Michael Chen's Personal Life

In Albania, tough business, unrest and kidnapping.

I come from Wenzhou. Some people may know that Wenzhou is a place to do business. 1May, 1994, went abroad to Albania. Before going abroad, my experience may be similar to that of many people in China. I was a soldier in 1976, played basketball in the army for several years, and then came back to work as a small cadre in Wenzhou automobile transportation company. At that time, in the 1980s, everyone was a young man of literature and art, who wrote some things and novellas. Until 1994, I later felt that I could not write anything for writing in such a small place as Wenzhou. I had been writing books for many years at that time. I remember Hai said that a novice went to learn to write, and you studied for five years. If you have made some achievements in these five years,

So there happened to be an opportunity. One of my relatives, who is also a national cadre, went to Hungary first. He is doing business in Hungary. A group of Albanians bought his goods, but didn't pay for them. After the man left, he ran after the man. Later, he drove all the way from Hungary along several European highways and drove all the way to Albania to ask the man for money. As a result, as soon as he entered Albania, he felt that Albania was a very good place, because 1992, Albania, once a socialist country, just collapsed and became a free country. At that time, it was a free economy, lacking many things. Later, relatives stayed in Albania. He told me later that the place was very good. Would you like to come? I thought it didn't make much sense in Wenzhou at that time, but I came out with this opportunity later. I remember I flew to Albania on May 1994. I still remember that the plane first flew to Italy and Rome, and then changed from Rome to a small plane and flew to Tirana. But from the plane, Tirana was very small and poor, and it was then that I started doing business in Albania.

When we went to Albania, we never thought that we would return to our old jobs in the future. We just want to do business there. A little older people may know Albania, and we are a little familiar with it, because there were many Albanian movies in the 1960s and 1970s, so we won't be too unfamiliar with that place. After I arrived, I really felt that Albania was a very small and backward country, but its preserved European culture or aesthetic feeling was particularly touching. Their country is particularly laid-back. They go to work at 7 am and get off work at 3 pm. After work, they have lunch and then go home to sleep. Around 5 o'clock, everyone will go shopping. Their garden in the middle of the street is full of people. Everyone is very happy, drinking coffee and chatting in the coffee shop. Whether you have money or not, you will go swimming and drinking beer at the seaside on weekends, which is very happy. We do business in such a happy place.

We are engaged in pharmaceutical business, importing penicillin, paracetamol and streptomycin from China. Albanians use China's medicine, especially China's medicine. I still remember the first batch of medicines in the past. At that time, they lacked penicillin in containers. At that time, all the trademarks were printed with penicillin in Chinese. I remember that the manufacturer is a pharmaceutical factory in Shijiazhuang. When you get there, people say what you are, and I don't understand your name. Of course, some pharmacists can understand it, but most people can't. He said no and suggested that we change another one. How to change it? At that time, Chinese had been printed, so we suggested printing one in self-adhesive paper, but there were thousands of boxes in that container, each containing 1000 bottles of penicillin. If it is changed by hand, it will be a very big project. Later, our landlord seems to be a pilot, and his wife has been to China and is also a doctor. She said, please give it to me, and I'll ask my next-door neighbor to post it for you. A box of penicillin can be done for one dollar. As a result, she mobilized the residents around her to do it, because Albania just changed in the 1990 s, and they were so poor that everyone refused to eat bread. As a result, I didn't expect such a great appeal. As soon as she called out, she opened the door the next day, and people outside were waiting in line to take penicillin back and post it for you. I was told that this man was Albania's former ambassador to Austria, and this man turned out to be a painter. I am a little embarrassed to let such a distinguished person in Albania do this little thing, but they are still very happy because their economy was very difficult at that time. At that time, we started to do medicine business in Albania. So through these things, I got in touch with the lives of many ordinary Albanians.

