God quietly opens a new door

The Shanghai Library Bibliotheca Zi-Ka-Wei

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Now it looks nice, but I didn't know there was a garden behind. Don't know if a reader can also use the garden. Back in the 1970's, i.e. 1978-1986 when I lived nearby, I was not aware of its existence at all, even though I studied in the school next door from 78 to 80. The Zi-Ka-Wei Catholic missionary block of buildings was derelict, dilapidated and ransacked during the Cultural Revolution. Even earlier, I went to the emptied Jiaotong University nearby so many times in the years 1971~1978 because my elder sister worked there. By and by, things turned better, well, more promising. I went to study at Fudan University, finished study and started teaching there. We moved back to Yuyuan Road near Zhongshan Park (Sun Yat-Sen Park), where we used to live from 1964-1978. I stayed more and more at Fudan, in the campus, till Nov. 1989. Then I left to study in London, at UCL and SOAS till 1993, when I got hired in Hong Kong, where I lived and worked till 2015 when I got hired by SOAS and now live near London. Only less than a year ago, I started working on missionary Shanghainese lingusitics and returned to the Shanghai library Bibliotheca at Zi-Ka-Wei. So many things happened in between: love-hate-happiness and sorrow. Takes days to think back and straighten up. But for the time being, I am glad I found this interesting subject. Thank God!