Liang Hong: I chose to write a book for them丨 Choice 2021

Liang Hong (Nong Jian, Liang Shuyi/Photo)

The countryside of Henan is a vast plain, and every summer is the season for harvesting wheat. In 2019, director Jia Zhangke began to prepare his own literary documentary "Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue", and he wanted to explore the relationship between literature and land. As a representative of post-70s writers, Liang Hong became one of the protagonists of the documentary. She and Jia Zhangke's film crew came to Liangzhuang and were interviewed by Jia Zhangke at the edge of the wheat field that could not be seen.

Facing the camera, Liang Hong expressed her feelings for the land under her feet, she said: "Chinese folk life, Chinese folk culture is still there, so we seem to be very modern, living in a global context, but in fact, the shadow of that ancient culture is still there." ”

In 2010, after the publication of Liang Hong's "China in Liangzhuang", she triggered a wide range of discussions, and she used her calm and delicate brushstrokes to describe the land where she grew up for readers, which was full of nostalgia for her hometown and did not shy away from the withering and desolation of this land. Three years later, she launched "The Tale of Chu Liang Zhuang", which focuses on rural migrant workers, showing the transformation of China's rural areas in a rapidly developing society.

Liang Hong wanted to explore the mysteries of this land, and she began to try to express her emotions and experiences in the form of novels, and successively published novels such as "The Light of Liang Guangzheng" and "Four Elephants" and the novel collection "Holy Family". These three books are also about Liang Zhuang. Liang Hong once said that when he wrote "The Holy Family", he had already engraved the geographical space of Liangzhuang in his mind, and although the characters in the novel were fictional, they lived in a Liangzhuang that was extremely close to the real. In "Four Elephants", Liang Hong writes about rural reality in a surreal way, allowing the fictional wandering soul to connect the history of China over the past century with Liang Zhuang as the background.

At the same time of creation, Liang Hong taught in colleges and universities, taking literature as the object of study, and she felt that it was precisely because of her identity as a critic that she could empathize with the writing of others. With the prosperity of women's issues in the field of online public opinion, Liang Hong also actively intervened in the thinking and discussion of women's issues. In 2018, Liang Hong shared her views on a survey of writers' gender views by scholar Zhang Li, arguing that "gender consciousness is a basic social consciousness" and pointing out: "Gender issues are not a problem between men and women, not a question like 'whether men respect women', it is a social issue and a civilization issue." ”

In January 2021, Liang Hong's new book "Ten Years of Liangzhuang" was published, continuing the writer's observation and writing of Liangzhuang, a rural village in Henan, where he grew up. Unlike the previous two non-fiction works about Liang Zhuang, this "Ten Years of Liang Zhuang" focuses on rural women who bravely fight against life, and is a miniature history of rural change from a gender perspective.

I didn't write with ambition

Southern Weekend: In 2021, you published two books, one is "Liangzhuang Decade" at the beginning of the year, and the other is the "Disappearance of "Aura", which is reprinted at the end of the year, which just highlights your two identities - writer and scholar. With these two identities, do you feel a little contradictory? Which identity do you identify with more?

Liang Hong: The publication of "Ten Years of Liang Zhuang" is the most meaningful thing for me personally in 2021. The publication of this book gave Liang Zhuang a life-like state, and Liang Zhuang and I grew and changed together. I hope that everyone can see the life and death of Liangzhuang, and see the change and disappearance of life here. I hope you can see that Liangzhuang has been moving forward.

The balance of identities between scholars and writers may not be a problem for me, writing is inherently multi-dimensional, creation is a kind of writing, and so are essays and essays. It's just that when I write works such as "Ten Years of Liang Zhuang" and "Four Elephants", I may be more emotional, and I will pay more attention to things related to experience and emotion.

Theoretical articles may be related to speculation and logic, but I'm not saying that fiction doesn't need rationality, and academic articles may indeed need less emotional and emotional things. I think that academic writing and literary creation are actually complementary to each other, and I can make an adjustment between my language form and thinking form, and carry out a very broad thinking integration.

