As for Zhang Ailing, we are familiar with her life in Shanghai and Hong Kong, her childhood, her study and her creative period. We don't know much about her life in America in her later years. After Zhang Ailing's death, her legacy was kept by her good friends Song Qi and his wife. After the death of the Song couple, their son Ichiro Song became the heir to Zhang Ailing's legacy. In recent years, with the help of Ichiro Song, Zhang Ailing's posthumous works have been published gradually, such as little reunion, Leifeng Tower and Yijing ... In the letters of Zhang Ailing and Song Qi, we gradually learned about Zhang Ailing's American life in her later years.
Recently, Ichiro Song compiled and published a book "Song Family Living Room", which introduced in detail the communication between parents and friends in the literary world, among which Zhang Ailing would not be absent. The newspaper was authorized to extract the economic situation of Zhang Ailing in her later years. We will find that Zhang Ailing's later years are not as embarrassing as everyone thinks. Friends who are interested in Zhang Ailing and the Song family can also pay attention to the new book release information at the end of the article.
Zhang ailing's American immigrant green card. According to the documents, she arrived in the United States at1955 65438+1October 22nd, and the location was Port No.26 in San Francisco 13.
After the death of Zhang Ailing, the executor Lin Shitong had to deal with two things. First, dispose of the remains. On September 30th, members of the funeral group Lin Shitong, Zhang Cuo and Zhang Xinsheng rented a boat in California to scatter ashes on the high seas, respecting their wishes and abiding by the law. Secondly, Zhang Ailing said in her will that everything she owned was given to Song Qi and his wife, including money and some relics.
So Lin Shitong went to Zhang Ailing's house to sort out the relics. The house is located at Room 206, Rochester Avenue 109 1 Los Angeles. According to Lin Shitong's description, "it is a straight walkway facing the elevator, with no windows on all sides and gray fluorescent lamps on all day." At the end, on the left, is the door where Zhang Ailing lives. As soon as I opened the door, the room was filled with gloomy air. I quickly opened all the windows ... there were many paper bags wrapped in different things on the ground, and there was a narrow camp bed against the wall by the door, covered with a blue-gray blanket when Zhang Ailing died. In front of the bed, there are TV sets, floor lamps and fluorescent lamps on the ground. The only folding table is on the east wall near the door, and there is a brown folding chair in the kitchen. These things have one thing in common, that is, they are portable and easy to take, including TV. She used to have a small one, only five or six inches, which was probably too small to see clearly. After moving, she bought a new one, bigger, more than ten inches, not heavy. Zhang Ailing bought a lot of light bulbs, because she was afraid of the dark and cold, and the lights and TV were always on. She once told me this habit,' Sometimes she is hypnotized by the sound of TV'. In the window facing north across the hall, there are a pile of paper boxes, which are writing desks. Zhang ailing sat on the carpet in front of this pile of cartons, writing her works ... nothing was hung on the wall, not even a calendar. Really a family. There are no books in Zhang Ailing's room except her own works and regular magazines. "
The last point is actually wrong, because there is Zhang Ailing's favorite Dream of Red Mansions and her husband Yala's autographed book in the room.
"In addition to the clothes hanging in the dressing room, there are all kinds of paper bags on the ground ... She never uses boxes, everything is bought temporarily, and she loses it when she moves. She doesn't use ordinary shoes. The only thing commonly used is rubber-soled bath slippers. She bought several big bags, all of which are new. If they are dirty, they will be thrown away. " In addition, Zhang Ailing rented a small warehouse three feet square in Koreatown to store things, all of which were paper bags.
Some people outside saw these descriptions and thought that Zhang Ailing was miserable in her later years. I think, as long as Zhang Ailing likes it, why should she be asked to live in a garden house, take a sports car, have a dog, eat abalone wings, wear famous brand fashion, carry noble handbags, wear a diamond ring and have plastic surgery? As far as I know, Zhang Ailing's love life should be blank after Yala died. That's understandable. Why does she have to have a partner? Without these, it must be bleak? You may think so, but as her article says, she wants you to "include me".
Personally, writer Chen Jiede recently published an article recalling his visit to my home a few years ago. She wrote: "The Song family now lives by Ichiro Song alone. All Zhang Ailing's documents and manuscripts are placed on a big table in the living room, plus a wall of Zhang Ailing or Zhang Ailing's works. There is no other furniture and decoration. " I don't feel that I have no wife and children at all, and my family is bleak. On the contrary, I like this life very much!
List of Zhang Ailing's relics presented by Lin Shi to Song Qi and his wife.
