The Versatile Master Artist

Chapter 674: Chapter 309: Yesterday’s World

From start to finish, Chen Shenglin never mentioned anything about dealing with the events behind the train station incident.

It seemed entirely like a trivial matter done at random.

Not worth mentioning.

The collector, just before hanging up, seemed to suddenly think of something.

He asked Gu Weijing a question with an amused tone.

“Gu Weijing, did you see my campaign sign? You are a painter, people say that literature and art can reflect the customs and culture of a city better than a politician’s slogan. Like ducks knowing the warming river before spring arrives, artists are more sensitive to life’s environment than social activists. I’m very curious, how do young people like you see it?”

“See what?”

“How do you see our country, our city? From the perspective of the new generation of young people.”

“Uncle Chen, this topic is too vast.”

Gu Weijing hesitated for a moment.

He did not dare to seize the opportunity to boast and show off in front of Boss Chen.

“To be honest, not only do I lack the ability to discuss this topic, I also lack the capability to represent the new generation of young people in Yangon. The ones who truly represent them are the small vendors riding second-hand motorcycles selling fruit in the streets and alleys, the porters carrying foreign tourists in sedan chairs at the port, and the balloon-seller who just brushed past me.”

On one hand.

Compared to someone as wealthy as Chen Shenglin, his family conditions were like beggars kneeling on the side of the road.

On the other hand, Gu Weijing attends a private school, uses a new iPad Pro as a drawing board, and takes pottery classes with Miss Mona during holidays, playing at the water park.

Even before meeting Koizumi Katsuko and owning the lucrative online nickname Detective Cat, his everyday exposure to societal levels had soared like a rocket advancing at lightning speed.

Gu Weijing’s life still floated in the clouds.

Frankly speaking.

All his joys and sorrows, the troubles he faced.

In the grand scheme of tumultuous Myanmar, they are bourgeois and carry an artistic youth’s pretentiousness.

Miao Angwen, who was also favored by Brother Hao, would surely think deep down that Gu Weijing is a pretentious, ungrateful fool.

In comparison to himself.

The Jasmine holding onto his coat and his grandfather Gu Tongxiang’s struggles before the age of forty are closer to the reality of life here.

“Then let’s talk about today’s incident. Situated anywhere in the city, at the Old Imperial Palace, at the Great Golden Pagoda, at the port and the train station, such things happen every moment. In Yangon this is the case, not to mention places even more chaotic. How do you see such things?”

Chen Shenglin asked.

“Hmm…like Yesterday’s World.”

“Cwieg?”

“No…Yangon is a city where prosperity and decay coexist; sometimes when you stroll through its streets illuminated by bright lights and wine, you see the encompassing face of this city. Yet other times, you feel a stifling heaviness that’s suffocating, the air floats with the dust of Yesterday’s World from two hundred years ago, slowly inhaled by your lungs.”

“Yesterday’s World, that’s an interesting way to put it.” Chen Shenglin savored the term.

In high society of Europe, bringing up “Yesterday’s World” generally refers to the fifty-some years from the late 19th century up until the outbreak of the Great War.

That was the golden age viewed with romantic fondness by the aristocracy and intellectual elite of Old Europe. The grandeur of the world’s fairs lit up the Crystal Palace, the lamplights of Paris streets illuminated this city one by one.

Those were peaceful, harmonious, and progressive good old days.

Such objective peace and progress were built upon the countless white bones of colonialism, but those were indeed the most glorious years of Old Europe.

Hemingway described it as “A Moveable Feast,” and one of Cwieg’s most famous works, “Yesterday’s World,” was written to reminisce about the beautiful times he spent in Vienna before the war broke out.

At this moment on the phone, for the young people, Yesterday’s World markedly differed from all the beauty attributed to this specific term by Old Europe, and was completely opposite to Cwieg’s nostalgia for bygone history.

“Here in comparison to “Myanmar Travelogue”‘s Yesterday World, a lot has changed, yet much remains the same.”

“Some are physical, like what you see with the Good Fortune Orphanage and the train station that’s still in operation. Other matters are spiritual, like the privileged police who extort and blackmail, the greatest difference being they’ve changed from English-speaking colonizers to our own people.” Gu Weijing hesitated for a bit: “Moreover…”

“Go on, it’s intriguing, perhaps it could be included in my campaign slogan. Let’s, together, declare war on Yesterday’s World, a potent political slogan, thought-provoking, also encompassing a political metaphor for the history of Western colonialism; ingenious.”

Chen Shenglin encouraged with great interest.

“Moreover, seeing how they nodded and apologized, I found it both dull and frightening. Perhaps if that military police officer had stiffened his neck, brazenly arguing and claiming he was merely following regulations, it would have made me feel a bit better. I don’t know how you did it, I could even see the officer’s hands trembling when apologizing to Miss Sakai.”

“I believe that if kneeling and kowtowing could make Koizumi Katsuko treat this incident as if it never happened, he would undoubtedly do it.”

“Given his condition, you still feel fear? Shouldn’t the terrifying one be that police officer? Most young people in your position would just feel thrilled. What’s bad about seeing a corrupt officer get punished?” Chen Shenglin asked curiously.