Princeton University, a world-renowned university. Probably the most common one you hear about is Havard, and Princeton is above him, having won many Nobel Prizes and ranking first among many universities in the United States.
But at the beginning of this year, the youngest son of a famous Chinese writer was hit by a moving train in this university and died.
His mother is the famous Chinese writer Li Yiyun, and he has an older brother, but his brother committed suicide at the age of 16, and now he himself has such an accident.
You can imagine how sad this is for her mother Li Yiyun, who originally had two lovely and excellent sons, but left her one by one in the blink of an eye.
As a standard post-70s generation, since she stepped into the literary world, various awards can be said to be soft, and the first half of her life can be said to be legendary or elusive.
At the age of 30, she could have studied for another year and could have obtained a doctorate in medicine that most people would never get in their lifetime, but she resolutely gave up and began to write.
As soon as she began writing, she received a novel-like opening, and her first collection of short stories won the world's highest-money short story award.
Seven years later, he won the famous "MacArthur Genius Award" in the United States, of course, this MacArthur and the General MacArthur we often hear about cannot be said to be unrelated, but can only be said to have nothing to do with it. This award is one of the highest cross-cutting awards in the United States.
It can be seen from this that Li Yiyun's talent, she is like a talented woman with a system, and her achievements are enough for ordinary people to look up to for a lifetime.
Why do you say that, she is so good, she was a top student in the biology department of Peking University during college, and the goal of most middle and high school students.
After graduating in 96, she chose to go to the United States for further study, and after studying abroad, she spent 9 years to obtain a double master's degree, which is a master's degree in immunology and art creation.
It was in that year that she released her first collection of short stories, "A Thousand Years of Prayer", which was later adapted into a film of the same name.
Her worst life is already the dream of countless people, which is really jealous, she has insisted on writing in English for so many years, and refuses to translate her works into Chinese.
Perhaps it is precisely because of this determination that she has written many good works, and in addition to short stories, her novels have been shortlisted for the international IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, which is the first time that a Chinese writer has been nominated for this award.
Later, she wrote another short story and won the "O. Henry Award", which rewards the best short story writer, and she is also the first Chinese in history to win this award.
But such an excellent and talented woman, her life is a mess, because of long-term writing, she gradually has psychological problems, she began to have suicidal tendencies, and when she went to the hospital for an examination, she was finally diagnosed with depression.
Even so, she did not choose to be treated in the hospital, but listened to her inner voice and frequently participated in various literary activities, because she thought in her heart that it was better to go out and see more than in the hospital.
But it was not long before she became suicidal again at a literary event, and this time she had to be hospitalized for treatment.
The causes of depression have not been studied until now, but over the years, it has been found that genetic factors and psychosocial factors may play a role in the development of depression.
Li Yiyun's childhood was not happy, her mother was a teacher, her father was a nuclear physicist, and it could be said that she was a well-off family at that time, but her teacher mother was moody, and she was a respected teacher outside, and it was like a different face when she returned home.
And when it comes to puberty, every child may have the idea of writing a diary and take action, and Li Yiyun is no exception, and like all parents, her mother often peeks at her diary.
In order to avoid this from happening, she began to try to keep a diary in English, because her mother did not know English, which was one of her happiest memories from her childhood.
Perhaps with the blessing of this experience in childhood, Li Yiyun, who now writes in English, and resolutely refuses to let people translate into Chinese before the novel "Should I Go" appear.
Maybe it's a silent cry for childhood experiences, maybe it's a self-protection mechanism, or maybe it's to completely "leave home" and "leave mother"
But just as she was writing the "turning point" of the novel "I Should Go," her eldest son committed suicide, and she and her husband were busy moving to look at the house when she heard the news.
And now her youngest son has died again, making the old mother, who is now over half a hundred years old, bear such great grief, which is also in response to the sentence "the world is impermanent"
Her family experience is like Yu Hua's "Alive", in the end, only the old cow called "Fugui" accompanies Fugui, calmly narrating the helplessness of fate and the unpredictability of life.
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The United States "MacArthur Genius Award" was released, Li Yiyun won the 500,000 grand prize, September 30, 2010 09:43 Beijing News
"Should I Go" Source: China Writers Network | Yiyun 01/08/2024 09:31