The love story of Liang and Zhu, a time-honoured folklore, was adapted for a motion picture of great box-office success in the sixties, a real smash indeed. Some fans, especially those matronly women, even watched the movie as many as eighty-strong times. As an innocent high school student then, I totally discounted the film as merely an infatuation; nevertheless, I finally watched it once, without pulling much at my heartstrings anyway. I just thought it was a mediocre movie, and couldn’t understand all fuss about it. Not any more after nearly fifty years when I was on the "Broken Bridge", a place of interest in West Lake, Hangzhou.

A fortnight ago, my son Kevin and I strolled to that famous bridge, where it was said that Liang and Zhu had bid adieu back and forth to each other for eighteen times. I was trying to tell Kevin the story either in English or in Mandarin, but to no avail because he was not interested in.  Coincidentally, a tour guide, a young lady of Kevin’s age, led her team consisting of all Caucasian tourists to the bridge and started to narrate the story in eloquent English. This time Kevin seemed attracted, so we stood behind the team, "eavesdropping" the guide’s interpretation. In no
time did we listen to her in rapt attention, for she gave a vivid account of the love story in elegant, articulate English that Kevin and I wouldn’t want to miss a single word. She then answered the questions from her audience in such a graceful and composed manner that everybody’s face registered admiration, either to her or to the story itself. Kevin found my eyes moistened, but he didn’t know what was on my mind.

Incidentally, Kevin admitted that, albeit accent, the tour guide lady is able to give better narration in formal English than he is. That was the thing on my mind: the human resources of the rising China.  If an ordinary tour guide is capable of performing English interpretation flawlessly, can you imagine how many top-notch specialists are there inother sectors? It is little wonder China’s progress has gained in leaps and bounds during past thirty years. The only way for Taiwan to move forward again is to tap into this golden opportunity from the inexorable growth of the Mainland. Some people would hate to accept that, but someday they have to jump on the China bandwagon.

On September, 2010