Zhang Beihai, "China's last hippie" left

At 2:40 pm on August 17, writer Zhang Beihai died at the age of 86 in New York.

His ancestral home was born in Wutai, Shanxi. He was born in Beijing in 1936. He moved to Taiwan with his family in 1949. He studied Chinese from Ye Jiaying and then studied at Taiwan Normal University. He went to Los Angeles in 1962 to continue his studies. In 1972, he moved to New York for his work. He is the author of "Xia Yin", "One Scoop New York" and so on.

The niece Zhang Aijia said that he was "the last hippie"; the writer A Cheng was fascinated by his grace; the painter Chen Danqing called him "New York" and said that he had read Zhang Beihai's article to know New York; director Jiang Wen used his novel " "Xia Yin" put on the big screen and became the end of the "Beiyang Trilogy".

He once told his outlook on life with the mouth of the hero of "Xia Yin" — a gathering of each other, joy and joy, and then the end of the song, life is the case.

This article was first published in the February 2016 issue of "Characters", and the following is the old text.

Text ｜ Liu Lei

Edit ｜ Hong Yan

1

I named Zhang Nanshan to my son, and later gave myself a pen name Zhang Beihai. My real name is Zhang Wenyi. At that time, I was trained by my father, saying that you forgot all the old rules, and you suddenly have your son. My father was really accurate when I saw my son. When I was in middle school, my father told my mother that the literature and art were good. There should be a breath in his eyes. I knew what I was going to do in middle school. I wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to be a lawyer. I had to be a doctor, but I didn't.

After finishing the master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Southern California, I have never wanted to do a formal white -collar worker in the past, and I have been working in zero work. I have done all kinds of work, and almost all sell labor. Each period is short for one year, and the long time is one and a half to two years. In fact, work has begun since studying in Taiwan. Gas stations, radio, banks, and flower shops have all done. I have also done a frame. I do well in the frame. I can be antique and modern. After many processes, the spray paint is troublesome. You spray the bottom first, then grind, then spray the bottom, and then grind it. You must not be able to light it anymore, and then spray the real color.

At that time, my wife's salary was just enough for our expenses. Of course, it would be a little bit saved, but it would not be hungry and frozen. Although tired, I like to fight zero. Because of freedom. Once you find a serious job, it is the white -collar class, and even clothes must be changed. I rarely wear a suit. I like jeans and canvas sneakers. And I don't want to be fixed in one place, but I don't know where my ship should drive, so I stopped each port first and run every place.

According to the truth, you should have considered or even nervous for future considerations, but I don't have it at all. And for me, what do you think of me, I do n’t care. This is my natural character. If you don't care about anything, it does not exist. To be honest, I have never met someone like me, those American friends around them, but they struggled more than me. I happen to have this luck, so I have the opportunity to retain my personality. So my father said that although the literature and art were not interesting, he was a blessed person.

In 1971, the Chinese Division of the United Nations Department of Language needed to expand the scale and began to recruit translation globally. A background at the time was that the People's Republic of China restored its legal seat in the United Nations. Most members of the original Taiwan delegation have been studied. Maybe English is better than Chinese. Basically, Chinese translation is not needed, so the original scale of the Chinese Department is small. At that time, a friend told me the news, he said, Zhang Wenyi, why do you still drive a truck every day, you can find a serious job. If this is not suitable for you, I do n’t know what other jobs you are willing to do It's right. This job is very attractive to me. The United Nations has very good treatment. Since then, I don't have to worry about it. More importantly, at that age, it was no longer like the age of 20 or 30, trying this for a while, and trying that for a while, without that mood. Children are also going to school, how can you run around.

