Chapter 57: Fu Qi and Shi Hui

It was the second year of the reform and opening-up, in the year of Jiwei. In the golden autumn of the capital, the great hall of the Great Hall of the People hosted a gathering where eminent personages and people of all ages assembled in full splendor...

On this day, the sky was clear and bright, and a gentle breeze blew pleasantly.

The surrounding area had long been placed under strict security. The delegates arrived in batches from their accommodations, exchanging greetings and taking group photographs on the plaza, giving interviews to the media, and waiting to enter the venue.

Hou Baolin arrived with his son, Hou Yaowen. Hou Yaowen, who worked at the Railway Troupe, had purposely worn his work uniform. Speaking of this Hou Yaowen, oh my, he looked the absolute spitting image of Xie Dong, as if they were born of the same father.

Jiang Kun and Li Wenhua also arrived. They were scheduled to perform a program at the evening banquet, and Jiang Kun was only twenty-nine years old.

Wang Wenjuan, the actress who played Lin Daiyu in the Yue opera, was exchanging pleasantries with Chang Xiangyu, the renowned performer of Henan opera. Chang Xiangyu was fifty-six years old. During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, she had gone on a national tour and donated a MiG-15 fighter jet. After her passing, the State Council posthumously conferred upon her the title of "People's Artist."

The current "Little Xiangyu" was her granddaughter-in-law.

Tseten Dolma, the Tibetan soprano famous for *Singing a Mountain Song to the Party* and *Golden Mountains of Beijing*, was chatting idly with Qiao Yu, the lyricist of *Let Us Sway the Oars* and *My Motherland*, while the composer Liu Chi smiled nearby.

Furthermore, literary giants such as Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Ai Qing, and Xia Yan made their appearances one after another...

"Ha!"

As the head of the Literature Department at the Beijing Film Studio, Jiang Huaiyan was also invited to attend, yet he kept yawning continuously, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"What's the matter, Director Jiang? Were you too excited to sleep last night?"

Liu Xiaoqing teased playfully.

"I was reading a book. Before I knew it, I had read through the entire night."

"What kind of book could possibly be that fascinating to you?"

"Little Chen's, of course!"

"Oh? Little Chen has written a new work again?"

"What is it about? What's the story?"

Upon hearing that it was by Little Chen, quite a few people gathered around, but upon learning that it was a martial arts tale, they let out a disappointed sigh and drifted away.

Wang Yang also heard this and asked, "He wrote a martial arts novel?"

"Yes, and it's being published in something called *Story Stories*. Speaking objectively, this story is extremely well-suited for adaptation into an entertainment film."

"Bring it to me to read when we get back."

As they spoke, it was time to enter the venue. The two men straightened their clothes, lifted their chests, and assumed solemn expressions.

Whether for them or for any cultural and art worker, the significance of this congress was extraordinary. All of them could sense that the environment was about to loosen up further, and that a true spring was finally approaching.

Over three thousand people entered the venue in batches, stepping into the grand hall crowned with a gigantic red star on its ceiling.

Wang Yang looked around, constantly searching for the person he wanted to see. Suddenly, spotting them in the distance, he signaled the other party across the space. The person nodded slightly in return, seated as they were in the section reserved for the Hong Kong delegation.

A considerable number of people had come from Hong Kong this time.

The most eye-catching among them was undoubtedly Xia Dream.

She was a native of Shanghai who had moved to Hong Kong with her family in 1947 and joined the Great Wall Film Company as an actress. Becoming immensely popular, she was the eldest of the "Three Princesses of Great Wall."

In 1966, she emigrated to Canada, married, raised a family, and opened a garment factory. Having originally retired from the screen, she could not resist the warm and earnest invitation from the mainland and came to attend the literary congress. Now forty-six years old, her figure remained slender and graceful. She wore a black cropped vest that was both fashionable and dignified, along with amber-tinted glasses.

The most widely circulated story about her was that Jin Yong had been infatuated with her and had even gone undercover at the Great Wall Company as a screenwriter simply to pursue Xia Dream.

Alas, the goddess was willing while the admirer's advances were unrequited; Xia Dream became Jin Yong's white moonlight and the cinnabar mark in his heart. Her image evolved into various characters written into his martial arts novels, such as Little Dragon Maiden.

Jin Yong had indeed worked as a screenwriter at Great Wall, but whether he entered the company for Xia Dream remains unknown.

Although Xia Dream did not marry Jin Yong, the two maintained a good personal relationship behind the scenes. When she later invested in producing films, she asked Jin Yong to name a movie for her, which resulted in *Boat People*.

At this moment, she sat there quietly and gracefully, drawing the gaze of many mainland colleagues.

After all, she was a figure steeped in legend.

Yet mainland filmmakers paid even closer attention to a couple seated not far from her—the very people who had nodded to Wang Yang earlier.

......

