Chapter 9 Section 4 Singapore

1. Paris and third class After leaving London, I spent three months on the Continent, mostly in Paris. The money is in my hands, it's not much, it won't take root.I'm not wasting money, but the money goes out quickly.According to the physiognomist, my fingers are too wide to save money; so far I have not been able to defeat this sermon.After running around in Germany, France, Italy and other countries, I feel very comfortable, because the money has been spent.When the money is gone, I don't plan anything anymore, so I feel comfortable.Fortunately, my friends in Paris still have some money from me, otherwise, I would never be able to leave France.The money is only enough to buy a third-class ticket to Singapore.That can't be done, let's talk about it in Singapore.Anyway, Singapore is closer to home than Marseille, that's the idea.

When we got on the boat, there were more than a dozen francs left in the bag, and more than one yuan in Hehua coins;On the boat, I met several "national students" who had studied in France and returned home—to put it more complicatedly, they were Chinese students studying in France.We hit it off right away, and within a short time, we all understood each other's financial situation: the richest one was a man surnamed Li, with twenty-seven francs, a few bucks richer than me.If you put your money together, you can probably buy a bottle of champagne, or two good Luzon cigarettes.We don't want to drink champagne or smoke Luzon, and we've decided not to cut our hair, so why aren't we happy when we're not bare-handed?Everyone was very happy and hit it off.Someone suggested that we could organize a bank in Shanghai.He studies finance.I didn't say anything, because my ferry ticket only goes to Singapore; there is no need to worry about Shanghai in advance.

There were also two Indian students and two young American overseas Chinese on board, and they were also quite friendly.The two Indian students were well-dressed and cared about China's affairs.On the morning of the third day of sailing, they fought: one got dark circles under the eyes, and the other got a shoe sole in the face.The reason for the fight, the two of them complained to us separately, was because of a pair of socks, who sold them to whom, and they wore them (or didn’t wear them) for a day and then they didn’t want them anymore, so they started fighting.The one who removed the dark circles covered his eyes with a wet handkerchief, and muttered all day long: "In the country, I didn't bother to spit on him! He dirty the soles of my shoes!" The one who ate the soles told us He said: "Let's talk about it when we get ashore, beat him, strangle him, and stab him with a small knife!" The two of them stopped discussing China's issues with us, and we didn't ask Gandhi what happened.

One of the two overseas Chinese teenagers was traveling: from the United States to the European continent, then to Shanghai, and then back home.He lived in Berlin for one day and Paris for one day. He told me that he stayed in the hotel and did not go out.He is afraid of temptation.Berlin and Paris are bad places, not interesting, he said.In Marseilles, he lost a suitcase.What that boy did, I don't know.He misses home all the time.When I was homesick, I looked at French girls, and then told the traveler: "They are all fishing for me!" The so-called "they" are seven or eight French dancers who have come to Annan or Shanghai, the youngest of whom is only in her thirties.The third-class canteen is always occupied by them.They smoke, eat, swing their thighs, and practice singing, all here.The leader is an old man in his fifties.The face was like a dried orange.When they were free, their thighs were still bare, and two junior officers often played cards with them.But the young man said they cared about him.

The third-class cabin was not without excitement, and the dancers sang for more than two hours.The little dry old man seemed to be yelling at them almost all the time when he didn't seem to be praising them.But they don't care.They sing or swing their legs, we talk nonsense, and when we get tired of talking, we go out on the deck to enjoy the wind.Our waiter is a Chinese, always squatting in the dark, accidentally stepped on his feet.He sells a kind of black stuff, five francs a pack, and the dancers also buy it. More than 20 days passed like this: listening to singing, looking at thighs, talking nonsense, and eating.There are always these people in the cabin, and there is always the water outside.There is nothing new, everyone's faces are growing fleshy, like a boat of ducks when they are stuffed.Taking a boat is hard work. I know that time is a pity, but I have no choice but to throw it away in vain.I can't read the book anymore, Hai is getting tired of reading it, and I'm slowly talking less.I was still thinking in my heart: what should I do in Singapore?

