To be honest, I am a person who seldom recalls the old times. I don’t like to look back and prefer forgetting the history. But there are few things that I would never forget. All these things are particularly related to some times spent in looking for something I had passions or was crazy about. Burda was one of them.
That was between 1993 to 1996 when I was studying in the uni. I happened to see some Burda sewing pattern books for sale in some book stalls. I have never seen a magazine like that selling with ready made patterns, so I almost immediately made up my mind to buy the book home. I couldn’t remember how much one book cost, but I know the price was not cheap and won’t be cheap even at this times, but I desperately wanted, so there was never a hesitation in getting them.
There were only 4 magazines published a year, about one issue quarterly with the season’s changing. I felt like I was spending all my times waiting for the next issue coming out. 3 months were really a big long time for me. I thought about it every day and all the time.
One day in 1996, soon after Burda magazine’s due date of publishing, I suddenly realised that there was no new book coming to the book stalls in Bei Tai Ping Zhuang. I was very disappointed and couldn’t help investigating the reason. I asked the owner of book stall, who is a guy used to sell watermelon as well in Ji Men Li. He said he knew nothing about the next issue, and haven’t seen the book for long time. I was so blue and felt a big hole in my heart. I decided to get the book in my own way. I looked up the publisher’s contact details on the old books, and rang the people. They said there are a couple of issues released in the past 3 months, if I’d like to order, they can mail them to me, but there will be a postal fee involved. I told them I will come over to their office and get the book myself. Right in that day’s afternoon, I rode my bicycle from my place to Chang An Street, finally found the address. It was just a very small and dim office, where only 3 women were working on the magazine. (One year later, the office was said to totally be switched to publish a new magazine from Japan, the current famous Chines magazine “Rui Li”, and the chief editor also is one of my editor friends from the same uni.) That was the last two issues of Burda I have got from there. Very soon, the publication of Burda in China completely stopped, and no more issues comes since then.
I believe I own the full collection of Burda ever published in China. I spent lot of time with those pretty patterns. That period of time, I was so satisfied and didn’t get any empty feelings in the mind or heart. Right this morning, I suddenly thought of Burda. The desire to look at them was so strong that I wanted to ring my Mom right away. How is my old friend? Can I have a one more look at you?
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