Sheng Ke would never have thought that just because he had a "glutinous heart", he would bring endless trouble to himself. Because of the epidemic, she has not been able to see her mother for two or three years, and she often hears her mother talking about the rain leakage in the old house on the phone, which reminds her of when she was a child, when the family was leaking, her mother piled pots and pots in the middle, and the house kept ringing tinkling sounds, like music, more like "the voice of poverty". The bitterness of her childhood and the longing for her mother made her decide to go back to her hometown to build a new house for her mother without hesitation. Years of experience outside the home have given her strong self-confidence, and in her heart, building a house is just a trivial matter.
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Architectural Ethics
Author: Sheng Can
Publisher: Writers Press
Published: June 2024
However, it backfired, and in the more than a year since he returned to his hometown to build a house, Sheng can experience severe cold and heat, from conception, drawing floor plans, looking for a construction team to go down to the mud pit, go to the roof, deal with neighborhood and construction disputes, brick by brick, the whole process is personal, the complexity and triviality of affairs are exhausting, and the backstabbing of relatives makes her feel even more chilling. Because of the house, the family relationship almost collapsed and collapsed.
After the house was built, she hid in the mountains near the Taojiang River in Yiyang to retreat and reorganize the chaos in her heart over the past year. In winter, the bamboo mountain is isolated from the world, and the snow covers the green bamboo, which is extremely beautiful and desolate. She writes at a rate of 3,000 words a day, and it takes about 20 days to finish, and all her suppressed emotions are vented into the words, and every word is fangs and claws, as if she is angry, roaring and crying. When she was done, she found the novel too emotionally written, and she tried her best to calm herself down, rewriting the novella "Architectural Ethics" with a calm mind. "It's like it's grown out of my life, and I've never experienced such a great deal of pain from everyday life." She said.
Illustration of the inside page of "Architectural Ethics" by Sheng Ke
"I don't want to be thankful for life, but I love it immensely"
Foundations, Sections, Lofts...... In the book, as the new house is slowly built brick by brick, the text gradually plumps up. Sheng can search all 150 architectural terms and notes, choose the terms corresponding to the description as subheadings, integrate architectural terms into the narrative structure, and show the conflict between family ethics, rural ethics and modern civilization through the process of building a house. Unlike most of her previous creations, which explored themes such as women's survival and fate, this experience shifted the focus of Sheng Ke's writing and added a social dimension to her writing.
For writers, fiction of what has happened is a crutch and a constraint, and too much material will become a burden on the imagination of writing and affect the refinement of art. Sheng can be wary of this, describing herself as like a "plant" that must grow in the soil, imagining and shaping the plot on the basis of the prototype of life. Like many details in "Architectural Ethics", she didn't want to give up and couldn't give up; The short story "Roses Are Not as Good as Peony" also has its own prototype in real life. In Sheng Ke's works, indirect experience and direct experience have the same weight, "It's like a candidate entering the examination room with a tool for cheating, he can answer the exam questions independently, but because of his psychological dependence on the tool of cheating, it is difficult to answer the paper with confidence." In her opinion, it is difficult to create realistic works without life prototypes, which also depends on the writer's ability to "transfer flowers and trees" and "break and reshape".
Sheng Ke adds a warm ending to "Architectural Ethics", which, of course, has been artistically processed and has become a fictional part. This also means that the matter of building a house has come to an end in her heart, "Life can only be like this, let go and continue to move forward." I don't want to be thankful for life, but I love it immensely."
In the early years, Sheng Ke's writing was known for its sharp and gray style, "If you want to be ruthless, you will be ruthless to the end". Because of Yu Hua, she embarked on the road of creation, and even read Faulkner, a writer that Yu Hua loved very much, all the way. Yu Hua's works are unusually calm, and her language is sharp, sharp, and clean, which has a great influence on her. Even when she wasn't writing, she often thought about how to describe the people she saw and the things she encountered...... Sheng can describe this feeling as "swimming in the water like a fish", the bustling street is like a pool, and the pedestrians passing by are like aquatic plants or fish, walking in it is like a fish meeting water. Since then, she has found her own narrative voice.
As he grows older and more experienced, Sheng Ke no longer wants to be so "ruthless", but instead seeks warm colors in life and things that can redeem people's hearts, hoping that his works will bring kindness, friendliness, warmth and hope to more people. But for her, writing has always been a process of self-expression, self-solving, breaking free from constraints, and a way to heal herself. After completing a work, the problems that bother her can be "turned over", which is the greatest help that writing has given her. In her opinion, as long as a writer is sincere in facing life and writing, then he will be able to create works that can move and resonate with people.
