Sometime ago in our classmate email communication, we talked about the composition in our joint entrance examination & how important it was to our future. Here is another example. I read a book “小脚與西服” several years ago. It was written by Natasha Chang who is the grandniece of 張幼儀, the first wife of 徐志摩. This is a very interesting book which describes the whole thing from the interviews she conducted with 張幼儀. Several years ago, Taiwan produced a TV Show--人間四月天--, a very good show that traces the love affair of 徐志摩. In小脚與西服, it mentioned 張嘉璈, the brother of 張幼儀, went to 杭州第一中学 to see the condition of the school. While he examined the work of the students, he was so impressed by 徐志摩's composition, he made a decision to arrange the marriage between 徐志摩 & his sister 張幼儀. After this, we all know the rest of the story: unhappy marriage, divorce, can’t marry 林徽因 as she refrained, found another lover 陸小曼, financial difficulty, … , airplane accident to end his life. This is the hindsight: If it were 林長民 (father of 林徽因) instead of 張嘉璈who read the composition, the future & fate of 徐志摩 would have been completely different. It would have been a perfect marriage 徐志摩+林徽因 & the Chinese literature might have been added one brilliant chapter. Anyway, this is just another example of the importance of composition to one’s future.
PS1: 林長民 was well known, literally & politically and became a very good friend of 徐志摩. While 林長民 stayed in London, his daughter 林徽因 lived with him & attended college in London. 徐志摩 went to Cambridge & had chances to meet her. And so the love affair flourished. 張幼儀 moved to Cambridge but couldn’t salvage the marriage as 徐志摩 divorced her in no time. She later moved to Germany & eventually returned to China.
Ps2: The title of TV series “人間四月天“ is from a poem by 林徽因: “你是人間四月天”. She majored in architecture and well verse in literature. Her father-in-law is 梁啓超. Her father is 林長民, the cousin of 林覺民, one of 黄花崗七＋二烈士.
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