Xu Zidong
Barkin's novel Home, originally titled Riptide, was first serialized in The Times in 1931. In May 1933, Enlightened Books published the first single edition of Home. Over the decades, Home has sold more than 10 million copies, making it one of the most Chinese-read novels. Why is Home so popular? In the video of this issue, Teacher Xu Zidong gave us an analysis.
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Xu Zidong on why Ba Jin's "Home" is a best seller (08:52)
Home is one of the most read novels Chinese, what do you think is the reason?
Barkin's most valuable qualities are, of course, frankness and sincerity, especially in his "Caprice" in his later years. Barkin was the oldest writer to tell the truth since the 1980s, so it's rare for Barkin to have a higher reputation the more he reaches in his later years. "Home" has become the most read work in the Chinese, and this is also very worth discussing.
Generally speaking, there are several categories of best-selling works, one is the red classic, such as "Red Rock" (sales) more than 10 million; the second type of high sales, almost among the whole people, that is, works like "Alive", in 2019 statistics, it has been the top seller of non-fiction literature for several consecutive years. Yu Hua wrote about the son of a landlord, writing that everyone was so sad for him, very bitter, very kind, this is "Alive". Unlike the above two, "Home" does not have a government-acted, mainstream ideological push, but it is not a bestseller in recent decades. If you count the time, "Home" is the most tested, because from its publication in the 1930s to the present, it has sold more than ten million.
"Home"
cause? The first one is simple, write about love. When I was a child, I watched it because of love. Generally speaking, we only think that there are three love tragedies written in "Home", the first is that Juexin likes Cousin Mei, and the two mothers play cards and gamble not to let them get married. The second is that Juehui fell in love with the servant Mingfeng - it is difficult to say whether she fell in love or not - in short, Mingfeng fell in love with the young master, and finally when people asked her to go out as a concubine, she jumped into the lake and committed suicide. The third is that there is finally a good wife Rui Jue (played by Zhang Ruifang), which is actually a very wonderful stroke in "Home", that is, the marriage of the matchmaker is not necessarily all bad, and lifting a piece of cloth is actually a beautiful woman, and virtuous. However, when I gave birth to a child, because the old lady had just passed away, she said that she would have to go to the suburbs to prevent the disaster of blood and light, so it was also a tragedy.
Jue Xin and Rui Jue. Stills from the 1957 film version of Home
We usually only see these three tragedies, but I recently re-examined it and found that there is a fourth tragedy, which is Jue Min and Qin. When I was a child, I didn't understand, whenever I saw the piano appear, I felt bright, I thought it was the bright line of the novel, and then I felt that the people and the piano were good. Why is this also a tragedy? Later, it was discovered that there was once a time when the old lady had promised Juemin's marriage to a person he knew, so his marriage to Qin was not working. The old lady didn't know who her grandson liked, so he just agreed. The previous three tragedies all had certain reasons, but there was no reason for the matter between Qin and Juemin, the only reason was that the old lady said that there was such a thing, and no one dared to tell the old lady again. This is a tragedy! How did the tragedy turn it around? It is by relying on the old lady to send kindness, he is not kind, but his own health is not good, want to see his grandson, suddenly remembered who he promised him to, Juemin may not be happy, the old lady said, then it is up to him. Words, right or wrong, does not matter, what matters is the position of the person speaking. Many overseas researchers say that Ba Jin's novels are shallow, and I say that if this phenomenon of higher position and stronger truth in speaking, which day disappears, disappears at home, we have the luxury of saying Ba Jin shallow. Old Lady Gao is not a completely bad person, compared to Ke'an and Keding, that is corruption. Juehui and Old Lady Gao finally met, the critic Huang Ziping said that it is the most touching passage in "Home", it turns out that Juehui and Juemin want to inherit the etiquette that Old Lady Gao observed, and uncles they destroyed etiquette.
Three brothers. Stills from the 1957 film version of Home
So, the first reason Barkin's novels continue to sell well is because he writes about love, and behind love is a patriarchal power operation. The paternalism, at the beginning, was the "governance" of parents, that is, the parents were governing, and later it became the "system" of parents, and parents did not need to govern to form a power relationship. Later, Barkin himself realized that it was not a matter of age. This kind of family human environment permeates power relations, which is actually the second reason for the long-term bestselling of "Home", Chinese religion is home. China has not become a religious power, and the big difference from all other religions is that the channel Chinese imagine the future world is through its own blood, through its own descendants. Qian Mu has long pointed out that before the death of the old Man in China, the most important thing next to the bedside is not the priest, but the son of his own son, and the son of which son did not come, and the old man did not swallow this breath. What will be passed on to the next life is the bloodline of my life. Philosophically, we all know that the imagination of the future world determines the basic ethics and values of the present world, so Chinese imagination of the other world, the core of Chinese values, is replaced by the title of Barkin's novel, that is, home. Therefore, he is ostensibly writing about love, but behind his back he talks about the religion of Chinese, which are very important reasons why the novel is selling well.
Of course, there is a third reason is that almost everyone who has read this novel has a basic choice, do we do Juehui or Juexin? Juexin is the eldest son, you have to take responsibility, although you have a certain amount of power, you get a certain amount of trust, but you have to make a compromise ( compromise) ( you have to be responsible. Jue Hui, resistance is very enjoyable, scolding, rebellion, but he has to rely on Jue Xin to provide him with money, and important things have to rely on Jue Xin to carry. In our lives, you think, at home, at school, are you feeling new or wise? Do you feel that the new bears the burden of humiliation and responsibility, or juehui is romantic and dashing, and the permanent revolution? This is again a space for our imagination provided by Barkin's novel.
(For more information, see Xu Zidong's new book, Rereading the Chinese Novel of the 20th Century.)
Editor-in-Charge: Gu Ming
Proofreader: Ding Xiao