"Shanghai 2009" "I was born in Shanghai in August, 1953 There were four of us in the family" "My father was from Guangdong, studying in Shanghai" "My mother was born in Zhejiang" "So we were migrants" "Many families like us were living in Shanghai's alleys" "And the happiest part of growing up there was having fun" "The thing I still remember best is the start of the Cultural Revolution, and just before that we were 8-9 and 15-16 at the time" "It's a very intense memory" "Neighbors used to respect other's privacy" "But Cultural Revolution changed that because of all the raids" "We suddenly found out which families were spies which ones were capitalists which ones were revolutionaries" "Eventually, the poor Reds were paraded through the streets" "There was a capitalist family living opposite us" "In Cultural Revolution, they could only keep one floor of their building" "We used to peep at their meals" "They had a big mahogany table servants, too" "elegant manners, fine dishes" "That way of life ended with the Cultural Revolution" "Each alley had a boy who was top dog" "Each with his own gang." "This boy was the best fighter" "A natural leader, got along well with the others" "So we all had to choose who we wanted to play with" "It determined whether you'd get bullied or you'd bully others" "Meanwhile in the alleys nearby, there were boys who targeted us" "Kind of like the Warring States Period" "There was one kid from Zhangjia Park who always went for us" "We lived in Da Zhong Li" "It would be no different in, say" "Xu Dong Li" "Anyhow, every lane, every Li had a couple of so-called" "hooligans Lively boys" "That is, always fighting each other" "Then making up." "Then fighting again" "Those are my strongest childhood mermories" "Anybody" "Anybody dare fight me" "Come on" "Come on, here" "Hurry up" "Anyone dare" "I'm Kang Quan!" "Who dares" "Come in and shoot" "My father was Yang Xingfo" "He co-organized the Chinese Civil Rights Alliance to rescue communists and democrats who had been arrested by the Nationalists" "And Chiang Kai-shek was very displeased" "He ordered secret agents to assassinate my father on the morning of June 18th, 1933" "My father's office was in a western-style house with a garden" "When we drove out, we had to turn a corner into the road" "So the car was driving slowly" "This time I was suddenly deafened" "There was an explosion" "I thought the tire had blown or something like that" "But when I stuck my head out" "Our car was a convertible" "The chassis was metal, and it had a canvas roof" "But there was nothing between the roof and the chassis" "So, no protection against gunfire" "As the car was taking the turn,it came to a stop" "Why?" "I saw the driver jump out" "He was trying to escape" "He was shot twice once in the stomach" "Then in the arm blood everywhere" "I was too scared to know what was happening." "At that moment" "I grew dizzy and lost consciousness" "I came to a bit later" "I found myself lying" "under a seat." "My father was on top of me" "I tried to get up" "But he was on top of me" "I did my best to get up I was only 14" "In the 2nd year of junior high school Anyhow, I finally managed to sit up" "Then I tried to wake my father" "But he didn't repond." "After the assassination, Madame Soong made a speech telling us to keep going" "But the fact was, there was no longer a general secretary" "Madame Soong told Lin Yutang, he was a member of the Alliance to stand in as the general secretary" "You know Lin said He said that was asking to be killed" "So the organization was disbanded Because nobody wanted" "I recall when Tse-ven Soong came out of the railway station" "with his assistant Tang Yulu" "They were in similar suits." "It was hot" "They were in white suits, panama hats" "The train pulled in, many people got off" "Before they reached the barrier" "There was a gunshot" "Tse-ven Soong reacted quickly He flung himself to the ground" "Lost his hat so they missed their target Soong' s assistant took one step" "and was shot dead" "All it took was one shot" "One shot was enough to kill him" "Anyhow" "The assistant had dependents" "He was newly married" "And his wife was pregnant" "As a widow, she'd have many difficulties" "Tang, Soong and my father had been classmates in America" "They liked strolling along Huaihai Road for coffee-shops" "My father used to bring me along" "There weren't many coffee-shops on Huaihai Road" "Only D.D.S. Not many" "Yachts are the big thing these days" "But my father had one ages ago" "It had a kitchen" "A big dining space" "And a bedroom too" "Like a houseboat in the west" "Just like that" "And in addition to the houseboat, he had a couple of speedboats" "Very fast" "Towed behind the yacht" "Not like the speedboats used in competitions today" "More like cars, with three seats in the front and three behind" "They had steering wheels, towed along behind" "We rode them all over went right past the Garden Bridge" "We had towelling clothes" "Because the big waves would splash us" "He was one of the first to have an air-conditioner" "They first appeared in the 1930s" "Take his Peking Opera performances" "Professionals staged Peking Opera for money, but he was an amateur" "Even in rehearsals, he had famous actors in supporting roles" "They got paid for doing very little" "Everyone came to watch was given a tin of monosodium glutamate or a box of mosquito-repellent coils" "So everyone came to see the shows not because he was a great actor" "but they could get free MSG or mosquito-repellent coils That was how things went" "He liked best singing Peking Opera