?“Life is a gorgeous robe, covered with fleas.” In her later years, Eileen Chang lived a secluded life in the United States, but she still could not get rid of the “gnawing little worries” in her life. Because of fleas (worm infestation), she moved many times (relocating, throwing away all her things for convenience), and even lived in a hotel. In her later years, Zhang Ailing was afraid of interacting with people, answering the phone, and writing replies. Even letters from her aunt took a long time to open and read.

? Reading "The Correspondence of Zhang Ailing and Zhuang Xinzheng", I seem to understand the lonely time of Zhang Ailing, a female writer in her later years, who was plagued by dental diseases, skin diseases, headaches, swollen feet and other diseases. In Zhang Ailing's later years, she constantly gave up the superfluous things in her life and used subtraction to defend her dignity.

In the 1990s, thanks to Xia Zhengqing’s recommendation, the literary history wind blowing from overseas brought Zhang Ailing back into the readers’ horizons. At that time, I read some novels and essays by Zhang Ailing. This time, through Mr. Zhuang Xinzheng’s book, I got closer to Zhang Ailing. Through the correspondence between the two, we can learn about Zhang Ailing’s works, publishing, reading, and life. Zhuang Xinzheng not only helped Zhang Ailing a lot in life, but also gave a lot of pertinent suggestions on publishing and revising her works.

In 1982, when Johnson was reporting his experience to Eileen Chang, he once again mentioned the use of a musical script to deal with the heroine Wang Jiazhi in "Lust, Caution", which triggered Eileen Chang to give him a report on July 5. The letter said: "...Jia Zhi in "Lust, Caution" was originally mentally abnormal because she sacrificed her virginity to become an agent, and her classmates had a bad attitude towards this, which gave her a lot of stimulation. English There is a famous saying: 'Power is an aphrodisiac', I think so, a love potion - should be added, thank you for reminding me indirectly - Jiazhi loves Mr. Yi to a certain extent, and the sex aspect is OK."

< p> What’s even more interesting is that from Mr. Zhuang Xinzheng’s annotations, we can understand the details of Zhang Ailing’s life, which is extremely precious to Zhang fans. For example, in terms of diet: "She (Zhang Ailing) eats abnormally and only eats pies bought in the store. She told the manager that eating other things will make her vomit. I told (Lin) Shitong that she has been sick (mainly colds) for many years; She eats differently than ordinary people, often only eating cakes and biscuits. "Because of this, Johnson gave her advice in the letter: "I think you can still have a balance, such as vegetables, fruits, milk, and fish. Just eating cake will be biased.”

In this letter to Zhang Ailing on August 3, 1988, Johnson also explained a very gossipy thing: a female reporter moved in. Zhang Ailing's apartment, renting the room opposite Zhang, and spying on Zhang Ailing's living conditions. This female reporter was named Dai Wencai, who was the editor of "American China News" at the time. She was a die-hard fan of Zhang Ailing. After her request for an interview was rejected, she tried her best to get close to Zhang Ailing.

?So, I rented the room opposite Zhang Ailing, took the opportunity to observe, peeped, followed, and even picked up the domestic garbage thrown by Zhang Ailing every day, and wrote the report "Huali Yuan──My Neighbor Zhang Ailing", which was published in " Serialized in "American China News". Many Zhang fans hate that Dai Wencai is so powerful and has unprecedented paparazzi-style hunting for news. On the other hand, from Dai's articles, they have obtained a very accurate and trivial record of Zhang Ailing's life.