China News Service, Beijing, February 5th: Why should we write "Yandongyuan Neighbors"

　　——Exclusive interview with Professor Xu Hong, School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University

　　Author Xu Guanwen Longjie

　　At the beginning of this year, Professor Xu Hong of Peking University’s masterpiece "Yandongyuan Neighbors" was published. As a residential area built specifically for professors by Yenching University in the 1920s, the 22 small buildings in Yandong Garden carry too many historical events, emotions and memories of professors from Yenching University and Peking University and their families.

　　Professor Xu Hong, an old resident of Yandongyuan who is over 70 years old, narrated the residents and past events in these small buildings. He narrated the past changes and scholars that happened in Yandongyuan with special writing style and detailed historical materials. Achievements, academic inheritance, family life and other aspects have drawn a vivid picture of academic and cultural inheritance. Professor Xu Hong recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East-West Question" to share her original intention of writing, as well as her feelings and thoughts about recording the times.

The interview transcript is summarized as follows:

Reporter from China News Service: "Neighbors of Yandongyuan" allows the 22 small buildings in Yandongyuan with "historic building" signs to "speak". What was your original intention in writing?

Xu Hong:

Yandong Garden is located about one mile outside the east gate of the Peking University campus in Haidian District. It was built from 1926 to 1930 and has been home to many well-known scholars and professors from Yenching University and Peking University. My father, Xu Xianyu, was the dean of the Department of Mathematics at Yenching University. When I was one hundred days old, my family moved from No. 59 Yannanyuan to No. 40 Yandongyuan, where we have lived ever since.

　　At the end of 2021, Beijing completed the first batch of historical building demonstration projects, and our home was listed as "Yandongyuan No. 40". This incident made me want to write this book. I think that protecting buildings is actually protecting history, and protecting history means protecting the people who once lived here and what happened here.

Peking University Ximen. Photo by Luo Xinghan

　　Many friends say that I am a lucky person. Destiny has given me two gifts: First, I was born in a professor's family, so I am fortunate to live in a garden like Yandong Garden where famous scholars have lived for nearly a hundred years. The oldest resident in the garden.

　　The second gift is that I have been doing what I love most my whole life, journalism. I graduated from the Journalism Department of Renmin University of China. I studied journalism for five years. I worked as a reporter in the media for 30 years. Then I returned to the university to teach journalism for another 20 years. I have never left journalism and I consider myself a professional journalist at heart. Therefore, the professional journalist’s sense of social responsibility and historical mission also requires me to record the century-old changes of Yandongyuan.

　　So I take this book as my answer sheet and dedicate it to my lifelong career in journalism. At the same time, I also give this answer sheet to all my students - I teach them journalism, and I use my own works to answer how they should do journalism.

Cover of "Yandongyuan Neighbors" written by Xu Hong. Photo provided by interviewee

Reporter from China News Service: Writing about Yan Dongyuan records the turbulence of the times and the fate of scholars in the past hundred years. Some comments say that this book is a tribute to a generation of scholars. Can you tell us about your father and the scholars of his generation?

Xu Hong:

My father, Xu Xianyu, went to the United States to study in 1936. Two years later, he received a doctorate in philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis, becoming the first Chinese student to receive a doctorate from this university. After returning to China in 1939, he successively taught at Yenching University and Peking University, and was one of the founders of the computational mathematics discipline in China. After his 100th birthday, he was hospitalized with pneumonia. I will never forget the scene before my father died. He asked for a pen and paper, and wrote slowly and tremblingly, writing his signature "Xu Xianyu" vertically from top to bottom, and "Goodbye" horizontally from left to right. The day after the farewell ceremony for the body was held, some media published a special article titled "Goodbye, the "Xu Xianyu" Generation".

On April 18, 2009, a commemoration event for the 90th anniversary of the founding of Yenching University was held in the auditorium of the Peking University Office Building. Nearly a thousand old Yenching University alumni gathered together to reminisce about old friendships. Photo by Hou Yu

　　My father’s generation mainly refers to this group of intellectuals who were born in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, studied in Europe and the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, and were determined to save the country through science. People of this generation almost have the same experience: they came back during the national crisis, stayed when the country was in trouble, endured all the political movements, and tried their best after the reform and opening up. My father is not the top of his generation. There are many more scholars who have lived in Yandongyuan who have made significant contributions. This book comes from the perspective and private memories of our second generation, Yan Dongyuan, to remember and pay tribute to our elders.