My writing is not about splitting myself in half, it's about turning what seems like two levels of thinking into a compound mindset. Maybe I don't have this ability yet, but my future direction is to let these two kinds of thinking merge writing.

Writing literary criticism will teach me, because as a fellow creator, I know how complicated the internal path of writing is, so when I write critical articles, I will be more cautious. Of course, there are many levels of critical articles, which can be literary history and cultural history, not necessarily a review of a work. But when I really speak on a certain work, because I have practiced it, I will be more aware of the mysteries and difficulties within literature, and I hope that I can understand it more.

Southern Weekend: As a literary researcher, is your writing a kind of writing toward literary history?

Liang Hong: I don't write like this, and I don't think my writing has literary historical significance. I'm just an honest writer, and I write it down when I see it, and I don't think about it at all as to whether it has literary historical significance. For the choice of the times does not develop by the will of the individual, and the future is not something we can predict.

In fact, literary history itself is a history of choice, and I think there are many writers in any era, but only a very few authors enter the history of literature. If you fantasize that you must enter the history of literature to write, it is too sad and too narrow. I think it's enough to eventually face yourself, write what you really want to write, and focus on how you can write well.

As an author, I can only accomplish the tasks above, and as for the literary researchers who come to see my meaning and put me into the history of literature; or I am drowned out, I think it is quite normal. I didn't write with ambition.

Southern Weekend: You are famous for your non-fiction literature such as "China in Liangzhuang" and "The Record of Liangzhuang", but at the same time you also write novels, and published the novel "Four Elephants" in 2020, how did you choose the style of your expression?

Liang Hong: This choice was very natural for me, when I wrote Liang Zhuang, I felt that I must write about a real village, to show the most real situation here, so I naturally chose non-fiction writing. I don't want to deliberately "non-fiction", but I want to expand the village where I grew up in that way, to show people there and life there, the emotions there and the rivers there, these wishes prompted me to write, and finally became a "non-fiction" work.

When I wrote The Four Elephants, I had a conversation between three undead and a living person in my mind, and such a story could only be written in fiction. Generally speaking, I choose the style of writing based on my intuition, and it all happens naturally. As for whether it can be written in the end, there may be many factors, but I think it still depends on my previous relationship with the author, and on the intuitive reaction to the material.

Being photographed is a fun and fresh experience

Southern Weekend: In 2021, Jia Zhangke's literary documentary "Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue" was officially released, and you also appeared on the big screen and became a "role" expressed by the director. Because of the spread of film, your work is known to more people, how do you think about the relationship between writers and media?

Liang Hong: The process of being filmed is very interesting, and it is also a process of reflecting on yourself through others, which is indeed a very interesting and fresh experience, and I am happy to participate in it. I feel that art forms such as literature, film, and music are inseparable, and they all make my experience emotionally related to society.

When I was involved in this film, the whole process was very enjoyable and I didn't feel like I was acting in a movie. It's a documentary, it's a reproduction of reality, and I'm natural to the camera, without deliberately trying to perform anything. Jia Zhangke himself is also a very good director, and he will not ask me to speak and do things according to his will, which is where I respect him.

Of course, when I became a character in a movie and I had to be watched by others, I was still quite uncomfortable, but since movies are such a medium, I also had to adapt myself, and in retrospect, participating in this movie was unique to me personally.

Southern Weekend: Intellectuals "out of the circle" to become "Internet celebrities", participation in entertainment programs or active participation in social affairs is a phenomenon in the past two years, will you also participate in this wave in the future?

Liang Hong: I still prefer to read and write, things like making movies, it's very interesting to participate in occasionally, you can also feel the society, become part of the experience, I don't deliberately reject or reject, but the main thing I want to do is not these. Maybe I am still a reader in my bones, hoping to read quietly, I always feel that I can get along with myself in reading, and I can get a deep pleasure.

