribution department of the company announced that it intends to sell inventory books at a low price (30% discount - 20% discount). If it can't be sold out, it will be pulp. Since July 2020, "Say Eileen" has actually shipped 267 copies, and there are still 2311 copies in stock. Such a good book, such as pulp is a pity. If you or a friend still need it, you can buy a little to keep, it doesn't matter if you don't buy it.

Wishing you well-being!

As soon as I read this letter, I immediately had a stomachache, and angrily called my friend Cao Min in Beijing to find out whether their company or home had a place to store, and whether they could help me pay first and send a car to pull the book back. Cao Min is a doctor, and he knows that being angry when he is old will hurt his body, so he advises me to be relieved. I lost sleep because of the anxiety of turning books into pulp, and I whimpered and wrote back several letters to the editor:

Hello!

Thank you very much for sending me a letter to let me know the message, I think I can buy some to send to friends, what a pity!

If I buy it myself and store it with my friend, how is the price calculated? I ask people in the dance world to see if there is any way, it will be very painful when the pulp is processed...

I just discussed with my friend in Beijing, she suggested that you try to sell, the rest of the part should not be made into pulp, sold to me at the same price, she can find a place to help me collect, find someone to help me move. Please help me coordinate it, it's incredible to turn into pulp!

I am the author himself, the book took two years, but the heartache turned into pulp, the income from retired dancing is limited, but I still hope to save the book, and slowly I will find a way.

So can I buy it all at 10% off? My friend paid the money first, and I was responsible for handling the shipping part, which was better than selling pulp.

Please also trouble you to say it again, thanks!

When I was anxious to feel helpless, with Mr. Dai's daughter MingMing, Jin Zhengping for help, they were helpless, the two basically did not have contact with the society after retirement, the basic situation of the old students in Beijing was the same, but I wanted each student to subscribe to a few books to help me break the siege, I explained: "This is not only a matter of money, as an author spent a lot of effort, of course, I hope that the book will be read, to the hands of the right person, you can not solve the problem by subscription, not to mention that I have already sent it to you." ”

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, I returned to New York to reunite with my mother for the holiday, because I had not heard from the publisher for nearly three weeks, and I had been worried about the fact that the book was going to turn into pulp. On October 14th, I met with dancer Yin Mei for lunch at SoHo, affected by the epidemic, we did not see each other for two years, in the early 1980s, when I was the first artistic director of the Hong Kong Dance Company, Yin Mei applied for the examination and has always been the female principal of the Hong Kong Dance Company. Later, she came to New York to pursue a master's degree, then received a tenured teaching position in the dance department of Queen's University, and founded her own dance troupe, which is very active on the international stage.

As soon as I sat down with Yin Mei, I said that I was in a bad mood lately, awkward, and panicked, and then I put out the worries that the book was going to turn into pulp. Yin Mei said: "Teacher Jiang, I will immediately help you ask JiangDong, he is currently the director of the Dance Research Institute of the China Academy of Arts, wrote a "Close Feeling Yin Mei", and I know that Jiangdong has a very good impression of you. ”

"Ah—I remember, I did an interview with Jiangdong in 2015 to write "Say Eileen."

Immediately after returning home, I looked up "Say Eileen", and the chapter "Le" in the book was recorded:

Jiang Dong told me about Mr. Dai's "support" of his studies in 2005. Because he has worked in Chinese embassies abroad for many years, he can talk with Mr. Dai in English unimpeded, and met mr. Dai under the recommendation of his mentor Wang Kefen. After that, he often visited this lonely old man in his old age. The old man likes to talk to young people, and she is constantly looking for things to do and arranging some dance-related schedules. When Mr. Dai learned that Jiangdong must "work" to pay the tuition, he immediately volunteered to ask Jiangdong to quit his job, concentrate on completing his doctoral thesis in dance, and said to Jiangdong: "I have all your tuition!" That's three years, a lot of money. Jiang Dong insisted on refusing to accept the help of this ancient road hot sausage artist. Moreover, Mr. Dai's daily life is extremely frugal: her home has no air conditioning and feels too wasteful; there is no nanny, only willing to hire part-time workers; the sofa is broken, and she is reluctant to throw it away... As a result, Mr. Dai sat down next to Jiang Dong and said in a serious voice, "You know what? Giving is joyful. I first returned to the motherland because of the timely gifts of Sister Song Qingling, and later with the help of Premier Zhou Enlai and his wife, I was fortunate to have so many good people and friends to help me in my life. It can be said that without the giving of others to me, there would be no me today. Don't you want me to be happy? ”

What the heck! Mr. Dai has been tossing and turning all her life until the last breath of her life, and in her veins is always the blood of helping others!

Seeing this, he immediately sent a text message to Yin Mei: When I think of the fate of "Say Love Lotus", my heart is not a taste, Jiangdong and Mr. Dai's teacher-student relationship, but you can ask him to help, please contact Jiangdong as soon as possible! Thank you!

On October 17, I saw the letter that Jiang Dong asked Yin Mei to forward to me: Teacher Jiang Qing's 2282 books have all been sold, rest assured!

Just three days? I couldn't believe it was true, I thought I was dreaming, so I quickly confirmed with my old classmate, Zhou Yuan, who had been with Jiangdong at the Dance Research Institute before retirement. As a result, Zhou Yuan forwarded Jiangdong's message:

Teacher Jiang Qing's batch of books has all been properly handled, and the publishing house has also been shipped to those buyers. Everyone is very happy, the school will hold a life meeting, a reading party, the theme is to learn from Mr. Dai, the mother of Chinese dance, the results and effects are very good. In fact, the books are not enough to score, Guangdong wants 1500 copies (including 1000 copies from Jiangmen Dai Ailian's birthplace), Shandong wants 500 copies, the remaining more than 200 books are given to Hunan, and the three provinces alone are digested. Later, other places knew and wanted it, but the book was gone, and if it was really spread and launched, the demand would definitely be greater, things would be successful, and a good thing was accomplished with the help of everyone's efforts.

Recalling the senior Wu Jingshu, close friends Gao Yougong and Mr. Weng Wange, mr. Peng Song and Ms. Wang Kefen, the elders of the dance industry, have successively made ancient works in recent years, and I am even more glad that it was important and timely to write the biography of Mr. Dai in a race against time.

Because Jiangdong is not accustomed to reading and writing emails through the computer, we cannot communicate directly with each other, so we have to ask Zhou Yuan and Yin Mei to forward my letter:

Thank you Jiangdong for your efforts and your help, help me untie a knot in my heart, let the fate of the book return to the soul - from the dead to life, you can share with you Mr. Dai's extraordinary attitude towards life, you can encourage more young people! Please express my heart to Jiangdong!

The last text in the "Afterword" of "Saying Eileen":

At this point, I think of the protagonist of this book, Mr. Dai, which I should be most grateful for, although she has passed away, but her extraordinary legendary life that can be sung and wept will last forever in the long river of my memory.

I would like to dedicate "Say Love Lotus" to Mr. Dai in heaven and share it with friends and peers who love her!

December 18, 2021 in Sweden

Jiang Qing