In Search of Footprints of My Father: Wang Du-Lu - Author of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

By HONG WANG

2000 is the year of Dragon according to Chinese zodiac.

In 2000, the film of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released and became a huge success being nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards, winning four awards (Best Foreign Language Film, Bes

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jianghu Publishing
• Release date: Apr 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990113321

HONG WANG

The story of "Deep Palace, Legendary Hero" occurred in Qing dynasty that Zhang Jifei, sneaked into the capital to avenge the murder of his father. He hid himself in Forbidden City, and later killed Eunuch Ge who tortured a palace maid, which caused him to be wanted. After going through twists and turns, Hu Zhongke who was responsible to catch Zhang finally found him, and learned that Zhang was also a xia (knight-errant), and became friends."Precious Sword, Bright Pearl" is considered to be a masterpiece in Wang's hero-romance, tragic ending novels. The book described that a female hero Hou Biying fell in love with Ye Zhankun, who was dedicated to acting in the dark without revealing his real identity and had killed many evil people. Although Ye loved Hou too, he declined her because he was already engaged. Even so, Hou still regarded Ye as a confidant. When the tyrannical bullies were chasing Ye, Hou knew her martial arts were not enough she still fought for Ye bravely and died of injuries. Ye's fiancé also committed suicide because of her sadness, left Ye grief-stricken and deranged.The story of "Double Dragon Swords" occurred in Qing Dynasty that martial art master Chen Boyu's family had two iron-cutting swards: "Blue Dragon on the Rain" and "White Dragon with the Wind". Chen used the Blue Dragon sword and his daughter Xiuxia used White Dragon sword. After Zhang San murdered Chen and captured the sword, Xiuxia left home, wandering and looking for the murderer to revenge. After she met a Xia, Zhang Yunjie and fought together against many enemies, they fell in love with each other. However, when she was told that Yunjie was the adopted son of Zhang San, she broke off relations with him. After several twists and turns, the two finally went back together. Zhang Yunjie threw the Blue Dragon sword in a river, and then they lived in seclusion."Colorful Phenix, Silver Snake" was a story about Ye Yunxiong, who was discriminated at home because he was born from a concubine, and became a bandit when he was a teenager. He then lived in seclusion in a fishing village and married a gentle and beautiful girl Mei. Because the fishermen were often bullied by the Lu on an Island when they went out to fish, Ye defeated Lu and his daughter Feng'e. Hence, his identity was revealed and he was arrested. Because Feng'e fell in love with Ye, she stepped forward to save him, and went with Ye to fight against many evil forces. Later, Feng'e died of serious injuries. In the end, Ye and Mei lived in the suburb of Beijing with deep sorrows.

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In Search of Footprints of My Father

2000 is the year of Dragon according to Chinese zodiac.

In this year, the film of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released and became a huge success being nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards, winning four awards (Best Foreign Language Film, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography) plus many other nominations and awards including Golden Globe Awards, British Academy Film Awards, Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2000 and New York Film Critics Circle Awards, etc. The film was listed as one of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time (2008) and 100 Best Films of World Cinema (2010) by Empire Magazine, 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the Last 30 Years by the Independent Film and Television Alliance (2010), 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films by BBC (2018), and 100 Best Films of the 21st Century by The Guardian (2019). These achievements were greatly attributed to the iconic director Ang Lee, excellent script writer Wang Hui Ling, extraordinary actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen, and many other participants, such as action choreographer Yuan Heping, score composer Tan Dun, cello player Yo-Yo Ma, singer Coco Lee, etc.

However, few people knew the film was based on the novel of the same name written by Wang Du-Lu who was my father.

A Hidden Novelist

I didn't know father’s past until many years after he passed away.

Both dad and mom worked in a high school since I was a child and they worked very hard. Almost every evening they both went to the school, mom oversaw the dormitory and took care of junior and sick students, and dad went to the classrooms to guide students’ study. So, often, I was alone in bed, waiting them to come home. Dad came back usually earlier than mom. I always could hear his strong coughing (he was always weak and sick) when he was still far from home, and rush to open the door for him.

My family rarely cooked at home and always ate in the school canteen until the period of Great Chinese Famine (1959-1961). Food stamps were not enough to cover our meals because I was at the age of rapid growth, hence needed lots of foods. Meals provided by canteen was often less than it was supposed to be with poor quality. Both of my legs were swollen duo to malnutrition. So, mam decided to cook at home with a stove. As rationing of coal and firewood was not enough for cooking, one day mom pointed toward a huge box and asked my dad if she can burn the books in the box for cooking? Dad said yes, he had reported it to the authority anyway