xhu

Myserible Love Story


Myserible Love Story
---Canadian "Romeo and Juliet" and "Liang ShanBo and Zhu YinTai"


After Romeo drank the poisson and committed suicide for his love, his spirit did not die. Juliet still expects his faith will still be with her from the heaven. Juliet also drank the poisson, her expected faith and her did behavior of suicide for his love made her die in heaven. Just because she is not as faithful as Romeo, rather her faith lays beneath Romeo's faith in her and their love. Romeo, forever!

Strange thoughts took me these couple of days. I met Catherine yesterday. Did she love me? Or, I love her instead. I know Catherine for quite a long time. She is a Roman Catholic, and I, a Christian. My name is John, a Chinese having a very good Christian name. I liked the good characters in American movies, very herioc. It looked to me everyone of them is born to save the earth. John in the Terminators, I remembered. I work in high tech. field, and Catherine, she is an aritist. Catherine loves arts, arts such as fine painting. I love paintings too, such as Van Goht and Monet.

I first met Catherine in an Asian fine arts musem in Paris. It was an exhibition. When I went into the exhibition hall, I saw a beautiful western girl entered from the security gate. She wears a fine blouse and a pair of blue jeans. She argued with the security guard about her camera. She could not talk very good in French, I couldn't too. She forgot to bring her camera into the musem, but she has already entered through the gate. She wants to go back for her camera, it seemed the security guard says camera is not allowed in the musem. I stepped forward and expalined to her in english. She thanked me, and I took the chance to introduce myself. I liked her. She is beautiful. After some introduction, Catherine asked me whether I can show her around for the exhibition. It seemed to me she liked me.

Catherine is a Scottish-English mix, like me, she is from Canada. It happened we both live in Montreal. She is a musician there, and she loved painting and fine arts. When the asian fine arts exhibition is on, she is just having a vacation with her fiance. I, alone, came to Paris for fun in my summer vacation. I liked the American musical American in Paris. It is not so odd that I and Catherine met in the musem. I thought God has his plan.

When we were walking in the exhibition hall. Catherine asked some questions about asian arts such as caligraphy. It seemed to me she was bored in Paris and then she came to see the asian arts exhibition. Because she told me Chris, her finace went for business today. Chris is a business man, a Canadian high class kind. She told me she will let me to know Chris some times.

JayJay

I don't know if your story has anything to do with "Romeo and Juliet" and "Liang ShanBo and Zhu YinTai".

xhu

I haven't finished it yet. The novel should have a lot of religious content such as that in Romeo and Juliet. Rather, Liang Zhu is kind of hard to write about. But it is a love tragedy between a Chinese man and a Canadian woman. Both of them have religious background, just one is Protestant and the other is a Roma Catholic. That is the difference.

xhu

Continued...


Miserable Love
------Canadian "Romeo and Juliet" and "Lian Shangbo and Zhu Yingtai"


         When we passed a painting of butterflies in the hallway, no, a photograph of butterflies instead of a painting, she stopped and looked at the butterflies for a while. And she said she liked the painting, but she could not understand the Chinese written on it. Of course, it is not Caligraphy. I looked at the photograph, it says HuaDie, and obviously it is from Chinese love story Liang ShanBo and Zhu YinTai. The exhibition is a culture exchange between Chinese government and French. It is just a normal photograph hanged over the wall for the effect. Then, Catherine did not talk much. I think she is expecting me to talk. But I didn't.

         After we finished with the arts exhibition, I invited Catherine for a cup of coffee. They were many cafes in Paris, just like a city of cafes, I found. We sit down at a cafe and started to exchange some conversation. We sitted outside under the sun. The sunshine was fine. Catherine is a little dark under the sun. Maybe it is because of the sun tan in France. Normally white Canadians do not look dark. They are pretty white. I knew scottish in Canada, many of majority here are scottish. I asked her something about the difference between Canada and France, she told me they are different even though many of Montrealers are French origin. As I have many years of experience in Canada, Canadians like Chinese people. There are a lot of them in Canada. In France, like at this instant moment when I am talking to Catherine, the French waiter does not seem like us. When we were speaking english to him, he expressed something that is not very likable. Anyway, they don't have immigrants in France, what he has to say about Canada as an immigration country. I was in London a couple of days ago, I found english are different, they are very polite people. But, ..., I remembered Romeo and Juliet. English, they play for their life. There are many of them in Canada. That is the part I don't like about english. I guess being polite is part of their act. They like people to like them. Most of the time, I like them. Like, ... now I am having a cup of coffee with Catherine.
         
