Route------Collection of Liu Xiaoqing

Author: Liu Xiaoqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: "Being a person is hard. Being a woman is hard. Being a famous woman is even harder. Being a single famous woman is the hardest of all." This sentence has almost become Liu Xiaoqing's motto for highlighting her uniqueness. In the book, she reflects on her 30-year turbulent journey, including her "tax evasion case," "divorce case," and her love life.
Excerpt:
Maintaining Youth
Youth is not a period in life but a mental state. You can be young with hope and old with despair; you can be young with confidence and old with doubt and fear; you can be young with a modern, proactive mindset and an active mind, and old with stagnation, hesitation, and a rigid mentality. Therefore, aging can be delayed, and youth can be preserved.
The first ten or twenty years of a hundred-year life are often in a state of confusion. The true awakening and appreciation of youth are already scarce, so how to delay aging and maintain youth becomes a lifelong pursuit.
In reality, external youth is important, but it is far less significant than a youthful mental state. If you only focus on mirrors, meticulously counting every wrinkle, eye bag, or strand of white hair, and spend all day applying makeup without nurturing your mind and temperament, then let me tell you, you won’t just become younger.
We often see people with smooth skin and few wrinkles, yet you still feel they are not young. I once had a friend who, during conversations, always made me feel as if he lived in the 1950s. I didn’t need to ask his age. He felt like a living fossil, though he still appeared majestic and strong.
Take my sister, for example. Growing up with a troublemaking sister like me, she long suffered from low self-esteem about her appearance. I told her that looks don’t matter—really, they don’t. What matters is mindset, feelings, knowledge, and temperament. After listening to me, she went to France. During her five years there, she gradually became lively, cheerful, healthy, athletic, and full of vitality. While I was on vacation in France, she often succeeded more than I did in various social settings.
Youth is a feeling, a combination. Most Chinese people focus only on faces and not on figures, only on skincare and not on necks, which easily reveal age. They dress elaborately but possess a sorrowful, complaining soul.
I have always been criticized for being too straightforward, unreserved, and introverted, leading people to conclude that I lack culture and refinement, calling me crazy. Yet I have always felt like a ray of sunshine. I always believed the sky was blue, the sun was brilliant, and life was accidental for me. I even approached everything with gratitude: life, body, mind, earth, grass—I marveled at the creator’s wonder: how could so many diverse people exist! The human body is truly miraculous! To keep you alive, the creator gave you appetite; to let you reproduce, the creator gave you sex drive.
And we humans can think, go to the moon, build planes and rockets, make movies, and even come up with theories like "New Wave," "New Generation," and "Stream of Consciousness," debating them endlessly. Nature is also full of animals with us: lions, elephants, little dogs, and all with their own predators! When one substance overflows, another will arise to balance the earth.
This world is so orderly yet bustling with life! There are so many challenges to test you, making it difficult to achieve anything easily so you can fully enjoy the joy of success. If you get things too easily, you might lose them just as easily—be careful next time. Though dark clouds and thunderstorms may occasionally appear, everything will clear up afterward, and rainbows will appear to delight you. Blue skies and white clouds are absolute, while continuous rain is relative—they are deliberately created as different musical pieces to complement the beautiful and rich symphony of nature!
So, I love life. Because I love life, my heart is bright. I know that difficulties and setbacks are temporary, and no challenge is insurmountable. If one path doesn’t work, just take another—nothing is too serious. I feel myself getting younger and younger.
Life is like a stage, and we are all actors moving through it. Some play leading roles, some supporting roles—you can’t always be the main character, nor can you always be on stage. When you’re tired or have been performing for a while, take a break backstage, have a cup of tea, watch others perform, or reflect on your own performance. Then, when it’s time, return to the stage.
On this stage, everyone performs, in all sorts of ways—strange, colorful, and vibrant. Only then does the play become lively, exciting, enjoyable, and worth coming to this world for.
Remember: Never think you are old, because you are younger than what you will become. Once you start believing you are old, you already are. As long as your spirit is young, your body will follow. All illnesses stem from the heart. Let the past go. Seize the present, strive for the future, and don’t dwell on past regrets. Don’t do things beyond your ability or hold unrealistic dreams. Embrace life optimistically and enjoy its infinite joys.
Live by scientific methods, observe things with an artistic eye, and live with a smile. Fill your heart with love—love others, love yourself, love animals, love life, love nature. Love can smooth out every wrinkle on your face.
Go with the flow. Everything has its flavor when you follow the way of fate. "Man proposes, heaven disposes." As long as you do your best, that’s enough. Enjoy today, embrace tomorrow, refine your character, and maintain mental health—you will surely delay aging and preserve youth.