2. Chinese teachers On such a day of suspense in my heart, I arrived in Singapore.It is impossible to eat on the boat again, so I have to go down.Hire a rickshaw, no, it shouldn't be said that you hire it, you get on it; most of the rickshaw drivers here don't know the way, and even if they know the way, they can't understand what I say.Sit on, point with your finger, and the coachman will run down.I want to go to the Commercial Press.I don't remember the name of the street, but I remember that it is on a busy street; I used to play here for a day when I went to Europe.The rickshaw kept going, and I said to myself: If the Commercial Press is waiting for me on this street, it will be a happy opening; if it is not on this street, I will be done.What a coincidence, the Business Hall was waiting for me.Maybe they moved here temporarily.

That's easy.Find the manager at the door.After telling the name and name, I immediately asked if there was any work.The manager is Mr. Bao, he is very polite, but he said that the job is not easy to find.He asked me to go and see Mr. Huang Manshi of the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company - very familiar on the ground and easy to make friends with.When I went to see Mr. Huang, I naturally had a meal in the business hall first.Mr. Huang couldn't think of anything for a while, but he became a very good friend with me; I was in Singapore, and later, I often went to his house to eat, and we often went out to play together.He's a lovely guy.His family sent him tea, which was always different from Longjing and Xiangpian. He didn't like Xiangpian, so he returned it to me; so I still have Xiangpian tea in Nanyang.However, this is all for later.I still have to find something.Not far away is the Zhonghua Bookstore, well, it is the Zhonghua Bookstore.The manager Mr. Xu Caiming is still my good friend.I don't care if he finds a job, he's cute.When I saw him, I explained my purpose.He said there is a way.Take me to Huaqiao Middle School immediately.This middle school is at least ten miles away from the street market. Fortunately, public buses (they are all small, red cars that run fast) are convenient, and they will be there in a while.Mr. Xu yelled for me.All right, they are missing a Chinese teacher.Immediately move the luggage and take office.When I had something to do, my heart was settled, and I bought a big grapefruit for 20 cents to eat.Then I spent some money and bought a blanket, because it must be covered at night.I bought white clothes, which are neither middle nor west, and have their own Nanyang flavor.I bought a copy of "Ciyuan" on credit; teaching is different from reading by myself, and I have to recognize the characters clearly-there are many characters that I always think I know but I really can't pronounce them.I slept very comfortably all night; the new "Ci Yuan" was gnawed by mice on the table, which is a fly in the ointment.I was going to beat the mouse with leather shoes, but when we met, I didn't want to worry about it. The mouse was at least taller than "Ci Yuan", maybe it was a fairy mouse, so let it go.Although the mice are big, there are not many of them.Many are geckos.There are them everywhere: in the glass cups on the walls of the shed—I dare say they like sweetness, and they always take care of the cups that have been filled with soda.They also sing, squeaky, nothing fancy, but not terribly annoying.

The weather is fine.It is quite natural to teach half a day earlier, unless you are stopped by students in class, you will not sweat on your neck.After lunch, I fell asleep, and the heat passed in the dark.The sun sets at six o'clock, and you can do some work after dinner, and the gecko sings on the wall.A blanket must be covered at night, which shows that it is not hot; compared to the summer nights in Nanjing, this place is simply a fairyland.I'm proud to have a paycheck and a blanket at night, beautiful!What's more, I have to take a shower. Three times in the morning, afternoon and evening, it is also a pleasure to pour water on the back under the tap.

However, within a few days of staying here, I developed a fever and had small red spots on my body.Usually I am very brave, but when I get sick, I am a little afraid of death.There are little red dots on the body, this thing, the rash returns to the heart, it's no wonder you don't die!The school doctor was called in, and he gave me two packs of Cinney cream, telling me that I was far from death.After eating quinine cream and sleeping on the bed, since death is far away, I am not afraid of death anymore, so I still became brave.In the morning and evening, listening to the footsteps of pedestrians outdoors on the bed, beautiful pictures are created in the "mind's eye": Coconut trees and betel nuts grow on both sides of the road; the sea blue sky; Tap away, maybe take a look at the angry red flowers in the bushes.It's poetic.A short, black Ceylon man with a flowered cloth on his head sang as he walked.After lying down for two days, I could quite appreciate the romantic smell of this dark green, and my illness was cured.