only used imported brands" "But his costumes were Chinese" "He knew how to enjoy life" "During the Cultural Revolution he said he was ready to meet the King of Hell" "Because he'd had a good life" "Even his clothes could go!" "The only thing the Red Guards left him was a Meiyi brand bed" "Those beds were all very costly" "But he sold it" "He said a bamboo bed is fine" "I don't care, I've enjoyed my life" "I wish I knew." "Someone like you could love me" "I wish I knew you place no one above me" "Did I mistake this for a real romance?" "My grandfather's name was Zhang Yiyun" "He ran a pickle company" "Which was rare at that time" "Then he went into chemicals" "And eventually, he founded the he founded the Tianchu MSG Company" "Back then, there was a boycott of Japanese goods" "Tianchu was a big success" "It took the Chinese market away from the Japanese Aji-no-Moto" "But Tianchu's raw materials had come from Japan" "So he founded Tianyuan Chemical Company to provide the raw materials That's why the name is similar" "And the chemical by-products were used by another company he founded, Tianli Nitrogen" "In the 1930s,his three companies earned him the nickname Father of Industry." "And that's why when the anti-Japanese war got going he could spend a small fortune" "to buy a special fighter plane from the German company Siemens" "He donated it to the country in the company's name" "I wish I knew someone like you could love me" "I wish I knew" "You place no one above me" "Did I mistake this for a real romance" "I wish I knew" "But only you can answer" "If you don't care" "Why let me hope" "Could love me" "I wish I knew" "Suzhou River 1999" "Suzhou River 2009" "The Sino British Treaty of Nanjing, signed on August 29th, 1842, made Shanghai port open to foreign trade" "Balfour, British Consul in Shanghai, took up his post on November 17,1843." "Shanghai was officially opened to foreign trade" "Foreign concessions were established." "So were the gangs" "Shiliupu (Wharf 16)" "My father was Du Yuesheng" "He never talked to us about his gang" "Except for one thing" "He said" "At table, you should say" "Enjoy the food." "Thank you" "He also said." "Always pass chopsticks to others with the end out" "That is the way of the gang" "One day he took me out by car" "Near the gate of Lafayette Fang, Fuxing Road" "One of his bodyguards opened the car door, jumped out and lined up beside the car until it reached the gate." "The gatekeeper made a call" "Then my father went in" "Not until the door was closed behind him, did the bodyguards turn the car around and leave" "He was afraid of being killed" "At 14, his father died" "His mother just after she gave birth to a girl, she died too" "Since he couldn't afford a coffin, he rolled up Grandpa's body in a mat" "He left it in the mud by the bank of a lake near Gaoqiao" "Later a tree grew there" "And its roots wrapped around Grandpa's body" "A geomancer said It was a very good omen" "He was a naughty boy" "He was brought up by Wan Molin's father" "He was mischievous" "So nobody liked him" "Kids clustered around him" "He'd say Even I am a tramp," "I will be the leader of tramp" "My grandma was called Little Lanying a stage name" "They toured around, putting on shows" "My mother sang." "My aunt did too" "Auntie's stage name was Yuying For my mother was Yulan" "When they performed in Shanghai" "my father saw them" "It was in Tianchan Theater, Shanghai Tianchan Theater" "Later on, when my father wanted to marry my mother who should be the matchmaker?" "One of gang boss Huang Jinrong's daughters-in-law named Li Zhiqing" "Huang's son actually died before they could marry" "So when Li Zhiqing got married, her husband was already dead" "So she had to marry a portrait of her late fiance" "She married into the Huang family But she had no husband" "So she was in charge of almost everything of the family" "She was my father's matchmaker" "And my mother had a godmother" "She served as mother's matchmaker" "My grandmother had one demand" "Her daughter must be the official wife" "Not a concubine" "My father made that promise" "Dad's first wife loved him very much" "So when he married my mother the first wife gave him all she owned" "Even her marriage license" "But dad's second and third wives both bullied her" "Anyhow, father's first wife gave the marriage her blessing" "I'll give her our marriage license as a gift" "My mother was the official wife" "But she played mahjong with the other wives like one big family" "At that time most of us had no choice but to flee Shanghai to Hong Kong" "We decided to leave" "On May 27th, 1949, my father left on the ship Haiyan" "When it pulled out from Shanghai's Wusong Port they passed a Shenxin Cotton Mill and he said aloud" "Even I have to leave!" "To this day, I don't know why he went to France" "Hong Kong would have been fine, wouldn't it?" "He asked for" "One hundred and forty passports" "But in Taiwan, it was impossible" "They wanted to charge him $150,000" "He knew he had only $100,000" "There was never enough money" "So one day he said" "I must die" "Otherwise all of you will die" "Day by day, his health was deteriorating" "It could only end one way" "Pudong, Shanghai" "The Bund" "Nanjing Road set, Chedun Film Studio" "My father, Wang Xiaohe he joined the Communist Party on May 4th, 1942" "The Party ordered him to go to Yangshupu Electric Power Plant" "In 1948, everything went wrong for the KMT (Nationalists)" "There was a surge in protests by students and workers" "My father was caught up in all that" "The enemy was watching him closely" "Eventually they