February 3, 2009 marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of writer Lao She. I wrote this short piece last year to mark the occasion of anniversary number 109, and I like it so much that I’m running it again. Enjoy.
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Originally published February 3, 2008:
Today is the birthday of the celebrated novelist, playwright, and also YJ’s favorite author, Lao She, born Shu Qingchun in Beijng, 1899. His family was Manchu, members of the Red Banner, and Lao She’s father was killed defending the city against the Allied Expeditionary Force sent to quell the Boxer Uprising. After her husband’s death, his mother took to working as a laundry woman to support herself and her son. Remembering those years, Lao She would later write:
“During my childhood, I didn’t need to hear stories about evil ogres eating children and so forth; the foreign devils my mother told me about were more barbaric and cruel than any fairy tale ogre with a huge mouth and great fangs. And fairy tales are only fairy tales, whereas my mother’s stories were 100 percent factual, and they directly affected our whole family.”
As a young man, he worked as a teacher and
Brief Comment: Shoes on other feet
It’s interesting how the insult of hurling a shoe at someone with whom you disagree is catching on. I’m not really in favor of people lobbing their loafers at speakers but it sure beats hand grenades.
The only thing about the Wen Jiabao “shoe incident”:
When it happened to George Bush it was shown a gazillion times on Chinese state television and the Chinese public and press had a good time with it. And to be frank, I laughed along with them.
Now that it’s Wen Jiabao on the other end of the flying footwear all of a sudden Chinese netizens are in a tizzy and Chinese state media seems to have misplaced the footage.
Sadly typical. Come on guys, if you don’t think the whole thing is worth at least a chuckle then you’re just not having enough fun in show business.
I saw a great quote on the blog Bendilaowai: “Many Chinese are furious about this behaviour towards their adored grandpa Wen, but though I quite like Wen Jiabao myself, I like even more the idea of world leaders being forced to duck a shoe from time to time.”
Amen, brother.