There are many China people in Albania, and the background of China people is very complicated. Some of them are engaged in business, but others are illegal immigrants. Why are you smuggling? Because in Albania, just in the Balkans, the geographical location and Italy are cut by the Adriatic Sea, and there is Eastern Europe and here is Western Europe. Eastern Europe and Western Europe are worlds apart. People from all over the world wanted to sneak in through Albania, so there were many illegal immigrants in Albania at that time. We made a little money in the pharmaceutical trade, and there happened to be a Chinese restaurant opened by overseas Chinese in Italy. But the purpose of his Chinese restaurant is to use it to smuggle people from China. After he opened a Chinese restaurant, he took dozens of people as his own workers, and then it was meaningless for him to take them to Italy. He said he would pass them on to us. We have just arrived and feel that the Chinese restaurant is not ready yet. We think it's interesting to make one. We can eat in China restaurant, make money and receive friends. So while doing medicine business, I also do Chinese restaurants. But to be honest, we don't know about Chinese restaurants and have suffered a lot. But what are the advantages of being a Chinese restaurant? People from all walks of life come to us, including Albania, which is also the capital, and there are embassies all over the world. As a result, officials from embassies all over the world also came to eat with us and had many contacts. Many illegal immigrants often come to our place for dinner, so we know many gangsters who smuggled there at that time.

I remember once, we had a woman, surnamed Huang, who was also from Wenzhou. She used to be a stowaway in Austria and was very famous. She opened a restaurant in Austria called Shanghai Mansion, which is actually a stowaway center. As a result, the police kept staring at them, finally caught her and drove her to Albania. She often eats here, and we are all familiar with it. Later, she introduced us to Athens, Greece. She said that she had a friend who was also a stowaway there. Later, we also met her. Those underground things are very interesting. That man drives a Rolls Royce, and he has connections with senior Greek officials. So opening this restaurant is a good channel for us to get in touch with those illegal immigrants. Later, the restaurant opened to the end, and we didn't want to open it ourselves. We negotiated with the original landlord, which means that we don't want to open this restaurant, and we have no energy to open it any more. The landlord knew we were leaving, so he came to us after drinking that day, tied the door outside and took out his pistol. What do I mean? He said you were coming with us. I said, why should I go with you? He said lock the door now. Everything in it is ours. Then we took advantage of the chaos and finally negotiated some money with him. We finally escaped. The story of the restaurant during that time provided me with a lot of material.

In Albania, we have experienced many upheavals. In that country once led by the * * * production party, after democracy, two political parties, the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party, emerged. The two parties have been fighting, and they often fight. The biggest one is that because those countries are like this, Albanians are simple-minded and everyone wants to get rich quickly. As a result, they have a fund-raising, the so-called pyramid fund-raising, which gives you very high interest. You give me 65438+100000, and I will give you 30% interest. He is developing continuously, and the geometric development has no limit, but it will collapse to a certain extent. In the end, the whole country collapsed, and the money of Albanian people evaporated by half overnight, which led to the whole country in trouble. They opened the armory, and 6,543,800 guns flowed out overnight. The opposition mobilized the people to open the armory, and then the whole country revolted. But we China people are also very dangerous there. Now we see these things in Libya. That was in 1996 or 1995. At that time, there was a construction company called Nanchang Construction Company. This Nanchang construction company first built houses in Kuwait, but Saddam beat them away when he hit Kuwait. Later he went to Libya and built a house in Libya. As a result, after the house was built, he couldn't get the money because Libya imposed financial sanctions on them and their money was exchanged. As a result, when the house in Albania was about to be built, there was unrest. Albanian thugs rushed in and took all their things. More than 200 workers were robbed of all their money and equipment. Those people finally took refuge in the Embassy of China. At that time, the whole country was at war, everyone had a gun and everyone was afraid to come out. As a result, there was no food. I remember when we arrived at the embassy, embassy officials told us that the most troublesome thing now was that all the toilets were blocked, because all the toilets were blocked after the migrant workers came in and used newspapers to urinate. This is quite a big event. In the end, the China government evacuated overseas Chinese, China's army passed through Greece, and the Greek navy sent warships to take back overseas Chinese in China. Tirana was not a seaport city at that time, and Duras was 50 kilometers away from Tirana. On the day of evacuation, the China Embassy had to organize personnel to take a bus, take a warship to Duras first, and then fly back. We've all been through those things. It's really scary. But I didn't leave that time, so I stayed there. Because to be honest, we happen to have a large number of goods over there, and we will definitely lose them if we leave. Later, people from Xinhua told me that the problem would not be too big, because the EU and NATO were ready to intervene. Sure enough, in less than a week, eight countries, including Germany, France and Italy, were sent in by the allied forces, and then the situation was controlled. We experienced such a thing over there at that time. Anyway, that's what happened in Albania in those years, and I've been spending it all the time.

But Albania still has a feeling, a particularly familiar feeling. When I was a child, I always watched Albanian movies, such as Footprints, Never Surrender to Death, and Broad Horizon. When I arrived in Albania, I always had a familiar feeling. In my first year in Albania, I once went to a border city, which is next to Greece. It was night when we went. As a result, when we arrived at the castle, we saw a tree over there and a statue of a girl below. Later, I asked what this girl statue meant, and people told me that this girl statue is the Milla statue in "I would rather die than surrender", and it is the prototype of the hero in the film. At that time, I thought it was quite interesting, because I saw the movie "I'd rather die than surrender" in the 1970s, which was a distant memory. 1994 I went abroad and came into contact with the prototype in the movie. It was quite interesting at that time, so I thought it might be a literary moment. Because I left China, I thought I would never touch literature again, but then I remembered. At that time, I felt that I had been out for so long, and I had not forgotten the original literature psychologically. But I couldn't write at that time.

Then another thing happened. 1998, when I was about to leave Albania, I was kidnapped for some time. At that time, we had been doing business in Albania for several years, and everyone knew our company. It was a weekend, I was at the seaside, and suddenly someone called to buy medicine, because we were going to immigrate to Canada. I called to buy a lot of medicine, so I came back. I was cheated when I came back. The young man took out his pistol. He wanted to kidnap me, called many local people, covered his head and took a submachine gun, so he tied me up and put me in a basement. I was locked up there for a week. It was a very difficult day. But then he didn't die, and the police saved him. These things later became material, and I wrote all my experiences in the book. However, one thing impressed me deeply. At that time, I lost my life. I'm tied up all day, with duct tape on my head. One day, I felt as if there was a little air flowing in the shelter, as if it smelled of grass. Later, when I heard birds chirping, I thought it might not be too far away from life at that time, but it was a free place outside. In this case, there is an impulse in my heart. If I can get out alive, I must write this experience. Later, I was surprised that I could think of writing even though I didn't know if I could live. Later, I learned that writing is a very important thing in my heart. At that time, I felt that making money and business were not important. I can give up all these things, but I still want to write. Later, I was lucky enough to immigrate to Canada.

Go to Canada, start over and stay here.

I arrived in Canada in February, 1999, because when I was in Albania, I worked there with my relatives. When I arrived in Canada, I took my wife and daughter. This time, the responsibility of bringing home is even heavier. We arrived in Canada in February, just after the Spring Festival. When I arrived in Canada, the weather was over 20 degrees below zero. I didn't expect it to be so cold. There should have been an immigration lawyer to pick us up, but maybe the plane was late that day and the lawyer didn't come. Fortunately, I stayed in Albania and there was nothing wrong with my language. Later, I told the taxi driver that you would take us to a hotel near Chinatown. That's it. I don't know anyone. In Toronto, Canada, I went to the hotel first, and then started my immigrant life step by step.

When we arrived in Canada, we started again. When we were in Albania, we were in the pharmaceutical business, but when we arrived in Canada, we couldn't, because Canada is a highly developed place, and there are very high standards for manufacturing drugs, so we don't need China's medicine at all. Then I started to make some small commodities there, because we Wenzhou people may not. It may be easier to do small business. People like us can't do professional work. They always like freedom and are relatively free to do business. I am very lucky. After doing business there for about five years, I started my business. At first, it was difficult. I remember when I arrived, I started from scratch. I am going to study first. I saw an advertisement in the newspaper that China People's Company wanted a warehouse manager, so I went. In fact, it is also to learn from students. I remember now that it was still a great gain for me. The boss's surname is Liu, from Shanghai. Over 60 years old, people like them have worked hard all their lives, working from morning till night, just like in the old society, when we came, we were apprentices, and you had to wash dishes for him after dinner. It was hard at first, but it was good to think about it later. I got rid of my vanity by washing dishes for an old gentleman. The old gentleman was very interesting later. He got cancer in his sixties, but his business is still there. By that time, I had started my own business. One day he told me that Chen had cancer. I said, how can you get cancer when you are in such good health? He said it would take the doctor ten months at most to make a diagnosis. He said that in ten months, the doctor would make my life better and not make myself so hard. He said that he had a good time in those ten months, but I think he was still doing business in those ten months, and he wanted to sell his business to his wife. But this gentleman was in good health and took some medicine later. Ten months later, he was in good health. As a result, he had to explain to people all day that he was going to die in ten months, but he had to explain to people that he was not dead. But after a year and a half, he still died. This touched me, and then I thought, why should I do business? I always do business for a purpose, right? The old gentleman finally passed away in such a muddle. Only then did I remember that I should think about what to do, so from then on, because my career was ok, I slowly put my energy away and returned to writing.

