內(nèi)容簡介
This is the third collection thatfollows two previously publishedbooks entitled,Living in China andDreaming Big in China.Seventeenpeople have been interviewed andfeatured here because of theirremarkable yuan or"predestinedrelationship"with China,and each ofthem cherishes their yuan.In thisbook,they recount their stories withChina and the Chinese people.Thesestories are the most direct andconcrete explanations of the ancientphenomenon ofyuan.Some havepermanently remained in China,others have simply lived in China formany years and some for only atemporary amount of time.Regard-less,their connections are deeplyrooted to the Chinese people andthey consider China their secondhomeland.Their unusual lifeexperiences and thoughts give us abetter understanding and feelingabout yuan,and are deeply moving.
17 people from across the globewho have found their destinyin China.
Buddha said."When two strangers face each other while passing ona road,yuan is the indescribable sensation for one of them to"turnaround and seek the other."This moment of bliss is built with theencounters of the past 500 years.Isnt it a wonder that I can catch sightof you,out of the myriad of people,at a significant moment?
Then I asked Buddha:According to the saying,if the yuan builtwith the prayers and practices of 100 years can bring two people to the same ferryboat,and if the yuan built with those of 1,000 years can makethem a couple,how many times must one feel the sensation to"turnaround and seek the other"in order to amount to a single significantencounter today?
Buddha smiled and didn’t reply.
In recent years,the word yuan(meaning predestined relationship oraffinity)or the phrase yuanfen(fate or chance that brings people together),has increasingly been used among the Chinese;these words carry ideas thatare rooted in fatalism and destiny.The word yuan is explained by fatalisticphilosophy as the destinies that occur from person to person encounters.Forthose who do not believe in fatalism,the word yuan is not disagreeable;itsimply refers to the possibility of special connections between people,or be-tween people and things.
While the outcome of any fated encounter can have either good or badconsequences,in general usage,people tend to leave out the negative impli-cations ofyuan and it is commonly associated with positive destiny.This isperhaps due to peoples optimistic expectations of a harmonious society anda world that is enabled by the positive connections between people and be-tween people and things.
In early human history,mankind was confined within a small radius.Thesimplicity of their lifestyles meant that people simply worked after sunrise andrested after sunset.The difficulty in feeding themselves and their families leftlittle energy and little curiosity to explore the world outside.During the eraof self-sustained family production,small communities seldom made contactwith their neighbors,even those within their vicinity.Simple commodity ex-changes such as bartering were infrequent.Therefore,connections betweenunfamiliar peoples had a very low probability and making contact with peoplefrom foreign lands was virtually impossible.In this landscape of human histo-ry,there was little room for yuanfen to grow.And even in these rare crossings,connections would be extremely fragile and difficult to maintain.Actually,themost realized sense ofyuan is not simply pre-destiny.It is a shared history andthe communication between people that are fostered by a certain kind of envi-ronment and the development of social production.
作者簡介
Lu Yang,the pen name of YangZhen,a senior journalist of theJapanese-language version ofPeoples China magazine,hasworked in foreign publishing,communications and culturalexchanges for more than 20 years.He has written many articles onChinese history and culture,as wellas Chinas reform and opening-up,and has won worldwide acclaimfrom readers both at home andabroad.Some articles have beencollected into books and some havereceived awards.In recent years,hehas focused his interests on theconditions of foreigners living inChina,and so was invited to be theleading writer of the book Living inChina and Dreaming Big in China.
Remembering Ma Haide / 1
A Sunny Boy / 19
Kyoka in the Two Capitals / 37
The Big Bulls Amazing Year of the Ox / 55
Beautiful Chef/69
A "Chinese Girl" from America / 81
Doctor Mo / 93
A Chinese Tie Lasting for Half a Century / 113
Long Live Chinese Cattle / 123
Opportunities in China Brought by Kung Fu / 139
A Woman Waking Up Chinese Mornings / 151
A Practitioner of China-Japan Communication / 161
The Special Life of a Finn / 175
French Taoist Nun, Discovering the Way / 193
Realization of a Foreigners Dream in Childhood / 203
The Story of"Foreign Anchor" in China / 211
Her Ties with Chinese Movies and Television / 223
In 1931,he transferred to Geneva University in Switzerland to completehis clinical diagnosis diploma and received his M.D.in 1933.
After graduation,he went to Shanghai along with two schoolmates todo research on VD and certain tropical diseases that were rampant in east-ern countries at the time.Originally the trio only planned to stay in Chinafor a year,but George was immediately shocked by the misery afflicting theChinese people at the hands of the old corrupted Chinese government.Dur-ing his investigation of tropical diseases and malnutrition amongst laborers,George found that some child laborers of no more than 14 years old had bad-ly burned hands due to their tireless work in production factories.He treatedthe poor at a very low price,but he found that one doctor could only treatless than 100 patients per day,while the corrupt social system was producingthousands of new patients and beggars every day.He hated this darkness andcorruption in society,especially after witnessing policemen killing youngrevolutionaries at Hongqiao Airport.He believed that only an overall reformof the social structure could change the fate of the oppressed Chinese.Histwo schoolmates returned to America disappointed in China,but George justhad to stay in China longer.He was determined to tide his anger and find theroot of the Chinese social afflictions.
He had the fortune of coming into contact with prominent and influen-tial members of Chinese society.He had contacts with Sun Yat-sens wifeSoong Ching-ling,and such progressive foreigners as Agnes Smedley,RewiAlley,M.Granich and H.Shippe,under whose influence he began to studyMarxism and Chinese revolutionary history.Through them,he saw Chinain a new light,that is,needing the force of revolution to overcome its socialills,and forces that had been shaped under the leadership of the CommunistParty of China(CPC).George became a supporter of the revolution,activelyfighting for the changes he believed China needed.His clinic became a meet-ing place for the CPCs underground agents.It was not until many years laterthat it became known that it was he who aided Chen Yun,a leader of theCPC,to attend a meeting in the Soviet Union despite the dangers of doingso.In order to introduce the Red Army and expose the dark and corrupt soci-ety created under the present leadership of the Kuomintang(KMT),Georgepublished articles in American newspapers and progressive periodicals,suchas the Workers Daily and The Voice of China.