charged him with destroying a power generator" "They arrested him on April 21st" "He was given a death sentence scheduled for September 27th" "On that day, my mother" "I had an elder sister" "She born 17 months before me" "I was born on October 24th,1948" "On September 27th, my mother was pregnant with me" "Despite being so pregnant she picked up my sister" "And went to the prison gate with our Grandma" "Many people came along in support" "So the traffic around Tilanqiao Prison was clogged up all day" "Some policemen whipped my mother with a belt" "Trying to drive her away" "She didn't leave, of course" "After all that the Tilanqiao Prison put up a notice" "It said they hadn't got the execution order So it wouldn't be carried out today" "My father was being held in Yangshupu" "They brought him to Tilanqiao Prison" "That prison had a special court" "To sentence people in secret" "Just for the convenience of the KMT" "They convicted and sentenced my father He was executed in Tilanqiao Prison on the morning of September 30th" "Put to death" "My father died around 10 o'clock on September 30th in Tilanqiao Prison" "On that day, a journalist from Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong made an interview" "He took many pictures" "Actually lots of people took photos when my father was brought outside the prison and after the closed-court session" "I know my father from those pictures" "He died three weeks before I was born" "So I never met him" "I knew him only from those pictures" "I miss him so much, though" "I never knew my father's love" "After the execution, Mother thought of killing herself" "A neighbor said it might help if she gave away her two children" "Mother really was suicidal but she was paralyzed in bed" "She could hardly move, let alone kill herself" "One of the underground communists" "He is the one in that picture I showed" "He often came to see her" "Once he told Mother" "Bring up the two children" "Because they are carrying Xiaohe's blood!" "Do bring them up." "Don't leave them" "On hearing this, Mother said" "I absolutely will bring them up!" "And so she didn't leave us" "Life was really hard in those 8 months" "On Liberation Day, May 25th, 1949 the communist army marched along" "Nanjing Road" "At that moment, she went crazy" "She went to Nanjing Road to look for Dad" "The communists are here!" "Xiaohe is back at last!" "So she was there." "We lived at the corner with Hankou Road" "Very close to Nanjing Road" "She saw the communist army going by with a prisoner" "So she followed the soldiers" "All the way to the Bund" "Still looking for Dad" "To Liberate Shanghai / Wang Bing / 1959" "Shanghai is liberated!" "Long live Chairman Mao!" "Welcome to Shanghai!" "The liberation of Shanghai marks the thorough destruction of imperialist forces in China!" "As well as the complete independence and liberation of the Chinese people!" "Let those warmongers tremble in front of the powerful Chinese people!" "Shanghai was liberated on May 27th, 1949" "The situation in North China is bad" "A dozen columns of the Communist Army have poured in" "Several platoons of our army were surrounded" "Do you think we can survive?" "Red Persimmon / Wang Toon / 1996" "I was in my first year of elementary school" "It was around 1949" "In 1946" "No, it was 1948" "The war was so violent that our classes were suspended" "We were moved to Shanghai" "At the time, I didn't understand why" "Of course, now I understand" "Why did my whole family move to Shanghai?" "I later understood we were getting ready to move to Taiwan" "So we were waiting for a boat" "As I recall, while we were waiting, we lived in a park in Shanghai" "The park itself was out of bounds" "Because all the KMT's senior officials were staying there" "We all had to stay in the park We lived in tents and waited for the boat" "I retain those memories and I put them all in my film Red Persimmon, shot in 1996" "A ship called the Zhongxing turned up" "It was very big." "There was a safety inspection" "When we were getting on board many others were clamouring to board" "It was very hard to get on board" "There were ten kids in our family" "My father wasn't with us, he was still fighting" "Mother, Grandma and father's attendants were there" "There was an aide-de-camp who controlled the boarding" "Grandma was worried we'd separated There were so many kids jostling for access to the boat Losing sight of their parents" "So she tied us all together at the waist" "With a rope" "From the eldest to the youngest as if we were rice puddings" "She held one end of the rope" "And Father's attendants were keeping a close eye on us" "Mother went to negotiate with the aide-de-camp about getting us on board" "So we were all tied together by rope" "To avoid getting lost" "One by one!" "Hold the rope tight" "Later on" "Whose phone is that?" "Taiwan 2009" "I had worked in the U.S. for 8 years" "I returned to Taiwan in 1975" "I returned to Tsinghua University" "During the anti-Japanese war, my father was on the home front" "My mother stayed in Shanghai to take care of us kids" "I think most Shanghainese preferred to stay" "Of course, I was among them" "After the war, my father became a civil servant" "Based in Xuzhou" "He took over properties which had been seized by Japanese" "I think he quit the job fairly soon after" "Because so much corruption involved" "My father wouldn't have anything to do with bribery" "So he couldn't stay in that job" "We returned to Shanghai" "I remember very clearly" "We once received a big biscuit tin" "We kids were all delighted" "But when Mother opened