Ode to Guangzhou: Feeling and Promise of Liang Fenglian Editor’s Notes

It is difficult for people to express their feeling and love for a city by writing and sublime the feeling and love to a warmly humanistic feeling that has an influence on most people. If you read Ode to Guangzhou： Meeting or Missing and Ode to Guangzhou： Feeling or Promise written by Liang Fenglian， you will find that things will be different if you really love a city and are looking forward to a real and optimal life.

The author’s writing， without fancy or pretentions words or unconstrained euphuism， deeply， attracts readers. Between the lines， readers can really feel and figure out that the author， who is mild， gentle and elegant， must be always supported by boundless， strong and sincere feeling. Such feeling definitely comes from her Guangzhou complex and artistic conception of south China that flows deep in her heart.

Living in Guangzhou， a metropolis that is becoming more and more internationalized， most people involuntarily join the gorgeous world， which seems understandable， for there are so many showy things to bewilder people. However， how many people could introspect the degradation and loss of their nature and simplicity？ Instead， most people tend to vent on inconstancy of human relationships or complain about the world that develops too fast. The author is different from those people. She always uses words to interrogate and introspect her soul for fear that she would be lost in the prosperous metropolis full of noisy and abundant materials as time goes by. Besides， she never blames the surrounding environment and multifarious social situations for affecting her. You cannot help but wonder： what kind of person might she be and what about her perseverance and personal integrity of literature？

Instead of just writing for sake of writing， the author shows her most sincere love and care for Guangzhou. She says “From Tianhe to Haizhu and from Jinan Park of Jinan University to Kangle Garden of Zhongshan University， the two new roads in different directions all go into rapture as vehicles are running”. Roads with traffic jam， which is detested by most people， become endearing with sentiment in her writing. In her eyes， everything in Guangzhou is pure and beautiful and the key is that people should clean up the dust in their hearts.

The author’s feeling for Guangzhou is simple and sincere， which can be seen in her words “The world has become a low-lying land gathering sound， color， taste and feeling of old districts of Guangzhou and served as the source of lasting appeal for Guangzhou. Hot and rainy seasons endow the city with water color. Cobweb-shaped streets become the city’s blood vessels. People who make great efforts to earn a living are the skeleton of the city. Living conditions of households are like the bodies whose changes can be touched and sensed”. It can then be seen that Guangzhou is just like what she described in the book “It is not just a place or an area， but a living life”.

The author’s feeling for Guangzhou is natural and strong. Sentences with feeling like “I lean close to the days and nights of the small lane as if it was my mother” can be found here and there in Ode to Guangzhou. Those natural sentences make people touched and warm. She also has strong feeling for the city even when she takes a round trip between Guangzhou and other cities， which can be seen in her writing “Suddenly， I have to say goodbye to the city， memory and experience related to the city， and possible life and destiny. It seems that I have to depart from you， a person that is real in fanciful and virtual world， forever without any preparation. All complex feelings and relations are the results of wrong time and manner. All accumulated worries and concerns suddenly turn into simple choices， namely with relation or without relation and leaving or returning. There is no any other possibility and even hesitance and advance and retreat”. Her natural complex feelings reflect that she is painful and reluctant to leave the city. Such feelings can be compared with that of a person who says goodbye to his/her dear mother before a long trip. Can you still doubt the author’s impelling love for Guangzhou？

In author’s eyes， Guangzhou is just like the water in the Pearl River that is mild and warm. “The name of a river has been concerned and gently stroked by time. I don’t know the direction of my blood vessel. When I become sedate with time and when my hometown is involved several times between the lines， I begin to understand that mother river， the Pearl River， has been flowing through my life and its love and care have been incorporated into the samsara of time and date….”

Ode to Guangzhou is another literary expression for her love to becaus of her status and quality， as a researcher of south China and her nature，features of Guangzhou culture and artistic conception of culture in south China are added to book.