Chapter 344 Different Life
First, in the process of organizing young people to study in France, Li Shizeng and others exposed a common problem among many progressive people since the late Qing Dynasty, that is, they were passionate about doing things but lacked planning and details.
Li Shizeng and others accepted anarchism when they studied in France in their early years. They tried to rely on the power of society, family and even individual students in everything, rejected the necessary support from the government, lacked planning and foresight, and would have difficulty in ending things when they encountered major difficulties.
How do young people find jobs when they come to France? How do they use the money earned from work-study programs to go to French schools? There is no unified plan for these. Li Shizeng's tofu company alone cannot accommodate so many people, and not all schools in France welcome Chinese youth to enroll.
Secondly, these groups of students came at the wrong time. It was better in the early years because all the young and strong men in France went to the trenches to be Teletubbies. There was a shortage of labor everywhere, and as long as they could come, they could always find opportunities to work.
Now it is different. Shortly after the war, many European countries have ushered in economic crises, and France is no exception. The serious economic crisis has caused a depression in French society. Factories have laid off workers, and prices have soared. Even French people find it difficult to find a job, let alone Chinese students who have not yet passed the language barrier? Even if it is internal competition among Chinese people, the students' physical strength and hard-working spirit cannot be compared with the Chinese workers.
Based on the information revealed by the young people in the room today, Zhang Xingjiu roughly estimated the current situation of Chinese students studying in France. It is estimated that only one-third of the young people find the opportunity to study in various schools, one-sixth of the young people work in factories, and the remaining nearly half of the young people become "drifters" with no work and no study.
Most of the young people who participate in work-study programs come from ordinary families. Their families cannot provide them with much support, and they cannot find opportunities to earn money. They cannot even afford a boat ticket back home. Now they are in a dilemma.
The students who found jobs did not have an easy life either. They had truly experienced what a true capitalist sweatshop was. Some of them got up at five in the morning and went to bed after nine-thirty in the evening. They worked eight hours a day in the steel mill and squeezed out two hours to read.
Some worked thirteen hours a day at the Renault car factory, carrying heavy iron blocks to make iron molds.
Some people feel pain every time they go to the market to buy meat and vegetables, watching their hard-earned money being spent.
Comrade Xixian spent five years and two months in France. He only took French lessons briefly at Bayeux High School in Normandy in the west, and worked for about four years. Decades later, he joked with his French friends, "Why am I so short? It's because I was working in a French factory pulling red iron when I was 16 and growing up, and I could only eat hard bread and drink cold water."
These words solved a long-standing doubt in Zhang Xingjiu's heart. He originally didn't understand why so many young people studying in France would take the red path. Now he finally understood. They were exploited so badly by capital in France, so how could they not have a good impression of the red color?
The experience of hard work in France made these young people, who originally had diverse ideas, despair of the capitalist system. They witnessed many strikes by French workers, took advantage of the relatively convenient cultural environment, read a large number of propaganda-related works, and were greatly touched. After returning home, they became the gravediggers of the old regime.
Of course, not all students studying in France live as hard as they do. Some young people live a very carefree life. They are the literary and artistic young people. France's freedom, romance and relatively low cost of living attracted them, so they came to Paris.
They either come from well-off families and can fully cover their living expenses in France with the funds provided by their families. They do not need to work in factories. They also have certain connections to study in French schools.
Or if you have a skill, you can earn money through more respectable ways such as painting, sculpting, and playing musical instruments. It doesn't matter if you don't understand music or art, you can also write novels, or directly write articles about your travels in France and send them to domestic newspapers and magazines to earn royalties to use for your expenses in France.
Art schools in France, especially fine arts schools, have a very unique teaching method. The school management is loose, students do not have to strictly attend classes, and they have few opportunities to meet their teachers.
The more famous art schools will issue passes to major museums to students after they pay tuition. Students can spend the whole day in the world's top art halls such as the Louvre, Palace of Versailles, and Notre Dame de Paris. They can also go to Impressionist Museums, Galleries of Modern Art, and private studios to come into contact with the latest schools of thought. Whether they want to follow a routine in school or wander along the banks of the Seine depends entirely on their personal character and hobbies.
This further stimulated their casual character. These literary young people often sat in cafes for hours, talking about everything, or wandering in museums and art exhibitions.
Objectively speaking, these young artists are not without contribution. Some of them have combined European modern art with traditional Chinese art and blazed a new trail; some have learned the essence of European art education and opened a new chapter in Chinese art education.
But what China needs most right now is not these, and their contribution is far from comparable to that of Feifei and others.
After listening to these students' stories, Zhang Xingjiu felt it difficult to directly criticize the practices of Li Shizeng, Cai Heqing and others, so he solved the problem for them based on practical considerations. He spent several days finding relevant people and secured admission opportunities for a group of students.
He also used his influence in the capital field to invest in some companies. Although it is now a period of economic crisis, the crisis will pass sooner or later, and the current investment will reap profits in the future. At the same time, these companies can recruit young Chinese and provide them with an opportunity to earn tuition fees.
They then spent money to rent a few places and recruited teachers to open night schools for these young people studying in France.
Finally, if anyone loses confidence in studying abroad, Zhang Xingjiu will also sponsor them a boat ticket so that they can return to China.
Various means were used in turn, and Zhang Xingjiu finally cleaned up most of the mess caused by Li Shizeng and others' rash trend of studying in France, and many aspiring young people got new opportunities.
During that time, I also took the time to chat with Zhang Guoqiang. He has now become friends with Feifei, 501 and others. They meet every few days and talk about each other's recent experiences and the latest learning achievements. Judging from his attitude, he will probably take the same path as Feifei and others after graduation and returning to China.
Zhang Xingjiu left him a sum of money and asked him to use it to help those who needed help. Then he gave several speeches and academic exchange activities in Paris, and then returned to China with Wu Lien-teh.
(End of this chapter)
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