Chapter 506 505 [The Hypocritical Old Man]

The mayor of Shanghai has been replaced by Wu Tiecheng, a veteran of the Kuomintang. Zhang Qun, the former mayor of Shanghai, was forced to resign because he could not cope with the rising student anti-Japanese movement, and was promoted to the chairmanship of Hubei Province in despair.

Wu Tiecheng was unlucky. He had just become mayor when he encountered Japanese invaders attacking Shanghai.

Due to the special reasons of the war, Wu Tiecheng was quickly entrusted with important tasks. In early January, he concurrently served as the commander of the Songhu Garrison. At the end of January, he was also a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Anyway, the situation in Shanghai was left in Wu Tiecheng's hands. He secretly followed Chang Kaishen's order to have secret talks with Japanese generals in his private capacity.

Only God knows what to talk about, anyway, it's nothing more than compromise and peace. The weak tone of the "Songhu Armistice Agreement" was probably set by Wu Tiecheng, and the decision maker behind the scenes was naturally Chang Kaishen.

Wu Tiecheng belonged to the staunch revolutionary faction in his early years, and Yuan Shikai once offered a reward of 20,000 yuan for his arrest. Moreover, his governance ability is good, and he made remarkable achievements when he was the county magistrate. But it was limited to this. At this time, Wu Tiecheng completely became a politician. He did whatever Chang Kaishen said, and even became Chang Kaishen's "chief of staff" during the Anti-Japanese War.

If making a war strategy game, Wu Tiecheng's attribute should be "Faction Fight-5", and his greatest ability is to balance the relationship between the various factions.

"Mr. Henderson, Mr. Bernard Shaw, my honorable Mayor of Shanghai, Wu Tiecheng, welcome you and your wife to visit China!" Wu Tiecheng walked over enthusiastically, and shook hands with the two in fluent English.

Arthur Henderson nodded and said, "Mr. Wu, hello."

Bernard Shaw joked: "Mr. Wu's English is much more fluent than my Chinese."

"Mr. Bernard Shaw is really humorous." Wu Tiecheng said cheerfully.

Wu Tiecheng shook hands with Arthur Henderson and Bernard Shaw's wife respectively, and finally found Zhou Hexuan to shake hands: "Mr. Zhou, the journey has been exhausting and hard work."

"I miss Mayor Wu." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

Wu Tiecheng looked at Vivien Leigh suspiciously again, and asked in amazement: "Who is this lady?"

Zhou Hexuan introduced: "Miss Vivien Leigh, a famous British drama actress."

Vivien Li reached out her hand and said, "Hi, I'm Zhou's girlfriend. You can call me Vivienne, or Mary."

Wu Tiecheng understood the situation in an instant, and said with a smile, "Hi, Miss Mary!"

The accompanying Shanghai party and government officials came forward to shake hands and communicate with each other. Celebrities in the cultural circles such as Lin Yutang could only stand by and wait as a background board, without any chance to speak from the beginning to the end.

At this moment, a big man in the crowd shouted: "Get out of the way, get out of the way, I want to go!"

The police in charge of maintaining order, as if facing an enemy, hurriedly raised their guns to stop him. The big man said angrily: "I am Zhang Shizhao, who dares to kill me!"

The policemen looked at each other, and one of them whispered, "Let's go, Mr. Zhang is Boss Du's (Du Yuesheng) client."

Hearing this, the other policemen put down their guns one after another, and respectfully stepped aside. It's ridiculous that the famous Zhang Shizhao actually had to rely on Du Yuesheng's reputation to scare off the police in Shanghai.

Zhang Shizhao went straight to Bernard Shaw and said enthusiastically, "Mr. Bernard Shaw, I am Zhang Shizhao."

Bernard Shaw was a little confused, Zhou Hexuan quickly introduced: "Mr. Zhang is a very famous scholar in China, and also a very good lawyer."

"Oh," Bernard Shaw nodded, shook hands with Zhang Shizhao, and said, "Mr. Zhang, hello."

