Tributes pour in for best-selling author

Netizens, family members and work associates pay homage to famous army veteran and book editor Rao Pingru after his death, Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.

The natural death of 98-year-old Rao Pingru in Shanghai on April 4 created much chatter on Chinese social media, with thousands of people sharing the news on Wechat and Weibo.

Many netizens could also be found saying: "Pingru is reunited with Meitang in heaven, and they will never separate again."

The statement is in reference to the illustrated book that Rao, an army veteran and book editor, created to document his 60-year marriage with Mao Meitang, who died of diabetes and Alzheimer's in 2008.

Titled Our Story: Pingru and Meitang, the book was published by Guangxi Normal University Press in 2013 and has since won many awards at home and abroad. The book is also a best-seller, with almost 300,000 copies sold in China. It has also been published in seven foreign languages, including English, French, Italian and Spanish. The copyright of the English edition alone fetched a handsome $100,000, according to Liu Guanghan, vice-president of Guangxi Normal University Press.

Penguin Random House, publisher of the English edition of Our Story, introduces the book as "a graphic memoir like no other: a celebration of a marriage that spanned the twentieth century in China, told in vibrant, original paintings and prose".

Meanwhile, the French edition Notre histoire: Pingru et Meitang has been the most popular book about China since it was published in 2017, with more than 30,000 copies sold. When former French president Francois Hollande visited the Paris Book Fair, he even took a copy of the book from the pavilion of Le Seuil, where it was a major highlight.

"People share a lot of common emotions, no matter what races or nationalities they are," Liu tells China Daily, adding that it was the power of love and humanity that made the book such an international success.

The publishing house was working on a new edition of Our Story, as well as a second picture book by the author.

As public memorials have been temporarily banned because of the COVID-19 epidemic, Liu and his colleagues hosted an online memorial for Rao on April 10.

"Rao Pingru was the most dignified elderly person I've ever seen," Liu recalls."Despite the misfortunes and sufferings in life, he maintained his decency and deep love for life. He carried himself well and treated everyone with kindness and respect."

According to his third son, Rao Lezeng, his father had scolded him for being impolite to a domestic helper just a few months before he passed away.

"He was a most upright man and strict with all the five of us children," Lezeng says."He could not compromise his principles even if he tried. That's probably the most important lesson he taught us."

As a child, Lezeng used to wear patched clothes to school because the family was at that time too poor to afford anything new for their five children.

"Mine were covered all over in patches, but carefully dyed in a consistent blue color so that my teachers marveled at it as a fine piece of handicraft," Lezeng recalls.

When Our Story was published, some readers challenged certain details in the book for being inappropriate or unbelievable, but Rao argued that he could only write and paint as he remembered, because "that was my whole truth", Lezeng recalled his father saying.

This attitude of his at times worked against him as he was bullied and often seen as unsuccessful in the eyes of the pragmatic, says Liu.

"There were aspects of him that were strange to even his own children. When Our Story came out, they were surprised to find that their own father, an elderly and old-fashioned Shanghai guy, had so much energy in him."

Rao Xizeng, the eldest son, accompanied his father on a tour of France to promote the book a few years ago. During the memorial, he said: "These are trivial incidents of a family's life documented in the book, but tell the legendary life of my father.

"He joined the army as a young man to fight against the Japanese invasion, risking his life more than once. He dedicated everything to the family after he was married. He faced all the adversities without bitterness or complaint.

"He used to say a person has to be honest, and honesty can always last long. We will keep that deep in our heart... I wish in the future lives we can still be family."

Yin Muyun, the editor of Our Story and a close friend of Rao Pingru, recalls her visits to the elderly author at his home, and how he used to play the piano and harmonica and show her how he trained in the Huangpu Military School as a young man. Yin also spoke of the book tours she went on with Rao Pingru.

"He would take over my phone on the journey and read the news nonstop," she says.

"Every time I visited, Yeye (grandpa in Chinese) always asked me what had happened out there. He wondered how people lived and what was on their minds. He always cared about people more than anything else."

She also says that she found Rao Pingru and Mao Meitang to be just an ordinary couple who loved each other through the most ordinary everyday life.

"It was the social turmoil and changed times that made their love story unusual," she says.

Our Story was named one of "The Most Beautiful Books of China" in 2014. Graphic designer Zhu Yingchun created a distinctive exposed spine for the book based on traditional Chinese book-binding methods. The design was later adopted by the English edition.

Zhu was also working with Rao on his second book, titled Pingru's Notepad, which was scheduled for release later this year.

"I am most grateful and honored to have worked with Rao Yeye," Zhu said at the online memorial service.

"I went on book readings with him four times, and every time he was well-groomed and so neat. I believe that was a reflection of his inside world. He was always optimistic. Even when he recalled the years in Anhui where he was sent down to do hard labor, he shared the stories with a good laugh. Only when he spoke about his wife, Meitang, I saw his head lowered, with tears in the eyes."

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn