I have a question about a Chinese literary piece which I hope
someone can help me with. Here goes:
I remembered reading a piece of modern Chinese essay a long time
ago by quite a famous writer (cant remember his name). He wrote a
short essay about a seemingly trivial incident in his childhood
days but through which he has conveyed his regret over his
inability to make amends to a wrong he has committed a long time
ago.
The gist of his essay is as follows:
Per chance, the writer was reminded of an incident which took place
in his childhood. On that day long ago, the writer was flying kites
together with his younger brother. The writer found that his
younger brother could fly the kite higher and better than himself,
and he started getting jealous. The younger boy was enjoying
himself and laughing innocently the whole time and did not even
noticed that he has inadvertently caused his older brother much
angst. This infuriated the writer even further. Finally, in a fit
of rage, the writer destroyed the kite of his younger brother, and
gloated over the distraught and tearful little boy.
Incidents like this are pretty ubiquitous, and matters of such
bickering between siblings are quickly forgotten
.
Fast forward 50 years to the present. Both the writer and his
younger brother are middle-aged men in their fifties. Now that the
writer has recalled this incident, he felt very remorseful over his
unprovoked destruction of his younger brothers kite. The writer
then seeks out his younger brother to apologize for his actions.
Unsurprisingly, the younger brother laughed it off, gave his elder
brother a warm pat on the back, and told the writer that he cannot
even remember this incident.
However, the writers brothers apparent indifference to this
incident left the writer more distraught, as he realized that he is
unable to apologize and undo the hurt he has caused the little boy
when he destroyed his kite.
The hurting and tearful boy no longer exists
. In his place is a
middle-aged man that the little boy has grown into
, with no
memories of the hurt his older brother has caused him all these
years ago. The writer is thus unable to make amends to the boy he
has hurt so badly at that point in time when such consolation would
have the power of alleviating much of the suffering the little boy
was going through
.
Anyone knows the title of this essay or the writers
name?
