Chapter 40 Postscript: Articles covered by heavy snow (Xu Xiaoping)

On New Year's Day 2003, I was in a hotel at the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Canada.When I woke up in the morning, it was only past six o'clock.Outside the window is the vast snow, and inside is the family who is sleeping sweetly. This is the largest shopping mall in the world.The advertisement said: If these stores are connected side by side, 55 city blocks can be formed. If you only stay in each store for five minutes, you will need a full three days and three nights.In addition to various shops, the shopping center also has an artificial beach, an ice rink, a playground equipped with the world's largest roller coaster, and an artificial seascape, where the "St. Asia" nautical ship.Cruise around the nautical ship non-stop, are several recreational submarines full of tourists to enjoy the underwater scenery.

I feel a burst of happiness.I think about the winter of 1988, when I first came to Edmonton.At the time, I was a master's student in the music department at the University of Saskatchewan.It was the first time that I came to this shopping mall 700 kilometers away with my friends and wandered around with great interest.But soon, a small encounter completely dispelled my interest in traveling. At an electronics store, I admired the televisions and VCRs.I have a habit of lingering on the electrical counter, and I still maintain this good habit.However, I didn't get much happiness that time, because an Asian-looking clerk came over and asked me: Do you want to buy anything?I said no.He suddenly asked: Are you Chinese, are you Chinese?I thought he was going to marry me as my ancestor, so I quickly said yes, yes!Unexpectedly, this bastard immediately walked away with a sneer of contempt, and he didn't even have the politeness and patience to talk to me about one or two "Chinese weather hahaha" eggs.

This made me feel immediately deeply insulted.The happy mood of strolling in the world's largest shopping mall has been hit hard.So Ah Q immediately got up in my heart--Mom, I'm Chinese, who are you crazy about?You must come from a more disgusting place than me... When I insulted him in my heart, I actually classified myself as a "person from a disgusting place", but your mother's place is "more" nausea…… At that time, China had just opened up, and the Chinese people had been isolated from the world for too long. Although the Chinese who went abroad were delighted to see an amazing new world, people in the new world often saw an unearthed The old human beings who look like cultural relics are suspicious and puzzled.There are too many undue differences between us and people in developed countries in our way of thinking, living habits, and behavior.

Even today, we can still tell which part of Asia a Chinese is from by his mannerisms, not by his language.Although China's economy continues to leap forward amazingly, there is no need to hide the huge gap between China and the world, although it is getting smaller and smaller. My psychological reaction at that time may have been a bit extreme, but my sensitivity clearly bears the scars of that era.As an international student from the poorest country in the world like me, I can tell at a glance that I am here to watch the excitement of window shopping. Those shop assistants who live on sales commissions, when they need to rely on customers' patronage for their dinners, In any case, it's impossible to like people like us walking into the shop--the clerk, probably from my puffy face, thought of his own hunger.

I shyly walked to the door of another store.This is a crystal shop.In the glass display cabinets on the side of the road, various crystal shapes are displayed, which are really beautiful.A clerk sneaked up to me by my surprise. I couldn't dodge in time, so I had to bite the bullet and greet him.He said: It's beautiful, isn't it?I said it was beautiful; he said: Do you like it?I said I like it.But immediately solemnly declare: I am just looking around, I am just looking around.Don't get me wrong, I won't buy it.Also, it's best not to ask me which country I'm from.

Unexpectedly, the clerk said very politely: "Understood. Now, let me open the showcase for you, and you can appreciate it."As he spoke, he took the key and opened the locked glass cabinet, and kindly asked me to watch it carefully. My old man, who had just been hurt, was very moved.I was very grateful to the clerk in my heart, and thought: If I have money in the future, I must come to this store and buy all his things! ... The heavy snow covered everything in this big western city in Canada, but it couldn't hide my memories of these trivial past fifteen years ago.My heart is sweet and bitter.

Although this past event is small, it is an unforgettable event for a foreign student who came from the 1980s.Seeing the ocean from a drop of water - it is from these fragmentary "little things" that the international students' sensitive but not fragile hearts constantly reflect and refract the status of the motherland in the world, the image of the Chinese in the world, And those of us who are fortunate enough to receive dual education in China and the West and understand the differences in culture and development between China and the West, in this increasingly smaller and more interdependent world, our love for family, society, nation, and our great motherland The fate and choice of sharing weal and woe and helping each other in the same boat!

Talking about patriotism and the status of the Chinese is of course not the subject of my article.But many years of habit, I have to use metaphysical thinking to search for the perception deep in my soul on this snow-covered New Year's Day morning.I feel that all the success and happiness I have achieved today, whether in Edmonton or Beijing, are rooted in the leap of China's economy, and all the passion and ideas I spread today are carried by the rise of Chinese society --The so-called "study abroad model", "life planning", and "China opportunities" that I promote in this book and all previous works, if there is no reform and opening up, they will lose their due social value and moral foundation.

If there were no great historical changes in China, as an overseas Chinese, even if I was lucky enough to achieve great success in Canada, I would still feel that my personal dignity and emotions are being controlled by others in the Edmonton Westside shopping mall. Miserable state! Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world; the rise and fall of China is a matter of self-knowledge. So, I couldn't wait to turn on the computer and surf the Internet. As usual, I first browsed the news from the motherland, and then read the student letters from New Oriental. As always, I entered the job that fascinated me the most: providing education and career development consultation for Chinese students .

It was on the morning of this New Year's Day that I wrote more than 10,000 words in a row.The longest correspondence in this book, "Ideological Enemies Killed", was completed in one go on this day. I have to write, and there is something in my heart that drives me to keep writing—I know that in this era of passion and passion, my words are not only the reflection of the passion of this era, but also the reflection of the passion of this era. The fire burns! New Oriental has built a torrent of steel for China's study abroad movement with its training business; and I dream of casting a spiritual fortress for the development of young people's life with hard work and words.Sunshine, raging fire, torrent, fortress... The heavy snow can't cover it, it is the land in my heart, and on that land, a generation of romantics who performed passionately and competed with each other.

April 28, 2003