Dr. Dong Xiaohong's novel "Camel Bells in the Maple Country" Published, Author Yan Fei Writes Preface
Editor's Note: Chinese in QuebecWriter Dong XiaohongThe recently published novel "Maple Country Camel Bells—A History of Struggle and Emotion of Chinese Canadians" was released by Sino-Canada International Publishing House. Yan Fei, president of the Chinese Writers Association of Canada, wrote the preface for this book.
Dong XiaohongMale, a Chinese Canadian, born in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province in the 1960s. He studied at Beijing Sport University and Laval University in Canada, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Sport Science.1991Have studied, worked, and lived in Canada since [year], and now operate the largest chain of buffet restaurants in Quebec.2017Order of Canada150Anniversary Medal.” She currently resides in Quebec City, Canada. Dong Xiaohong, with her painstaking efforts and accumulated experience, created a 50The multi-volume epic "Camel Bells of Maple Land" has been published by Chinese International Publishing House. This book is a rare gem and a masterpiece in recent years, a welcome fruit of literary creation in Canada, and a significant addition to the scroll of overseas Chinese literary circles! Author Yan Fei wrote the preface for this book and highly recommends it.。
Preface to "Camel Bells of Maple Country"
Yan Fei
Dr. Dong Xiaohong's full-length novel, "Camel Bells of Maple Country," is about to be published by Chinese International Publishing House. I opened the electronic manuscript sent by Xiaohong and read it in a few days, foregoing sleep and meals. The work is profound and elegant, leaving me with many emotions and my thoughts drifting far away.
I met Dong Xiaohong in Canada, and if I count, it's been over a decade. The scene of our first meeting is still vivid in my memory. At that time, due to circumstances, I was working in tourism, hosting official and business groups from within and outside Canada. By nature, I enjoy teaching, and for a few years, I was keen on organizing tour guide training classes during the off-season in winter. During a field trip to Eastern Canada with the first batch of tour guide trainees, we went to Quebec City. One of my wealthy disciples wanted to find the best restaurant there. After asking around among my peers, we were recommended Continental Buffet, a very luxurious and high-end buffet chain in the area. The owner turned out to be a Chinese man named Dong Xiaohong. This is how I met a rather influential figure in Quebec's catering industry. I had heard his name and assumed he was a beautiful woman, but upon meeting him, he was, in fact, a handsome and robust man. In our first interaction, Dong Xiaohong generously treated us to aged Maotai liquor. We exchanged pleasantries, expressing admiration for each other. Thus, we became friends. Afterwards, whenever I led various tour groups to Quebec, I would always take them to dine at his establishment.
Time flies, like a swift wind blowing by white daylight, the light and shadow of the years rush by. We've all been busy with our own lives these past few years. The world has changed dramatically since the pandemic, with all industries suffering heavy blows, leaving a desolate scene. I've also taken the opportunity to return to my literary pursuits, no longer dabbling in travel. These past few years, Xiao Hong and I have only seen each other from afar. Toronto and Quebec City are over 800 kilometers apart. I was suddenly shocked and impressed to learn that Dong Xiao Hong had written a monumental 500,000-character novel that is about to be published.
As writer Dong Xiaohong stated in the opening, "Camel Bells of Maple Country" is an autobiographical documentary novel. The book, with the protagonist Gao Yuan's history of striving and emotional experiences in Canada as its main thread, is rooted in the catering industry and covers a myriad of professions. It depicts a magnificent panorama of new Chinese immigrants to Canada establishing roots, striving hard, and ultimately achieving success. It also incorporates the backdrop of China's rapid economic development over the past few decades. The book meticulously portrays the protagonist Gao Yuan's legendary life. His love and hate, joys and sorrows, successes and failures are interwoven into a splendid tapestry of life. Gao Yuan possesses exceptional intelligence and emotional quotient, a strong physique, and a gentle disposition, truly a dragon among men. However, he is not immune to life's deceptions, setbacks, and blows. But his will is strong, and he becomes braver with each setback. After completing his doctorate in Sports Science at Laval University in Quebec, he couldn't find a job in his field. By chance and circumstance, he entered the catering industry. After decades of hard work, he eventually surpassed his peers and achieved a remarkable career.
