Xu Zechen's "utopia" and the possibility of the novel | Jiang Fei

"Running Through Zhongguancun"

《Qingcheng》

"If the Snow Closes the Door"

Author: Xu Zechen

New Classics produced

Publisher: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House

Publication date: October 2021

Synopsis

"Qingcheng" includes two novellas created by the writer Xu Zechen, "Western Xia" and "Juyan", and the short story of the same name, "Qingcheng". The three works are concise and profound, and the author uses ancient place names full of historical significance as the spiritual symbols of the characters, and explores the emotional and spiritual self-consistency of modern women. Three sad and clear love stories tell the emotional encounters of three women, telling their hardships, bitterness, confusion and perseverance, and also writing about their integrity, tenacity, kindness and love.

"Running Through Zhongguancun" selects three novellas with the theme of "Beijing" in Xu Zechen's works, namely "Ah, Beijing", "Running Through Zhongguancun" and "Heaven on Earth". All three works tell the story of the living conditions of small people who are wandering in Beijing and are at the bottom of society. Under the bustling scene of Beijing, the author shows the dark, turbulent, embarrassing and not without comedy of the low-level life of the special group of "North Drift". "Running", running for survival, has a goal, has speed, and has strength; with the exuberant and upward vitality of the little people, it reflects the reality that they are struggling and unwilling to sink.

"If the Snow Closes the Door" selects seventeen short stories by Xu Zechen, and the content also covers the two major veins of the author's creation- "Beijing" and "Flower Street". With strong literary and ideological nature, the work expresses the theme of young people's struggle that the author has always explored. Most of the protagonists are well-intentioned and have the wisdom to make fun of suffering, and the author writes about the uneasiness in their lives and the turmoil of their souls. The text of the whole book is solid, sweet and warm, and the still water is deep, and there is a sense of close artistry and a sense of depth in thinking about the world, from which you can get a glimpse of Xu Zechen's growth trajectory for more than ten years.

Xu Zechen's "Utopia" and the possibility of fiction

Jiang Fei

At this moment, I am a foreigner from my hometown. Walking alone in the night, you can see the stars and a crescent moon in the sky, and the scattered fireworks rise from the mountains, shine in the clear sky, and then dissipate. The cold is still overwhelming, but it doesn't feel cold. Countless people like me, such as migratory birds, return to their familiar and unfamiliar hometowns before the Spring Festival, pause for a few days, and then fly to cities in the north and south of the world, coming and going, is a person's "long march" and the adventure of the soul, is the grand tour of the body and soul, is the rootless wandering and endless nostalgia. Whether it is homecoming or writing, it is actually a "journey to utopia", so I can't help but think of Xu Zechen.

One

Xu Zechen is a sober writer, I have always thought so. "Sober" means that a writer profoundly understands and constantly reflects on why he writes, knows how to persist and create when he is wrapped in tangible or intangible things and disciplined, and at the same time profoundly understands what he can write, understands how to expand the territory step by step, gradually forms his own problem awareness, historical consciousness and formal consciousness, and creates infinite possibilities in a limited text. Unfortunately, there are many people who write novels today, there are many novelists who are lost by the temptation of various desires, but there are very few "sober" novelists, and many noisy novels are either just illustrations of certain grand themes, or just telling stories for the sake of storytelling, or just blindly pandering to the vulgar aesthetics of the market and the general public, lacking both the reflective challenge of difficult writing and the unique innovation of the novel narrative, in the final analysis, it is "confused" writing, it is a "no-self" novel.

"The novel is not only a story, but also what you really want to express outside the story, which determines the quality of a work." When some novelists are satisfied with positioning themselves as a "storyteller" and equating fiction with storytelling, Xu Zechen's vigilance against stories undoubtedly deserves our attention and leads us to think deeply about what is "something outside the story". When examining his own writing, Xu Zechen once said, "I have always regarded writing as the best way to a favorite utopia, or in other words, writing itself is constructing a utopia in my personal sense, and what I have seen, heard, thought, felt, and answered, all in it." It can be seen that "utopia" is the second world constructed by Xu Zechen in the form of words for the real world, and he strives to inject his own understanding, feelings and experiences into the novel, closely communicate with the characters, and consciously distinguish it from the novels of "others" and the novels of "everyone", and the novel of "having me" is where its pursuit lies.

