Zhang Jie (April 27, 1937 – January 21, 2022)
On January 21, 2022, local time, writer Zhang Jie died of illness in the United States. Zhang Jie, who has twice won the Mao Dun Literature Prize for "Heavy Wings" and "No Words", is one of the most important Chinese writers since the new era.
Xu Hong, a professor at Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, wrote a short essay in 2014, "Sketching Zhang Jie", and after hearing the news, authorized a single reading to reissue this article in memory of Zhang Jie. Xu Hong and Zhang Jie have been in contact for more than 20 years, and this article vividly depicts Zhang Jie's talent and temperament, whether it is for words, paintings, or complicated world affairs, she has always had a deep affection.
Original link:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6f79e2710102z3r9.html
Sketch Zhang Jie
Author: Xu Hong
Zhang Jie, a 77-year-old female writer (2014), held a solo oil painting exhibition in Beijing in late October. At the opening ceremony, she waved her hands together to bid farewell to the literary world and readers. Free, determined.
Now, she has returned home in the United States.
Last year, she sold her house on the side of Beijing's Second Ring Road and bought a small apartment on the Campus of Columbia University in New York: "The old house, simple, but downstairs there is a big public garden, very beautiful." ”
She used to sit on a long chair under a tree in the garden. She said: "The wind in that corner, there is no direction. I felt that the wind blowing from different directions gradually blew away bad memories of hurt, insults, rumors, slander, and so on, leaving only memories of the love, warmth, concern, help, and so on of friends. ”
This time back, Zhang Jie's mood was indeed calmer than ever. Gratitude, gratitude, often on the lips, in the smile.
Zhang Jie's oil paintings
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I have been in a relationship with Zhang Jie for twenty years, and I have the impression that she is outspoken and cynical. Never detached, never out of bounds, never kitsch. Whether it is internal or external, she rushes left and right, entangled, anxious, doubtful, picky, but always deep.
The text is like its own person. Wang Meng was also amazed by Zhang Jie's unique literary charm: "Sometimes frankness is almost stupid, enthusiasm is almost explosive, melancholy is almost self-deprecating, and brave is almost like trying to show the bad habits of chen fa by example." ”
late bloomer. Zhang Jie only started writing at the age of 41. But there is no doubt that she is one of the most important chinese writers since the new era. She has won all the national literary awards for short stories, novellas and novellas, and has been praised as a "Grand Slam" writer. "Heavy Wings" and "No Words" have won her the Mao Dun Literature Award twice.
She is also well known internationally: Zhang Jie won italy's 1989 "Marappaldi" International Literary Prize; in 1992 she was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Letters and Arts; and less well known, Zhang Jie was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.
Zhang Jie's novels "Heavy Wings" and "Wordless" book covers
Zhang Jie is a mystery.
Some critics say that there does not seem to be a single contemporary writer, especially a female writer, like Zhang Jie, who has gone from aesthetic to ugly, showing his literary age in an extremely bright style change, as if he has suddenly stepped from the girlhood of literature into the age of adulthood and ushered in the period of literary menopause.
More than 10 years ago, I asked Zhang Jie this mystery bluntly: "Why did you turn from writing about the beauty of human nature to exposing the evil of human nature?" ”
She said: "Disappointed. Disappointment with everything. ”
She's disappointed in the world: Wordless is written in the 20th century with the story of three generations of mother and daughter. Zhang Jie said: "This century is a century of big lies, a century of deception, full of pain and horrors worse than death. ”
She is disappointed in human nature: "There is no communication between people. Zhang Jie said, "If the uncertainty of the chaotic world can be touched to some extent, the uncertainty of human nature is simply desperate." ”
She was disappointed with literature: within a few years literature would be completely abandoned and replaced by "small times" in its place.
The speed with which the style of her work transforms is also astonishing. Lyrical, humorous, absurd, ridiculous, politically satirical, stream-of-consciousness, suspenseful, a book with a face, a different kind of reading experience. Zhang Jie's talent lies in lifting weights lightly, playing with ease, and different styles, which she can do at her fingertips.
She said: "I don't like to form the so-called 'style', which is to paint the ground as a prison. I like to shoot a shot to change places, and of course it's also an 'ambition' to see if I can handle all kinds of forms. ”
Words are her favorite, and I have heard her confession many times: there is nothing that can make me calmly independent of the world like my words; I have arrogantly said that even if the people of the world hate me, I will live freely because of these words.
Zhang Jie
This time her transformation is more courageous and determined.
This "darling of the world of words, cut off the literary writer's narrative instinct on his own, and put down the sharp weapon of language", began to use the brush to find himself again, and used the brush to test once again whether he could talk to the world.
The marriage failed and the mother died. Zhang Jie self-exiled after the age of 70, and almost half of her life state is "lone ranger on the road". She travels the world with her bags on her back, she likes to take a bus, take a fool's machine, walk around and clap, count where she goes, and stay when she sees a desirable hotel in a roadside town. She laughed to herself that it was a "budget tour." "Stray Old Dog" is both Zhang Jie's screen name and the title of a new book she wrote in 2013.
In the book, she said: "For all the things that happened on the road, he asked himself while asking himself, whether the answer was yes or no, others did not know, anyway, he was happy in it." But he has gained, and his harvest is to step into the color that many people can't see. ”
Zhang Jie's world changed from words to colors. So there is this oil painting exhibition, so there is this "wordless" form and posture, to the literary world and readers to bid farewell.
▼ Farewell to Zhang Jie