it it turned to be filled with gold bars" "At that time, our next-door neighbor" "He was the boss of the Sincere Co." "And his neighbor was General Tang Enbo" "Until the Siege of Shanghai in 1949" "General Tang always had a soldier stationed outside his house" "Standing on guard" "One day, while I was in primary school" "Father came to pick me up" "The teacher asked him:"Why are you here?"" "He answered, because we noticed the soldier outside General Tang's door disappeared." "Then he added" "I think I'd better take my child home" "Then the teacher immediately sent all the students home" "But people saw" "General Tang's house was abandoned" "We saw from the windows of our house loads of people broke into that house and carried off all his furniture" "My grandmother was the youngest daughter of General Zeng Guofan" "My father was the No.1" "Secretary of warlord Wu Peifu" "My father was killed." "There was an 'incident'." "He was shot" "The 'incident' was widely reported" "Sometimes it wrote that he was alive" "Sometimes that he was dead" "This went on for months" "Two or three months." "My family knew nothing about it" "The Civil War had cut the communication between north and south" "Back then, one of my uncles." "The fifth uncle from the Yu family" "He had a dream about my father and my father was covered in blood" "Kneeling down in front of him" "Asking him to take care of us" "And so this uncle was very kind to my sister and me" "When I went on to university for four years, I had no boyfriends" "My mother always wanted me to marry as soon as possible" "She even started bringing in matchmakers" "Every time I'd quarrel with her" "The man l married was a friend of a cousin of mine" "They and two other young men were all in the USA" "My cousin was already married He lived with his wife" "The other three were bachelors." "The five of them got a car" "They took a trip right across the USA" "My cousin was romancing his fiancee he took a boat all the way to Beijing" "He would say" "You are my moonlight" "The brightest star in the sky" "He waxed so lyrical" "But once they were married and had two children he was a different man." "Began treating his wife badly" "Once we were dining with an uncle" "The wife asked him to pass a plate" "He answered reach it yourself That's how he spoke to her" "So, during their trip, their relationship was quite bad" "Seeing the man's behavior my husband-to-be felt sorry for her" "He looked out for her himself" "She was very grateful, and told him" "When you go back to China," "I promise to introduce you a nice girl" "That's how we were invited to a dinner." "My younger sister and me" "The three bachelors were there" "And a young woman named Wu" "That's how we first met" "Once we'd been introduced, he wanted to invite me out" "I couldn't go out with him alone" "So I asked my cousin to join us We went out together a few times" "Quite a bit later" "It was at Christmas" "Or New Year's eve." "Anyway, that night" "My cousin hosted a party in his house" "And that same day my cousin's younger brother met my husband-to-be in a cinema" "He said, "You were in Shanghai!"" "Come to our place tonight!" "We're having a party" "So we met again" "And then, it was nearly midnight" "And most of them went out to celebrate" "The upshot was my husband-to-be and I were left alone" "He asked me to write to him" "I refused" "He spent an hour persuading me A taxi was waiting downstairs" "Later he wrote to me And I replied" "My impressions of Shanghai were formed when I worked on Flowers of Shanghai" "Before, I had no idea about Shanghai" "I went to Shanghai in search of locations" "By that time, the city was changing A lot had been demolished" "No real possibility of location filming" "So we decided to focus instead on interior we could shoot in Taiwan" "The novel Flowers of Shanghai is very fascinating" "The man who wrote it came from one of those 'flower houses'" "He was there from his earliest years" "The book has many characters and each is very individual" "China used to be a patriarchal society" "It wasn't necessary for men to fall in love" "As for marriage" "They marry through matchmakers Children followed after the marriage" "Sex was basically not a big issue" "There was no social occasion which encouraged men to fall in love" "It became popular after the founding of the Republic of China" "The motif of men romancing women falling in love" "Seemed really nice to me" "And very interesting" "Flowers of Shanghai / Hou Hsiao-Hsien /1999" "At the end of the Qing dynasty, many riches came to the concessions to avoid the army of Taiping" "From then on, Chinese and foreigners living together." "Shanghai became a prosperous city" "Yuyuan Garden Shanghai" "Chung Kuo Cina/ Michelangelo Antonioni / 1972" "In 1972, in the Cultural Revolution my boss gave me an assignment" "A very famous European director,Antonioni was coming to China To make a film about China" "I heard that he'd been invited by Premier Zhou Enlai" "So it was up to us to meet all his needs" "So on the second day of filming" "We were shooting on Nanjing Road" "It struck me that he was filming a lot of bad things" "Things that reflected our backwardness" "It seemed totally unfair" "When it kept happening, I made a protest" "I said, if you keep on like this, I'll have to stop you" "He said Everything I've seen is very good!" "What do you think is not good?" "He thought everything was fine" "The way I saw it, they were far from fine" "We have very good things, but you just shoot such backward stuff" "Our standards were so different" "Two years