Lin Shitong divides the articles in Zhang Ailing's family into nine parts: First, the bank's financial and tax affairs need to be handled by lawyers, and the results will be reported in a special letter; 2. Furniture, including televisions, lampstands and tables. Third, clothes, including cosmetics; Four, letters, divided into Song Qi couples, relatives (aunt and brother) and other people's letters; 5. Manuscripts of works; 6. Identification certificate, including marriage certificate and citizenship certificate; Personal effects: glasses, dentures, etc. Eight, photos; Nine, books.
He wrote to ask my parents if they need to ship these things back to Hong Kong intact. He said that if all the boxes are packed and need customs inspection, they should go to the customs to collect them themselves. My parents replied that some ordinary things are not needed, such as desks, ladders, refrigerators and televisions. Finally, Lin Shitong shipped fourteen boxes of things, including books, photos, clothes, shoes, handbags, wigs, blankets and two boxes of manuscripts.
The blanket that Zhang Ailing used before her death was this blue-gray blanket (in fact, there was a blue-gray blanket above and three big brown blankets below).
During the period of 1997, my mother donated some manuscripts to the East Asia Library of the University of Southern California, including "Students and Teenagers are Not Cheap" (published in 2004), English version of "Flowers on the Sea" (later completed by Kong and published by Columbia University Press in 2005) and English version of "Shao Shuai" (20 14 9) in/.
At that time, my mother left some manuscripts in Zhang Ailing's relics at home. I wonder if it can be published. After my mother's death, I published them by hand, including Revisiting Border Town (2008), Tales from a Foreign Land (20 10), Leifeng Pagoda and Yijing (later translated into Chinese by Zhao Pihui and published on 20 10). Here's an anecdote. At that time, Sun Xiaoming, a student of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, came to the door and asked to read the Tower of Leifeng and the Book of Changes to finish his master's thesis. And I agreed. Unfortunately, Zhang Ailing messed up the covers of the two typed manuscripts. As a result, in his 2009 paper "Dream of Genius: A Preliminary Study of Zhang Ailing's Life and Writing in America", Leifeng Pagoda should be the Book of Changes, and the Book of Changes should be Leifeng Pagoda. But Sun Xiaoming was the first person to write these two books.
Lin Shitong also went to the bank to withdraw Zhang Ailing's deposit. Zhang Ailing has six accounts in the United States, such as Citibank, etc. Mr. Lin found 28 107.338+0 yuan dollars. Going to the bank to withdraw money is not based on a so-called will, because the bank will not transfer the entire account amount based on a piece of paper. To go through the formalities of Los Angeles Heritage Court, Lin Shitong needs to show his death certificate, confirm his will and confirm his executor. Upon completion, the court will issue an order to Lin Shitong to withdraw money from the bank. There are some claims that Lin Shitong did not withdraw the money through legal channels, so it has no legal effect. This statement is completely impossible. Banks don't just give people money. They only obey the instructions of the court.
Lin Shitong first remitted all the more than 28,000 US dollars from Zhang Ailing Bank to my parents, and listed the consumption list, including the expenses of black box car, refrigeration, cremation and chartered car, as well as the lawyer's fee for taking over the inheritance from the court, the cleaning fee for the rental unit, the handling fee, the telephone fee, the postage, the gas fee, the electricity fee, and the transportation fee for transporting things back to Hong Kong. Lin Shitong told me that the above expenses were estimated to be $ 1 1687.03, and my parents later remitted the expenses to him. Zhang Ailing has more than $28,000 in savings. At that time, the exchange rate between US dollar and Hong Kong dollar was about 7.75. Therefore, after Zhang Ailing's death, there were more than 200,000 Hong Kong dollars, which was neither too much nor too little at that time. Some people on the Internet say that she is so poor that she can only make a living by collecting paper. That's nonsense.
Not long after, Lin Shitong died. His wife is Japanese and suffers from Alzheimer's disease. It pains him to forget who he is, so he wrote a book. Who are you? He sent my parents a computer printout, which should not have been published. The postscript of the book is: "This is the story of a young couple in a big era. This is an unpleasant story about a man who can't study abroad, doesn't want to emigrate, marries a Japanese to resist Japan, thinks he is from China, not China, and wants to be patriotic. The story ends with the appearance of Alzheimer's disease. Like every couple, it is full of joys and sorrows, joys and sorrows. "
What I want to add is how much money Zhang Ailing has. Above, we say that Bank of America has more than $28,000, which is about17,000 after deducting the expenses after death. I have some correspondence between Zhang Ailing and her parents, in which financial reports are mentioned. My father bought some foreign currencies or time deposits for Zhang Ailing in Hong Kong. Countries with high interest rates and low inflation earn more money. My mother has opened many bank accounts in her own name in Hong Kong, some of which are managed by Zhang Ailing, but others are owned by my parents, my uncle Song and other relatives and friends. I don't know who owns the money, and the bank won't give me detailed information casually, because they can't reveal people's privacy for no reason, even children.