This place of peace is my hometown
Sheng Ke's paintings
Sheng Ke's paintings Sheng Ke grew up in the countryside since he was a child, traveled to many places in many countries, and returned to the countryside at heart, but this countryside is not a "village" in the sense of his hometown, but a spiritual hometown. She longs for a quiet and peaceful countryside where she can write and paint quietly. She describes the sensation as "like a stream that flows through a lot of bumps and jumps before finally returning to a deep pool of tranquility".
"Other People's Watermelons Are Sweeter" Author: Sheng Ke Publishing House: Writers Publishing HousePublication date: July 2024
Sheng can boast of being a "tumbler", no matter how he faces the changes, setbacks, and hardships of life, he has a strong ability to self-build and self-adjust. This is related to her growth environment, since she was a child, she has a strong personality, very assertive, not admitting defeat and loving to fight. Because she is used to seeing many women who are unkempt and work hard every day, and are still beaten and scolded at will, she has a great grievance, she must not be bullied, and she can't bear to see someone being bullied. This kind of "sharp and easy" character is easy to suffer in society, once because she was not used to seeing a man beat his wife, she stepped forward to fight unevenly, but attracted the "joint attack" of the husband and wife...... Slowly, her personality was not as strong as before, and became softer and more calm. Sheng Ke, who ran away for half his life and "returned to his hometown" by building a house, also began to wake up and had problems with himself, "After all, who would want someone to suddenly run to their house and take care of everything"? And all the people who appear in the book are not all heinous villains, they all have a very good side, and in the face of human weakness, everyone will explode sharply at some point. She admits that she is accustomed to looking at things from her own point of view, stubbornly believing that there is nothing wrong with her dedication, but not understanding her loved ones enough. She began to try to understand and adjust the way they get along with each other, which is also the reflection brought about by the construction of the house. It is normal for those who were born in the countryside and received modern higher education and adapted to urban civilization to be accepted by the countryside, because the countryside has changed slightly, and when the individual's thinking and cognitive system changes dramatically, this relationship will be like "oil and water are as incompatible". "At present, the traditional rural civilization and value system are still large and stubborn, and will not change due to individual efforts, and when faced with those faces, there will be a kind of compassion in our hearts, and we should take the initiative to understand them." "I hope that every woman has a strong self-recovery function", Sheng can also use this story to warn all women who grow up to be in a huge contrast with their original growth environment, and who are prone to deep "internal friction" in their hearts, to learn to understand others from the perspective of others. She will not store "garbage" in her life, and will allow herself to be in a bad mood for three days at most, and will never be consumed. When having a healing pen
Sheng Ke's paintings "I have two brushes, one is a naïve and pure painting brush, and the other is a very cold and sharp brush that explores human nature. Those who are familiar with Sheng Ke know that in addition to writing, her favorite and best thing is painting. She left the most vulnerable side to the painting, which is always a lonely little girl with a puppy. For a while, she was so obsessed with drawing that even when she was dying, she was writing a novel, her mind full of how to compose pictures. Her paintings have a strong sense of narrative, such as playing in the snow with a puppy in her childhood, picking lotus flowers by the lake, and paddling in the water. Sometimes, she draws a bird on a tree, and she seems to hear the bird's call. In her heart, words have a sense of satisfaction, and painting makes her feel more happy, because discovering her innocent and pure side is so healing. Sheng can say that the gray background of childhood life determines the tone of the novel, and he will deliberately complement the sharp words through a fresh and natural painting style. The theme of rural ethics that I focused on this time is different from the one I have focused on in previous writings, and it cannot be defined. In her new work, she will once again return to women's writing, writing a novel related to "the history of women's mind, body, and growth". "I can write whatever I want, and writing about my own life and life-related content is my writing attitude. You only have one life, and choosing this path also means that I follow my heart", Sheng Ke said with a firm attitude at the end of the interview.
About the writer
Sheng Ke, a native of Yiyang, Hunan. Master of Arts, Renmin University of Chinese. He has published 11 novels and several collections of short and medium stories. His works have been translated into nearly 20 languages, including English, French, and German, and have been published overseas. His representative works include "Northern Sister", "Womb", "Savage Growth", "Maid's Notes", "Architectural Ethics" and so on. He has won the first Chinese Literary Media Award, the Most Promising Newcomer Award, and the People's Literature Award.
Typesetting: Xiao Yao
Editor: Liu Ya
Second trial: Zhang Junping
Third trial: Wang Yang