Wang Meng Roams in American Literature

Author: Cui Jianfei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-09-01
Features: This is certainly my fortune. Since the reform and opening-up, I have had the opportunity to visit so many places. In China, apart from Anhui and Qinghai, I have left my footprints in all provinces, cities, and regions, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Abroad, in Europe, I have visited Germany, Italy, the UK, France, Austria, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, and Greece. In the Americas, I have been to the US, Canada, and Mexico. In Asia, I have traveled to Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Georgia, and Africa (Algeria), Morocco, and Egypt. In Oceania, I have visited Australia and New Zealand. All these places are recorded in my travel history.
This is an opportunity to step out of your familiar environment. Exaggeratedly speaking, you leave a part of yourself behind—your mental and emotional patterns, and your knowledge limitations. You gain a reference point, see the world, broaden your horizons, and acquire knowledge and experiences that you wouldn’t normally get or even imagine. You try to contemplate issues from different perspectives.
Not to mention the breathtaking mountains and waterfalls, lakes and oceans, forests and grasslands, cities and villages; the enchanting churches, temples, museums, art galleries, monuments, palaces, statues, fountains, roads, airports, docks, skyscrapers, and ordinary homes. You immerse yourself in the richness and wonder of the world, confronting the traces left by long history. You realize you should discard the mindset of clinging to the old, being opportunistic, narrow-minded, or parochial. You gain experience and poetry. You find comfort and breadth of mind. You get rest and enlightenment. Your eyes are wide open, and your arms are extended. You grow to love your hometown and your country even more, and you cherish and treat kindly the world you and your ancestors and descendants inhabit—not just a world of hardship and division.
Having visited so many places, I have written only a little. The reason is my habit of not writing about things immediately after experiencing them. I prefer to write about subjects after they have settled and been digested. I hope to have more opportunities in the future to write about my travels. How I wish to be a fortunate traveler, providing readers with more inspiring and thought-provoking insights.