Shanghai childhood Bai Xianyong I first arrived in Shanghai in the spring of 1946, the second year after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. I was only nine years old at that time, and I lived in Shanghai for two and a half years until I left in late autumn of 1948.But that period of childhood was very meaningful to my life.I remember the first time I went to the "Big World" and stood in front of the "distorting mirror". I couldn't stop laughing when I saw in the mirror that I was fat, thin, tall, short, and strange.Looking at the world in childhood is probably like the impression reflected by a "distorting mirror", exaggerated many times.Shanghai is already big, and when children see Shanghai, it is even bigger.Shanghai after the war was a world of flowers and flowers, like a gigantic kaleidoscope, turning it around casually, showing a variety of tricks.

"International Hotel" was known as the tallest building in the Far East at the time, but it was actually only 24 floors, but at that time I really felt that the top floor of the hotel was about to reach the sky, and when I looked up, my hat would fall off in dust.I have never seen so many high-rise buildings gathered in one city. The four major companies on Nanjing Road-Yongan, Xianshi, Xinxin, and Daxin are like four peaks facing each other across the street. Places with dense high-rise buildings will be upgraded. People's emotions, visiting the four major companies was an exciting experience in my childhood in Shanghai.The department stores in Wing On Company, layer by layer, are dazzling and colorful, and they seem to be shining. It is a magical fairy tale world with endless changes, just like the "seven heavens" of Wing On Company, even the sky has seven layers.I stepped on the escalator and slowly ascended into the air. At that time, the only escalator in the country was that of Daxin Company. It was a sky ladder, carrying my childhood dreams to the "Rooftop 16" of Daxin Playground. scene".

Back then, the movie theaters in Shanghai were also the first-class in the country. The red velvet carpet of "Da Guangming" was two inches thick, and it was spread all the way to the upper floor. It was soft when walking on it, and there was no sound at all.At that time, Shanghai's first-round theaters "Maggie", "Cathay", and "Carlton" were dedicated to showing Hollywood western films, and they were staged in "Da Guangming". Jing'an Temple Road was so crowded that cars could not pass. Learned from Hollywood movies. "Carlton" has an English name called Carlton. It is an elegantly decorated, small and exquisite theater. I only watched a movie there once, which was "Sweet Girl" starring "Beauty with Jade Legs" Betty Gramper. "Carlton" is now the "Yangtze River Theater" on Nanjing West Road. Unexpectedly, decades later, in 1988, the stage play "A Dream in the Garden" written by myself was also staged at the "Yangtze River Theater". Eighteen scenes, directed by Shanghai "Qinghua" director Hu Weimin.

At that time, Zhou Xuan's songs were playing everywhere in Shanghai."The moon is full and the flowers are good" in every family, and "Phoenix is ​​flying" in every household. Some of the lyrics of the songs I listened to when I was a child will never be forgotten: There are no flowers in Shanghai. When everyone goes to Longhua, the peach blossoms in Longhua can’t go home! Probably influenced by Zhou Xuan's song "Longhua's Peach Blossom", I always thought that Longhua was rich in peach blossoms. When I returned to Shanghai in 1987, I paid special attention when visiting Longhua. I didn't see any peach blossoms. The peach blossoms in Zhou Xuan's era have long since disappeared. disappeared.

Ye Shanghai, Ye Shanghai, you are a city that never sleeps. The lights are up, the car sounds, and the singing and dancing are peaceful. This Zhou Xuan's most famous "Night Shanghai" probably also quite truly reflects the mood of Shanghai after the war.At that time, the neon lights on Xiafei Road did not go out all night, and the city of Shanghai was never open at night. In fact, I lived in the western suburbs of Shanghai for the first year, confinement in a small German-style house on Hongqiao Road to recuperate, and rarely went to downtown Shanghai. In the second year, I moved to Bixun Road in the French Concession and began to return to school. It was only when I was studying in Model Primary School that I really saw Shanghai, but my childish eyes are like a camera, as long as I see it, I will take a picture of it with a click and archive it in my memory.Although in a short period of time, I am afraid that thousands of "Shanghai impressions" have been imprinted in my mind, and I have hurriedly photographed the last touch of prosperity in an old era that is about to end.Later, after going to university in Taiwan, I began to write my first novel "Grandma Jin", which was about Shanghai stories. Later, when I came to the United States, I began to write the first novel of my collection of novels, "Forever Yin Xueyan". People and things in Shanghai, and "International Hotel" was also included.Another series of my novels titled "The New Yorker", the first one "The Legend of the Immortals" is also about a group of Shanghai girls studying in the United States. This novel was adapted into a movie "The Last Nobleman" by director Xie Jin At the beginning, there was a shot of the Bund in Shanghai.These are probably not accidental, but my "Shanghai childhood" is gradually brewing and fermenting. Those old photos stored in the memory archives are pieced together and began to arrange a series of joys and sorrows in life, and the background of the photos is always the same as back then. of Shanghai.The publication of my prose collection by Wenhui Publishing House this time can be said to be a commemoration of my "Shanghai childhood". It is logical that my book can be published in Shanghai.