1924 In April and May, Tagore visited Beijing, and Lin's talent was once again shown to the society. Tagore just got Nobel Prize in Literature before his visit to China. He is the first writer in the East to wear this laurel, and he enjoys a high reputation in the world literary world. The poet Weng was invited to give lectures in Beijing, which was regarded as a great event by China cultural circles at that time. Liang Qichao, Lin Changmin and others are leaders of learning society. Xu Zhimo, a disciple of Liang and a forgetful friend of Lin, served as an interpreter. Running errands, too. He is responsible for the specific contact in advance, and then accompanied the whole process. From April 12 to May 30, Tagore visited Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Jinan, Beijing, Taiyuan, Hankou and many other cities for fifty days, covering half of China, but Xu Zhimo never left. On April 23, as soon as Tagore arrived in Beijing, he went to the station to attend the welcome and reception.
On 25th, she followed her father, accompanied Tagore to visit Beihai, visited Songpo Library, and went to Jingxinzhai for a tea party with Liang Qichao and Hu Shi.
On 26th, Lin, Xu Zhimo and others accompanied Tagore to visit Fayuan Temple in the suburbs of Beijing and watch lilacs.
On the 27th, she accompanied Tagore to visit the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City and visited Puyi, this time as an interpreter. In the evening, I accompanied him to a banquet hosted by Tagore in the Beijing literary circle.
On 28th, she and Liang Sicheng accompanied Tagore to Xiannongtan to meet Beijing students. Xu Zhimo is a translator.
On 29th, accompanied Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo, Wang Tongzhao, Yan Huiqing and others to visit Tagore. Attend the welcome party of Beijing painting circle in Guizhou Guild Hall before noon. Attend Johnston's reception in the afternoon.
Later, accompanied by Ding Xilin, Hu Shi and others, Lin attended a tea party to welcome the Tagore family in Ling Shuhua's private residence.
For many days, Lin's accompanying schedule has been full.
Lin, Xu Zhimo and Tagore are all in Beijing 1924.
Tagore's encounter with Beijing students is vividly described in Wu Yong's History of the Temple of Heaven: "Miss Lin is gorgeous as a flower, walking hand in hand with an old poet, and Xu Zhimo in a white robe is on a suburban island, like a picture of three friends of loose bamboo. Xu Zhimo's translation uses the most beautiful rhetoric in China's vocabulary. It is a small poem spoken in Shi Xia Mandarin and listened to in a waterfall. " Because of the vivid description, this passage is widely circulated, so the location is also misrepresented in the Temple of Heaven. Some biographies exaggerate as "there are a sea of people in front of the Temple of Heaven." Another biography is rendered in ink: "The wind chimes on the cornices of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year, like running water, shake down the silence of a copper sound, like a lofty Brahma, flying from the sky." Tagore's lecture was originally held in the dome of the Temple of Heaven, but considering that many students are not very rich economically and the tickets for the Temple of Heaven are expensive, he temporarily changed to the Xiannong altar, which does not charge tickets. On the same day, the Morning Post published a notice to change the venue of the lecture. The next day, the Morning Post reported in detail the lecture at the Xiannongtan: "At 2 pm, countless male and female students drove or walked into the altar, and it was very crowded along the way. The forum is located in Dongtan (the former site of Yipin Tea Party), surrounded by audiences, as many as 2,000 to 3,000 people. Representatives from various academic organizations in Beijing gathered at the altar, and the Lubo Society of Tianjin also sent representatives to Beijing to welcome them. At 3: 05, the Taishi arrived and got off the bus in front of the altar as a guide, with his secretaries En, Ge Ling, Lin, Wang and Liang Sicheng as companions. "
On May 8th, Shi Weng's 64th birthday, the reception of Tagore was promoted to * * *, and the Beijing cultural circle celebrated his birthday with Concord Auditorium. Hu Shi presided over the celebration. The main contents are as follows: First of all, Liang Qichao gave him a Chinese name "Zhu Zhendan" on behalf of everyone and gave him a seal of "Zhu Zhendan". Secondly, intellectuals performed Taion's poem Chitra in English. Before the start of the play, a human figure was specially designed: Lin was dressed in ancient costumes, holding a childish and lovely child (Huang's six-year-old son) and looking up at the bright moon in the upper left corner. Beautiful silhouette in the spotlight, novel and dazzling. The audience brightened up and immediately applauded. I didn't live up to the ingenuity of my colleagues in Crescent Society and made a wonderful publicity for myself. The synopsis of the plot is that Princess Zetra, the leading actor, is superb in martial arts and handsome. She meets Prince Ajuna in the mountains and falls in love at first sight. Although she made many meritorious deeds, she was not welcomed by the prince, so she prayed to God for her beauty, and finally she was able to marry the prince with a good face. However, Zetra regretted losing her original appearance after marriage, just as the prince praised the reputation of the princess next door in conquering thieves. He doesn't know that the princess he likes is his wife. Zetra once again begged the goddess of love to restore her ugly face. The prince was very surprised and was immediately surprised. In the romantic happy ending, the curtain slowly falls.
