Writer Gu Xiang: Small, quiet and magnificent to life|New cultural scene
In 2014, Gu Xiang moved from downtown Shanghai to Zhaoqiao Village, which is close to the mouth of the Yangtze River and faces Chongming Island. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Gu Xiang once said that she was "as gossip as Maugham", and this kind of gossip not only made her relish in the affairs of her friends, but also made her pay attention to those brief moments with strangers.
Once she was on a train, she saw a person next to her who was always shaking his legs, his left leg shaking for 10 seconds, his right leg shaking for 10 seconds, sometimes left and right together, in short, shaking non-stop. After a while, he shook his legs and ordered a boxed lunch, ate it while putting out Tik Tok, picked his teeth after eating, and spit out in the corridor. Just when she was disgusted, she shook her legs and started to make a call, what she didn't expect was that the voice of shaking her legs turned out to be very good, and her speech was also very gentle, and she touched out a small bell as she spoke, as if she wanted to give a gift to the other end of the phone. And when they bumped into each other in the seats, he was also very polite...... "In short, it's hard to say, I guess no one reminds him that he has all kinds of annoying Xi, but his nature is not to annoy people." She said.
Gu Xiang likes to observe all kinds of complex people. Just like Bai Juyi wrote "Bai's Six Posts", when he encountered something to remember, he wrote it and threw it into a specific clay pot, accumulating thousands of clay pots. Perhaps the complex image of shaking legs has already been remembered by her, thrown into a clay pot of memory, and will quietly emerge in one of her later works. There are many familiar friends in her new collection of novels, "Honest and Good People", and she blends them together and adds her own catalyst, and new literary images appear on the page.
For example, in the article "Respect for the Elderly Card", Gu Xiang has the experience of living in Zhaoqiao Village, a suburb of Shanghai. The protagonist Gu Cunxing is her neighbor in Zhaoqiao Village, and she wrote about him and his wife Shen Haiying in her previous essay collection "Zhaoqiao Village". They are all old, and they grow a lot of vegetables and flowers at home, "if there is anything similar, it is that they are all honest people, and their minds are not active", and they have a mild temperament, but they stubbornly insist on their own inactivity "according to certain criteria for judging (evaluating people and things)".
Gu Cunxing took care of the best vegetable plots and vegetable gardens in the village with his hard work, but in the eyes of many people, this is useless, he will not make money, he will only dig river mud in his own small world. "There was a man in our village who went out and got a certain social status, and then he was shot and killed, and the villagers talked about him with regret: 'The old man is (capable), but it is a pity that he made a mistake. That's how they judge people. Gu Xiang said.
"Honest and Good People" are all honest people like Gu Cunxing, some people who seem to have been left behind by the times. One of the novels, "Spherical Seagull", tells the story of two international students in Japan, the boy was sent to the "hospital" of electric shock therapy by his parents because of Internet addiction, and the girl was discouraged because she was not used to the Xi of stinky feet in the academic world. They met and played games together, and the plot of the game described in the novel was thrilling, like the scene in the "Dunkirk" movie.
For so many years, Gu Xiang's hobby that he has never let go of may be games. In 2022, she was locked down in Zhaoqiao Village, and she spent a long time playing "Elden Ring". If you want to talk about the commonality between literature and games, "it's that your time is worth it, and that life is meaningful." She said.
She has summed up with other media outlets that what Street Fighter and literature have in common is "great talent and technology." The layman can't see the way, thinking that the gorgeous move is powerful, but in fact, this is not only not powerful, but it is easy to die, this is a beginner's unrestrained, she thinks the important thing is that the trick is accurate, "very simple and very difficult, very beautiful".
The protagonists in "Spherical Seagull" later separated, and there was no scene of crying and grabbing the ground, it was the difference between ordinary people, but their hearts did become different. "The world may be slowly tilting, and if the place where I stood will be dry and barren and life will shrink, I will live like moss with the water stored in my heart, and turn a little stone under my feet into soil. It is written in the novel.
Gu Xiang hid his sorrows, both in fiction and in reality. She realized at the age of three that people were going to die, and this sadness accompanied her as she grew up, but she said, "My heart is full of sorrow, but I smile every day." When someone says that she is not very responsible, she will also be anxious: "I am a particularly responsible person, I don't mess around, I don't mix circles, I don't play haha, I don't perfunctory others or myself, I'm too responsible for everything and life, okay." In this way, she is also an "honest person".
