Cover news reporter Zhang Jie intern Li Xinyue
In 2004, in the class of Peking University's "World Literature Class in Movies", Liu Zichao watched a movie that he called "Central Asia's version of "Flying House Tour"" and was full of rich Central Asian style, "Who Will Pick the Moon for Me", and has never forgotten it. A few years later, with the footage of the documentary "The New Silk Road: A Turbulent Land Chronicle", he traveled all the way west along the Silk Road, witnessing the history and current situation of Central Asia, Southern Russia and the near Middle East.
In 2010, Liu Zichao stood at the Khorgos port for the first time and looked at the Tianshan Mountains. For a moment, he wanted to jump on the truck, cross the border, climb over the snowy mountains, and see what kind of world it was across the street. A clear idea rose in his mind: to go to Central Asia and write a book. The idea is no small challenge, but also a great temptation: "If I want to gain knowledge and experience about the world, if I want to understand the reality in which I live, what better way than to travel and write?"
▲ Liu Zichao photography
9 Deep Roaming in Central Asia
Condensed into a non-fiction
Since 2011, Liu Zichao has begun his deep and long central Asian roaming. Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and other countries that are both familiar and unfamiliar to many Chinese readers have become destinations for Liu Zichao's travels. In the depths of the Tianshan Mountains, the Wakhan Corridor, the no-man's land in Pamir, and the nuclear explosion test site, Liu Zichao went to almost all important locations in Central Asia within 9 years.
The process was hard, and I even encountered some dangers. But Liu Zichao felt that the harvest was great and well worth it. In particular, along the way, I met many strangers (and became friends with some of them), russians in Central Asia, "post-90s" writers who wanted to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, herders who still lived a nomadic life, their dreams and sorrows, their emotional and cognitive patterns, how they viewed their country's relationship with the world, etc.
These became a powerful motivator for Liu Zichao to continue to return, pay attention to Central Asia, and want to learn more about the land. Liu Zichao likens modern Central Asia to "a lost satellite", correcting its orbit in the cracks of various forces. In the end, the accumulation of these experiences and feelings, through his artistic transformation, condensed into an acclaimed non-fiction work: The Lost Satellite: A Journey Deep into Central Asia.
See the world of reality and literature
Deep integration and contrast
"Travels in the Tianshan Mountains", "Gagarin Sanatorium", "West to Alexandria", "The End of the World", "From the Pamir Highway to the Valley of Wakhan", "The Golden Road to Samarkand", "The Last Nomad"... Flipping through "The Lost Satellite", it can be clearly felt that travel is only a clue for Liu Zichao to observe and experience the world, and what runs through the whole text is his skillful use and transformation of relevant humanities, history and geographical knowledge. For example, when writing about Kazakhstan, it is mentioned that Dostoevsky had exiled Kazakhstan, and it is mentioned that Peter Semenov wrote "Travels on the Tianshan Mountains" and so on. From marquee wine to Chekhov, who was suffering from tuberculosis. The fusion of the seeing reality brought by the footsteps and the literary world learned by reading, the historical scene and the current reality exist, forming a sharp contrast.
In recent decades, there have been many Chinese people who have traveled abroad, and many travel texts have been written. But Liu Zichao's travel writing can stand out, which has a lot to do with the richness of the text: in addition to seeing the wonders of the distance, it can also meet with vivid characters, subtle feelings, and profound thinking. Especially in the post-pandemic world, cross-border travel has become more difficult. In addition, compared with Europe, Southeast Asia and other places, Central Asia is a relatively small land that has been traveled and written by contemporary writers. This is even more valuable to "The Lost Satellite: A Journey Deep into Central Asia": it helps us see a side of the world that we usually can't see, and to see the lives and spirits of certain groups that are farther away from us.
In addition to measuring with footsteps and communicating with reality, Liu Zichao also immersed himself more deeply in the world of Central Asia through literary, artistic and historical works. On trains in Kazakhstan, for example, he often put on headphones and relived the famous symphonic poem Borodin's "On the Steppes of Central Asia Minor"; in Luo Xin's long essay "The Moon Shines on the Amu Darya", he has a deeper understanding of the Amu Darya River, the great River of Central Asia. Without human interaction, travel is reduced to an empty shell. Friends who met during the trip showed the most beautiful part of the character of Central Asians in the face of the sincerity and calmness, optimism and courage of life, and have always inspired and inspired Liu Zichao, so that he always maintains a confidence in the future in his heart.