At that time, about 10,000 people signed up, a battery was brushed down, and seventy or eighty people were finally taken. I am also among them. I arrived in New York in 1972 and took root in New York. I went to the United States in 1962 and had previously been in Los Angeles. If you have been living in big cities such as Los Angeles, Boston, and New York, you cannot be fully substituted into the United States. Because the basic industries such as agriculture and industry in the United States are elsewhere elsewhere. I drove from California to New York with my friends. I was impressed by what I saw on the road. We want to pass through South Carolina, which is a very important agricultural area. From the beginning of the state, a straight road, I saw a car drove by the whole process, there was no one, and there was no house, all of which were farmland. I couldn't see someone working in the field. I only saw that there were far plane spraying pesticides, and some places were sprayed with water and automatically irrigated. Later I knew that the North Carolina and South Carolina could support the entire America.

When I arrived in New York, I have completed various employment procedures. This is the first time that I have a serious job and the first time I have a stable life. In other words, my life was really settled until I was almost 40 years old. Do you think about it? I was born in 1936. After I was born, I first fled from Peiping to the Tianjin Concession, and fled behind Chongqing. The prototype of Lan Qingfeng in "Xia Yin" is my father. After his father returned to China from Japan, he served as the director of the Tianjin Telephone Bureau. He and Zhang Zizhong had a good relationship. He had assisted Zhang Zizhong to escape from Pingjin's occupation area to the back. The Lan family in the novel is our family, and at the Siheyuan, No. 30, No. 30, East Fourth Street. Although my family economic conditions are still good, they are also refugees, right? That mentality alone is not very good, because it is alert everywhere. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Civil War of the KMT came one after another, and our family fled to Taiwan again. Although there is no "Cultural Revolution" in Taiwan's society, it is the era of personal dictatorship, and that kind of pressure is great. In 1947, Zhang Beihai attended the American School in Beijing

2

In the 1960s, it was shocked from a society like Taiwan to the United States. It was simply a Zen's head drinking, and suddenly woke you up. If I miss the past, what I want to miss is the ten years in California, the entire 1960s. Women's liberation movement, black people's rights movement, sexual liberation ... It turns out that other countries will have such a situation, the impact is too big.

At that time, many traditional Chinese families, even if a servant, was still in the back when eating, rarely sat down to eat. Can it be shocked from such an environment to such an environment like the United States? Women burned their bras in public, and they regarded bras as a symbol of restraining women. In the first summer vacation there, I saw a lot of tables on the community square, which said FreeDom Riders. I don't understand what this is. I only knew that because the black voting rate was low, they convened a group of volunteers to take the bus to encourage the black people to vote and participate in the campaign. They take this bus for freedom, so they are called FreeDom Riders. This kind of culture and political phenomenon shocked me, but it also made me feel that this is right.

In 1975, I applied for the United Nations Environmental Planning Department of Kenya for 3 years. After saving $ 10,000, I bought a house when I came back to the loan. There was no money to buy a house before. I work at the Chinese Division of the United Nations Chinese Department of Language. The work content is to do translation services for various conferences in the United Nations, and they are all translations. For example, the United Nations Security Council held a meeting today and formed a draft resolution. We will continue to discuss this draft tomorrow. Then you will translate them before dawn. Therefore, we have to take turns at night shifts every week, and there are many cases of temporary overtime, especially during the Cold War, overtime is very frequent.

I have done it in the United Nations for 24 years, and I have never thought about changing jobs in the past 24 years. What other job is so suitable for me? So stable and the income is so good. The time of work is elastic, and you can leave for 8 hours; if you finish the work of the day, you can do something yourself. You ask me what the mentality of this job is, and when you are tired, this depends on your task that you can't accept your task. Just like being a soldier, once you accept that you are a soldier, is it going to be on the battlefield tomorrow, you say I am tired, can I have a vacation? You won't think of these problems. When your understanding of this world is getting deeper and deeper, you know that there are many norms in the world. In this specification, you can do whatever you want.

At that time, I had a family and a child, and you also knew that I couldn't take care of myself completely. You have to have a sense of responsibility. When you are young, you are not willing to accept reality. At that time, I accepted reality. This change is very natural. You can only accept it, right? Li Tianran in "Xia Yin" still has so many things that have not been done, and he can only accept it.

In 1963, Zhang Beihai, when studying at the University of Southern California,

3

After entering the United Nations, not only did I definitely do this job in my life, but I also decided to live in New York. I like New York very much, and I like it more and more. New York is a real international metropolis. There are only a few real international metropolis worldwide, New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Tokyo barely can be counted. The most attractive place in New York is its tolerance. You let me give me an example of tolerance, and I can't use it, because it is already tolerant, and I accept this tolerance, and there is no impossible example to let me raise it. And its richness, at least 6 in New York in the world -class museum. You have to taste the flavors of various countries, you can not focus on 365 days a year; if you like modern dance, you can also watch one game every day without repeating. Then its transportation is so convenient, unlike Beijing 20 hours a day in the traffic jam.

I am the son of a city. I like the stuff of reinforced concrete. The countryside is just a paradise for me. Occasionally, you can let me live there for 3 days. I can’t stand it. I am not there. Symptom. When I was young, I just came to Los Angeles from Taiwan. There was a cinema in the street at the street where I lived. I chose the best on the film that has been performed from the first -class theater. You can watch two games in one dollar. I watched Ingma Bergman, Vitorio De Sika, France's Sina, and the movie of the Khrushchev era like "Song of Soldiers". open. I think, obediently, European movies have already made this point, and Hollywood has no way to compare. It was originally written in New York because a magazine called "70s" in Hong Kong made a draft to me, which was 1974. I try not to write about the previous things. I always think of those who can never enjoy today, right? What do I write? I said I wrote it. I think I think it is interesting. I like New York very much, so I write New York. In addition to work and housework, as long as I have time, I will see every different neighborhood. Just like Beijing, Wangjing is different from the overpass, and the flyover is different from the Drum Tower. In addition to looking closely, I further read the history of New York. There are many articles in the United States or New York to Chinese readers, but most of them introduce the political system and legal system of the Western world. When something happened in China, he used a thing in the West to refer to it and see where the problem was. I pay attention to the development of the city. Its architecture, society and cultural phenomenon, which I think is more interesting. I wrote the storage pool and the street performance on the roof. No one had touched these subjects at the time.

In 1974, I returned to Beijing for the first time. As soon as I passed Luohu in Hong Kong, it was found that the expression of people was different. Few people smiled, and almost no one could answer your questions directly. What impressed me most was that when you met strangers, you asked him what time is it now. He said that it was almost 3 o'clock. I said that I would like to watch, whether it was 5 minutes and 3 o'clock or 8 minutes. He still said that it was almost 3 o'clock, and he would not tell you the specific time. I knew several times that he dared not answer this question certainly, and he was afraid of trouble, although it was only asking time. Of course, in recent years, people have a better mood and personal freedom. And Taiwan, Taiwan can not be available until the early 1980s, because I have the blacklist of the Kuomintang in the 1960s, so I took a passport of the People's Republic of China for 25 years. From the beginning, I am mixed with those bad elements, that is, the leftist of the United States and the black people. In fact, I just went to listen to the speech. I participated very little about their activities. There was a group in each campus. After such a little performance, they returned to Taiwan.

Zhang Beihai in Central Park, New York (2006)

4

The most important impact of writing on me is that it just buys the boring side of my bureaucracy in the United Nations. It is very important to me, occupying at least one -third of my life before retirement. But I never regarded writing so lofty. For me, I just told my friends a story, that's all. If you read it, it ’s good; if you do n’t like it, you can read other books. There is nothing great. I didn't say what writer Li Zhi said. People say that I am a writer, and I am a little embarrassed.

The same is true of I write "Xia Yin". In 1995, I got acrylicitis and stayed in the hospital for 9 days. I thought in the bed, and I will retire next year. What should I do? Because I like to watch martial arts novels since I was a child, I decided to write martial arts novels. I did two years of Research first, and then I started writing and wrote until 2000.