She found the motto she had posted on Weibo before: "People must be hardworking, generous, loyal, and open-minded." "It's what she wrote on paper when she was six years old.
The prototype of the novel "Respect for the Elderly Card", Gu Cunxing and Shen Haiying. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
The harsher the environment, the harder it is to be a good person
Southern Weekly: You like to walk outdoors very much, and the winter smog should be very bothersome, right?
Gu Xiang: Yes, I care about the weather forecast and air quality, and I use this to arrange those non-essential activities. When I lived in Zhaoqiao Village, I didn't want to order takeout because there were no shops around, and I thought it might not be cost-effective for a rider to run a few kilometers to deliver a trip to me.
I like to walk, I have good foot strength, and I'm happy to walk outside when the air is good. A lot of people don't feel bad air, for example, my neighbor asked me why I didn't open the window for ventilation when the air pollution index was 200 - she looked at my window carefully, and said that if I went out, she could open the window for me to ventilate - she was a nice person and very enthusiastic, but I didn't want to open the window, and I was resistant to this kind of behavior of opening the window and drying the quilt on this day. When I was feeling uncomfortable with the smog, she opened the window to ventilate, dry the clothes, and wanted to help me open the window, just like the people and other things in the world.
Southern Weekly: Your new book is called "Honest and Good People", and when I read it, I wondered if the so-called honest people could also lead to a kind of banal evil? Just like "Sinking", Manling does seem to be an honest person, but it is a little dull, and not even entirely positive.
Gu Xiang: Although most of the characters in my book are gentle and harmless, so-called "honest and good people", I really don't think that there are "honest" or "good people" when I came up with this title. What kind of behavior people do and what kind of results they lead to are influenced and limited by their cognition, and sometimes they want to do good things but end up doing bad things. So I don't think that "honest and good people" are very reliable and warm, or that there is more than this side or this explanation. In the peaceful daily life, most people should be good people, and most neighbors are generally good if they just go out and say hello, but we read history books, there have been so many neighborly cannibalisms, and in some special situations, neighbors have become demons. The harsher the environment, the harder it is to be a good person. At the same time, "honest and good people" also have a very high standard - on the basis of knowledge, common sense, and insight, a kind of unmoved, persistent, not so brainy, see the wind and steer, smart and upright, honest, and not greedy.
Southern Weekly: Do you prefer "I choose kindness" to being simple and kind by nature?
Gu Xiang: I'm not sure how much of the "natural simplicity and kindness" is really innate, of course, I know that there are a very small number of congenital "evil genes", born cold-blooded or brutal, and everyone's compassion is somewhat different, but I think a lot of personality from an early age may be caused by the acquired environment, for example, this person's gentle and generous heart may be a better environment when he was a child, with more love and materials. Of course, the innate simplicity and kindness is very good, but on the other hand, I think that kind of simple judgment of simplicity and kindness is not very reliable.
Southern Weekly: The last novel in your book, The Spherical Seagull, was written in 2022, and it was written when you were not at home.
Gu Xiang: Yes, it may seem like a romantic or even romantic novel, in which the people fall in love and roam regardless of it. I think of love, freedom, nature that is more permanent than human society, to spend my days without leaving home. The boy played a game that speaks of so many stupid things that have happened over and over again in human history. In the novel, I also wrote about an earthquake, although this earthquake has nothing to do with the plot in the novel, but it secretly marks a time, it is the earthquake that occurred in Osaka in June 2018, and the scenes in the novel are real. Although I didn't write about those locations specifically, I set them very realistically for each character and scene, for example, I also knew where the people in "Peace Park" lived, where they worked, what they did, and which hospital they went to.
At that time, we traveled less and a lot of people stayed at home and it might feel a little trapped. Even so, I think, I have seen those mountains and seas, even if the future is still trapped, or life is more difficult and dry, I can rely on the mountains and seas in my heart—by knowing that the mountains and seas are always there, to live like moss, and to turn stones into soil, and you know that moss stores a little bit of water, and can turn the stone under its feet into soil very little and slowly. In the novel, girls may have to return to real life after graduation, and life in the future is likely to be more difficult than in the past, but we have to endure and never forget those beautiful things and the feeling of freedom. In fact, "Respect for the Elderly Card" is also roaming to the fullest in a limited time limit. A person is subject to a lot of limitations, but he still has to roam desperately, to live in a small, quiet and magnificent way.