Born in 1984, Liu Zichao graduated from the Department of Chinese of Peking University. His works include "Arriving Before Midnight", "In the Direction of the Monsoon", "The Lost Satellite", and "City of Surprise", "Feast of Flow", and "The Long Farewell". He looks forward to the day when his writing can gradually spell together a complete world in the sense of literal expression.
On October 17, 2021, Liu Zichao made a sincere speech when receiving the Gemini Award of the 6th Chinese Young Writers Award: "Travel has allowed me to see a vast world, and also to see China's existence and influence in this world. And writing made me realize that the process of writing this book made me believe again in the meaning of writing: to express the world experiences that have not been Chinese expressed. ”
On January 7, 2022, the list of "2021 Hall of Fame Top Ten Writers" sponsored by Cover News, West China Metropolis Daily, produced by the Cover Research Institute, and selected by organizational experts was released, and Liu Zichao was on the list.
Cover News Dialogue Liu Zichao:
I look forward to writing a book for Central Asia in 30 years
▲ Liu Zichao (Courtesy of me)
Cover News: When writing about travel-related topics, it is rare to write your own style that is recognized by readers. What are your own ideas and philosophies for writing?
Liu Zichao: For me, writing is a process of constant exploration. I call it "peeling the onion" – peeling off the skin layer by layer, gradually approaching the core of things.
Cover News: You write about meeting special people with stories along the way. For example, Sergey, a retired staff member of the Alatau National Park Research Station, said: "Sometimes I am eager to communicate, but more often, I am willing to immerse myself in my own world." "And a lot of other local youth. Their dreams, confusion and so on. Will the people you meet on your trip still have a constant connection? You said that you hope to be able to retrace the route you took in 30 years, do you think you have a chance to reunite with those friends?
Liu Zichao: There is also contact, we sometimes talk online, or like each other. I'm 67 years old 30 years later, and I believe that by then our lives will change a lot. After 30 years, Central Asia must have been completely different. So I'm looking forward to writing another book like this in 30 years. That will be a reflection of our generation.
Cover News: When can I add that paragraph from Turkmenistan? I believe that this paragraph is the part that many readers who have watched "The Lost Satellite" are very much looking forward to. Have you lived in Oxford for a while and have any plans to write specifically about the UK section?
Liu Zichao: If the epidemic situation improves, I hope that Turkmenistan can be supplemented when it is republished, but now everything is difficult to say. There are no plans to write a book specifically for the UK, as living in Oxford was a few years ago.
Cover News: During the trip to Central Asia, such as the section of hiking the Tianshan Mountains alone in the rain, it feels very thrilling. Do you feel scared when you get in touch with the previous Silver Off-Road Event? If there is a similar itinerary later, will you prepare for it more?
Liu Zichao: The Tianshan hike was a very accidental decision at that time, and it was not in the original plan. I didn't even have hiking shoes, only a pair of small white shoes. In the future, if there is a definite plan, of course, more preparation will be made, at least walking shoes and storm jackets will be brought.
Cover News: Long travel requires a certain amount of financial support, how is the current problem in this regard solved?
Liu Zichao: To be a writer, talent is very important, but it is important to persevere, and it is more important to establish a supporting lifestyle. My income over the years has always been a fee, and I also do some translations.
Cover News: In the book, you thanked your family for forbearing your months-long "disappearance", and did your family have the idea of wanting you to settle down? Or will there be some balance between traveling long hours and spending time with family?
Liu Zichao: The support of my family is the reason why I can become a writer and stick to it. I will spend as much time as possible with them.
Cover News: Would you enjoy traveling alone or would someone go with you? Leaving aside the writing section, is there a place where you simply want to go on vacation?
Liu Zichao: I enjoy traveling alone and with my companions, don't you think it's good to travel now? For a holiday, I would love to visit the Autonomous Community of Madeira in Portugal, on the Atlantic Ocean, more than 800 kilometers southwest of the European continent.
Cover News: The biggest uncertainty in travel is not arrival, but how. In the final analysis, travel or life is the process of life that solves how to arrive again and again. Sentences like this circulate a lot online, and your work resonates with a lot of readers. Have you ever thought that you would have so many readers and the book would sell well? What would you like to say to readers who like their work?
Liu Zichao: My editor said that it is a good result to sell 10,000 or 20,000 literature books in China. I'm sure I'll get that number, and I haven't thought about it anymore, and I think there will be a lot of accidental ingredients. So, I'm grateful to readers who are willing to pay for my books. I want to say to them, "Thank you! ”
Attached: List of the "2021 Hall of Fame Top Ten Writers"