Because I have been abroad for more than ten years, and I am abroad, so far away from China, I don't know how China literature developed. Fortunately, there is a little Chinese environment in that part of Canada. There are many Chinese newspapers, such as People's Daily. And the Internet, so that you can learn about China. There are also some writers there, including one of my fellow villagers, whose name is Zhang Ling, who is quite famous in China. He writes very well and is also my role model. He started writing in 2005 and wrote his first novella. Later, the name was changed to "abductees" and posted on the contemporary internet. Later, it was published in Harvest, People's Literature and China Writers, and several books were published. I am very lucky. Later, the leaders of publishing units and magazines were very concerned about me. I have been away from literature for so long, and I can still come back to do business for so long. But after I returned to writing, I felt that this step was right. I still have a lot to do, and I can still write a lot. Because I have experienced a lot outside and thought a lot, I can write more books.

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Michael Chen, 1932, born in August, is from Meixian District, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. ** * party member. News editor. /kloc-joined the guerrillas in China at the age of 0/6 and joined the army for 30 years. From 65438 to 0978, he was transferred from the People's Liberation Army, and served as chief of broadcasting management section, chief of propaganda section, director and director. 1985, in order to change the history of Meizhou people only listening to radio stations for more than 10 years, Meizhou Radio Station was established, and served as the director of Guangdong People's Broadcasting Station Meixian Radio Station, creating the first Hakka self-compiled, self-edited and self-broadcast radio program. 1988 organized Meizhou TV Station and served as the first director of the station. Since then, the history of Meizhou people not hearing their own broadcasts and watching their own TV programs has ended. He has been engaged in news propaganda for more than 40 years, published more than 1000 articles in central, provincial and municipal radio stations, TV stations and newspapers, won more than 20 provincial and municipal news awards, wrote revolutionary memoir "Valley Radio Wave", serialized novel "Panshan Highway", published in 2003, and published papers/kloc-0. Editing more than 30 million words of radio and television news, special topics and literary manuscripts, editing and publishing Memoirs of Unforgettable Years of Railway Soldiers, participating in editing revolutionary memoirs, Red Journey for Tomorrow, and co-editing works such as Yan 'an Radio Waves Guiding the Way. During his tenure as the director of TV station, he organized filming and participated in editing and producing TV series "World Hakka Friends in Meizhou" and other films, and "Yin Na Lingguang" and "Historic City Meizhou" won the first prize in the city. In recent years, he has participated in many provincial and municipal photography exhibitions and won many awards, such as "Magic Lamp" and "Qinhuai Riverside". The photographic work "Water Lily" was selected as "China Calligraphy Masters Exhibition"; In 2003, The Immortal Lamp was selected as the album of China Contemporary Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition to commemorate the anniversary of Mao Zedong1/KLOC-0, and was awarded the Excellence Award. "Liu Cai Liu Jin" was selected in the book "China Momo Art Treasures". On June 28th, 2003, he was awarded the honorary title of God, a contemporary poet in China. 1996, China "Furong Cup" Poetry, Calligraphy and Printing Grand Prix won the Excellence Award in Poetry.

Male, Han nationality. Born in 1937, Puning City, Guangdong Province. College degree, economist. He has served as Party Secretary of Shantou Huashan Electronic Devices Company, General Manager and Party Secretary of Pharmaceutical (Group) Company. During my tenure at Huashan Electronics Company, I dared to reform, and turned losses into profits that year, earning nearly 30 million yuan for five consecutive years. 1985 was awarded the title of "National Firm Reformer" by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and won the "May 1st" Labor Medal. As the general manager of medicine (group), he initiated and promoted the development of medicine group and won the title of "advanced worker" in the city.