Another rather unique aspect of this novel is that it features a diverse cast of women as its central thread throughout. The presence of women shimmers in every story, every chapter, and even every scene within the book. Women are like water, gentle and agile. Women are like dreams, ethereal and captivating. From Xiu Mei, his first love during his youthful and naive days, to Chen Qian, his first wife after falling in love and getting married, and then his second wife, Susan, each relationship has its own unique charm. After his marriage problems and return to singlehood, his old charm resurfaced, and romance blossomed. There's the intellectual lover, postdoctoral fellow Cheng Jing, and others with their own unique allure.The women in Gao Yuan's life—Mei Ling, Bai Xue, Shu Chang, Lin Mu Han, his young girlfriend Xia Tian, Xiao Nan, and others—are the most beautiful scenery in his life's vision, like heavily laden camels traversing the red maple forests of North America, adding endless color and waves to his life.。
Dong Xiaohong shares many similarities with the book's protagonist, Gao Yuan. He is intelligent, strong, possesses extraordinary experiences and knowledge, and has endured life changes and romantic hardships. After experiencing the pandemic and unfortunately falling ill, he resolutely embarked on the creative journey of this life chapter. He turns back time, exploring the meaning of life and the value of literature in a four-dimensional space. Through this literary creation, Xiaohong also revisited his youth and love, and relived friendship and betrayal. Past experiences and memories drifted through his mind like dreams. Combined with the subjective inflections he, as a writer, infused, he embellished, restored, and fictionalized the existing stories. This makes "Camel Bells of Maple Country" more meaningful, literary, poetic, and ultimately more touching to the reader's heart.
In my youth, I wrote some novels. In my younger days, I also experimented with avant-garde fiction. I've always believed that the novel is the most important genre in literature. It requires not only inspiration and material but also fiction and imagination. Compared to the freedom and looseness of prose and poetry, novel writing demands a high level of skill from the writer in terms of structural control, character development, plot construction, and the meticulous crafting of narrative details. Writer Dong Xiaohong has a talent for this. It's also evident that he has read extensively, possesses a broad knowledge base, and has achieved a high level of literary accomplishment and writing prowess. His narrative ability is incisive, and his characterization is exceptionally crafted.
In today's world, everyone is impatient, fast-food culture is rampant, and trash culture abounds. It is rare and commendable that Dong Xiaohong can calm down and dedicate herself to creating such a long and excellent work. This deserves praise. Such a feat requires a strong inner self, firm self-control, a grand vision, and persistent pursuit of goals. Otherwise, it is difficult to achieve.
The book contains multiple passages of sexual description, flowing like clouds and water, with the beauty of high art. Graceful and delicate, this is what I love. When I was young, I wrote novels and had a similar inclination. Jia Pingwa's "Ruins" and Zhang Xianliang's "Half of Man is Woman" both feature excellent sexual descriptions. In ancient times, there were also like-minded individuals. Men and women reveling in love, enjoying life to the fullest. A fair lady sought by a gentleman. The flower path has never been less frequented because of guests; the humble gate opens today for you. Alas, a few drops of Bodhi water poured into the two petals of the red lotus. A pair united for a night under the mandarin duck quilt, a pear blossom pressing down on a begonia. All possess aesthetic beauty.
Although "Camel Bells of Maple Country" may slightly lack a refined and intricate long-form framework, and its prose, while grand and majestic, can be a bit sprawling, its beautiful ideas and exquisite, elegant language grant it significant literary value, overshadowing its flaws. It is undeniable that this work is a rare gem among recent literary achievements, adding a bold stroke to the tapestry of North American Chinese literature. Author Dong Xiaohong, after years of preparation, has finally released the over 500,000-character epic "Camel Bells of Maple Country." This represents a fruitful achievement in overseas Chinese literary creation and could become a notable benchmark for Chinese writing in North America. This is my preface.