My books are not sold much. Taiwan is about two or three thousand books. The mainland may be 5,000 to 8000, and there is only one book reprinted. I think a person who writes can have a considerable number of thousands of people. It is good. The published "One Scoop New York" can also put my articles more than 30 years ago in it. At least editors they think it is a bit meaningful, and it is already a Surprise for me. I am not too serious about literature. If it is too serious, it will be troublesome, and I will carry a big burden every day.

When I was in Taiwan, the thin ancient text foundation that Teacher Ye Jiaying gave me, I have eaten for almost a lifetime, so I can still write in Chinese today. When I was in my senior year, I went home from school one day. My father told me to pass and said that this was your teacher Ye. I will give a gift, and I will take her class every Saturday afternoon.

I have been studying in Beijing and Taiwan. My father thinks that I need to supplement in traditional Chinese culture. He entrusted a friend and used to do things for him to find a suitable tutor. At that time in Taiwan, most people did not know Ye Jiaying, and the father's friend met her in Beijing. In 1945, Teacher Ye graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature of Furen University. He became a Chinese teacher in middle school for several years. After three years, he moved to Taiwan with her husband. At that time, her husband was imprisoned due to his thoughts. After a few years of prison, she was just released. She also had a jail herself. At that time, she had no work and her life was quite difficult. After teaching me a year, my father asked him how to pay for the people who did things. Teacher Ye said that he didn't collect a dime. This was a helping to help friends. My father asked his friends who were the general manager at the airline to get a refrigerator from Hong Kong and give it to Teacher Ye, so that she could save her hard work to buy food every day. She taught in accordance with the old rules of China, first memorized, and explained to me if I did n’t understand. Do n’t ask any questions before that. More than a year later, "University", "The Golden Mean", "The Analects of Confucius" and "Mencius", no matter which sentence you read, I can always carry back from that sentence, back to the end, and then back to the previous sentence of this sentence. In the last ten minutes in the class, she would speak a little poetry, which is equivalent to adjusting. At that time, I thought she was an ordinary Chinese teacher. I did not expect that she would be a master in the field of classical poetry later.

I retired from the United Nations at the age of 60. Who knows that after a few years I have been a student. In 2004, I went to New York University near home for several years. The teachers of the lectures are experts in New York. Some speak history, some talk about culture, and some talk about architecture. I choose one course every year, and I have selected five or six courses so far. Those who listen to the lessons are all people in society, such as the Metropolitan Museum, he chose a class related to New York culture; engineers, he chose a class related to the development history of the New York subway. Go to class for two nights each week and 3 months in each class. When the weather is good, I will walk, about 15 to 20 minutes. After 10 o'clock after the class, sometimes when I was laziness, I went back by car.

In recent years, I have n’t selected courses. Now I rarely go out. The main life is to read and write at home. Life is so simple that it is no longer simple, rarely related to the outside world. In fact, it is very simple to live, and you can live without much money. I happen to have a good job, which is already an additional dividend. My desire is very low. I did n’t say that I made 1 million now, and then I had to make 2 million and earn 2 million. I still have to earn 3 million. No, I am very happy that I have 200,000.

I don't give any sense of life. My outlook on life is more serious than that. For me, the meaning of life still has to be able to do what you have to do. Until dying, I did n’t regret what I did n’t do, and I had to do it almost. What I have experienced in the past, I am happy with zero workers, I am also happy to enter the United Nations, I am also happy to write, and I am also happy to make friends. I am quite satisfied in my life.

For so many years, my only pressure was that the journal period of the magazine has not finished writing. I have never had a big confusion in my life. If I have to say anything, it is nothing more than the time before the United Nations, I always want to do what the next job is to do. Lan Lan asked Li naturally in "Xia Yin". She said that life was like this. Li Tianran said that life is the case. You ask my outlook on life, this is this sentence.

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