I have never lived in Heaven.
On a summer afternoon,I decided to quit a superior job and a comfortable life and go abroad 520yd.com made up a story that I would go marry an American guy,so all my friends believed it was an American congres**an that made me so desperately 520yd.com,frankly,I had met a senior 520yd.comntative and we became good 520yd.com handsome gentleman was a sentimental lover and I was obsessed so much,as his love,social status and wealth were all so 520yd.com did speak different languages with distinctive cultural backgrounds,but still,I tried to love and be 520yd.com exchanged love letters translated by my secretary,and affections were born from these letters.I started to yearn for a strange and distant country the United States of 520yd.com I got to Honolulu,a sort of grand atmosphere and sound released my 520yd.com,at that moment,was as thin as a wisp of nostalgia.I was a bit hesitated,but that could not prevent my crying in the heart:I was to get married!
But who had expected that I was to marry a wonderful land in the paradise?
The long road for Heaven was tough,as if time did not have wings and steps were not accompanied by 520yd.com the feeling of a half journalist and a professional writer,I was wandering around in the paradise.I would love to speak with an academic tone,but when I expressed my feelings,I was actually a sentimental poet.
This paradise had never been hard and cold.I met a group of great Americans on the way to it.I got to know their feelings about life,trying to touch upon the roots of Americans,their society and culture,sensibility and ***,religion and family,wealth and love...All this was appealing to me and tempting me to go further,just like rocks and sea breeze touching the land gradually.I was an untrained singer hearing echoes of my singing in an open 520yd.com I was stepping closer and facing the country,I was pretty sure that I was in love 520yd.com may not be important that whether I was close to the real paradise,as I said in a poem:“When I exchanged time with Heaven,I belonged to the genuine paradise.”
美国人绝不会在破碎中破碎，也不会在虚无中掏空。真实、奔放、热烈——美国人崇尚英雄。
I could never walk out of America's passion when I was surrounding by the romantic ocean.I saw the beauty of a substantial life.I was trying to look at the root of the society and culture of the United States,including its history,geography,survival principles and 520yd.com modern ways met old ones,this country played its own melody at a rhythm reflecting the true color of the United States.
The Americans would never be beaten in the crash,and nor would they be emptied in the 520yd.com Americans cherished love and respected heroes,which could be told from two popular souvenirs in New York after the terrorist attacks:clothes printed with“GDNY”and basketball caps（520yd.com W Giuliani,the mayor of New York City liked wearing a basketball cap and worked at World Trade Center ground 520yd.com respected mayor was tortured by cancer,but still worked in the front line.）I had many interactions with the city and the people,among which were people had worked in the Trade Center.I got the first-hand materials on unknown stories of Chinese people in the 520yd.com I didn't talk about them.I just mentioned that an American read Byron Rufus Newton's poem（1906）loudly facing the ground zero on the coastal areas.I was deeply moved by the fact that people were so close to their hearts when special events came.
American culture and society were 520yd.com culture might not be fine enough,but it would never disappoint you.A city had its own culture,as a land had its own 520yd.com that cannot be consistent with people's changing mind,though it also kept changing in a silent or an exaggerated 520yd.com I would like to do was to grasp a few feathers of thoughts in the drizzling breeze of American 520yd.com city was a cultural 520yd.com I was enjoying exquisite church concerts,the traditional and modern musicals echoed with a feeling of touching 520yd.com a senior community I felt the beauty of interactions between human and nature against the backdrop of a 520yd.com the moment,I tended to believe that these were all parts of culture.
The United States was actually very weak in some 520yd.com terrorists targeted the undersea tunnel in the city of New York,this metropolitan city would be paralyzed 520yd.com anthrax letters could cause great panic in the whole 520yd.com functional authority of the US government has been weakening since President 520yd.com management of prisons and the security checks in airports has been delegated to private 520yd.com this was not my focus of interest,as after all,I was not sociologist but a stranger among the moving crowds.I couldn't reach very deeply in the soul of the 520yd.com I found that the society and culture,from the perspective of a scholar,could awake humanity.
It touched the roots of 520yd.com happened in this country might not be definitely right or 520yd.com just stood in front of the world with a disguise of philosophy,and let you feel it with your heart and 520yd.comes it showed a sense of humor（like a comedy）and made you realize its natural 520yd.com would suddenly see the flora and fauna turning into a bird paradise.
Undoubtedly,it was a temptation heaven full of 520yd.com York City was the most qualified 520yd.com would shrink into a particle of dust surrounded by Manhattan's 520yd.com might be mired in abject poverty in the treasure 520yd.com would look back upon the Peal Harbor attack on the deck of the Carrier 520yd.com would likely become a media of desire backed with the hegemony of the world,which would just push you to the limit to exert yourself.
The United States,in some way,was a country where you could cherish your dreams 520yd.comns were stumbling through reality full of 520yd.com was the internal power of life that made people quit or 520yd.comn men preferred letting you know their love and passion directly with all emotional 520yd.comn women were able to explore many opportunities and accomplish achievements under men's 520yd.com social life of the upper class showed ambition and desire in an elegant way,like notes intoned in a 520yd.com was unlikely that you could be uninfluenced or not 520yd.com could not be exempt from desire and 520yd.com far as the whole country is concerned,the United States grew up to be a hegemony power after World War 520yd.com country's development told 520yd.com Kennan,the laureate of Nobel Peace Prize,expressed his opinions to the Congress in 1948:“We have about 50%of the world's wealth,but only 6.3%of its population...we cannot fail to be the object of envy and 520yd.com task...is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity...we should cease to talk about...unreal objectives such as human rights,the raising of living standards,and democratization...”
