Xi Murong recalls "teacher" Qi Bangyuan: Her life is the life of a "big river"

　　China News Service, Taipei, March 29th: Title: Xi Murong recalls "teacher" Qi Bangyuan: Her life is the life of a "big river"

　　China News Service reporter Yang Chengchen

　　Qi Bangyuan, a well-known Taiwanese writer and scholar, passed away in the early morning of March 28 at the age of 100. As a close friend for many years, Taiwanese poet Xi Murong has always called Qi Bangyuan "teacher".

　　On the evening of the 29th, she recalled in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service that Qi Bangyuan was an amazing woman, and her life was the life of a "big river".

　　Qi Bangyuan published academic works, translated works, literary reviews, and essays during her lifetime. The most well-known among readers is that she completed her autobiography "The Great River" when she was over 80 years old. This 250,000-word memoir was published in 2009. It starts from the Juliu River outside the Great Wall and ends at the Yakou Sea in Hengchun, the southern tip of Taiwan, leaving a "most emotional and sexual family memory history" for both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

　　From the 1980s to the 1990s, Xi Murong published a number of poetry collections, which attracted the attention of readers at home and abroad. It was also during this period that Qi Bangyuan and Xi Murong met through mutual friends at her studio in Yangmingshan. "To Teacher Qi, I was a 'primary school student' at that time."

　　This pair of close friends, "teachers and students" with an age difference of nearly 20 years have been in close contact for more than 30 years. "We have talked a lot, and we often meet and talk on the phone." In Xi Murong's view, Qi Bangyuan is a woman with a strong personality.

　　She recalled that Qi Bangyuan lived in Chang Gung Health Cultural Village, a retirement residence in Guishan, Taoyuan for a long time before his death, and completed the writing of "The Great River" here. Qi Bangyuan once said that when she visited Changgeng Health Culture Village, she met a taxi driver. The driver did not understand why an 80-year-old man with children would choose to live alone. The driver also sympathized with her and accompanied her to see the cultural village before taking her home.

　　"But the driver didn't understand the true meaning of what Teacher Qi said, 'I'm 80 years old, and I still have my own life to live.'" Xi Murong believed that Qi Bangyuan hoped to find her "last study room" in her old age. Write "The Great River".

　　""The Great River" writes about her life, and not just her life. The original book cover is a red photo of Chongqing being bombed during the Anti-Japanese War. She wrote about all the hardships and disasters people suffered at that time, as well as the Chinese Anti-Japanese War History. This also includes her own youth." Xi Murong said.

　　Qi Bangyuan was born in Liaoning in February 1924. In 1943, she was admitted to the Department of Philosophy of Wuhan University in Leshan, Sichuan. A year later, she transferred to the Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literature. In 1947, she was employed as a teaching assistant in the Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literatures of National Taiwan University. In 1968, she went to the United States for further study. In 1969, she returned to Taiwan and served as the director of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literature at National Chung Hsing University. In 1988, Qi Bangyuan retired from National Taiwan University.

　　"I respect Teacher Qi very much. She is a great person, a great scholar, a friend, and a woman, both in literature and in life." Xi Murong believes that Qi Bangyuan had been writing during her lifetime and wrote many articles to promote young writers. , she hopes to introduce Taiwanese literature to the world and bring Taiwanese literature to a higher level. "Her whole life she was thinking about others. At the end of her life, she spent the rest of her time writing for herself."

　　In November 2023, Xi Murong received a call from Qi Bangyuan for the last time, and she expressed her farewell to Xi Murong on the phone.

　　"She said 'goodbye' to me, and at that time, I understood what she meant." Xi Murong said that Qi Bangyuan was old and her physical condition did not allow too many people to disturb her. She hoped that she could rest quietly, so she met her friends They say goodbye. "So I also answered, OK, thank you, Teacher Qi." (End)