Wu Tiecheng was not used to seeing Zhang Shizhao, so he interrupted: "It's windy at the pier, let's go back to the hotel first, I've already set up a banquet for you to welcome the wind."

Zhang Shizhao was very thick-skinned, and he walked along with Bernard Shaw familiarly, saying: "Sir, you are very famous in China, and the students like to rehearse your plays very much."

Bernard Shaw laughed and said, "What's the use of being famous in China? China has not joined the international copyright agreement."

As soon as this remark came out, all the Chinese people present changed their faces, feeling that they had been greatly insulted. Because Bernard Shaw's joke is discriminatory to Chinese people, saying it in public is tantamount to slapping Chinese people in the face in public.

Of course, some felt ashamed. Wu Tiecheng said embarrassingly: "Mr. Bernard Shaw, the situation in China is somewhat special. But I believe that the situation in the future will definitely get better. It will be a matter of time before China joins the international copyright agreement."

"Perhaps." Bernard Shaw raised his eyebrows.

Zhou Hexuan was extremely dissatisfied with Bernard Shaw's attitude. They chatted well in England. Why did Bernard Shaw unabashedly show his disdain when he arrived in China?

No wonder in history, Lu Xun and Fu Sinian hated this old British man so much after meeting Bernard Shaw, probably because he was despised by Bernard Shaw.

Fu Sinian even wrote articles specifically, scolding Bernard Shaw as a liar who got into the eyes of money, saying that Bernard Shaw was good at plagiarism in his later years, and he was very penny-pinching—even if British college students played Bernard Shaw's plays at school, this old guy would charge copyright fees.

Lin Yutang and Lu Xun, a pair of long-time friends, had a complete falling out because of this, and they were almost strangers. The reason is that Lin Yutang adored Bernard Shaw crazily, ran magazines to praise him, and even advocated humorism. But Lu Xun sneered at this, not only hating Bernard Shaw, but also hating Bernard Shaw's hypocritical fake humor.

Everyone went to the hotel to have a welcome banquet, and then they were arranged to stay. Wu Tiecheng sent someone to take them around for a tour.

In the next few days, Mrs. Sun, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Yang Xingfo, Lin Yutang and other celebrities came to pay a visit to Bernard Shaw. And Zhang Junmai, Li Huang, Zeng Qi and others came to visit Arthur Henderson to discuss the construction of socialism.

Lu Xun was furious, because Bernard Shaw clearly looked down on China, saying that "China has no culture at all, and it only exists in the countryside." To put it bluntly, Bernard Shaw looked down on China's overall cultural and academic level, and was only interested in traditional Chinese operas, minors, and folk songs.

Lu Xun later complained in the article, saying that George Bernard Shaw came to China "for fun" and he only wanted to travel, and he didn't pay attention to China's anti-Japanese war at all.

Zhou Hexuan could see very clearly that there are two main reasons why George Bernard Shaw despised China: first, China had not joined the international copyright organization, and the bookstores in Shanghai were full of George Bernard Shaw’s books, but George Bernard Shaw himself did not get a penny of royalties; second, When Bernard Shaw visited Shanghai, he disliked the noisy and messy situation in China, and believed that the overall quality of the Chinese people was very low.

Zhou Hexuan felt very angry. He thought he had invited an international pacifist who could advocate for China's war of resistance. As a result, an old man with a lot of selfishness was invited. He could not see the war of aggression in his eyes, but only focused on his copyright infringement.

What makes people speechless is that although George Bernard Shaw looked down on China and showed disdain in private, he was quite normal when speaking in public. He was invited to give a speech at Chuo University. He used impassioned speeches to criticize the shameless behavior of Japan and claimed that he was firmly on the side of justice.

The speech was very successful, and the domestic media praised Bernard Shaw as an extraordinary philosopher and the savior of mankind. China quickly set off a wave of "George Bernard Shaw craze".

What Zhou Hexuan saw was hypocrisy, this old man is too hypocritical, why didn't he notice it when he was in England?