Here is a note with the date199665438+February 18. It's my mother's handwriting, with Zhang Ailing's English name E.Chang written on it, and the remaining amount of the "Green Book" (bank foreign currency deposit) is more than 320,000 US dollars. This is not legally recognized evidence, just a note. According to the exchange rate of that year, it was about 2.4 million Hong Kong dollars. If Zhang Ailing had brought this deposit back to China, she would have been a millionaire. Now Mo Yan has won the Nobel Prize in Literature of $6,543.8+0,000, and even teased him that he can't afford a house in Beijing. However, HK$ 654.38+09952.4 million in the Mainland (or Hong Kong) is not a small sum.
Having said that, I have probably sorted out the economic situation of Zhang Ailing in her later years.
Looking back at the letter attached to Zhang ailing's will, it probably means giving the rest of the money to my parents to take care of their health. The two of them were tortured by illness for many years, and the medical expenses actually far exceeded the money left by Zhang Ailing. Now that my parents are dead, those royalties will be used for other purposes.
In the letter attached to her will, Zhang Ailing said that she would "ask experts to translate" her works. Now her works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Czech, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese. In fact, foreign publishers signed contracts with Zhang Ailing's international agents and paid the translation fees themselves. Some of Zhang Ailing's English works translated into Chinese, such as The Pagoda of Leifeng, The Book of Changes and Jong Shuai, were paid by Zhang Ailing's royalties.
Since 2009, the Eileen Chang Memorial Scholarship of the University of Hong Kong has been awarded to a female undergraduate who came to Hong Kong from the mainland or Taiwan Province Province to study arts and humanities at the University of Hong Kong. So far, three mainland students and 1 Taiwan Province students have benefited. Scholarship of Hong Kong University is an important factor for Zhang Ailing to become a writer. Now scholarships can help female students with similar backgrounds as Zhang Ailing. I'm sure she will agree to this practice.
Zhang Ailing's five-year research plan starts from 20 1 1 and lasts for five periods every year. Three to five research projects will be selected for funding each session. The amount of funding for paper and writing creation is 50,000 yuan, and the amount of funding for documentary is100,000 yuan. In the past three years, 15 people have benefited. To implement this plan, money is the second, and the most important thing is the manpower paid by the publishing house [New Classic Culture, Qingma (Tianjin) Culture, Hong Kong and Taiwan Crown Publishing House], because the administrative affairs are heavy.
20 10 is the ninetieth anniversary of Zhang Ailing's birth. Hong Kong Baptist University held an international seminar on Zhang Ailing, which was attended by nearly 100 scholars. Later, she published a collection of essays, Zhang Ailing: Legend, Gender and Genealogy (edited by Lin Xingqian). Besides, the Baptist University awarded the first Zhang Ailing Painting Award for the series of activities to commemorate Zhang Ailing, including the first prize of HK$ 50,000, and later published the book Impression Zhang Ailing. The above activities are paid by Zhang Ailing's royalty income.
20 10 Peking University Centennial Lecture Hall held the "20 10 Beijing Eileen Chang Memorial Seminar", and scholars from all over the world gathered together, including Zhi 'an, Chen Zishan, Su Weizhen, Hao Yuxiang, Fu Lizhong, Ge Fei, Ma Jiahui, Fuhui Wu and Yang Lianfen. Zhang Ailing's previous pilot seminars always met with resistance and stopped, so this meeting is Zhang Ailing's first seminar in Chinese mainland, and it should be much easier in the future. This meeting was also paid by Zhang Ailing's royalty income, plus the help of the publishing house.
There is another anecdote. 20 10 Zhang ailing met a former reporter from Taiwan Province province when the symposium was held in Beijing. She apologized to me and said, "Sorry to disturb your mother. I called your mother to ask about the death of Zhang Ailing that year. I know it's very sad. " I didn't know my mother's mood at that time, and it suddenly dawned on me when I came back to see her diary. When my mother heard the bad news of Zhang Ailing's death, she made a note that day: "1September 9, 995, Mid-Autumn Festival, the countdown is 66 1 day. I was shocked to hear the bad news of Aileen. ), more than 40 years of old things come to mind ... All day long, the phone is endless, and I am extremely worried ... I can't solve the mystery of life and death. " She made a phone list in her diary-Ping (several times), Chen Xx of United Daily News and others in the press, "all want information". The "countdown to 66 1 day" in the letter refers to the day when Hongkong returned to China. After "extreme anxiety", she went to listen to the famous violin piece Meditation in the opera Tess by French composer Jules Massenet late at night to relieve stress and "strike a chord with me".