Literary Master 1983

Chapter 161 Chinese

Lilian Kuo, the first Chinese female judge in San Francisco, also told reporters: "After I became a judge, I focused my energy on fighting for the rights of Chinese people and working for the employment, education, bilingualism and residence issues of Chinese immigrants."

The reporter asked the female judge: "You are from Hong Kong. Will you help residents from Southeast Asia, the mainland and Formosa? Because in the United States, it is hard to imagine a German-American citizen still helping his distant German relatives."

Guo Lilian said: "I was originally from Shanghai, and later immigrated to Hong Kong. Today, I am a Chinese American. No matter where Chinese immigrants come from, they can all get my help. I don't make any distinctions."

"Then how do you connect with your compatriots? I know the language spoken in Guangdong Province is different from the official language of the mainland today."

"With words!" Guo Lilian suddenly said affectionately, "With the cultural imagination we formed in the past. As long as you know how to look up at the bright moon and think of your hometown, no matter where you are from, you are my compatriot!"

These interviews were all sent to the Olympic Games related news. Because the United States is a country of immigrants, foreign outstanding sports stars can often get the support of relevant ethnic groups in the United States. However, the Chinese are special in that in many interviews, they mentioned Chinese characters and those excellent literatures in Chinese history.

It seems that the enthusiasm generated by the Olympics is only temporary, while cultural identity is more long-term.

At that time, the fifth richest man in the United States was a Chinese named "Wang An", with a net worth of 30 billion US dollars. He was the richest Chinese in the world. His company's main business was enterprise-level computers. As a result, he was invited by the mainland, hoping to get investment from this wealthy man.

In an interview with the US media, he enthusiastically praised the achievements of the Los Angeles Olympics: "The Olympics were very successful, and I feel very warm to see that China has also achieved very good results."

The reporter asked him: "Will you invest in your home country next? They are asking compatriots overseas for investment. They are in great need of modern production lines and foreign exchange."

However, Wang An was undecided, as he believed that the mainland was still not a place worth investing in.

Therefore, Wang An politely rejected the reporter's proposal: "Our current expansion in the United States is far from reaching its limit."

Wang An's son Wang Lie is a second-generation American, or so-called native Chinese, who has long had no connection with his motherland. People like him can actually see things more clearly.

Wang Lie held up the Time magazine report and questioned his father: "Why don't you invest in the mainland? Their policies toward foreign business are very good now, and the workers are very smart. There is no better place to invest in the world."

"Our company is now facing the dilemma of complicated production procedures and high production costs. If we can introduce some production lines to the mainland, these problems will be solved. In a place called Shekou in the south, they have opened an industrial park, and the cost of workers producing light bulbs is lower than that of automatic assembly lines."

"The United States will not allow computer technology to be introduced to the mainland," Wang Andao said.

"Why not? The government even dares to sell fighter jets and helicopters, is there anything our company can't do? Even if that's the case, at least we can move part of the assembly line to the mainland, so that even if we have to ship them back across an ocean, we can still make money."

"I don't believe that a nation that can get three ten rings in a row can't install a few screws and plastic shells properly." Wang Lie said.

This kind of conversation happens in many elite Chinese families.

Seeing the Chinese delegation achieve great results at the Los Angeles Olympics was truly moving. Some people became curious about the mainland and found out about the life story of Xu Haifeng, the first Olympic gold medalist, and could not help but admire his courage and perseverance. Among them, a few people also knew about "Yu Qie", a young writer who is famous in the mainland.

He speaks several foreign languages, was admitted to a top university, and is a well-known writer.

Even a foreign Chinese would not feel much of a cultural barrier when reading his novels. This was the first time that Yu Qie was known by some Chinese outside of Asia. Although he had done NHK programs before, the influence of this program was nothing compared to the two-week Olympic Games. In August, the group went to Thailand and transferred in Hong Kong and then went to Bangkok, Thailand. The mainland only opened flights to Bangkok in 83, but this flight was often full and it was difficult to get a ticket. It was mainly used by foreign affairs personnel.

So the "visiting delegation" rested in Hong Kong for one night and took a flight to Bangkok the next day.

After learning that the "visiting delegation" was going to Hong Kong, some book fans who were interested in mainland novels came to Yu Che's hotel and wanted to meet Yu Che.

They took out single volumes and mainland literary journals that they had bought from somewhere and asked Yu Qie to write blessings on them. Most of what Yu Qi wrote were auspicious words like "smooth sailing" and "good luck in work and study".

He told his fans: "I have two new novels, The Grandmaster and With You. The latter is the finale of New Reality. They were published in this issue of People's Literature and October respectively. But I didn't expect you to get the literary journal of that month..."

He asked these book lovers: "How did you get these books? Are these things also sold in Hong Kong?"

The book fan said: "We asked our relatives in Guangzhou to send the books to us. Also, our ancestors are all from the mainland. Although we have moved to Hong Kong now, we are closer to the mainland culturally."

Yu Qie knew that these book fans who mentioned "ancestors" might have still lived in mainland China a few years ago.

He then asked, "Are mainland novels selling well in Hong Kong? I heard there are some printing houses that specialize in pirated copies."

The book lovers thought about it carefully and shook their heads: "Some of them are selling well, but generally speaking they are not popular. Hong Kong people have too many things to see every day. There are all kinds of strange stories and handsome men and beautiful women in the newspapers. In their opinion, these are more interesting than novels."

Yu Qie was puzzled: "What about Zha Liangyong's books? They sell well."

The book lovers looked at each other in bewilderment, and one person answered, "Mr. Cha's books are of course different! He is already a household name in the entire Chinese community, and my relatives in mainland China all know him."

But the remaining few also answered: "Mr. Cha had his own newspaper to serialize his work, and then he published a revised edition, and finally he made a TV series to promote it again, so of course he is famous."

In other words, the advertising was well done.

This made Yu Qie realize that regardless of the literary value of Cha Liangyong's works, he was very successful in business, especially the subsequent film and television development, which in turn promoted his reputation.

These film and TV series are like promotional advertisements for novels, and they also become a part of the follow-up of the novels. However, the writer himself should not be too involved, as this will waste his energy.

Hong Kong is a beautiful city and its residents are generally friendly, but speaking Mandarin is likely to cause glares, which leaves Yu Qie speechless.

That night, most members of the group went in pairs to experience the prosperous world of capitalism. The night view of Victoria Harbour was truly breathtaking.

Yu Qie was just the opposite. He visited the Kowloon Walled City, which is very famous in Hong Kong, and witnessed the darkness and cruelty of capitalism. He was accompanied by security personnel from both China and Thailand.

It is easy for the Chinese side to understand that the reason why Thai security personnel appeared in the visiting delegation was because Princess Sirindhorn visited Yanjing University again. As a representative of the host country, she was next to Yu Che.

(End of this chapter)