later, Out of the blue" "Our work-unit's military rep arrested me He took me from home to the TV station" "Then he spelt it out" "Antonioni's movie, China" "The leaders of the Cultural Revolution" "Such as Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and so on" "They had watched the film and advised" "It is an anti-China, anti-communist and anti-people poisonous weed" "I later heard that the 'Gang of Four' were using the case as a pretext to attack Premier Zhou" "and confessions, even publicly criticized" "Back then, we came here to attend a criticism meeting" "We went to all the places where he'd filmed" "Such as Shanghai Oil Refinery" "And everywhere we went, we were criticized and denounced" "I was called a small traitor, a small spy" "A counter-revolutionary!" "And so on" "At that time, I was just 30 years old" "How could I be so politically mature?" "Even now I have no clear idea about what exactly Antonioni had shot" "I've never seen the film" "To this day," "I don't know exactly what's in it" "One day, in 1955 or early 1956 The general union instructed me to attend a forum" "At the door, Liu Shuzhou, the then deputy mayor of Shanghai." "The chief of United Front Work Ministry They were waiting for me" "You're late, the Chairman is already here" "I thought they meant the forum chairman I said I'd hurry" "So I rushed in, left my coat in the cloakroom" "I drew open the curtain and the door, and saw Chairman Mao standing up Mayor Chen Yi also stood up" "I was completely dumbfounded" "I was so shocked It felt as if I were dreaming" "Nothing was making sense I didn't know what I was doing" "I just clasped his hand, and gazed at him" "That was all I could do" "I was dumbfounded and weak at the knee" "Chairman Mao found it improper that I kept hold of his hand" "He told me to take a seat" "Then Chairman Mao asked me" "Where do you come from?" "I said I was Shanghainese" "I was from Pudong He said Pudong is a good place" "He asked what I did I told him I was a spinner" "He said Great!" "Textile workers are very important" "People all across the nation depend on you for clothing" "Spin more, so all of us will have clothes!" "It was after nine o'clock We went to the theatre" "It was an opera performed in a cinema" "Chairman Mao watched the opera" "I sat beside him" "He was very attentive." "He even read the brochure" "The actors were so nervous because Chairman Mao was there" "The actors were tumbling One somersault after another" "Suddenly one of them somersaulted off the stage" "How nervous everyone was" "Right away, they did it again" "Then, in 1959 I attended the World Youth Festival" "That was held in Vienna" "We stopped traffic on the streets of Vienna" "They were excited at seeing Chinese They hadn't seen Chinese people before" "Chinese people look lovely to them" "They expected us to look like the photos in the museum" "With pigtails and little bound feet!" "We looked nothing like that" "They felt they had seen the real Chinese" "All Vienna was agog" "They gave us a big thumbs up" "China!" "China!" "Hurrah!" "Everyone gave us a thumbs-up" "At that moment, I felt very proud to be Chinese" "So when I came back to work I put my efforts to increase production" "I later played myself in a movie" "Comrade Huang Baomei" "You want to see me?" "Are you Huang Baomei?" "Yes" "A humble person who had suffered becomes a national Model Worker" "Respected by others" "What a huge change!" "Huang Baomei / Xie Jin / 1958" "I was no more than 14 years old when I started working here" "The factory was named Yufeng Mill It was run by the Japanese" "After Liberation in 1949, it became Shanghai No. 17 Cotton Plant" "I went abroad for further study in 1960" "After that, I came back to work until I retired in 1987" "I've always been a staff of this plant" "One January, I heard from my elder sister in Shanghai" "A letter asking me to come to Shanghai because she had something to tell me" "My elder sister never summoned me like that" "So I took a train to Shanghai" "She's in the Conservatory of Music A student in the Vocal Department" "She lived on the campus" "When I arrived at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music" "She was very pleased to see me" "She took me to her piano room" "Then she closed the door." "Hugged me, and burst into tears" "Seeing her cry, I understood" "I didn't need to ask something had happened to my mother" "My mother was Shangguan Yunzhu" "She was born in Jiangyin" "In 1938, during the anti-Japanese war she fled to Shanghai" "At that time, my mother was no more than 19 or 20 years old" "Like all country girls come to Shanghai nowadays, she had to find a job" "And she found one on the Huaihai Road" "It was called He's Photo Studio" "She worked on the till" "The studio was run by He Zuoming" "A photographer at Shanghai Film Studio" "He managed the business himself" "My mother worked there as billing clerk" "Movie stars came in to take their photos" "Jin Yan, Gu Yelu, for example They all had their pictures taken" "My mother got to know them and asked if she could work in movies" "They were polite." "They told her, You can if you speak good Mandarin" "So she went on to study at an acting school" "Two Stage Sisters / Xie Jin / 1964" "Isn't that the former 'queen' of Yue Opera, Shang Shuihua?" "My mother's first husband was the art teacher at her high school" "His name was Zhang Dayan" "Zhang Dayan disapproved of her new profession" "There were some arguments." "Finally he divorced my mother" "She and Yao Ke married and she gave birth to my elder sister" "Next, they organized a theatrical