Cultural Heirloom Across the Centuries
This episode opens with a vivid family memory, recounting the life story of Ms. Li Shaoqun, the mother of Li Shicheng. Born towards the end of the Republic of China era, she became a vital link between tradition and modernity amidst great historical upheaval. She came from a scholarly family whose heirlooms included a precious Qing Dynasty imitation Ge ware porcelain piece—a treasure said to ensure “peach blossoms bear fruit.” These objects were not merely artworks but carriers of cultural memory. Particularly touching is the fact that even during the material scarcity of the 1950s and 60s, she insisted on nurturing her children through the four arts of qin (zither), qi (chess), shu (calligraphy), and hua (painting). This cultural resilience is a microcosm of the enduring vitality of Chinese civilization.
Wisdom for Survival in a Cultural Gap
In the segment remembering his father, we see a cultural landscape full of tension. His father, a radio engineer who studied in the UK in his early years (the equivalent of a contemporary IT expert), represented the impact of Westernization. The program vividly describes the family structure of that special era: three wives living under one roof, referring to each other as “Ah-Sao” (aunt) and “Ah-Jie” (sister), forming a unique system of checks and balances. In this environment, it was surprisingly the second and third mothers, who did not speak English, who preserved the spark of Chinese traditional culture for Li Shicheng by taking him to see films like the Huangmei opera The Love Eterne (Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai) when Hollywood culture was dominating.
