I’d come across a twee card in London that I then bought and sent off to 胡老大 Hú lăo dà. It featured a Victorian setting: a little girl in floral smocks and pigtails, wearing a mop cap, sitting on a high stool with her back to the reader, writing at a bureau with a large quill. At the foot of the high stool is a kitten playing with a ball of wool that had become a bit unravelled.
Hú lăo dà was at the time (1978) doing his national service on the island of 金门 Jīnmén (Quemoy / "gold gate"), Taiwan’s (Republic of China’s) front-line military base just off the coast of Fujian province. Any post to him would have to go first to Taipei’s GPO before being re-routed to Jīnmén. It took five to seven days for post to get from London to Taipei, so to Jīnmén it’d be another three days.
Hú lăo dà was at the time (1978) doing his national service on the island of 金门 Jīnmén (Quemoy / "gold gate"), Taiwan’s (Republic of China’s) front-line military base just off the coast of Fujian province. Any post to him would have to go first to Taipei’s GPO before being re-routed to Jīnmén. It took five to seven days for post to get from London to Taipei, so to Jīnmén it’d be another three days.
The very day after I sent off my Victorian girl card to Hú lăo dà, I received in the post in London a bookmark from him, posted from Jīnmén, with exactly the same Victorian picture.
He could not possibly have received my card already and then spotted its replica in the shops, which would then prompt him to buy it for me. Besides, the Victorian scene would be an alien concept to Chinese card producers, and therefore not likely to be a common find even in Taipei, never mind in Jīnmén, an outback military outpost of all places. And even if it was, by some strange odds, available in Jīnmén, why did Hú lăo dà pick out that card of all cards to send to me?? Very spooky indeed.
(London / Taiwan, 1978)
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