喜聞之遠師《唐人街正傳》即將結集成書，邀我作序。猶憶該長篇從2003年開始在《世界日報》連載，我於2006年將百餘篇剪報重新打字，2007年9月，全書校正完畢，編輯排版。時隔二十年後，終於付梓出版。我全程見證該書每字每句的增刪修正，能看到新書問世，心中快慰之情，絕不遜於作者本人。
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| 《唐人街外史》 |
早在1985年8月，我就從滿地可「新國華書店」買到程千里的《唐人街外史》。
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| 《暗潮》 |
1986年初，因向多倫多《快報》投稿，有幸認識之遠師，才獲悉程千里是他眾多筆名中之一。除了《唐人街外史》，還有《暗潮》、《唐人街之變》等系列。
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| 林語堂《唐人街》 |
被公認為「第一部描寫美國華人題材的小說」，是林語堂在巴黎寫的《唐人街》(Chinatown Family)小說，於1948年初版，是他的第三部英文長篇小說，描寫三十年代美國華人洗衣工湯姆一家奮鬥成功的故事，在網上可以讀到。文學評論家夏志清曾經指出，「在他筆下，細節不真實，作品便膚淺。」對華人洗衣工的歷史缺乏了解，與生活脫節。
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| 鍾宜霖《唐人街》 |
英國倫敦華人女作家鍾宜霖2011年發表長篇小說《唐人街──在倫敦的中國人》，描寫非法移民的生活，其電子書上市一週即成為中國亞馬遜付費Kindle書文學暢銷排行榜的第一名，被譽為首次填補了「海外非法移民題材在中國當代文學史上的空白」。
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| 《世界日報》連載《多倫多唐人街正傳》剪報 |
《唐人街正傳》不是虛構小說，是活生生的人物專訪或論述、報導，約六十章回中，貫穿了加拿大華人百年興衰史，文白交融，將多倫多、溫哥華、滿地可乃至其他城市唐人街發生的趣聞，點滴收納，有血有肉，有證有據。這還是之遠師將唐人街文學推開一個寬闊的視野，廣泛接軌中華文化的學術與藝術的文學殿堂。我們看到他用傳統章回小說的目錄對偶，內文以文白交融的獨特文采，不是眼前一亮？梁啟超的飲冰室文體、魯迅的匕首體、胡適的語體文，何嘗不自立門戶，則之遠師畢生文事，何異一代作手，有何不可？
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| 《加拿大華人年鑑》 |
《漢書/藝文志》：「仲尼有言：禮失而求諸野。」據不完全統計，當今海外華人已達六千七百萬，唐人街文化繼承了中華傳統文化的精髓，尤其是唐人街文學；在中國本土的傳統文學，經七十多年蛻變甚至歪變，則散布海外眾多的僑民締造的唐人街，辛苦傳承民族傳統文學，也就是「唐人街文學」，誰說沒有可能成為中華民族文藝復興的主流？這是之遠師六十年來倡導「唐人街文學」最終的心願。幾百年來，我們與其他少數族裔在一起克服困境和對抗歧視的過程中，保留了華人悠久的風俗習慣和善良、孝道、禮儀、仁義、誠信、勤儉等優良文化。唐人街文學是中國文學領域中不可欠缺的重要組成部分。之遠師這數十年來致力於唐人街題材的一系列創作，被《世界日報》譽為「倡導唐人街文學第一人」，是實至名歸、當之無愧的。謹序。
受業盧國才2022年11月21日稿於滿地可無墨樓
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| 《世界日報》剪報(2003.03.05) |
Forward
“Chinatown Literature” will be the Mainstream of the Revival of Chinese Art and Literature
by Lu Kok Chai
I was so pleased to learn that my mentor David Xu would publish his “Chinatown Real Stories” in a book form. It is an honour to have been asked to write a forward for the book. I remember the articles were serialized in World Journal Toronto starting in 2003. In 2006 I did the re-typing for over 100 articles from newspaper clippings, and in September of 2007 I finished proofreading and compiling. Twenty years have passed before this book finally got published.
The stories in “Chinatown Real Stories” are not fictional. They are from interviews, essays or special reports. The book’s over sixty chapters are the history of hundred years of Chinese Canadians in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and other cities. They comprise interesting real life stories. Mentor Xu has pushed the Chinatown literature to have a broader perspective, connecting it to the literary pantheon of Chinese art and culture. One can see that he uses couplets in the Table of Contents which is a trend in classical novels; in the body matter he writes with an eye-opening style of mixing classical and vernacular diction. Its uniqueness is comparable to that of great writers, like Liang Qichao’s New Prose style, Lu Xun’s “dagger” style or Hu Shi’s vernacular style.
Confucius said, “If rites are lost among the nobles, try to get them back from the commoners”. According to some incomplete statistics, there are sixty-seven million Chinese and their descendants overseas. Chinatown culture, in particular Chinatown literature, inherits the essence of Chinese traditional culture. After more than seventy years of evolution, traditional Chinese literature has flourished in the populous Chinatown in the form of Chinatown literature. Who is to say it would not one day become the mainstream of the revival of Chinese art and literature? This aspiration has been Mentor Xu’s ultimate goal for the past sixty years. For years the Chinese Canadians, together with other ethnic minorities, have struggled to overcome hardships and racial discrimination. Yet we are still able to preserve our long-standing traditions and the virtues, such as being kind, filial piety, good manners, benevolence, righteousness, standing by one’s promises, being hard-working and frugal… Chinatown literature is an important and inseparable part of Chinese literature. Mentor Xu’s creative writing on Chinatown topics has been lauded by World Journal Toronto as the “the number-one forerunner in Chinatown literature”, and rightfully so.
(Translation by Joseph M. Choi)
