Cao Zikai

Author: Feng Zikai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: This book is a collection of Feng Zikai's essays. Feng Zikai's literary works are most familiar to people as his essays and sketches from the 1930s. These works transcend worldly prejudices, observing society and savoring life with an artistic mindset and philosophical reflections. From the ordinary and mundane, he discovered what others had not noticed, experienced what others had not experienced, and gained insights that others had not. Feng Zikai was formerly known as Feng Run or Feng Ren before changing his name to Zikai, under which he became known. He was from Chongde, Zhejiang (now part of Tongxiang), and studied painting in Japan in 1921, returning to Shanghai the following year to teach. In 1927, he published his first collection of cartoons (Zikai Cartoons). In 1928, he became an editor at Kaiping Publishing House, dedicating himself entirely to painting and writing from 1930 to 1937. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he taught at Guilin Normal School, Yishan Zhejiang University, and Chongqing National Art College. After the founding of New China, he served as the president of Shanghai Literature and Art Federation and as a standing committee member of the China Artists Association. His major works include the essay collections Yuan Yuan Chang Essay, Yuan Yuan Tang Zai Bi, Zikai Modern Essays, and more than ten other works, as well as the art collections Zikai Cartoons, You Sheng Painting Collection, and Painting Lu Xun's Novels, among others. He also wrote numerous academic treatises and translated works.
I am surnamed Feng. The surname Feng, as far as we know, is very rare. In my hometown of Shimenwan, it is "only this family," and outside, it is even rarer to hear of someone with the surname Feng. So when people ask my surname, they always say, "Rare, rare!" Because of this, I had a somewhat arrogant mindset as a child due to the implication of my surname. However, it wasn't just because the surname Feng was rare; it was also because in Shimenwan, there was only our family with the surname Feng, and only my father was a scholar-official. In Shimenwan, it seemed everyone believed that those with the surname Feng must be scholar-officials, and scholar-officials must be those with the surname Feng. I remember when I was young, my father's servant, Chu Laowu, took me to see a play and on the way said to me, "There is no second master in Shimenwan; only the Feng family is masters. You will become a master when you grow up, Feng master!"
With the abolition of the imperial examinations and my father's death, when I was ten years old, Huang Banxian, who did odd jobs, once told my older sister one night, "There is a Feng official in the rice store at Xinqiao Bridge. I don't know where he is from." My sister and mother were very surprised and asked Huang Banxian to find out that night whether he was indeed surnamed Feng and where he was from, implying that they doubted there could be a second Feng family and that he might be an imposter. Huang Banxian returned and said, "He is indeed surnamed Feng, the 'Feng' in 'raising jade balls requires abundance.' He says he is from Xiaqiao." My sister, holding a long cigarette pipe, said, "Could it really be? Or is it the 'Shi Tang' in 'Gao, Bao, Shi, Tang'?" But she didn't pursue it further. Later, when I traveled to Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Tokyo, I had no friends with the same surname. The surname Feng was indeed only mine. However, no matter how much I tried to act arrogantly, I couldn't bring out any special traits associated with the surname Feng. To this day, I still live the same way as those without the surname Feng, and I have never become a scholar-official, only to repeatedly cause trouble because of the peculiarity of the surname: When people ask my surname, I say, "My surname is Feng," and they always ask for clarification or mishear it as "Feng." In hotels, at the city gates, even the night police suspect I made it up, saying, "There is no such surname!"
Recently, on the Ning-Shao steamship, a moneylender taught me a very simple way to explain it: When I boarded the ship and entered my cabin, there was already this fat moneylender inside. As usual, he asked me, "What is your surname?" I said, "Feng, the Feng of Emperor Xianfeng." Perhaps because the times were too far apart, he couldn't remember Emperor Xianfeng at once, and he was confused. I traced the character "Feng" in the air with my finger and said, "The Feng in 'bountiful harvest.'" Since the phrase "bountiful harvest" is not commonly used in moneylending, he had never heard of it before. He was still confused, so I took out a pencil and wrote the character "Feng" on a cigarette case for him to see. He seemed to suddenly understand and said, "Ah! Yes, yes, the Feng of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation!"