Southern Weekend: In recent years, there have been some subtle changes in the space of online discussion, and we can often see some irrational voices, how would you express yourself in the face of such a scene?

Liang Hong: I am personally more cautious about public speech, and I feel that I am not yet able to fully understand society. Therefore, in the face of many social hot spots, I choose to observe silently and understand the ins and outs of things, but I rarely speak.

This state can also be said to be somewhat "weak", but it is also related to my personality, and I do not have the ability to quickly grasp the essence of things. On the other hand, some irrational currents, really like a tide, rise and fall rapidly, and when it subsides, it is as if nothing has happened.

Southern Weekend: Is that understandable that you are more inclined to perceive society in a literary way?

Liang Hong: I think the text has been polished repeatedly, which may be more in line with my heart. But when it comes to change and intervention, I'm actually not so optimistic, and I've always felt that it's very difficult to change social and cultural concepts. I never wanted to change anything quickly, nor was it possible. For me, it is to do my own bit by bit, not to call for anything.

I realized I should be writing a book for this group of women

Southern Weekend: What do you think of the public discourse on gender that is getting more attention at the moment?

Liang Hong: The public events that make me really memorable in 2021 are still related to women, in fact, there have been impressive events for two or three consecutive years, such as the Ram case, which left a deep impression on me, and this case in 2021 has a preliminary result, which I think is a very iconic event for the social process.

The discussion about gender issues is not only very deep, but also very detailed, deep into all aspects of life, which is where I think there is a lot of progress. In 2021, among the several major events that occurred in the entertainment industry, there are also many women's issues, such as the recent Wang Lihong and Li Lianglei incidents. I will not discuss the question of right and wrong, because apart from the parties, many things are not something that we outsiders can know the whole truth. But this incident opens up a very important question that has been obscured for many years: Does domestic work, like other labor, deserve to be respected and affirmed, and at the same time should have its monetary value?

In fact, as long as people who have experienced housework will know the heavy and trivial work of housework, the so-called "housewife" without social occupation undertakes the work of raising children and family labor, and her financial demands on her husband cannot be regarded as a kind of "demand", but should be regarded as the income of labor, and the common property of the family should have half of her.

Southern Weekend: There are several women in "Liangzhuang Ten Years" whose encounters are consistent with the topics of recent public events, such as women who have suffered domestic violence, women who have to become housewives... If "China in Liangzhuang" and "Out of Liangzhuang" are still concerned with the whole Chinese village and the people living here, "Ten Years of Liangzhuang" has invested a lot of emotional ink to write about the village women you are familiar with, how do you think about your own transformation?

Liang Hong: In fact, these women have always lived around us, just because we are accustomed to it, we often ignore their existence, but this issue is actually very important. When I first wrote "LiangZhuang", I may have rarely touched on the topic of women, but with the in-depth observation of this place, the fate of women here naturally opened up to me. When I started writing Ten Years of Liangzhuang, I realized I should write a book for this group of women.

It should be said that this new book has made my female consciousness more focused and revealed, but it is not that I did not have female consciousness before, but only that the focus at that time was not here. This book is inseparable from my long-term observation of Liang Zhuang and is consistent with our feelings about this land.

Southern Weekend: 2021 is coming to an end, how do you sum up your year?

Liang Hong: 2021 is a busy year for me, there are many things, and the time for writing is relatively small. Looking back on the year, I feel that time passes very quickly and seems to be under a lot of pressure, which may come from the outside or from the inside, but it is also difficult to describe them clearly.

I think 2021 is a very special year, and of course it can be said for the same reason that it is ordinary. On the one hand, we feel that the outside world is in chaos; but it is quickly transformed into a normal life. Because of the travel restrictions brought about by the epidemic, wearing masks in daily life, etc., have become a habit of ours.

Even, we don't seem to be used to going out without masks, and we don't even want to see people anymore. Masks become part of our bodies, as if we were going to wear clothes. It is a process of slow mutual change between illness, society, and self. It's a wonderful and symbolic feeling.

Southern Weekend reporter Yu Yaqin