Most of Gu Xiang's characters are "honest and good people" with a gentle and harmless temperament. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
I can still go on the road, even if I'm fifty-two
Southern Weekly: Why do you like to walk outdoors, but you don't like to travel much?
Gu Xiang: I love to travel, but my two cats are nineteen years old, one of them only needs to take medicine in the morning and evening, feeding the cat medicine is one thing that others can't do for me, since it wants to take medicine I have never left Shanghai, can only take a day trip, it has been four or five years. Recently I finally trained a friend who could help me feed my cat medicine, because I was going to participate in the promotion of the new book, but I still didn't want to leave it for fun, because it was very old and I wanted to spend as much time with it as possible.
I recently read a book called "Women on the Edge", and there are three women in the book, and the third is about Maria Merion, the one who painted "The Metamorphosis of Surinamese Insects". I love her work very much, it's a combination of beauty and precision, but I don't know much about her. After reading this book, I realized that she was fifty-two years old when she left for Suriname. At the age of fifty-two, she did not have the formal connections of the government or religious institutions like some other naturalists who went to distant shores, without patronage, and the conditions must have been quite difficult, but she accomplished such a feat, not only painting, but also observing, in short, a very laborious work, and she did it, which is remarkable. I was very encouraged to see that when my kitten died, I would still be able to go on the road, even at the age of fifty-two, and hopefully stay healthy.
Southern Weekly: What kind of scenery or place attracts you? Do you prefer a place that is a little more "chaotic"?
Gu Xiang: I like the kind of places where the city is close to the mountains or the sea, such as Japan, and I also like Southeast Asia, because there are many novels, Maugham, Orwell, and many anthropological and naturalist books, as well as Hong Kong movies, which make me full of affection for Southeast Asia. In Hong Kong movies, the prodigal sons who run away will go to places like the Philippines, where the lush southern flora is so beautiful and charming that even the uninhabited woods and rivers seem to be noisy. Actually, I love all natural places, and I also love Russian forests, fields and rivers.
Zhaoqiao Village painted by Gu Xiang. (Respondents)
Southern Weekly: You used to live in Zhaoqiao Village and witnessed the urbanization of Shanghai's suburbs, which few people have paid attention to, do you prefer the city or the countryside?
Gu Xiang: I like both the city and the countryside, you are right, I don't like the suburbs, I feel that the suburbs are some kind of barrenness, there is nothing, although a large area of residential areas and buildings in our community are quite new. Rural life is richer than in the suburbs, with various natural objects such as forests, rivers, and farmland, as well as human activities, and the villagers' tool sheds are full of dazzling. But after moving into the building, their tools were useless, there was nowhere to put them, there was nothing to do, there was nowhere to go, and they were bored. You can only look inward.
Southern Weekly: Did you put the plot of the Internet Rehabilitation Center in your novel, was it inspired by social news?
Gu Xiang: No, I'm a person who spends a lot of time in first-person shooters, and the games I write about in "Spherical Seagull" are all games I play. Sometimes I'd go into a voice chat room with someone I'm playing with, and one day I'm playing, and one guy says, "You know what? "I said what's going on, he said that the Internet Rehabilitation Center, the fourth floor, after jumping, he didn't dare to care about him, and sent him to Japan. That guy was in Japan, and he spent a lot of time in games, and I didn't know much about him, so I knew that.
When I was studying in Russia, there were people in the dormitory who played games all day without Xi, and I got a little idea of how they were. When I'm depressed, I also devote a lot of time to the game, as if it will help and get a little better. Then I also went to learn about some of the information about the Internet Rehabilitation Center. I think the things in the Internet Rehabilitation Center are mainly parent-child things, and the not-so-good parent-child relationship is one thing I care about.
Although it is not particularly positively written, in the collection of novels, at least the three articles "Spherical Seagull", "Peace Park" and "Respect for the Elderly Card" have a parent-child relationship, and Gu Cunxing also delivered food to his son in his forties...... Because the parent-child relationship is difficult not to pay attention to, we can resign but it is difficult to completely cut off the relationship with our parents, and in most cases, of course, it will not be severed, but it makes you uncomfortable, and at the same time it makes you reluctant, it will always be there.
