“Ｍｙ Ｓｔｅｐｍｏｔｈｅｒ ｗａｓ Ｓｉｘ Ｙｅａｒ Ｏｌｄｅｒ ｔｈａｎ Ｉ”

Ｌａｏ　Ｇｅ

The 78-year-old Xu Jingwen is the daughter of Xu Beihong (1895-1953), a prominent Chinese artist of the 20th-century. Xu Jingwen is a professor specialized in silkworm and mulberry, the upstream elements of Chinas silk industry. Her biological mother Jiang Biwei died in 1978 and her stepmother Liao Jingwen was only 6 years senior than her.

Liao was totally dedicated to Xu Beihong and she was a great stepmother to Xu Jingwen. In a spring afternoon in 2007, I talked with Xu Jingwen at her house on the campus of Anhui Agricultural University. Xu Jingwen talked about her stepmother lovingly. In the eye of Xu Jingwen, Liao is a loving mother just like every loving mother in the world except that her stepmother is only six years her senior.

Xu Beihong and Jiang Biwei had a son and a daughter. The daughter first saw Liao Jingwen in the summer of 1943 when she was enjoying the summer break after spending her first year in a junior high school in Chongqing. Her Father was running an art academy where only associate professors or above could qualify as students for more advanced studies in fine arts. During that summer, Xu Beihong led a group of students sketch outdoors in some scenic places around Chengdu. Xu Jingwen and her elder brother Xu Boyang tagged along. Pretty soon, Xu Jingwen became aware of a 19-year-old girl working as a librarian for her father. That girl was Liao Jingwen.

Xu Beihong and Jiang Biwei had separated in 1937. After the separation, Xu Beihongs health soon declined. He had a very tight work schedule and for a long time he lacked a woman to take care of him. He fell seriously ill in 1944. The kidney problems and the hypertension almost killed him. He was hospitalized for more than 100 days. Liao Jingwen was the only woman staying with Xu Beihong and taking care of him. One day, Xu Jingwen came to visit her father in the hospital. She saw what Liao Jingwen did for her father and was greatly touched. The daughter was fully convinced that Liao, 28 years younger than her father, loved her father. Liao had given up her college studies and come to work for Xu Beihong neither for money nor for fame.

In December 1945, Xu Beihong officially divorced Jiang Biwei after agreeing to pay 1 million yuan and 100 paintings to Jiang. In March, 1946, Xu Beihong and Liao Jingwen got married. Xu Jingwen shuttled between her father and her natural mother on alternate weekends. Liao Jingwen loved her like a stepmother.

Xu Beihong and Liao Jingwen influenced the teenager. In February, 1946, more than 300 cultural celebrities in Chongqing, the war-time capital of the country, collectively and publicly declared their objection to the KMT dictatorship. Xu Beihong and his wife Liao Jingwen were among the 300 who put their signatures to the declaration. Xu Beihong immediately received a letter with two bullets in the envelope.

In July 1947, Xu Beihong decided to move to Beiping (todays Beijing) to work as the president of Beiping Academy of Art. Before Xu and his wife left Chongqing, the stepmother and stepdaughter talked about the future. Liao said that Xu Jingwen would have a lot of time to spend with her father if she could get herself enrolled in a college in Beiping.

Xu Jingwen was academically brilliant. In her three years in senior high school she often sent her report card to Xu Beihong and Liao Jingwen. Xu Jingwen applied to a medical college in Beiping, but her birth mother said she could only go to college in Nanjing or Shanghai. The daughter and the mother quarreled several times, but none would budge an inch. The daughter tore her admission card for entrance examination and refused to leave her bedroom. Finally her mother got her into Jinlin University in Nanjing. Xu Jingwen entered the university, but pretty soon, she became a communist.On the New Years Day of 1949, she and other 11 classmates sneaked away to the Liberated Area under the control of Communists. Jiang Biwei wrote to Xu Beihong saying that their daughter was missing. Xu Beihong was extremely worried. Liao Jingwen guessed that Xu Jingwen must have joined the Communist cause and gone to a liberated area. Then Xu Jingwens letters reached her father in Beiping. It was in these letters that Xu Jingwen called Liao mom for the first time.

One day in 1951, Xu Beihong suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. Xu Jingwen rushed to Beijing overnight. She was allowed ten minutes to talk with her father. It turned out that it was the last time she saw her father alive. In 1953, Xu Beihongs conditions worsened and passed away. Liao Jingwen wrote to her stepdaughter several times but Xus family kept the bad news from Xu Jingwen because she was about to give birth to her second child. A month later, Xu Jingwen learned the demise of her father. She immediately wrote to her stepmother, explaining why she failed to attend the funeral.

Liao Jingwen wrote back immediately. She talked about Xu Beihongs wishes. One of the wishes was that Xu Jingwen should have college education and have a professional career on something. She promised to support her stepdaughters college studies financially.

In 1954, while eight months in pregnancy with the third child, Xu Jingwen passed the entranceexamination and scored 580 out of the full score 600. She chose to study silkworm and mulberry at Anhui Agricultural College (the predecessor of todays Anhui Agricultural University). Liao Jingwen immediately remitted 1,500 yuan to Xu Jingwen.While studying hard through college, Xu Jingwen received generous cash support from her stepmother.

Xu Jingwen had eight children, four of her own and four from her husbands former marriage. When Liao Jingwen came to Hefei to visit her stepdaughter, she was astonished to see the living conditions of the family. In 1961 when hunger struck the whole nation, Xu Jingwen went with her four children to Beijing to stay with Liao Jingwen. Xu Jingwen planted some corn in the courtyard outside the house. This helped.

Xu Jingwen grew to be a scholar of international renown in the field of silkworm and mulberry. She often came to Beijing to stay for a few days with her stepmother.

All these years, Liao Jingwen cared for her stepdaughter. And Xu Jingwen said in this interview that she and her stepmother have been together for more than 50 years and they have never quarreled once. And they have cared for each other.

In the winter of 2003, Xu Jingwens son and his wife lacked some money to pay for an apartment. They borrowed 50,000 yuan from Liao. When Liaos son carried the cash over in a case, all the cash was in banknotes of 10, 20 yuan. It turned out that it was the money Liao had saved over years. When theson and his wife had money later and wanted to return the loan, Liao said that she felt a little bit sorry that she had followed her husbands wish and donated almost all his paintings to the state without consulting Xus other children first. The money could be used as a compensation, thought it was not much.

In September 2006, Liao Jingwen held an event in Beijing in memory of the 110th anniversary of the birthday of Xu Beihong. Xu Jingwen and her daughter Little Phoenix were invited to attend the event. Xu Jingwen found that her stepmothers health was extremely poor. Tortured by diabetes, Liao was almost deaf. She communicated with her hands and her younger brother, a retiree, took care of her. Little Phoenix is a good cook. She cooked some delicacies for her grandma and her grandma was greatly pleased.

Xu Jingwen had brought many of her paintings at the request of her stepmother. Liao was very pleased to see the paintings and said Xu Jingwen had made great progress since she began painting after retirement. In March, 2009, Xu Jingwen received a trophy and a certificate from Liao. It turned out that Liao had her paintings displayed in France, Italy and Germany. □