Memories of Returning to the Art School

Mr. Fang Ganmin and Principal Wang Rizhang were old friends who studied together in France. When Principal Wang first arrived at the school, he naturally relied on Mr. Fang’s advice and assistance for many aspects of school education. Although Wang Rizhang was a bureaucrat in the Kuomintang, his main philosophy was to run the school well. Therefore, he accepted Mr. Fang’s recommendation and decided to hire Mr. Wu Dayu to teach and serve as the director of the Western Painting Department. However, Mr. Wu was often ill and reluctant to take on such a heavy responsibility while recuperating in Shanghai. After several negotiations, it was agreed that Mr. Wu could stay in Shanghai permanently, while I would undertake the courses and affairs of the department. When he was in good health, Mr. Wu would come to the school periodically to provide guidance. Thus, I followed Mr. Wu to the school to discuss my salary. Principal Wang believed that based on my qualifications, I should be a lecturer. However, as a lecturer needed to teach independently, he gave me the title of teaching assistant with a lecturer’s salary, responsible for the studies in the Dayu classroom and the affairs of the Western Painting Department. At that time, there was a joke that I was neither like a teaching assistant, nor a lecturer, nor a professor, let alone the department head. It was like the “four unlike” ridden by Jiang Tai Gong.