In 1973, when Liu Yong made his debut as host of the Taipei TV quiz program "Contesting Every Moment," he had no idea what the future held. In contrast to accepted practices, this young compere always started the program with a short prologue about the experience and impressions he had gained in life. After its first broadcast, the program immediately scored high ratings, and his book By the Light of Fireflies, a collection of Liu's program prologues, became a bestseller. Liu Yong subsequently became a household name, and his life took a new direction. Now, 30 years later, Liu Yong is no longer a TV program host, but a popular writer whose influence radiates across the Taiwan Straits. According to a survey conducted in 2000, of the 100 most popular books in China's mainland, 19 are Liu's.
Over the past 30 years Liu Yong has generally kept to the style of his first book. As the majority of his readers today are, however, young students, the content of his writing no longer consists of pure musings on life, but has a more specific focus: advice on how to conduct oneself in society.
There are those that believe Liu's line is painting, and although his painting exhibitions and reviews have never brought him the acclaim he enjoys as a writer, art nonetheless refines his temperament and sharpens his perceptions of the world. The minutia of life is glamorized by Liu's artistic depictions that mesmerize the youth that see the world through a mental mist of dreams and aspirations.
Creating dreams is a means to approaching dreamers. Liu's intention is to draw the youth out of their chrysalis of illusion, and warn them that dealing with interpersonal relationships in today's intricate society is not so easy as they might imagine. Liu's comments strike home, and help to enlighten those with scanty life experience. This explains why so many callow youths gear their behavior according to Liu's words. Liu Yong may not be the most influential writer in China, but he has without doubt a keen instinct for what his readers crave.
In some sense Liu Yong's popularity reveals the shortcomings in Chinese contemporary education.
As the old saying goes, "A grasp of mundane affairs is genuine knowledge, but an understanding of worldly wisdom is true learning." In Chinese contemporary education, mundane affairs and worldly wisdom are synonymous with craftiness and guile, and gaining a grasp of them is therefore shunned. In China, the correct manner in which to conduct oneself is taught almost as soon as children start school, and cultivation of the moral character is, within Chinese culture, deemed the precondition for running a family and ruling the state. While stressing the virtues of goodness, honesty and diligence, Chinese education ignores the need to teach young people how to deal with everyday reality.
Chinese youth lack confidence when it comes to integrating themselves into society. In traditional Chinese culture, the family is supreme, and filial love is one of the most important elements in life. According to tradition, children cannot become independent until the age of 30, and until then they live under the wing of their parents. All their social dealings are therefore with family members, teachers and schoolmates. Since the size of Chinese families has shrunk so markedly, Chinese youngsters now have even fewer social connections.
These young people, who have seen little of the world and received no warning about how stark reality can be, are totally vulnerable once they are exposed to society. They are perplexed, depressed and frustrated on discovering that the virtues so firmly instilled in them carry such little weight in real life.
Liu Yong's books complement, rather than confront, traditional education.
"Parents will give to their children the last coin in their pocket, even if the children themselves have a 100-yuan note." Liu Yong regards his young readers as his own children, and shares with them his life experience. This is why his writing is imbued with concern and affection. His series of books, Surpassing Yourself, Creating Yourself and Trusting Yourself, written in the form of letters to his son, gives to young readers a sense of intimacy.
Liu Yong sees his works as medicine for young people blinded by dreams, but believes that a cure does not necessarily result in a thick skin and a calculating mind. The purpose of seeing all aspects of the world is in order to become more vigorous and enterprising in life. "If the person ahead of you loosens his grip on a door and it smashes into your nose, you should hold on tight to the door to stop it hitting the person behind you." Such esoteric but educative writing resonates strongly among young readers.
Chinese parents impose on their sons expectations different from those they have of their daughters. Liu's three books to "his son" present a father's hope that the boy might conquer his weaknesses, create his own style, and affirm his feeling of self-value. His latest work Growing Is a Beautiful Pain, is a book to "his daughter", and contains more gentle instructions on how a girl might discover and cherish the good in life, as well as exhortations on independence and self-reliance.
Exploration of the truth of life is not necessarily limited to instructing the youth. Not everyone would agree with Liu Yong's views, but one could come to one's own conclusions through reading his works.
(Xing Yuhao, China Today, February 2002)