Lin plays the heroine Zetra.
The play is directed by Zhang, set by Liang Sicheng and played by Lin as the heroine Zeta. All the other characters are celebrities: Hugh Ho Chang plays Prince Junna, Xu Zhimo plays Madana, the goddess of love, and Lin Changmin plays Vasenta, the goddess of spring. Even a walk-on is unusual. Yuan plays the village girl, Ding Xilin and the villagers. Wang Geng's wife, Lu Xiaoman, was also busy in the audience. When Tagore arrived in Beijing, Wang Geng led the guards to the station to clear the way. It was Mrs. Wang Lu Xiaoman who sold the performance brochure before the performance. She stood at the entrance of the auditorium with a big stack of instructions, handed one and took back an ocean. A stingy audience came, dropped the instructions and went straight in. Lu Xiaoman got angry with his wife, leaned forward, dropped the instructions and quit. People around her advised her not to get angry.
The curtain opened and the audience was stunned by the new scenery. There is a glittering crescent moon hanging over the jungle, and Princess Zetra's posture under the moon is elegant and moving. At that time, newspapers were full of articles praising the performance, and Indian friends praised Lin's fluent English. On May 10, Beiping Morning Post Supplement said: "It is really rare that Lin Zongmeng (that is, Lin Changmin) has half-gray hair and still has the interest and courage to perform on stage. Father and daughter co-starred, an unprecedented beautiful talk. In the fifth act, God's love is in harmony with the God of Spring, and Xu Lin's funny expression is unique. Ms. Lin's emblem and posture are wonderful. " More than ten years after the performance, some people still remember Lin's crisp and lovely fluent English, just like a good foreign daughter. (See Zhao Sen's Memories of Xu Zhimo's Acting, North Wind Magazine 1939, No.8.. See: Biography of Xu Zhimo) Lin's excellent acting skills made her famous in the ancient capital. She loved drama all her life. Unfortunately, acting in Zetra is not only the first black powder in her life, but also the last stage. After that, she wrote a script, designed beautiful dances and instructed others to rehearse, but she never got involved in the play again. Can Lin and the audience who have seen this play not regret it?
Most of the people invited to watch the performance were cultural celebrities, and Lu Xun, who had a growing feud with the Crescent Society in the future, sat under the stage. Lu Xun wrote in the diary of that day: "At 8 o'clock in the evening, I went to the auditorium of Sheikh School to watch the second act of the performance script" Kai Te Ruo "by Crescent Society wishing Tagore's sixty-fourth birthday. It was already midnight." Mei Lanfang is here, too. Thanks. On May 19, Mei Troupe performed "Luo Shen" in the theater and hosted Tagore. It was about this time that Lin met Miss Mei and fell in love with Beijing Opera. Mei Lanfang also respects this talented social butterfly. It is said that Lin was present and Mei Lanfang refused to sit down all the time. The rumor originated from the memory of Charles, a foreign friend who met by chance more than half a century later (see Liang Sicheng and Lin of Wilma) and spread widely. Although it is talked about by readers, it is not credible. Lin returned from England in the winter of 192 1 and went abroad to study in the early summer of 1924. During this period, her social interaction with Mei Lanfang was limited. At that time, her worth was not big enough to shock Master Mei. There is indeed a photo of Lin sitting at Mei Lanfang station in the newspaper, which was taken from the Beiping Library. Curator Yuan Tongli hosted a banquet in honor of two foreign guests, accompanied by many celebrities. The group photo was probably taken before the banquet. Except for the foreign guests, Ms. Yu Jie sat in the front row. Their husbands all stood in the back, including Liang Sicheng and diplomat Feng Zhihai, even the host Yuan Tongli stood in the back row, and Xu Zhimo, Wen and Chen Shouyi without their wives were also in the back row. Mei Lanfang is on the left of Wen and Cheng is on the left of Chen Geng. There are people sitting and standing in the photo, and they dare not. Moreover, the date of this banquet was a few years after Charles and Lin broke up, and they never met again, and there was no contact after breaking up. Some people questioned that, contrary to rumors, Mei Lanfang was present at that time, and Lin did not dare to sit. Comparing the two versions of Wilma's book (translated by Qu Yingpu and others, translated by Cheng Han), the translation of the two versions is exactly the same, which means that Mei Lanfang dare not sit down. There can't be any mistakes in translation, and the rest may just be that Charles misheard it at that time, or misremembered it for many years.