Foreword Writer's Biography:
Yan Fei, writer, editor, also known as Yan Daxia. Currently residing in Toronto, he serves as President of the Canadian Chinese Writers Association and Vice President and Secretary-General of the Canadian Chinese Journalists and Editors Association. He has published over a million characters of literary works, including novels, poems, and essays, in literary magazines such as "Chinese Writers," "People's Literature," and "Tianya." He has also published a long-form work in "October." Yan Fei graduated from university at the age of 20 and has worked as a book editor, editor-in-chief of a special economic zone newspaper's supplement section, assistant editor-in-chief of Hainan Youth Daily, and in Haikou Federation of Literary and Art Circles' magazine.Coconut CityDeputy editor-in-chief, executive editor of a literary magazine. Author of the Hainan Dream Trilogy, "Hainan Wumeng", "Hainan's Astonishing Dream", "Hainan's Dream Quest", the novel "The Calamity: A Woman's Glory and Shame", the non-fiction work "Glory and sin}, the essay collection "Yan Fei's Dream Talk," and others. His literary works were very popular in the mid-1990s and won provincial and ministerial literary awards. His "Yan Fei's Hainan Dream Trilogy," represented by "No Dreams in Hainan," was a national bestseller and became a landmark literary work of the period of Hainan Province's development and opening up at that time.
Canada's Camel Bells: A History of Struggle and Emotion of Chinese Canadians
From 1963 to 2023, a full sixty years, exactly one sexagenary cycle. A newborn infant also happens to reach the age of sixty. At sixty, one is long past youth, but in reality, if life is considered a ball game, then sixty years old is truly the beginning of the second half.
That's right. If the first half of life is about effort and struggle, then the second half should be about relaxation and enjoyment. For a man who has achieved success in his career, by the time he reaches sixty, he should put down all his ambitions and burdens and enjoy the happiness of family.
No financial pressure, children have all grown up and become adults; no family ties, enjoy good wine, beautiful women, and travel... Isn't this the epitome of seizing the day and living life to the fullest?!
This is also the life Gao Yuan should have.
Gao Yuan was born just as the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961 was coming to an end. He experienced the poverty that most Chinese children of that era went through, and he also possessed the mischievousness, willfulness, rebelliousness, and daydreams common to most Chinese boys. He went to school, got into fights, transferred schools, went to a sports academy... his life path seemed no different from most children's. He went to college, pursued graduate studies, fell in love, narrowly avoided expulsion, graduated, became a provincial team coach, got married, and earned extra income... His life began to diverge from others, even from his own initial design. He went abroad to study, worked odd jobs, got divorced, remarried, opened a restaurant, divorced again, fell in love, fell in love, fell in love... One unexpected event followed another in his life, shocking even himself.
Gao Yuan was tall and strong like an ox, boorish in his actions, yet meticulous in his thoughts and diligent in his studies, advancing from a bachelor's to a doctoral degree. Throughout his life, he adhered to the principle of treating gentlemen with gentlemanly means, ruffians with ruffianly means, scoundrels with scoundrelly means, and villains with villainous means. He lived by the creed that a drop of kindness should be repaid with a gushing spring, and that an ounce of grievance would be repaid tenfold. He would rather suffer a thousand losses than let the enemy gain eight hundred.
He could almost sue the government agency to the country's highest court over a $130 ticket, yet he donated a large sum of money to the Children and Women's Foundation; he saves every grain of food, eating his children's leftovers, yet he donates hundreds of thousands of tons of food to Canadian food banks. He was recognized by the Canadian government as a person of outstanding contribution to society for the 150th anniversary of the country's founding, yet he got into a fight with someone over a small parking dispute and ended up in the police station; he can overeat, finishing the meals of three people in one sitting, yet he can also go for days without eating a single grain like a camel and still work; he can work continuously like a machine for a year without a single day off, and he can also go to the gym every day for 365 consecutive days; he can refrain from any other woman besides his wife for twenty years, yet in a mere two to three years he can travel all over the world, dating more than a dozen girlfriends and taking many intimate photos...
He is a madman. He is also an ordinary person.
He went from someone who didn't even know to add water when cooking rice to a highly skilled chef; he went from someone who disliked stocks and didn't understand basic stock terminology to a stock market expert; he went from a young man renting in the basement of a dilapidated apartment to a “landlord” who owns hundreds of apartments; he started from scratch as a poor international student who had to pick up discarded furniture, and worked his way up to become the owner of a chain of restaurants worth hundreds of millions... Then, on the second day of the Lunar New Year of his fifty-ninth year, a piece of bad news almost broke him: he was diagnosed with malignant tumors!
Escape or face it bravely? Despair or look forward to tomorrow? No matter what, life must go on for those who still love him.
Gao Yuan's life was full of ups and downs. His ideals and reality, his wife and his lover, his persistence and his compromises, his worth and his dignity... Amidst these twists and turns, only love and sorrow accompanied him.
