Engraving (Self-Description by the Painter Wu Bide)

Author: Wu Bide
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Family is a person's shelter from the storm and a sanctuary for emotions, important to everyone, especially to children. Family is a cradle for nurturing children and a support for their growth. Although every family has different backgrounds, in a child's heart, it takes a father and a mother to make a family. In this sense, most people have a home, but I didn't. To be precise, I didn't have the concept of "home" when I was very young and didn't know where it was. I only knew that I was living in someone else's house. When anyone recalls their life, they invariably first remember their birthplace and the parents who gave them life. However, when I recall my life, I desperately search for memories of my birthplace and my parents, but my mind is hazy and unclear.
The dark system of the old society and the Japanese invasion of China brought immense disasters to the Chinese nation, but also brought a series of misfortunes to me, causing me to lose my family at an early age and be separated from my biological parents, becoming an orphan without help. The suffering of history left me permanent scars. My fragmented concept of home and childhood memories were all told to me by relatives when I was a bit older. I was born in 1926 in a Hui family in Shanghai. Where was my family's ancestral home? What did my grandfather do? No one told me, and I didn't know. I only heard that when my father was young, he worked as an apprentice in a jewelry store in Shanghai. Due to his diligence, eagerness to learn, and exceptional intelligence, he mastered the knowledge and skills of identifying jewelry, diamonds, jade, antiques, and calligraphy within a few years, quickly becoming a skilled clerk. The shop owner highly appreciated him, trusted him, and gave him important tasks to complete independently, such as delivering a valuable piece of jade or jewelry to a customer's home. Sometimes, he even accompanied the owner to send valuable antiques or jade to Japan. It was clear that he had earned the owner's great trust, and it was said that he later became a small shareholder in the antique store. However, misfortune struck. Once, the owner sent him to deliver a valuable item—a crystal ball—to Japan. During customs inspection in Japan, my father accidentally dropped the item, breaking it into two pieces and completely destroying its value, causing great losses to the shop. From then on, the owner no longer trusted him. Worse, the shop suffered heavy losses in a fire and was forced to close. My father lost his job completely. I was only two or three years old at the time, too young to understand anything.
After my father lost his job, the family's financial situation plummeted, and they became utterly destitute. With no choice, my father moved the entire family to Nanjing to live with my older aunt. My older aunt was from a wealthy family and had a daughter who worked as a judge in the court after graduating from university. Thanks to my father's beautiful calligraphy skills, introduced by my aunt's daughter, he secured a job at the Nanjing Local Court as a clerk. However, good times didn't last long. Soon after, my father contracted hepatitis and lost his job again. In the dire circumstances of poverty and illness, he couldn't even support me. Of course, he was even more afraid of passing the disease to me, so he entrusted me to my third aunt, who had a close relationship with him.
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