"We must uphold the policy of 'let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend, weed through the old to bring forth the new, make the past serve the present, and make foreign things serve China.' In artistic creation, we advocate the free development of diverse forms and styles; in artistic theory, we advocate the free discussion of different viewpoints and schools of thought."

The literary congress had always maintained a high level of prestige, with leaders attending as a group.

At this moment, a certain leader sat on the high platform at the front, delivering the opening speech. Directly above him hung the portrait of the Chairman.

"Literature and art, as complex spiritual labors, have a profound need for writers and artists to exercise their personal creative spirit. What to write and how to write can only be explored and gradually resolved by writers and artists through artistic practice. In this regard, there must be no arbitrary interference..."

When he reached the phrase "there must be no arbitrary interference," he intensified the force of his delivery, and the entire hall erupted into thunderous applause.

This constituted the core ideology of the present literary congress.

It was a further easing of restrictions for the literary and art circles, which was why so many people were exclaiming that spring had arrived!

"Clap, clap, clap!"

Down below, Wang Yang was also clapping desperately. The Beijing Film Studio had been severely battered in previous years, producing only one or two films a year. Last year, production had finally resumed, yielding eight films.

This year there would be seven films, and he believed next year would be even more prolific. More importantly, the genres needed to be diversified; he had always wanted to make entertainment films.

After the senior leader finished speaking, the second leader spoke. This second leader happened to be a good friend of Liu Shaotang...

Then Mao Dun spoke in turn. At eighty-three years old, Mao Dun stood trembling slightly, passing away two years later.

In short, the conference lasted for a full day, followed by a banquet in the evening. The next day brought another plenary session, and the evening was filled with more activities... It was not until the fourth day that Wang Yang finally caught a breather and could return to the studio to rest for a while.

......

Beijing Film Studio.

Early that morning, Wang Yang was pacing back and forth in his office.

Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed, and a staff member entered to report, "Director, our guests have entered the courtyard!"

"Hurry and invite them in!"

"No, no, I'll go down to welcome them!"

The sixty-three-year-old Wang Yang moved with the agility of flying, hurrying down the stairs in rapid strides to indeed find a man and a woman walking toward him.

The man was in his fifties, lean and tall; the woman was in her forties, and though her wrinkles could not be entirely concealed, her facial features remained striking, bright, and graceful, possessing an extraordinary beauty that made one forget worldly cares.

"Comrade Fu Qi!"

"Comrade Shi Hui!"

"Old Wang, it has been a long time. I trust you have been well!"

Fu Qi laughed heartily, his stride vigorous, extending his hand before he even reached them to clasp Wang Yang's hand firmly. Shi Hui smiled as well, speaking in soft, melodic Wu dialect, "Seeing that you are still in such high spirits sets our minds at ease."

"Those words should come from me! Seeing that both of you are well puts my mind at ease as well!"

Wang Yang shook hands warmly with Shi Hui as well, feeling a deep sense of emotion.

In fact, long before the return of Hong Kong, quite a few mainland-funded enterprises had already taken root there—such as the Bank of China branch, China Travel Service, China Resources, China Merchants, as well as mainland-backed newspapers like *Ta Kung Pao* and *Wen Wei Po*.

In addition, there were three film companies—Great Wall, Phoenix, and New Union—along with a cinema circuit, all of which functioned essentially as state-owned enterprises anchored in Hong Kong.

Fu Qi was a renowned actor and director at Great Wall with an exceptionally high reputation, while Shi Hui was an equally celebrated actress who had once enjoyed immense popularity.

In 1967, when a plastic flower factory in Hong Kong treated its workers with excessive harshness, it sparked a wave of strikes. Workers gathered on the streets to confront the police... The incident escalated steadily until it transformed into a storm lasting half a year.

Fu Qi and Shi Hui were among the leaders of the movement. First arrested and imprisoned, they were later slated by the British-Hong Kong colonial government to be deported to Taiwan, to which the two declared, "Whoever sends me to Taiwan will receive nothing more than a corpse!"

The British-Hong Kong government then attempted to repatriate them to the mainland, but the pair stood at the Lo Wu Bridge and steadfastly refused to leave.

With no other recourse left to them, the authorities threw them into prison for a year... There is only so much one can say; those interested can look up the details themselves.

As for the Three Princesses of Great Wall!

Xia Dream had looked out for her own safety and fled to Canada. This was of little consequence, as her later return still served to bridge the film industries of both regions.

The Third Princess, Chen Sisi, was a romantic at heart who had run off with a man at the time, though she also returned later and even participated in the Spring Festival Gala.

The Second Princess, Shi Hui, and her husband Fu Qi chose to stay, never abandoning the Great Wall Company even during its most difficult times. They continued contributing their efforts well into the 1980s, only retiring from public life in the early 1990s.

The couple had a daughter named Fu Mingxian—none other than Guo Fu from the Louis Koo and Carman Lee version of *The Return of the Condor Heroes*.

(The end...)