"Miss Xiguan, Young Master Dongshan", this is an old saying familiar to guangzhou people. Dongshan and Xiguan are the two most profound, popular and well-known treasures in Yangcheng. In the old days, the people who came and went to Dongshan were the sons of officials, and it and the Xiguan, which represented the tradition, were divided into different things and complemented each other. Most of the ladies living in Xiguan were rich merchants, and most of them became a group of new-age women who had been active in Xiguan commercial ports since the middle of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Guangzhou was a port of commerce, Chinese and Western cultures continued to collide and intersect here, Xiguan, a bustling commercial area since ancient times, built a large number of new schools, so that more and more Miss Xiguan got the opportunity to be educated. Taking this opportunity, Miss Xiguan learned from both Chinese and Western, deeply understood traditional Chinese culture, and received Western education at the same time. They not only represent the trend direction of the time, but also represent the liberated women of the new era.
"Miss Xiguan" dominates the whole story with the heroine Ruohe's life fate, and her personality reflects the fusion of Chinese and Western cultures. She can be influenced by the West from the top of her hair to the bottom of her heels, but she is a real Chinese woman in her bones.
There is no doubt that Western culture has had a profound influence on Ruohe. She continues to develop and innovate the family business, under the setbacks of one after another, she improves the way of operation, innovates the style of clothing, unites other businesses to develop the family business, runs around different people, independent and confident. At the same time, Western romantic love made her bold and brave, the romantic love story of pastor Bowski made her unforgettable for a long time; the exotic relationship between Lord Zhang and Miss Susan made her think deeply; and the concept of independent and free, passionate and unrepentant life left a deep mark on her heart. Therefore, when she fell in love with Liu Kefeng, the young master of Dongshan, she would nurture the crystallization of love with him. For traditional Chinese women, this is a step that will not be easily reached, but she unconsciously falls into it with the yearning for free love; at the same time, the traditional quality in her bones cannot make her completely follow Liu Kefeng and give up everything for love. In order to comfort her seriously ill father and support her family business, Ruohe chose to live a peaceful life in Xiguan...
The story of the novel is set in the late Qing Dynasty to the liberation of Guangzhou, integrating the history of Guangzhou's development, Guangzhou folk customs and the life of a small person in Ruohe's big era, once again showing the appearance of Guangzhou in that unpredictable era. Guangzhou is the forefront of reform and development, which can be seen from the plot of the novel. At the same time, the author also used a lot of ink to describe the customs and customs of Guangzhou. For example, "Kapok has been opened, and the branches are hard and erect... Delicate white orchid trees, flowers and bones hidden among the branches... Those bauhinia hibiscus, the fragrance of the flowers is like a Western woman with heavy makeup... "On the table were some fresh Lingnan fruits, longan, yellow skin, pineapples that had been cut into strips soaked in brine, papaya with pearl-like melons, big red watermelons, and pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and fragrant milk peanuts." "Desserts include Phoenix Milk Paste from Xinghualou, Ma Rong Soup Pills from Rongde, Ginger Juice Bumper Milk from Nanxin, Hemp Crispy Cake from Ronghua, Salty Notes with Sister E,Duck Dumplings from Admiralty Court, Wu Zhanji's Andi Congee, Ou Chengji's Fresh Shrimp Wonton, and so on. In addition, the novel also appears in Guangzhou's well-known Sacred Heart Cathedral, Aiqun Building, Sun Yat-sen Hospital, Taiping Restaurant, Tao Tao Ju, Manchurian Window, Wood Carving, Xiguan House, Colored Glazed Porcelain, Ivory Carving, Sending Zi Guanyin Bridge, Wanmu Caotang and so on.
■ Book introduction
"Miss Xiguan" is the first in Liang Fenglian's "Yangcheng Smoke and Rain Quartet" novel series. The novel presents the love, marriage and career of a native Miss Xiguan, Ruohe. Ruohe can be called a unique representative of Guangzhou culture, she is well versed in Chinese culture and eager to absorb Western culture, both sticking to the ancestral business and advancing with the times, both tenacious and unyielding and flexible, all of which reflect the cultural characteristics of Guangzhou, the ancient commercial port that was the first to win the European wind and rain.
■ Know the author
Liang Fenglian, a native of Guangzhou, graduated from Jinan University with a Ph.D. in Literature from the Department of Chinese, and was a visiting scholar at the Institute of East Asian Studies, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto. He joined the work in 1981 and successively served as a cadre of the Secrecy Department of the Public Security Bureau, a newspaper reporter and editor, an editor of literary periodicals, a professional writer of the Guangzhou Literary Creation Research Institute, a vice chairman of the Guangzhou Liwan District Literary Association, a full-time academician of the first session and a visiting academician of the Youth Literature College of the Guangdong Writers Association, and is now the director and researcher of the Lingnan Cultural Research Center of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, a researcher, a national first-class writer, an outstanding expert in Guangzhou, the chairman of the Guangzhou Literary and Art Critics Association, the vice chairman of the Guangzhou Writers Association, and a director of the Guangdong Writers Association. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association.