I like the word "confusion" here, because novelists cannot be confused and doubtful about writing, to the world, to life, to human nature, to history, to the times, to the future, etc.; novels cannot be just confirmation, but not confusion, cannot just be affirmations, and there is no doubt, a clear and clear novel cannot be a good novel, in other words, the water is clear and there is no fish, a good novel must be turbid, ambiguous, ambiguous, the answer is unknown, in Xu Zechen's words, a good novel must be "broad and complex." The confusion is precisely where its richness, complexity, and possibility lie, and where "something outside the story" is born. In this sense, I think Xu Zechen's "Mystery" series is more in line with the purpose of modern novels, to a certain extent inheriting the legacy of avant-garde literature in the 1980s, with avant-garde spirit and transcendence, which is undoubtedly of enlightening significance for correcting some of the vulgar realist writing of the moment.

Good novels should touch people's spiritual vision, deeply explore people's spiritual problems, and rebuild people's spiritual beliefs. Xu Zechen's "Our Old Sea", "Apiary Hotel", "Goose Bridge", "Great Thunderstorm" and other mystery series novels strive to get close to the original ecology of life, reveal the mystery hidden in life itself, take the human subconscious as the driving force of the novel, fully demonstrate the charm of the "mystery" narrative, its value lies in the excavation and verification of the human spirit, more accurately, it is the pursuit and questioning of certainty, that is, the excavation and display of uncertainty, which is the meaning of modern novels (literature) that conform to the logic of modern life.

For example, the short story "Apiary Hotel", about a strange trip to ZuoShan by "I", in the memories of the owner of the apiary hotel, eight years ago, "I" had a relationship with her with her on the back of his girlfriend, and gave birth to a son, while "I" did not remember anything, in the face of a sudden old lover and strange son, "suddenly fell into a huge uncertainty" . Obviously, this novel questions the reliability of human memory, everything that has happened is uncertain, whether "I" deliberately choose to forget, or do not want to face the embarrassment of being caught or the pain of lost love, the doubts are so heavy that the reader can only guess.

Two

Generally speaking, in the "utopia" that Xu Zechen has constructed so far, what he has seen and heard is mainly inseparable from "hometown" and "Beijing", young people and marginalized people, and what he thinks and feels is mainly inseparable from the contradictions and conflicts and entanglements between hometown and foreign land, exile and return, ideal and reality, spirit and material, etc., and the confusion is mainly inseparable from the relationship between man and the world and the existence of man, which have become an organic part of the theme of his novel, fully showing the identity and recognition of his novel. Many commentators (including me) have discussed the "Flower Street" and "Beijing Drift" series, which will not be repeated here. Here, I would like to focus on these "new youths" who seem to be out of step with the times. Xu Zechen "reflects the breakthrough of individual life in the real living environment and spiritual escape, in the fracture and wandering, never stop pursuing the utopia of faith and love", which is both the master's own way, more like a footnote for his "new youth", which is "showing the current spiritual symptoms of the times".

In order to see the individual life clearly, Xu Zechen held the "microscope" in his left hand and the "telescope" in his right hand. His early creation mainly used a microscope, that is, consciously adhering to the perspective of almost synchronizing with age, starting from personal experience and thinking, observing and writing the daily life and spiritual life of young people at close range, observing and broadening the spiritual horizon of young people, and discovering the relatively real tension between youth and the world. The novels "Midnight Gate" (2006) and "Waterside Book" (2010) focus on the young wooden fish in Huajie Street, Chen Xiaoduo's growth path and initial recognition of the world; "Night Train" (2007) begins to write about the inner conflict, despair and loneliness of young intellectual Chen Mu Nian; "Running Through Zhongguancun", "If the Snow Closes the Door", "Beijing Drift" series depict a spiritual ukiyo-e of urban strangers, especially perjury makers. These new young people of all kinds, stubborn and even paranoid, full of desire to run away, full of idealistic self-confidence and romantic enthusiasm, but often fall into the predicament of materialism, and eventually can not escape the fate of tragedy, can be described as a group of tragic "idiots", they have become an inseparable part of the current map of contemporary Chinese figures.