It's even better when it rains.The rain came and stopped quickly, there was a rustle, and the sky was clear again.The road was wet and the trees were too green to be greener.There is a cool and strong smell of woods in the air, and the jacket can be put on immediately.Drink a bowl of hot coffee on top of that. The school is also very good.Students can understand Mandarin and most can speak it very well.They are almost all lively, because they don't wear much clothes after class, so they are dark and healthy.They all love China and are willing to listen to strong claims and words.They are the sons and daughters of capitalists (different in size, anyway, they cannot go to school unless they have two dollars), but they are willing to overthrow the capitalists.As for literature, they also love the latest ones, and they also run literary and art publications. They are not very polite to gentlemen, but it is not on purpose; they are straightforward.Gentlemen, if they can be honest with them, they will be very obedient.It's a pity that some gentlemen like to play tricks!Students are not luxurious.Wearing white clothes solved the clothing problem; it was the gentlemen who were punished by foreigners for wearing western suits, because most of the gentlemen were from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and northern China, and they had more or less acquired the style of Shanghai.The food is also simple, except that they love shaved ice, and they don't spend much money.The weather simplifies food, clothing and housing.Let's just say, if you have a bed and a blanket, you can go there.No blanket, just cover it with some newspaper, you can actually make do with it.Then there is a running water pipe for taking a shower, and everything will be smooth.What's more, the society is a business society, people don't pay much attention to clothes, ostentation, writing poems and buying books, so students can naturally be frugal.On the one hand, this place does not have the culture of Shanghai or Beiping; on the other hand, it does not have the sour cultural disease.Cannot be produced here.Of course, there are opium kilns, etc., but students are not yet doing these things.On the contrary, the gentlemen from the mainland feel depressed and have no society.All careers are in the hands of Guangdong and Fujianese, and teachers have no status, and they cannot enter the circle of Guangdong or Fujianese.The teachers seem to be some high-level workers, hired; the people who pay for the school don't take them to heart.There is no place to play, nothing to watch except movies.So after three months, I got a little bored.Others say the same.Let’s talk about the weather, old age is so good, old is so good, there is no change, there are no springs, summers, autumns and winters, which is boring.Besides, other things are rigid and unchanged.The students love playing ball and music, so they have something to do.During the break, the gentlemen can only get some soda and chat.I started writing "Xiaopo's Birthday".