Gu Xiang, born in February 1980, graduated from Shanghai Theater Academy and Moscow State University, and is the author of essay collections "Good Kitten", "Zhaoqiao Village", "In Russia", short story collections "For the Joy of Unhappy", novels "West Sky" and "Safe Exit". (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Handle heavy emotions with weight
Southern Weekly: Short videos are probably more of a problem than games, at least when it comes to concentration. Are you worried that your concentration is slowly draining?
Gu Xiang: I'm a little worried, I'm watching a movie now, if I don't particularly know that this movie is good, this movie can't catch me at the beginning, I may watch it for two minutes and then think "watch it next time", so I will turn it off first. I don't watch short videos.
Southern Weekly: You also have an internet addiction, often scrolling through Taobao until midnight, if others say that this is poisoned by consumerism, do you think it is appropriate?
Gu Xiang: Yes, but maybe it's not consumerism, because I used to be very fond of Google, and what I like may be browsing, endless lists, I like encyclopedias, all-encompassing feelings, and nouns. I used to read a novel that started with a wharf with many ships parked and all kinds of goods coming from all over the world, and I loved it when I saw and wrote about those goods, and I could imagine that they came from all over the place, and then they gathered in this wharf, and they were all piled up in front of my eyes, exuding all kinds of smells, and I was happy...... I want to be this dock, no, I want me to be a hundred boats that can go to three or five hundred places.
Southern Weekly: There are a few first-person protagonists in the novels, the gender characteristics are not very obvious, both men and women seem to be fine, you don't deliberately pay attention to women's issues?
Gu Xiang: I don't seem to have a particular desire to write about gender. As a woman, there will definitely be feelings about women, and in "Spherical Seagull" I complained about some men, but I also complained about women. Men and women are all human beings in the final analysis. I do care more about the things that people have to face, such as birth, old age, sickness and death, how to live, what is the meaning, and so on.
Southern Weekly: Many years ago, you argued with another writer about historical fiction, and the other party said that the details may not be so important, and you would think that historical fiction needs to be supported by all kinds of real details, so there is a huge amount of research work behind it. Are you a faithful "believer" of Flaubert?
Gu Xiang: Yes, I need to establish a very real environment to write novels, even if I don't have to write them all, I also need to know in my heart that this is what I do when I write contemporary novels, I don't like to make things up, I hope that the trees and flowers in the background are all right, open in the right season, grow in the right place, and the birds on it are also right, it's not that this season won't come, all the details are so right, but the workload is too big, I don't want to do it. Of course, it doesn't have to be like this, it is said that many things in Gogol's "Dead Souls" are not right, and the rank and position of the magistrate or something do not affect it at all, and I can't see it. It's just that everyone's personality preferences are different, so I don't like to make it up, and if I can't eat it, I'm suspicious and don't want to write it down.
Southern Weekly: Your own assessment of "Honest and Good People" is "mournful and bright", but the most common comments seem to be relaxed, light, humorous, and funny, did you expect such an evaluation? Why is there such a contrast?
Gu Xiang: I didn't think it would be funny when I wrote it, but it's also very likely, some people deliberately tell a joke, and it doesn't turn out to be funny. It's the same with lightness, and when I was a kid I wrote a novel called "Joy for the Unhappy," and I appreciated lightness, even sadness. You look at Gu Long's "Happy Heroes", they are actually very poor and miserable, they are still happy heroes, and they don't necessarily have no sad things, there are many, just don't say much.
When I was younger, I talked to another female writer, and she said to me, "I like a person who has five points and can show ten points to make him believe that I love him very much." I said, "Gee, I like ten, I can only show about two points." "Dealing with heavy emotions with a heavy weight can be a bit of my personality. But someone can feel the ten, and they don't need to cry or cry or tear to tell the story, they can also feel my ten. In "Spherical Seagull", I say "I want to die" every day, but I am considered to be the happiest person, which is also my own experience, which is good, I really don't like the feeling of heaviness, sadness, and laughter.
Southern Weekly reporter Wang Huazhen
Editor-in-charge: Li Muyan