Tagore left China, and Lin, who accompanied him for several days, translated and performed for him. He was both clever and lovely, which made Shi Weng reluctant to part. He tried in vain to help Xu Zhimo pursue Lin's charity, leaving a poem when he left:
The blue of the sky,
Fell in love with the green of the earth,
The breeze between them sighed, "alas!"
-This article is selected from Chen's Dream of Lotus Lantern Poetry: Lin, People's Literature Publishing House.
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Tagore is a famous Indian poet, writer, social activist and the first Nobel Prize in Literature winner in Asia. During the Republic of China, Tagore fever appeared, and many countries invited Tagore to give lectures there. China is no exception. Tagore has been to China three times in his life. However, only the first time was a "big show", and the last two times were "private" visits, mainly to see my friend Xu Zhimo.
From 65438 to 0924, Tagore visited China for the first time and was invited by Cai Yuanpei, Liang Qichao and others to give lectures in China. When Tagore landed, more than 50 scholars and poets from China greeted him on the shore, and Lin also presented a bunch of flowers. The scene is spectacular.
After Tagore arrived, Xu Zhimo and Lin accompanied him as translators. On Tagore's birthday, a grand party was held. Lin, Xu Zhimo and others rehearsed Tagore's poetic drama Zidra. That night, many scholars attended, including Liang Qichao, Mei Lanfang and Zhang Junli. Even the great writer Lu Xun came.
It's just that Mr. Lu Xun is different from others He may have no "infatuation" or passion for Tagore. He's probably just checking in. Sure enough, afterwards, Mr. Lu Xun publicly wrote a cynical article about Tagore, Xu Zhimo and others, bluntly saying that it was "unlucky".
Lu Xun wrote in his essay "Curse and Kill": "He came to China to give a speech at the altar. He got a piano and was burned with incense. Lin Changmin was on his left and Xu Zhimo was on his right. Both of them were wearing Indian hats. The poet Xu began to introduce:' Hey! Gurgling, white clouds and breezes, silver pots ... damn it! He talks like a living fairy, so our young people on the ground are disappointed and leave. How can immortals and mortals never leave? But this year I read his article about the Soviet Union and declared myself:' I am an Indian under British rule.' He knows it clearly. He will never be lost when he comes to China. If our poet didn't make him a living immortal, young people wouldn't be so distant from him. But now the boss is out of luck ... "
In Lu Xun's article, Lin Changmin and Xu Zhimo were first criticized because they had been following Tagore and wearing Indian hats. Mr. Lu Xun even called Xu Zhimo "Xu Poet", which was obviously sarcastic. Moreover, Mr. Lu Xun felt that Xu Zhimo described Tagore as a "living immortal", which made it "unlucky" for Tagore to come to China.
Lu Xun criticized Tagore's visit to China because he felt that Xu Zhimo deified Tagore and made everyone worship him like a god, playing the piano, burning incense and following around. In Lu Xun's view, this is "stupid". Because he knew Tagore was just like everyone else.
However, despite his dissatisfaction, Lu Xun may not be able to stop China people from loving Tagore. Everyone welcomed him. Later, in 1929, Tagore quietly came to China twice, but both were very secret, only accompanied by Xu Zhimo and several people around him. Because Tagore said that he loves purity and doesn't want to be known by too many people.
In fact, Lu Xun was more cynical about Tagore's trip than about Xu Zhimo and Lin Changmin. Because what Mr. Lu Xun doesn't like is the "flattering" attitude of China people, he wants to wake them up. However, it is not known how many people really understand Lu Xun's ridicule.