Chen Ren could not hide his excitement as he held an autographed photograph of Russian President Vladimir Putin, presented to him by Alexey F. Mochulsky, deputy consul general of the Russian Consulate General in Shanghai.
On March 29 afternoon, Chen, aged 54, stepped into the consulate, his face wreathed in smiles.
"President Putin said it is his honor to have your attention and interest," Mochulsky said. "He praised you for your persistence and your cause, advocating peace in such a novel way."
Chen has been collecting autographed photographs and letters dedicated to peace since 1985. He already has a signed photograph of Mikhail Gorbachev in his collection. Mochulsky remarked to Chen that it was the first time in his working experience that he had had the pleasure to welcome such an interesting Chinese guest into the consulate.
"I appreciate President Putin's praise but still expect a letter on peace from him," Chen said. "He is an example and I hope to receive more photos and letters from East European countries."
As Chen's fingers play over his collection, well kept in five huge files, you can see the love and devotion this ordinary Shanghai man has put into doing something he believes in.
"I have drafted a plan to hold another exhibition in September to display my collection, which contains good wishes from leaders around the world," he said.
Chen went on to explain that his exhibition will be dedicated to dialogue between different cultures.
"Peace and development are major and permanent themes not only for important people but also for small fry like me," Chen said. "I just want to show people my own special way of championing peace."
The past century saw armed conflicts taking place somewhere in the world almost everyday.
To live up to the promise for peace, states should just calm down and come together for dialogue, he said, and that is his final goal.
To date, Chen has collected 75 autographed photos of international leaders and a number of their letters. But to Chen, life is not only about getting letters from heads of state.
Chen once worked in the Third Navigation Engineering Bureau of the Ministry of Communications as an engineer. With a wife and a daughter, he could have lived like most people, shuttling between home and the office.
But his life changed dramatically during the 1984 Olympic Games, when Chinese sharpshooter Xu Haifeng won the country's first Olympic gold medal.
An ardent stamp collector, Chen came up with the idea of designing a letter to symbolize the big event.
He sealed the letter in an envelop, on which he drew careful designs, and posted it to a friend in the United States.
He recalled how disappointed he was to find there was no postmark - which had been what he had wanted from the United States - when he received the reply from his friend.
Following a suggestion from his friend, Chen wrote to the post office in New York, explaining what he wanted.
In return Chen received an apology from the post office and some stamps and other souvenirs from Dennis Lee, the head of the postal service in New York State. And Chen got his postmark.
This, his first successful international exchange, changed Chen's life. The idea of collecting signed photos or letters from world leaders was born.
After learning that 1986 had been declared the International Year of Peace, Chen found a way to realize his dream, by putting on a show to display the attitude of each nation toward peace.
In the beginning when he started to write to important people, he kept his wife Chen Xiufang in the dark. "I didn't want to disturb her," he said.
Chen became consumed by world affairs, and spent days hunting for names and addresses through all the available media.
"At first I dared not to ask for help and I had to rely on a small English dictionary," Chen said. "But quite often I could not figure out the correct spelling and so wrote in Pinyin."
Chen's wife was astonished when the first reply, from New Zealand's Prime Minister David Lange, arrived with an autographed photo.
"She was surprised but I was thrilled as many of my letters were lost."
Lange wrote that what Chen was doing was an exciting project and wished Chen every success in his venture.
The secretary general of the United Nations at that time, Perez de Cuellar, expressed his appreciation toward such a valuable initiative and enclosed a booklet commemorating "the International Year of Peace" as a contribution to Chen's exhibition in 1986.
Unfortunately, except for his family, not everybody understood what he was doing.
Chen went to Beijing to apply for permission to hold an exhibition of the letters he'd received from world leaders. He invited his English teacher to come along as he wanted to go to the embassies in Beijing for more photos and letters.
"It turned out that I had to go to the embassies alone as the teacher did not want to come with me," said Chen.
His first exhibition on November 16, 1986, held in the Shanghai Jiaotong University, was a huge success and attracted a large audience, but shortly afterwards Chen lost his job for doing what his boss called: things not related to his profession.
Frustrated, Chen went abroad and started working as a cook, while giving serious thought to what exactly it was that he wanted to do. Two years later, he returned to Shanghai where he had to live off his wife's meager salary.
"My father told me to stick to whatever I think is right," Chen said. "Thus I made up my mind to continue with the collection because getting the world's attention and promoting peace is a basic guarantee of living and development."
Chen picked up where he had left off. His daughter and daughter-in-law now help him with the translations and typing. And his wife helps organize the collections.
The second exhibition came in 1998 in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province.
Last December 8-10, Chen held his third exhibition in the Zhu Yizhan Arts Gallery of Hongkou District of Shanghai.
Since few people understand what Chen is doing, he has been unable to find any sponsorship or assistants. He pays the rent of the exhibition halls himself and all the exhibition boards are made by his family.
"When I saw an old woman in a wheelchair and school children at my exhibition, I knew it was worth all the pain and expense."
Chen recently bought 1,300 yuan (US$157) worth of stamps, to enrich his collection for his next exhibition in September.
(China Daily 04/02/2001)