Americans'desire was peaceful 520yd.com had the heritage of the Fire God Mauike in Polynesians'myth 520yd.com country was a fairy tale created by its people,which showed a power that was“through flowers”(Judy Chicago),a power of women and children in a men's world.
A woman looking at a nation's culture would most likely take a maternity perspective.I was searching for American women's roots,and suddenly found that women here were a kind of religion,a truth and brilliant power beyond time and 520yd.com I got closer to the upper class in this country,I was getting to know 106-year-old 520yd.com Mei-ling,widow of Chiang Kai-shek（late President of Kuo Min Tang),520yd.com Annan's wife,520yd.com Chen Chennault,520yd.com Lee Chen,and 520yd.com-Sai 520yd.com,of course,could not represent all American women,but their life stories were epitome of women life in the 520yd.com American women might not ask for so many detailed things as Chinese women did,they were working hard in taking care of their families as 520yd.com believed that life,for women,was beyond political,art and all tangible 520yd.com had the very ideal substance.I passionately mentioned a love story between a 50-year-old woman professor and her 20-year-old boyfriend.I met a great 520yd.com had lost two sons in wars and gone through various hardships,but still,she managed to lead a brilliant 520yd.com were many women movements in the U.S.,but among various principles and theories of women rights protection campaigns and women-study groups,there were two main genres:the theory of essence and the theory of 520yd.com“cultural sedimentation”or“male's traps”,American women's status could always reveal their capability and 520yd.comn culture genteelly created a level playing field for women so that they would have opportunities to shape their own styles and 520yd.com were able to away from the binding of an external form of family and rest in a free world of home.
《走进美国华裔名人的家》是作者第18部书。新书首发式时，美国第一位华人女市长陈李婉若专程从美国洛杉机飞来广州亲临首发式现场，并参加签售仪式。
行走于美国，不仅写了两部书，还拍摄了一部“走进美国华裔名人家”的纪录片，由上海电视台纪实频道播出。被打扰得够呛的这26位美国华裔名人，因采访而相识，因理解而成为朋友。
这是作者在美国拍摄的27集专题片。图为宣传海报。
There were still the roots of the sense of family in the U.S.,but I could not give a full explanation of the connotations of American“family”.Family was the origin of Chinese people's life,the start and end of life 520yd.comr we Chinese stopped,walked away,left hometown,or rest under a roof,family was always in our 520yd.com the United States,the biggest unstableness was the absolute freedom that could not be bound by blood relationships and family love.I was staying in different American families to feel the American characteristics of“family”,and I compared that with Chinese concept of“family”in a sentimental way.
People were relying on family as plants on 520yd.comns seldom said that they would like to spend the retired life in their 520yd.com“leaves fallen to the land”had unique philosophical meaning 520yd.com the very start to the end,then it was the other way round.“Family”served as a means as well as a goal,which was pretty much like the Zen's thought:virtually unified.
520yd.com Gates,the richest man in the world,has$8.3 billion worth of 520yd.com has based the headquarters of Microsoft in Seattle,the CEO's 520yd.com attachment to Seattle is greater than that to the 520yd.com said that Seattle is his hometown and he couldn't be separated from it,as this place has raised him with the water in Washington 520yd.com the rich man's home is just besides the lake.
美国的欲望是一种平静的火。
两个黑人青年去一个华人开的士多店喝冷饮，老板说了一句：“黑也漂亮”。黑人青年回了一句：“黄也来劲”。
Many American senior people would rather move out of their houses and live in senior care 520yd.com might pass away in a strange apartment peacefully.I once stood in front of the tomb of General Zhang Xueliang and his 520yd.com was such a simple tomb that could even make me sad.I could never imagine that General Zhang Xueliang was rest in peace here for 520yd.com any sense of 520yd.com 520yd.com 520yd.com General had left the world in a truly simple 520yd.com I suffered from insomnia for quite a long time until I decided to do something about it.I went to pay a call to General Zhang's son in San Francisco,and thought about establishing a General Zhang Xueliang's Fund to buy his old 520yd.com I was busy working on it,I suddenly found out that General Zhang had not got an old house in Hawaii,and he had been living in a senior care center till the end of his 520yd.com reminded me that he had been very much like an 520yd.com catholic was probably tracing for a simple and elegant 520yd.com't it a noble and reserved sensibility?Maybe it was true that Chinese people were used to keep things inside,and would not express the deep feelings to other people 520yd.com had a root in Chinese long history and 520yd.com the U.S.,making things known was a way to offering kindness to people surrounding 520yd.com word“family”in the context of American culture would be a mixture of internal and external 520yd.com like a sincere person did not need to talk about integrity all the time,an outspoken nation had its own custom of being 520yd.comn“family”was a combination of sense and sensibility.
I was crazily looking at and touching this country with an internal motivation,as if I were to marry in a Heaven and devote my life to it.I was uttering crazy talks in the grope for American roots,and got intoxicated by different views and scenarios on the road to the 520yd.com finally,I wrote down my feelings and understanding of all this with a woman's sincere words of poem.
I loved this country when I was getting closer and closer to it,and then tried to forget it in 520yd.com under the wings of desire,I had forgot my status as a passenger and lived through dreams that could not have been imagined before.
When I stepped on the stairs of the plane back to Hong Kong,I reached out hands to that Congres**an still in love.I felt so grateful and told myself in the heart:
You are my pearl and my dirt,
I have been misled into a great feast on my way to a mirage,
The tenacity of the paradise has been broken,
I have gone through the bright of flowers,
Farewell!Though it is the least appropriate time
Xiaoye Xiuzi
September 7th,2005
