After reading Yu's A Journey to Europe, Mr. Yu is a cultural scholar, especially good at describing the experience of traveling places with words and cultural imprints. The most attractive thing about this book is that it compares the culture of China in every place at the same time. For example, Aeschylus, a Greek dramatist, mentioned that he and Confucius were contemporaries, which brought China people closer at once, which was wonderful.

I read in this book:

I read interesting things about Olympia; I know that the ancient city of Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. In the year of the disaster, Pliny Sr was writing natural history, Wang Chong of China was writing Lun Heng, and Ban Gu was writing Han Shu.

I read what happened in Salzburg. Because of Mozart, a "musical prodigy", Salzburg became a "city of music".

I read the unforgettable friendship between Goethe and Schiller in Weimar.

I read an interesting story about the "student prison" of Heidelberg University. I learned about Max Weber, the pirate culture in Norway, and the entanglement and development between Oxford and Cambridge.

Mr. Yu was the dean of Shanghai Theatre Academy. His prose is very story-telling, and the scene changes naturally. When reading, he felt like watching a movie.

I know for the first time that he didn't actually know it in a book. It was a poetry conference program of CCTV many years ago. When he was a judge, his comments were gentle and well-mannered, and they often hit the heart of the problem. I was deeply attracted and lamented that contemporary scholars still have such a scholarly style. Then one day I watched his Cultural Journey and couldn't put it down. It was also from this time that I began to want to know something about the history of China, so I read the Outline of National History by Qian Mu.

The link to reading is amazing. I believe that one day I will connect the words I have read in my mind and weave a new story.