tour of northern China" "The troupe performed in Tianjin and Beijing for several months" "Due to transport difficulties in getting back" "So she went to northern China with my elder sister and her nanny" "When she got back to Shanghai found that Yao Ke was being unfaithful He had a love affair with someone" "So my mother divorced Yao Ke" "After the divorce, she lived with the actor Lan Ma for a while" "In 1950, at the Lyceum Theatre" "She appeared in the play Song of Red Flag" "And got to know my father Cheng Shuyao" "I was born to them in 1951" "It was on November 22, 1968 that my mother jumped from the 4th floor of her apartment building" "She jumped in the early morning" "In the place where she jumped there was a food market in the street" "She fell into a basket of vegetables She wasn't killed outright" "Some people tried to save her She could tell them the apartment number" "But she died soon after reaching the hospital" "Because she was a counter-revolutionary" "Nobody actively tried to save her" "She was left to die" "So she passed away very soon" "My sister asked me to come to Shanghai one reason was to tell me about this" "But also, as a college student she was being sent to work on a farm She was about to leave Shanghai ..." "couldn't be sure she'd ever get back" "My elder sister and I had different fathers, but we'd been very close since childhood" "So this could have been a farewell meeting" "We'd be in different places" "Not sure if we'd be able to meet again" "So those were the cicumstances I learned of my mother's death" "She told me how she'd dealt with the funeral" "Her boyfriend a classmate named Yan Kai at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music helped her with the arrangements" "But Yan Kai was" "In 1971" "During the factional in-fighting of the Cultural Revolution he was labeled an ultra-radical Red Guard" "He committed suicide in custody He was only 24 at the time" "It was another heavy blow to my sister" "After his suicide, my sister was interrogated for a month" "Because she'd been so close to Yan Kai" "Once they let her out she was very emaciated" "At that time, she often visited my father" "They kept up a good relationship" "She'd long thought of him as her real 'father'" "And he treated her like his daughter" "Their relationship was solid" "At my father's place she met a boy 10 years younger They fell in love with each other" "And she got pregnant she felt she couldn't stay in Shanghai" "She had no work assignment, no income" "The two of them talked it over The boy's mother was in Hong Kong" "My sister's father Yao Ke was also in Hong Kong" "So they decided to sneak into Hong Kong" "They traveled to Shenzhen, and tried to get into Hong Kong" "During the attempt, the boy was caught" "Being pregnant, my sister waited for the boy in a hotel" "So she was not caught" "But her attempt couldn't be kept secret" "The Conservatory brought her back and publicly criticized her." "She was denied any work assignments" "In Shanghai, she gave birth to the child" "But it was sent out for adoption while she was still in the maternity ward" "Hong Kong 2009" "My family name is Miao" "Many people pronounce it Mou" "My original name was Miao Mengying" "Back home, I was part of a large family" "I am the third among the girls" "And the fifth among all the children" "At that time, my father was" "My grandfather was a Cantonese tea-trader" "He was a businessman" "We moved from Zhongshan to Shanghai" "I left high school was the year" "Japanese started the Pacific War by attacking the United States" "At that time" "I did not want to study any longer" "As it happened, the troupe led by Huang Zuolin and Fei Mu was recruiting new actors I auditioned for them" "At that time, there was the best film investor in Shanghai" "His name was Wu Xingzai" "His business was making dye, with a nickname The King of Dye" "But he was fond of the arts" "When we staged a drama Mr. Fei went to the Carlton Theatre" "To discuss how to divide the profits" "It was Mr. Wu bargained for the share" "Mr. Wu believed there should be a studio for the film company." "So Wenhua bought its studio at Xujiahui" "You used to live in Shanghai." "Lu Jie was the boss of the studio" "Lu Jie was the boss" "At that studio,they were preparing a project by Cao Yu" "Cao Yu (Wan Jiabao) said his script wasn't finished yet" "He needed another month." "A month-and-a-half" "Huang Zuolin had just finished a film So the studio was empty" "Mr.Wu then asked Director Fei to help" "He said, Mr Fei" "We need to shoot something, otherwise it's too expensive to keep the studio open" "He asked him to come up with something to fill the gap" "So Spring in a Small Town was the film made to fill that gap" "Everybody told Fei Mu" "Mr Fei, Wei Wei isn't suitable for the role" "How can she play Zhou Yuwen?" "Think about it!" "He said of course she can play it!" "Wei Wei is all woman ..." "despite what you think" "Director Fei had confidence in me" "Then, he talked to me about the role" "He said bear in mind the following words" "Inflamed emotions" "must be kept under control" "He also gave me a task I can talk about it now" "The actor Li Wei he'd never acted in a film before" "And he was very young" "He apparently didn't have a girlfriend And never have love affairs" "Director Fei had no idea whether Li Wei had had girlfriends or not" "He just asked me" "You must give some impact on Li Wei, to help him capture the mood of the film" "Otherwise your own performance won't work in the film" "I wondered how I should react to that But things started to go out of