3. "Xiaopo's Birthday" Originally, I wanted to write a novel set in Nanyang.I would like to praise the Chinese for their achievements in developing Nanyang: we planted trees, plowed fields, built houses, repaired roads, and opened mines.We did it all.We are not afraid of poisonous snakes and beasts, desolate forests and miasma.We created a Nanyang with bare hands.I am going to write this.We are great.Yes, the Westerners are standing on top of us now.However, the cause still depends on us.We are below the Westerners and above other peoples.If Nanyang is a sugar cake, we are that sugar filling.We can go up and down.We have to work hard, we can only go up, not back down.Without us, there would be no Nanyang. This is a fact, a natural fact.Malays do nothing but be lazy.Indians can't beat us either.Westerners have to go home to rest after living for three or four years, otherwise they will not be able to support themselves.We work, we do business, we practice medicine and become lawyers.We can live for ten years, a hundred years, or a thousand years. We can bear any kind of weather, we can endure any kind of suffering, and we are capable of doing any kind of work.It is said that the hands have hands, and the brain has brains.I want to write such a novel.This is not hero worship, but nation worship.The so-called ethnic worship does not mean that Mr. So-and-so can wear a suit, speak foreign languages, and know how to hold an umbrella for his wife.I want to talk about those real heroes who have gone to Nanyang barefoot for hundreds of years.No money, no state protection, nothing.Do it hard, and it will really work out.I want to write about these real Chinese people, really strong Chinese people.China is theirs, and Nanyang is also theirs.Those gentlemen who can carry small umbrellas, fart!Even me is counted in it. However, I can't write it.I plan to write and have to travel everywhere.I have no money, no time.I don't know Cantonese, Hokkien, or Malay.There are still many things that I don't understand.Don't dare to write.Mr. Huang Manshi took me to see various things when he was free, in order to provide me with some materials.But trying to grasp the taste of a place with a few months of work, no.Besides, I had to describe the sea, and how the Chinese ventured on it.I know very little about the sea; I was born in the north, and I didn't see ships until I was in my twenties. Need to add some.I even wrote a book before I came to Singapore.I wrote some on the mainland, and some on the ship from Marseille to Singapore. I wrote more than 40,000 words in total.When I arrived in Singapore, I decided to abandon it. The title of the book is "Probably So". Why did it stop?Speak slowly.This book is similar to "Two Horses", and it was also written by a Chinese in London.The content is not as complicated as "Two Horses", only one man and one woman.Men are poor and studious, while women are rich and suffer.When a poor man saves a rich woman, naturally he will fall in love afterward.The man is really in the sea of ​​love, but the woman only takes love as a kind of entertainment and reward, and in the end ruins the man.The text is well written, but I am not satisfied with the title.If I had lived in Europe, I would have finished writing this book. With a big discount, I started writing "Xiaopo's Birthday".I love children and I watch their actions.In Singapore, although I don't have time to watch adult activities, the children running around on the street, all kinds of children, are interesting and can be seen at any time.Standing at the door after class, one or two Chinese or Malay children can be seen playing by the forest or by the roadside.Well, let me write about Nanyang as I know it, with the little people as the protagonists—probably the smallest and smallest Nanyang! The first half of the day was completely spent on attending classes and correcting papers.It was too hot in the second half of the day, so I couldn't do anything after four o'clock.I can only write a little after dinner.I have to repel mosquitoes while writing, and the troubles caused by mice and geckos also make me feel uneasy. Besides, I hold a lamp alone in the tropics and write with my head down. The wet and slightly sweet evening wind, the singing of the Indians on the road, and the soft sound of the women's wooden shoes all make people feel that they should go out on the grass, lie down and look at the stars, and never move.The atmosphere of this place is hot and soft, which makes people feel that they should not do anything.As for me, it is extremely difficult to write a thousand words at a time. I have to forget everything outside before I can put the pen on the paper.This requires great attention and effort. As a result, writing a thousand words is exhausting, as if you have fought a hand-to-hand battle.My friends nodded a little bit, and I put down my pen, and followed them to a front-end teahouse by the forest to drink coffee.From the time I started writing until I left this place, it took at least four full months, and I only wrote a total of 40,000 words, and I couldn't go any faster. The motivation for writing "Xiaopo's Birthday" is to write about the scenery of Singapore on the surface.There are also: mainly children, showing the unity of weak and small ethnic groups-this is an ideal, but in fact everyone is not united. The prejudice and struggle between the people of Guangdong and Fujian are very serious.There is not a white child in this book, who dropped it on purpose.I wrote it for more than three months, and got about 50,000 words; I went to Shanghai to make up another 10,000. The good things about this book, according to my own opinion, are the simplicity of the language and the fairy-tale parts.It's not exactly a fairy tale, because the first half has a lot of realism-it was supposed to describe something real.In this way, the real places are too real, and the imaginary places are very imaginary. The result is that it neither resembles a fairy tale, nor is it a story mainly for children, which is a bit different.If you have time to delete and modify, remove the realistic part, or you can still make something.But I don't have the time.The most ridiculous thing is that all kinds of children in Nanyang speak the beautiful (really beautiful) Peking dialect. "Xiaopo's Birthday" has written about 50,000 words, and it's the annual holiday.I was very reluctant to leave Singapore, but it was a good time to go, the end of the semester, just the end.At this season, there is another opportunity to do other things.If any of these things can be successful, I can naturally resign my teaching position and stay here, in order to gain more experience.But none of these things worked out because someone sabotaged it.As a result, I decided to leave.I don't want to mess with others about my own affairs.I have been away from home for six years, and my mother is over seventy years old. Letters often urge me to go home.At the end of February in the Gregorian calendar, I got on the boat again. When I finished writing it in Shanghai, I handed it over to Xidi and published it in "Novel Moonboard".After the publication, the pamphlet had already been printed, and was burned by the "1.28" fire; so it was handed over to the Life Bookstore to be printed.