          Catherine mentioned the butterfly photo, she did not know it is not part of the exhibition. I told her about the love story of Liang ShanBo and Zhu YinTai, I told her it is like the english play Romeo and Juliet. She showed a very strong interest in it. She told me about the fire work festival in Montreal a couple of years ago, Chinese fire work artist exhibited the Huadie. I was there too, and I remembered people in Montreal liked it. Not only French, english loves culture things too. And, Canada is a very multi-cultural society. Catherine specifically asked about the Huadie music, and she told me the first time she is a musician, a violinist. That is how we get started. That is all because I loved music so much, and I think American and european arts, music and literature are the toppest except Chinese ones.
  

John Hu

xhu

Continued...

Miserable Love
------Canadian "Romeo and Juliet" and "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yintai"

I offered Catherine a ride after the coffee. She said no, and said Chris will pick her up at Elfels. She said something like they will go to a concert that night, if I remembered. Later on when we developed a relationship, she said lots of nos to me. We exchanged phone number in Canada, and I said to her with a little joke tone that I would invite her for a concert at Place des'Art. Then I went back, but I felt a little lost.

The next time we met is in Canada. I did invite her for a concert after all. Actually after she has held a personal concert at McGill University. It was in Dawson Hall, I remembered. I went there with my girl friend, I am a graduate from McGill as well. She performed very well that night, she
performed a Chinese one at the last, the Liang Zhu, the one we both liked and talked about in Paris. She is one among the best in Montreal. I felt with the music that night like the music is for me. The familiar harmony is with me until now. It was the tenth year in her career that year, she was holding a celebration there as she is the graduate from the university.

I called her one week later because of her beauty and talent, I couldn't resist to invite her for a concert, like I said. A modern orchestra was on in the Place des'Art. I invited her, and she said yes. Then we went for the concert. After that, we had coffee again facing the concert hall. She mentioned that she saw me the other day in her concert, but she was busy on talking with her other audiences. She then said, "you were with a pretty Chinese girl." I said yes and told her she is my girl friend. And we are together for about a year.

Catherine dresses casual that night, a black blouse and a pair of blue jeans like the first time I saw her in Paris. She made me a feeling that she is the smartest girl I have ever met. She is very smart when she is playing violin. I told her when she played the tone on her fiddle that night when she
performed, she was always make smart touches. And I said it was a complement. But it is real, at least I felt like it. She smiled at me after that, and said with a proud tone, "I have been trying to play the fiddle that way for a long time," then she added, "everytime when I pick up the fiddle, I am just very into it, it is the music that I really like." Then I started to talk about the Liang Zhu to her, because I liked the music and I felt that she had a very deepfeeling about the music. She said yes because she liked the legend between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yintai. She told me she knew the music because she liked Romeo and Juliet very much in her college time. She had a Chinese professor suggested her to practise the first violinist of the concerto. And she mentioned the
butterfly.

I know the Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yintai legend and the concerto very well. Alike english version, Romeo and Juliet, it is a love tragedy about two young lovers in ancient China. Liang Shanbo is a man of a poor family studies and practices Confessionism and would go on his study and make the national exam in literacy for advance himself to become a ruler. Zhu Yintai is the girl who fell in love with Liang Shanbo. She would like to marry Liang Shanbo and support him mentally for his studies. Zhu Yintai's family did not approve her because they were a rich business man's family. And as parents in ancient China, girls are not allowed to disobey the family. The family is the order for their daughters and sons. Zhu Yintai insisted to marry Liang, and she wanted to run away from her family to go with Liang to the literacy exam. Zhu's father found out her daughter's attempt. He locked her at home and lied to her that Liang is getting married. Liang went for exam along and did not know Zhu were locked up. But when he succeeded in the exam and went back home. Zhu was dead because of the sadness and sickness. He went to her tomb and cried very very hard for her.The tomb mysterically broke down, Liang Shanbo jumped into the tomb. Then a pair of butterfly flied out from the tomb. And their story became the legend.

Romeo and Juliet and Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yintai are different. Romeo is the montangue, Juliet is the Capulet, Liang Shanbo is the poor confusionist, and Zhu Yintai is the rich business man's daughter. Not only because of the difference between east and west, the style of their love stories are different.


John Hu