Reporter from China News Service: It is not easy to conduct interviews, research, and sort out Yan Dongyuan’s past. Why do you fight against forgetting?

Xu Hong:

In a sense, history is constantly being covered up and eliminated. History itself both shapes and destroys characters. Preserving the truth of history and the true state of the characters who lived in it is a very meaningful thing, but it is also a very difficult thing.

　　There are two important words in my book: salvage and salvage.

　　"Salvage" is because too many people have been covered up by history. China's history has been narrowed by the "grand narrative" so that people only know about emperors, generals and some individual people, but in fact there are too many people who have contributed to the progress of Chinese civilization and should be mentioned in the annals of history.

　　The other is "rescue". If we don't rescue them now, they will be selectively forgotten. When the parties involved are gone, these people and things will be completely submerged and eliminated from history.

On February 14, 2006, a woman was pushing a bicycle to enter Quanzhai on the campus of Peking University. Quan Zhai is one of the seven houses built in 1920 by Leighton Leighton, the president of Yenching University, to "have both moral integrity and talent and a sound body". Photo by Xu Xiyi

　　Doing these interviews and investigations is fighting against forgetfulness. Sometimes forgetting something, especially suffering, is also a kind of release for individuals. In this way, we may be able to get out of suffering and darkness faster and welcome the light. But as a group, a society, and a nation, it would be sad if we forget, deliberately and selectively, the suffering it has suffered. Once forgotten, the same suffering will happen a second or third time.

China News Service reporter: You have been engaged in journalism all your life. "Yandongyuan Neighbors" uses a reporter's style to narrate history. What do you think is the connection between news and history?

Xu Hong:

One of my students said that the end of journalism is history. This sentence inspired me a lot. Journalism and history actually have a very close relationship. What is the greatest common denominator between the two? News pursues authenticity, history pursues truth, and both require facts to speak for themselves.

　　In addition, I personally believe that any discipline, especially the humanities and social sciences, without the core foundation of history, it may be difficult for the development of this discipline to gain intrinsic vitality. Without a historical perspective to understand the past, grasp the present, and look forward to the future, many things will be in vain and unrealistic. But at the end of the day, people will find that there is a lot of history that has been obscured. When this obscured history is presented, it becomes news. My teacher, Mr. Fang Hanqi, a leading figure in journalism, said to me: Journalism and literature and history are connected.

China News Service reporter: "Yandongyuan Neighbors" pursues facts and truth, and combines news and history. What methods are used in writing?

Xu Hong:

I feel like I am adhering to a kind of news writing. Many foreign history writers who are journalists have done this. The most critical aspect of news writing is on-site awareness. I have always believed that the journalist profession is an action profession, and the goal of action is the scene. Therefore, we must arrive at the scene, see the true appearance and real situation of the scene, and strive to interview enough parties so that we can complete the truth-telling process. puzzle. For journalists, a "sense of presence" is very important, so throughout the process of writing this book, I wanted to reach the historical scene at that time through interviews and by consulting as many historical materials as possible.

The spring scenery beside Peking University's Weiming Lake is pleasant. Photo by Yi Haifei

　　Arriving at the "scene", through the language of news, the "big words" and "concepts" are embodied into details. As the saying goes, "The devil is in the details." Only by truly capturing the details of life, maybe only two or three details, can a true and complete artistic conception or image be reflected.

　　I am also resisting the fragmented culture on the Internet, especially emotional expression and venting. I hope it will be written with restrained and kind words. We should still use goodwill to understand, use goodwill to connect, and use goodwill to communicate. My book writes about many human relationships, such as how that generation of scholars dealt with family, friendship, and love in times of crisis, pressure, and choices. I tried to make the entire book warm. (over)

Interviewee profile:

　　Xu Hong is a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University and a senior journalist. He once served as the Beijing Branch Director of China News Service and the Executive Vice Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University.