Old City Stories

Author: Lin Haiyin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: The life in Beijing during childhood, where the family resided in the southern part of the city—home to the Old Beijing. Father's love for moving often led to frequent relocations, with the green-clad postal carriers being the main source of information about good housing. The lanes we lived in, such as Chunshu Hutong, Xinqianzi Hutong, Hufangqiao, and Liangyuan, were all part of the southern scenery of Beijing. Lin Haiyin, a renowned Taiwanese writer, is celebrated in literature for works like Old Capital Days. Lin Haiyin, also known by her childhood name Yingzi, was originally from Miaoli County, Taiwan Province. Born on March 18, 1918, in Dairen, Japan, she soon moved with her family to Taiwan under Japanese occupation. Her father, unwilling to live under the iron heel of the Japanese invaders, relocated the family to Beijing, where young Yingzi grew up. Lin Haiyin is a Beijing native even more Beijinger than the Beijingers themselves. She deeply cherishes her second hometown, Beijing, calling the twenty-five years she spent there a golden era, one that could reflect the glaze of the Forbidden City's tiles. The high hutongs and siheyuan (traditional courtyard houses) of Beijing, the donkeys at the foot of the Western Hills, and the camels with bells around their necks—all these images inspired her creativity. Mr. Shen Jiguang, a photographer, was willing to accompany the author on a revisit to the southern part of the city, using his camera to capture fragments of the ancient city: the few drooping branches of the Dakuo tree, the withered leaves left in the tile rows, the shop signs on the street-side shops that had been covered over, the (: door latch) of half a courtyard gate, and the idle flower pots on rooftops, as well as the winter snow clinging to the imperial city walls.
(Note: The term "" was not translated as it appears to be a proper noun or a culturally specific term. If it refers to a specific place or object, it should remain untranslated.)