As a young man at the age of 24 ,I have been a fountain pen fan for over 15 years. The first brand I knew is Parker,much earlier than our domestic Hero.
At the very begining of my collection ,I had a Parker 45 (navy blue),a matte black Vector,a flighter Frontier,a Rialto,3 Jotter ballpens and a Classic ballpen and pencil set.I also ever had a worn black Parker 51 with button ,gold-plated cap and a 12K nib,which I haven't seen the same type over the Internet until today,but it got lost one day.The 51 was quite meaningful.My grandfather came to mainland China as a refugee from Hong Kong in 1942 and continued his study in Kunming(where Flying Tigers fought).He graduated from Tsinghua University in 1948 and went back to Hong Kong as soon as possible.His first job was as a reporter there.And he cost one-tenth of his first-month salary bought that 51 in Hong Kong.But he didn't stay there long ,because he had engaged with my grand mother.When grandfather went back to Peking in 1949,he never realized he had to depart from his mother for over 30 years.
Last month,I was enrolled as a graduate student by a medical school in Beijing.I went to visit my boss with a matte black Sonnet which has a gold-plated nib.
The pen I'm using now is a green Waterman "German Light" with stainless steel nib.Although the nib is "Fine",it is a little bit broad to write Chinese characters.I am
going to work as a pathologist .The procedure of Pathology is "cutting-slicing-staining-observing".I really enjoyed the colourful world under the microscope.But doctors in China are only allowed to use blue-black ink to write their documents.And red ink is used to write death-report.
In our clinical practice we use black Quink to stain a kind of fungi on skin.
Jim,I admire you so much.You and your friends had done a great job! May "Penhero" has a more splendid future !:)

Welcome to FPN, pathologyliu!
Thanks for the great introduction...It's interesting to hear about fountain pen (and ink colour) use in other parts of the world One of my favourite pens is a celluloid Hero "Doctor's Pen" (I guess because of its size?) whose nib I smoothed a couple of months ago.

Enjoy the forums here on FPN!

Welcome to FPN! Great introduction, I was wondering about your user name.

Hi pathologiyu,

Welcome to this fountain pen mad house!

Thank you for the nice introduction. I hope you may have many more contributions and questions to come!
And thank you for the compliments to Jim and friends.

Warm regards, Wim

Hi there.

As a former immunology research technician, I under "cutting-slicing-staining-observing" though I didn't do a lot of that. Mostly I did tissue culture and flow cytometry with WBCs. But I had started into fluorescent micro-imaging a few months before I had to leave the lab. That was pretty incredible stuff.

Welcome to our humble abode.

In the US, red ink is apparently traumatizing our school children who can't bear to see bad marks on their homework papers.

Best,
KCat

Well, I am majoring in pathology ( especially neuropathology )
And "Liu" is my family name.
P.S:In mainland China ,women don't follow their husband's family name after marriage. A typical Chinese name consists of 2 or 3 characters and "Liu" is one
character .Unlike western countries ,we put our family names in the first place.
My name is "Liu Lei" ,which consists of 2 characters.

Welcome to the group. I just joined a few days ago and this is a very nice and friendly place. I am sure you will love it here.

I have a few Hero pens in my collection, but they are the lower end ones and don't write so well. However, they are very decorative and nice looking pens, just that the feed system leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, I did see a very beautiful pen called "Phoenix" that was one of the most beautiful pens I ever saw made by Hero.

How easy is it to find a fountain pen dealer in your city?

Welcome aboard! Great introduction, and it was VERY interesting reading about you, your job, and your fp's. Look forward to seeing you around the FPNuthouse!

Mannenhitsu.Are you fond of Japanese culture? Your username gives me such an impression Thanks for your compliments for Hero's "artwork".To be honest,I
am ashamed of our chinese FP industry .So many clones have been produced by both state-owned and private companies. It is wise to only have their
low ends.Those expensive are "white elephants".Last Sunday ,I saw a big black Hero FP like MB149.Which is more ironic ,there is a big white dot on the top of the cap instead of MB's white star .There is a new brand from Beijing named "Playboy" ,which higher ends copy Visconti's celluloid version,and lower
ends copy Parker Vector.The Visconti's clone sells as expensive as Sonnet lacquer. <_< I just hope those companies will fold as quickly as possible.Because of their existence,I don't buy Parker any more.The Parker I paid 600MB($60) are exactly the same as those a dime a dozen at a glance.
My early collections were from Hong Kong.Now my city has a luxury shop sells
Parker and MB.To most Chinese people,foreign FP equals Parker.I going to study
in Beijing for 3 years.I'll try some German or Japanese pens there.
Regards!

Hi Liu, congratulations on your new enrolment!

And welcome to FPN! You're a fellow Nutter now!

Hi Liu Lei! Quite a story about your family!