Chiang Yee: The Silent Traveller from the East--A Cultural Biography

Preface

From a slope at the foot of the west side of Lu Mountain, one can see the Donglin Temple and the Thousand-Buddha Pagoda not far in the distance against a broad sweep of mountains. Beyond these mountains is the Yangtze River, and Jiujiang is nudged in between. The cemetery on this slope, according to geomancers, is blessed with felicitous fortune. Within this cemetery stand two tombstones, side by side, of the brothers Chiang Ji and Chiang Yee. Beside them is a large memorial tablet commemorating the life of the latter. Chiang Yee was born on May 19, 1903, twenty-six days after his wife Zeng Yun, and he passed away on October 17, 1977, twenty-two days after her. The two were first cousins, joined by a conjugal bond even before birth.Yee left China in 1933—he first lived in England and then moved to America—by himself and did not return to his home country until 1975. His life journey ended where it began—it was a circle, a perfect full circle, as though predestined. These miraculous coincidences are mysterious and intriguing. Indeed, as Yee himself acknowledged in the 1960s, “Life is a riddle.”1 My encounter with the Silent Traveller was a pure coincidence. It happened in the Boston living room of an American friend in 1986. On the coffee table was a hardcover book which caught my attention instantly. Its dust jacket depicted a color painting of Park Street Station in a prominent central position, and the English title was handwritten across the top with a brush pen, its strokes floating gracefully: The Silent Traveller in Boston. What surprised me was the Chinese title of that book, again handwritten with a brush, but in red, running vertically down the right. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the author’s name: Chiang Yee. Yes, I knew him. Several years earlier, my friend Qianshen Bai acquired a copy of Chinese Calligraphy by Chiang Yee, which he then enthusiastically recommended to me. The book cover has an attractive design, and its contents include numerous pictures and drawings as illustrations, many of which are distinctly ingenious. P R E F A C E xiii preface xiv For example, when Yee introduces the theory of dynamic equilibrium in structural composition of Chinese calligraphy, he emphasizes that balance is achieved through asymmetrical arrangement. He draws two pairs of birds resting on a tree for comparison. The birds in one drawing, which are rendered identically, appear static; the birds in the other drawing, with only slight variations in posture from each other, seem lively and pleasing to the eye. Likewise, as Yee explains, for characters which consist of two identical parts, such as 朋 peng (“friend”) or 林 lin (“forest”), one should always consciously include variations of length, width, height, or even ink color in order to achieve vividness and balance. Yee’s approach to Chinese calligraphy is entirely different from the traditional method. He transforms this art form, which has always been mysterious and profound, into an exciting subject. Through Chinese calligraphy, Yee draws comparisons between the East and West. He draws out similarities between Chinese calligraphy and other art forms, such as poetry, music, sculpture, architecture, and dance. He tells the reader how he gained inspiration, pleasure, and an understanding of calligraphy by watching a Russian ballerina perform in a London theater. I joined Qianshen and a few others in co-translating the book Chinese Calligraphy. My sister, who was working in a publishing company that specialized in Chinese art, edited and released the Chinese edition of the book. At the time, the Cultural Revolution had recently ended, and there was a thirst for knowledge in all fields, calligraphy included. The book received a warm reception, made the general public aware of new possibilities in the appreciation of calligraphy, and pushed for a modern aesthetic interpretation and study of traditional art in China. However, it was in Boston where I discovered that the talented author of Chinese Calligraphy was also a successful travel writer, best known for his twelve Silent Traveller books published between the 1930s and 1970s. Later, as I looked into Yee’s life and accomplishments, I became intrigued with this understudied Asian American artist, writer, and poet. He was the original translator of “Coca-Cola,” and his brilliant rendition has become the best-known translation among Chinese speakers around the world. He was the first artist to depict pandas in a Chinese painting style. He was...