Caress Beijing (Beijing in the Pen of Contemporary Writers)

Author: Zou Zhongzhi
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
Features: In 1992, the Sanlian Bookstore published "Beijing Hu — Modern Writers' Depictions of Beijing," edited by Jiang Deming. The two volumes seem to have captured all the beautiful prose describing Beijing published between 1919 and 1949. Reading it, the changes in Beijing's urban landscape and social life over those three decades come to life vividly. The Hong Kong writer Ouyang Yingji brought a stack of reference books with him when he came north, and one of them was "Beijing Hu." Ouyang said, "Turning through the pages, the two volumes of 'Beijing Hu' are the best reading material to understand the somewhat distant old Beijing." I read "Beijing Hu" in 2001. After finishing it, I suddenly thought, more than fifty years have passed since 1949, yet I haven't seen a similar collection of prose that tells people about Beijing during this half-century. Coincidentally, my bookshelf and some of the books and magazines I've read contain articles on this topic, so I used them as a foundation and went to bookstores and spent time in libraries, collecting and selecting, until I finally had the book before you.
Introduction: As a continuation of "Beijing Hu — Modern Writers' Depictions of Beijing" (edited by Jiang Deming, Sanlian Bookstore, 1992), this book selects 42 pieces of prose and essays by 34 contemporary writers and scholars talking about Beijing. Divided into seven sections, it discusses the historical changes in Beijing's overall landscape, shares impressions and feelings about specific areas, laments the gradual disappearance of cultural landmarks like hutongs and temples, or portrays daily life in siheyuan and dachayuan. It reflects on the painful memories of hunger and the Cultural Revolution, or recounts the joys and sorrows of traveling and eating in Beijing. It is both a remembrance of the past and an exploration of the present, concerning the history and fate of a city, and reflecting the winds and vicissitudes of an era.