The recently published novel collection "Qingcheng" (2021) depicts three sisters of young "idiot girls": Xixia, a mute woman who silently follows the male protagonist of unknown origin, Juyan, who is alone in Beijing to find her missing boyfriend, and Qingcheng, who is determined to accompany and take care of the old iron, which looks like an obsessive woman and classical love that is almost extinct. Because of love, they seek or persevere, but also in the search or perseverance to harvest love and rebuild themselves, in the city of red and green, this "love utopia" is like Kafka's "castle", full of inspiration and temptation, but out of reach.

It should be noted that what these new young people inherit is not the idealism of the May Fourth youth's intertwined enlightenment and revolution, or the idealism of reflection and reform in the 1980s, but the idealism of "having faith and being persistent", they have long dissipated the revolutionary ideals and feelings of home and country, retreated to the world of the self, fell into the daily life of dog and fly camps, chicken feathers in a place, and were worried about the problem of "who am I?", that is, the problem of identity and psychological identity, and what lingered was the self and others. Alienation from the city and the world and the times – this is undoubtedly a symptom of the zeitgeist.

Just as behind the tragic idealist figure stands Xu Zechen, a "pessimistic idealist", the "delusion" of the character also reflects the author's delusion. Xu Zechen himself said, "I am the kind of person who likes to go black in a way, and since I want to do novels as a thing, I have no distractions and do it very seriously." "Infatuation" should be the excellent quality of a novelist, only full of obsession and seriousness about the novel, infatuation and compassion for the characters in the pen, obsession and study of skills, the novel written may have tenacity, chewing head, taste, "all cloud authors are stupid, who understands the taste", but also only the reader who is obsessed with the novel can "understand the taste".

With the deepening of creation and thinking, Xu Zechen began to manipulate the telescope again, in order to see a special historical period and its influence on the characters from a distance, and the relationship between people and history became another important issue that Xu Zechen paid attention to. Compared with the post-50s and post-60s writers with rich historical experience, the post-70s writers seem to have no history of their own, but in fact, each generation has its own history, and the key lies in how each generation of writers can make their own history literary, personal, and contemporary. Obviously, Xu Zechen consciously chose and adhered to the literary path of reconstructing personal and contemporary history. At this point, I am more interested in his reflection and expression of the relationship between the individual and history, especially the subjective consciousness in history. In Jerusalem, Yi Chang'an takes to the streets with the crowd, "that Yi Chang'an saw himself opening his mouth in the crowd, but he couldn't hear any sound; he saw himself raising his steely arms and vow-like fists, but he couldn't find that it was any different from the other arms like the forest; he was drowned in the crowd, negligible." The collective, like history, is a trap, so that the self is drowned and lost, in the noise of the crowd Yi Chang'an's subjective consciousness awakened, he looked back to "find that more meaningful is a person's parade." What is important is not to conform to or rebel against the tide of history, but to reflect on and express the inner world of the characters themselves in the historical moment, and it is in this sense that Xu Zechen said, "As far as literature is concerned, there is no great history other than the individual." Telling your true feelings truthfully is the relationship between you and history." "Going North" (2018) is to put the individual into the grand history of the canal-like soup, not blindly following the narrative framework of mainstream history, but organically integrating the historical facts carefully verified into the protagonist's life course, making them cause and effect for each other, effectively matching, thus showing a personal view of history.