control" "When you play a role in a film, you have to be able to leave it" "But Li Wei couldn't do that" "Eventually, I had to escape from him, ran away from Shanghai to Hong Kong" "I feel completely helpless on this ruined, empty wall" "If I were to ask you to leave with me now" "Will you again say:" "Up to you?" "Will you ask?" "Spring in a Small Town / Fei Mu / 1948" "At that time Spring in a Small Town wasn't very well received" "It was a time of national crisis, and the film was considered too soft" "Also, the film was seen as very" "It could be said the film was too gloomy" "However" "It can be said nobody understood Fei Mu" "What weighed on my father's mind" "At the beginning of 1949 tensions were building in Shanghai" "Prices skyrocketed As I recall, we used golden dollar" "And silver dollars So we were running out of money" "It was all very difficult" "Then my uncle, Fei Yimin" "A newspaperman in Da Kung Pao" "The paper wanted to set up a Hong Kong branch" "To publish a Hong Kong edition of Da Kung Pao" "He was asked to take charge of the project" "He said to Fei Mu" ""Bring your children to Hong Kong and stay there for a while"" "So when he arrived in Hong Kong we'd made no preparations to stay long" "Just waiting for the dust to settle in Shanghai" "Of course, we misjudged the situation" "Anyhow, that was how our whole family came to Hong Kong from Shanghai" "When we arrived we settled in as best we could We rented a house" "And I resumed practising my piano" "Father went back to Shanghai again" "And on to Beijing" "He always had his film career in mind" "But at that time, the situation was chaotic" "Everything happened in a lawless, unsystematic way" "His stay in Beijing was quite unpleasant" "He encountered some people who were hostile to him" "So he was getting negative responses" "Unhelpful feedback" "It all made him very frustrated" "So he came back to Hong Kong again" "Today, the old guy invited me to tea" "He saw that my health wasn't great, asked me to go to America with him" "Days of Being Wild / Wong Kar-Wai / 1990" "I know very well ... atmy age..." "It's hard to find a man I really like" "My family came from Wuxi" "But I was born in Shanghai and brought up there" "I'm Shanghainese" "These days, I don't say I'm from Wuxi" "I am a native Shanghainese" "Well, I moved to Hong Kong At the outset" "I had no plan to learn Cantonese" "I thought I was just passing through" "I wouldn't be staying here long" "And I would go back to Shanghai" "My mother and I came to Hong Kong together" "Because" "All along, I've said that" "I like what they call the old society But there's one thing I never liked" "My father had a concubine" "Chinese people did this strange thing back then" "When a man did really well in life" "More often he took two or three wives" "Foreigners do this kind of thing too" "Not a foreign woman becomes concubine" "She's called a lover or girlfriend" "In China, such a woman is thought of as a wife, the 2nd wife, the 3rd wife" "And that was the case with my mother" "In 1949, everything changed in Shanghai" "A new era began,my mother brought me to Hong Kong" "It was time to make a choice." "My father had to choose" "In the new situation, he could have only one wife" "I think this was quite a good thing" "Anyhow, at that time my mother voluntarily gave up her status She left my father" "That's when she came to Hong Kong" "To start with, my mother did all kinds of things" "It was quite funny" "You know black marketeer?" "It means selling goods secretly" "She managed to get by okay" "But it was a kind of 'gray area', not exactly legal" "It was a kind of" "But suddenly it was made illegal, outside the law" "Everything we had was confiscated" "So I began making a living by singing songs" "I think I am a really filial daughter" "The reason is" "It's because my mother went through so many unhappiness" "As I see it, she was very unlucky" "She married very young" "But my father soon lost interest in her" "He moved on to other pleasures" "My mother was not educated, so many things she didn't know" "But she was very smart" "She taught herself many things." "She was good at needlework" "For example, Knitting wool and preparing small dishes" "She was an average,traditional housewife" "But I don't think her life had been much fun" "So when she got in her later years" "Her retirement was quite happy by then" "I was old enough myself She wasn't that much older than me, just sixteen years" "So she and I looked like sisters And we were good friends" "She told me everything So I know a lot about her" "That's why I say I don't mind getting old myself" "It's only now I've reached this age that I have such experience" "I have a sort of love for many young people" "These feelings include a concern for" "their future" "Young people not able to have such feelings" "Because they never experienced" "The one I love has smiling face" "Deep in the autumn, she can" "No-one may take away the light of my spring" "No-one may take away the hopes I have now" "It's ages since I sang it Can't remember all the lyrics" "Victoria Harbour Hong Kong" "Shanghai 2010" "As you can see, I'm doing well now" "But, back in 1988 I was completely broke" "Very poor" "Many problems" "I just wanted to improve my life" "Just imagine" "I had a son to bring up" "My wife and I earned only 72 yuan a month" "And we lived in different places" "In one year, all we could save 4 yuan per month" "Forty eight yuan in the whole year" "With 48 yuan all I could afford was rail fares" "So, on March 28th, 1988" "I quit my job" "And then on April 21st, I began