Everything Under the Sky (54 page)
Read Everything Under the Sky Online
Authors: Matilde Asensi
Tags: #Mystery, #Oceans, #land of danger, #Shanghai, #Biao, #Green Gang, #China, #Adventure, #Kuomintang, #Shaolin
Biao courageously handled the difficulties he faced in Paris as an Oriental. Never discouraged by the bad jokes or obstacles some stupid fools placed in his way, he charged ahead, unstoppable, graduating with a doctorate, at the top of his class, winning every award in existence. Unable to find work in France, he accepted a contract with an American company in California that made him an offer fit for an emperor. Shortly after he arrived in the United States, he met and married a woman named Gladys (that was my first trip across the Atlantic). A year later Fernanda married André, the diplomat, and they left for some unpronounceable country on the African continent.
What did I do? Well, while the children were still at home, I painted and invested in art, spending a considerable amount on works by my favorite painters, becoming a renowned collector. I also opened several art galleries and a splendid painting school on rue Saint-Guillaume. When Fernanda and Biao left home, I traveled through Europe visiting museums and art exhibits. A short while later, in 1936, a group of fascist soldiers staged a coup d'état in Spain, and the Civil War began. I moved to southern France, near the border, where I collaborated personally and financially with the Republican refugees fleeing the country. It was an interminable, exhausting task. Thousands crossed the Pyrenees every day, escaping the enemy army, arriving lost, without money, without food, and without knowing the language. They were dirty, sick, wounded, and demoralized. It was grueling work, and then, just when it seemed about to end, came the Second World War. By that time I was sixty, and Biao, who had two young children, categorically ordered me to leave Europe and come to California to live with him and his family. Fernanda, still in that unpronounceable African country, encouraged me to go, saying it was the safest course of action, that France would soon fall into the hands of the Nazis, and assuring me that she and her two small children would follow shortly.
Thus, in 1941, my collection of paintings and I boarded an ocean liner to New York and then crossed that enormous country from coast to coast by special train, finally arriving in the city of Los Angeles. Three months later my niece arrived with her little ones. Since there wasn't room for us all in Biao's house, I bought a car and a lovely villa in Santa Monica, where the majority of L.A. art galleries are located.
After the war André left the diplomatic corps and came to California as an executive with a citrus export company, where he did very well for himself. But the one who really prospered was Fernanda. By sheer coincidence she found work in the Business and Legal Affairs office of Paramount Picture Studios and today strikes terror into the hearts of agents representing Hollywood's most important actors. The studios love her, and it's no wonder why.
Nowadays I like to sit in the sun and paint. I never became a famous artist, but I did become a renowned collector and an important patron to great painters. I'm old now, so old. But that doesn't prevent me from going to the beach with my grandchildren, swimming in my pool, or driving my car. My doctor tells me I have an iron constitution and that I'll surely live to be a hundred.
I always reply, “Doctor, you've got to live life learning to see the good in the bad and the bad in the good.”
He laughs and says I have some strange ideas, like doing tai chi every morning. I laugh, too, but then I remember old Ming T'ien looking up at the lovely mountains she could no longer see.
“Haste shortens your life,” she repeats over and over again, smiling all the while.
“Yes, Ming T'ien,” I reply.
“Remember me when you're my age!” she shouts before disappearing.
And so I keep moving my chi energy out in the garden with the sun shining on me, slowly, with my hair down as the Yellow Emperor recommended.
1
The official name of the last emperor of China was Hsuan Tung of the Great Qing. However, he is better known in the West by his nickname, Puyi, thanks to Bernardo Bertolucci's movie
T he Last Emperor.
2
Title used by Chinese servants to address their mistresses.
3
As Spain's ambassador to Bulgaria, Julio Palencia (1884–1952) bravely faced Nazi authorities during the Second World War in order to prevent the country's Jews from being exterminated. Thanks to his efforts, over six hundred people were saved.
4
Given the extent of her work, it would be impossible to give a biography of Isabel de Oyarzábal (Málaga 1878–Mexico 1974), a journalist, writer, and the second female and first Spanish diplomat in the world as ambassador to Sweden.
5
Chinese greeting equivalent to “Hello,” “Good morning,” “How are you?”
6
Pronounced
Ching.
The
Q
is equivalent to our
Ch
sound.
7
Important dynasties in Chinese history: Tang (a.d. 618–907), Song (a.d. 960– 1279), Ming (a.d. 1368–1644).
8
Over 450 miles per hour.
9
Chin.
It is believed the name China derives from this kingdom.
10
In 1645 the Manchus ordered that all adult Chinese males shave their foreheads and braid their hair (the famous Chinese queue) in the Manchu style.
11
“Beautiful country.”
12
“The country of law.”
13
The current way to write Nanking is Nanjing.
14
Zhejiang.
15
Sun Tzu is the author of the famous treatise
The Art of War
from the fourth century b.c.
16
Bu
means “No.”
17
Now the city of Liaoyang, in the province of Liaoning, north of Beijing.
18
Sima Qian (145–90 b.c.) authored the great work
Records of the Grand Historian (Shi ji)
and greatly influenced subsequent Chinese historians.
19
Said to put an end to a matter. “Case closed.”
20
A Chinese measure of length. One
li
is equal to about a third of a mile.
21
It is also written as Weichi, Weiqi, Wei Qi, or Weiki, but Wei-ch'i is the most correct.
22
First recorded in
Shu Yi Zhi,
written by Ren Fong (Southern and Northern dynasties, a.d. 420–589).
23
This diagram is better known by Go players as Ranka, its Japanese name.
24
This is the Japanese expression used by Go players in the West.
25
The Kuomintang flag.
26
Along with Hanyang and Wuchang, Hankow forms part of what is now a single city called Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.
27
Contrary to the way it is done in the West, the Chinese mention east or west before north or south. Thus, we would say “northwest” while they say “westnorth,” or “eastsouth” for southeast.
28
Shan
means “mountain.”
29
Zhang Zuolin, 1873–1928.
30
Now the city of Danjiangkou.
31
Reign name Yonle (1403–24).
32
Gong
means “temple” or “palace.”
33
Famous martial-arts master and abbot of Wudang (1860–1932).
34
Tao Te Ching / TaoTe King / Dao De Jing,
fourth century b.c., a fundamental philosophical treatise on Taoism attributed to Lao-tzu (Lao Tsé / Lao Zi).
35
Seventh Qing Emperor of China, from 1796 to 1820.
36
1766–1121 b.c.
37
Chinese hours are double. The hour of the Monkey is from 3:00 to 4:59 p.m.
38
Ming t'ien
means “bright heavens.”
39
The famous Cornucopia Tea House, located at the lower end of the Bund in Shanghai.
40
Between 9:00 and 10:59 a.m.
41
Now the province of Shaanxi Sheng.
42
Department in the First Emperor's employ responsible for the mausoleum projects.
43
Now called Shangxian or Shangzhou.
44
a.d. 386–534
45
a.d. 220–65
46
To the east, buried in an enormous tomb, is the well-known and impressive Terra-Cotta Army, not discovered until 1974.
47
Historian (a.d. 291–361), author of
Records of the States South of Mount Hua,
better known as the
Chronicles of Huayang.
48
It is believed that the Chinese used asbestos to make wicks several centuries b.c. These wicks never had to be replaced, because they were never consumed.
49
Mythological dynasty, approximately 2100–1600 b.c.
50
The highly toxic nature of mercury was discovered only a few years ago.