Written by the director, Xiaogang Feng, translated…
In the springtime, me, Jen-Yun Lao, Shou Wang, and Weng Jiang made dates to take our daughters out. The kids are all grown, all looking pretty as dolls, sitting opposite of us. The atmosphere was overcome with this scent of democracy, we’d NOT played our roles as fathers, there’s no seriousness. After I got drunk, I’d asked me eldest daughter, “How was the meal you’d just shared with us, good?”, my daughter replied, “It’s, not that bad”. I’d asked again, “Do you think, we’re all just some old guys who don’t want to admit that they’re getting aged?”, my daughter replied, “I think, all you guys are, really real.”, I’d wrapped my arms around her, and start kissing her cheeks on the left and right, “Thanks, such a high rating you’d given us!”
being around families and friends as you get older, that, is the way to age well…
In the midst of a round of drinking, my eldest asked, “Why do you doubt yourselves so?”, Wang said, with this heaviness to her, “What you see, right in front of you, the option you thought to be right, to be just, are all façades, and, doubting yourself before someone else doubts you, that’s way better than hypnotizing oneself into believing, that one had performed better than one had actually done.”, and finally, my daughter put her baggage of thoughts down, flashed her teeth, and the two of them, started drinking together.
It’s a blessing, to have a daughter, really, don’t believe me, go visit the hospitals, the sons that you want next to you won’t come, and even if the sons came, they’d just, sat for no more than five minutes with you then leaves, they can’t stay for long. The ones who’d stayed by the bedsides of parents are mostly daughters. Since a very long time ago, I’d envied those old guys, who had their daughters on their arms, walking, strolling, in the early evenings. And that scene had, haunted me, for many, many years, and now that I’m getting older, I’d gotten, two daughters myself, I’m more than, satisfied, and the rest, I won’t have any complaints.
having family who love you close by when you’re older…
As we’d set the floating lights out to sea, the adults all made a wish, wrote their dreams with the feathered pens onto the paper used to make the lanterns, then, set the lanterns afloat and up into the air. Like getting that promotion, or keeping the beautiful fairies, all to ourselves. I’d asked my youngest daughter, if she has a wish she wanted me to put down for her, without much thoughts, she’d declared, “Not Eat, Not Sleep, Not going to the bathrooms to take a dump!”, words out of mouths of babes, so simple, this dream was, with the boundaries clear between love and hate, it’d shown, the general thoughts and beliefs of children and adolescents.
My youngest daughter’s nickname is, “Do-Er”, she’d slowly, marched into her fifth year of life, and slowly, becoming, a beauty. Recently I’d found the spare time, and sat on the lanai, playing Chinese chess with this little fairy of mine. The image that etched into my mind was, Do-Er, lowered her eyes, with her chin on one hand, with her other hand, holding up the chess piece, unsettled on where to put it, the wind blew by, and, made her lose that casual, that relaxed look, she’d frowned, squinted her eyes, waited, for the moment that the wind stopped, and, it’s, as if, I can, already see the future, by then, she would, return to visit me a lot, and by then, I would’ve become, elderly.
not my photograph…
And, this, would be the present and what you want to have happen in the future, and, because you’d spent as much time with your children while they were growing up, and NOT put work first, I’m sure, that they will be more than likely, to BE by your side as you get older, and, by then, you will be, living the DREAMS of the ordinary man: having a lot of offspring, circling around you, and, it’s all because you’d taken the time when they were little, to accompany them.
Life, the Obstacle Course 