speculating on securities" "I went to the first securities exchange in Shanghai" "It was at No. 101 Xikang Road to find the listed price of treasury bonds" "In the morning, they were 104 yuan" "There were only six cities in the country which traded T-bonds" "The opening and closing prices reported in the Shanghai Communist paper" "So I went to Shanghai Library to check it" "I found the information I needed In Hefei, Anhui Province he morning price was 92 yuan And the closing price was 96 yuan" "I went to Hefei that night" "And I spent the whole 20,000 yuan on T-bonds" "I bought them at 96 yuan each" "Then I sold them in Shanghai for 112 yuan each" "A 14-yuan profit" "I invested 20,000 yuan, made 2,800 yuan profit overnight" "I couldn't sleep that night" "For the first time in 38 years, I had a sleepless night" "At that time in Shanghai the daily turnover of T-bonds totaled only 2 million yuan" "My trade represented 700,000 yuan of that" "I went to Shanghai Public Security Bureau to get some muscle" "I told them the Reform had made me rich" "I wanted to do business elsewhere But I was scared" "The police had opened its own company, I hired a couple of guards" "I paid each of them 600 per month" "Why did I do that?" "At that time, no cheque book or credit card" "I was carrying 1 million in cash" "And it was very problematic" "My case was scanned at the railway station" "When they found it filled with banknotes they thought I must be a robber or a thief" "I must be a bad guy" "Another time, in Luoyang, I checked in to a hotel" "When I opened my case, someone saw it was full of banknotes" "Back then, there's no 100-yuan note" "So it was all in 10-yuan and 5-yuan." "The case was heavier than 50kg" "The police car was there within moments" "I received a summons." "It was really agonizing" "Of course, this affected my business" "But once I had the guards with me and carried a letter of introduction all these problems were solved" "Shanghai World Expo Park" "For the glory of the nation, host a great Expo" "I was born on September 23rd, 1982" "In Shanghai's Jinshan Zone, Tinglin Town" "Back then, my girlfriend got into the best high school" "I was afraid they wouldn't admit me" "So I tried to figure out my strengths" "And I realized I was good at running" "I didn't really know this before" "Anyhow, that high school admit me because of my skill as a runner" "I can say I had two real strengths" "One was running" "And the other was I could write well" "I wasn't willing to give up my free time, so I had to write during classes" "As a result, I failed many classes" "Because, to be frank, I overestimated my intelligence" "I thought I could sail through all those exams even though I hadn't put in the hours" "I gradually realized science subjects were much harder in senior high than they'd been in junior high" "Eventually, I gave up" "Finally" "I thought I would have to quit school" "The teachers were about to tell me that I would be expelled" "So before that happened" "I applied to withdraw from my studies" "One teacher asked me:" "you cannot be an anti-social element how do you plan to make a living?" "My answer was I planned to live on royalties from writing" "All the teachers laughed at me" "I laughed along with them" "I received my first royalty payment in Beijing" "Triple Doors had a print-run of 30,000" "I was given 30,000 yuan in royalties Not enough to buy a car at that time" "A few days later, publisher told me the 30,000 had were sold out" "They were printing another 20,000" "I thought Great, I'll make 50,000 yuan" "I started wondering what car I could afford" "I checked out the market, no car was priced at 50,000" "So I decided to go for an used car" "The publisher contacted me again, they had printed another 50,000" "So I would get 100,000 yuan in total I was very pleased." "But I still couldn't afford to buy a car" "Debate raged on the web about the three leading brands," "Fukang, Santana and Jetta, which was the most powerful?" "These were the only available And I couldn't afford any of them" "I was particularly fond of the Beijing Jeep 2020" "I didn't know what it cost" "There's no official website back then So I couldn't find its price" "But I guessed it would be between 100 to 200 thousand yuan" "So I waited until the print-run of my novel reached 200,000" "I took all that money and went to buy one" "I was carrying about 200,000 cash" "My dream was going to come true" "I eventually found a top-line car retailer" "I asked how much the Jeep cost" "I was so nervous" "They told me it would cost 40,000" "Then I had second thoughts and didn't buy one" "It is mere vanity." "If it cost 190,000 I'd have bought one" "Later" "I made some careful comparisons I bought a Fukang" "I'd looked into it carefully" "Jetta wouldn't be a choice, They were used as taxis in Northeast China" "Meanwhile, Santanas were used as taxis in Shanghai" "I thought I couldn't be seen driving a car used as a taxi" "I needed a more individual choice" "So I went for a Fukang,drove the car to Beijing for refits" "And there I found out Fukangs were used as taxis in Beijing" "Later, I approached a racing team called Shanghai Volkswagen 333" "It was the strongest team in China" "The boss said" "If you join us at least you'll be a help with our publicity" "We won't care about your results in the races" "This was my first racing car" "That year, I won two." "Two championships" "If I can win a lot of championships." "If one day" "I finally win a grand championship that I really want" "I'll definitely be happy to tell everyone:" "I'm actually a writer"