How our beautiful friendship blossomed through adversity
There is no need to flatter a good friend's art works, just as we do not need tell our wives how beautiful they are every morning at breakfast.
Relations between a husband and a wife are like a busy and sweet beehive or like a stream running through quiet woods, while friendship is the mother earth and the whole world. Friendship is the enlargement of love.
How time flies! Decades have passed since I met Yu Feng and her husband Huang Miaozi in mid-1940s in Nanjing. I was 22 years old.
Our friendship started after I received an unexpected letter from the couple, who I had admired for quite a long time.
They said in the letter that they had been moved by my hard life as a struggling artist in Shanghai I was studying painting and living on my own and they wanted to buy several pieces of my woodcuts because they were "good".
I was very grateful that the reputed couple appreciated my art works and were willing to pay for them.
We had our first meeting in their house in Nanjing where I went to pick up my payment.
Yu, who was about 30, wore a long nightgown made of blue satin and looked beautiful and radiant.
"Ah, you are Huang Yongyu. We've got the woodcuts. They are marvellous," she told me.
Our first meeting was very brief and only after I came back to Beijing from Hong Kong in 1953 did we become close friends.
I always thought of the two artists and could not wait to share my experiences, such as when I discovered a good book, good music, heard a funny joke, enjoyed delicious food or finished a nice painting.
We trusted each other, appreciated each other and side-by-side, we smiled at life's difficulties.
I still remember clearly their house in the Xiguanyinsi hutong in Beijing's Dongdan area.
Built of red bricks, it was clean and comfortable. In its 6-meter-high sitting room, Yu, an outstanding designer, had a long, brown sofa and precious furniture pieces from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The house also had an independent yard, which featured huge trees. Together the two artists embraced the colorful flowers and plants.
In the late 1950s, Miaozi left Beijing and undertook reform through labor in the Northeast.
Yu, who was born a happy person, read the first postcard from Miaozi loudly to me: "What a beautiful place I am in after going through the forest and climbing over hills!"
Then she laughed.
What a couple they were! One lived as a poet when forced to labor in the fields and the other became happy with every letter she received from afar.
Actually, I knew Yu would not cry because she had to be strong enough to support a big family on her own.
During those unstable days, I often visited them because they were friends I could confide. It was very hard to meet such faithful and trustworthy people at that time.
After the cultural revolution (1966-76), during which they suffered a lot from political prosecution, the two cheered up and had a fresh start in their life.
Now things are different. The couple settled down again and held exhibitions happily.
But I cannot forget their art works were done out of reflection of their hardship and fight during that period of time.
Huang Yongyu is one of China's master artists
(China Daily 04/20/2007 page20)