In my opinion, a good writer can neither have ulterior motives to nihil history, nor can he be completely overwhelmed by the so-called historical facts, let alone deliberately fabricate history for a certain purpose, but should reconstruct the historical and cultural context under the premise of respecting the value of individual life and the logic of life, and express the material life and spiritual difficulties of individuals in a specific era with the existential concept of "human world (history)".

Three

Where does the possibility of a novel come from? I think, in the final analysis, comes from the possibilities of the writer himself. Xu Zechen's superiority or infinite possibility lies in the fact that he is a scholar-type writer who is good at seeking innovation and change, and turning static into action.

The college's education and professional training have cultivated Xu Zechen's broad and solid reading ability and theoretical criticism ability. When some writers do not think about theoretical reading and literary criticism and even scorn it, Xu Zechen really feels the conflict and interaction between the two styles and thinking of theory and creation in practice, "Many people think that writers mainly rely on sensibility and imaginative fictional ability, and do not have to read any abstract theoretical books, which is actually a misunderstanding." Writers are only good at sensibility and imagination, not without the ability to think logically, and the necessary theoretical cultivation and speculative ability are very important to writers. It allows you to know what you want to do, what you can do, how far you can do it, and it allows you to make your work broader, deeper, and more sober to reach the essence of the world. Theoretical cultivation and speculative ability enable it to "return to the novel itself", from the accumulation and sublimation of perceptuality and rationality in ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literary classics and theoretical classics, familiar with and able to freely operate a variety of novel creative techniques, stylistic styles, narrative techniques, etc., and can reflect on and question the existing literary order and discourse norms, and even consciously promote the thinking of literature and life, fiction and realism, how to balance national traditions and extraterritorial resources, how to achieve "true Chinese-style writing" and other basic theoretical issues. This is not something that the average writer can achieve.

The current writers seem to have a difference between movement and static, "static writers" are accustomed to repeatedly writing a certain type of subject, using a fixed set of narrative discourse, perspective and structure, etc., the characters and environment may change, but the life experience, emotional thoughts, values, etc. are static; "dynamic writers" try different types of subjects, constantly innovate narrative discourse, perspective and structure, not only in the static depiction of life, but also strive to show the values, emotional thoughts and life experiences that change with the times and reality. Good novelists and novels must change with the times, with the world, with people's hearts, with the self, growing together, Xu Zechen, who "has no interest in static things", will probably agree with my point of view. From the East China Sea to Huai'an to Nanjing to Beijing, Xu Zechen is changing; the new youths in Xu Zechen's writing are changing, they have set out from their hometowns, "to the world", looking for ideal love and life; the canal is also changing, "the canal is not only a road, you can run up and down thousands of kilometers; it is also a compass, indicating the direction of the world." It is the vanguard of your understanding of the world, and it represents you and takes your place in a wider world. It even means your whole life." In order to avoid falling into static depiction and self-repetition, Xu Zechen has always consciously changed his narrative perspective, also writing about Beijing, "Running Through Zhongguancun", "Beijing's Western Suburbs Story Collection" and other outsiders to write about the Beijing he sees and imagines, "Wang Cheng Ru Hai" (2016) writes about Beijing from the perspective of returnees, and "Going North" writes about the Chinese wonders from Hangzhou to Beijing more than a hundred years ago from the perspective of an Italian. Almost every one of these novels strives to innovate in structure, such as the two-line "polyphonic" structure of the synchronicity of "Jerusalem", the diachronic and synchronic combination of "Northbound" and the networked orange petal structure of multi-line parallel and intertwined, and so on. In my opinion, a writer who lacks a sense of formal innovation will never reach the ranks of excellence.

"A soldier either dies on the battlefield or returns to his hometown." For writers who make a living from pens (such as Xu Zechen), writing is a person's war, a person's return to his hometown, always to build the "utopia" in his heart and charge forward, attack the city, and always taste the darkness and light, cold and warmth in the night of his hometown. It is not so much that I am full of expectations for Xu Zechen, but rather that I am full of expectations for Chinese novels that lead to utopia!

February 7, 2022

Editor: Liu Ya

Second instance: Wang Yang

Third instance: Chen Tao