Liang Xiaosheng: I don't believe that "everyone else is hell", which makes me live without cunning

Liang Xiaosheng

I understand that writers write about the "other," not about themselves, and don't need to use literature to show off their talents.

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Do you believe in fate? Is the original family "life"? Do you believe that struggle can change destiny? In the vast world, how can we put ourselves in order to reconcile with fate? What should we do if we are destined to live an ordinary life...

This is the question raised by Liang Xiaosheng in his recently published novel "My Life and Me", using several women in the book. This is also his first new novel after winning the Mao Dun Literature Prize, which is still written about the right way of the common people. In the novel, it is said that people have "three lives": one is given by their parents and given by their original families, which is called "Mandate of Heaven"; the second is determined by their own life experience, called "real life"; the third is given by culture, called "self-cultivation life". Fate cannot be violated, but human struggle still has a powerful force to change destiny.

From the beginning of writing the Zhiqing novel, Liang Xiaosheng was an actionist, a struggleist, and a calm faction. He always writes about the relationship between ordinary people and the times in novels, and he can always carve the greatest figure for the dignity of "people" in the turbulent changes of the times. He said, "I don't believe that there will be a kingdom of gentlemen in the world, which makes me live unsympathetically; I don't believe that 'everyone else is hell,' and this makes me live without cunning." ”

In an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network, Liang Xiaosheng said that writers always write about "others", so they have become the clerks of the times. At the age of seventy, he is preparing to leave the scene, and his pen has recorded an era.

China Youth Daily: You write a growth story of a post-80s woman, why did you choose to use the first person? Will there be a "generation gap" brought about by gender and age?

Liang Xiaosheng: I often write in the first person, like the previous short story "This is a Magical Land", the novella "There is a snowstorm tonight", and so on. I am writing about life, and first-person writing is not a problem for any writer.

"My Life and Me" is neither biography nor reportage, it is a fictional novel, and to fictionalize such a woman is nothing more than "she" or "I". Using "I" may be more heartfelt and more substitutionary in the narrative. So it's all an empirical, or technical, choice.

Of course, there will be some difficulties when writing. If you use "she", the psychological description may be more comfortable, I can describe a fictional character like a narrator; with "I", I have to consider the language of a post-80s woman, if the reader sees awkwardness, it is that I did not write well.

China Youth Daily: Then why choose the age group after the 80s?

Liang Xiaosheng: Before, a young person was a scarce talent in society after graduating from college, but when he graduated from college after the 80s, the situation changed dramatically. I was already an "angry youth" in that era, and there was a kind of resentment towards those contemporaries who came from stronger backgrounds than others and had excellent resources. And now the post-80s not only have to face huge competitive pressure, but also a greater income gap, quality of life gap, face these gaps, but also continue to work hard, I admire these young people.

China Youth Daily: At present, the topic of women is quite concerned, do you think that women's gender makes them more difficult in reality?

Liang Xiaosheng: In ancient and modern China and abroad, I think women may be more difficult. For example, when I was a child, most mothers did not go to work, and they "ran the family" at home, which was not a light burden. At that time, the parents in ordinary families were paid less, and every mother had to learn to be careful and raise the elderly and children. Even in my opinion, women shoulder the role of a pillar of society that does not collapse.

China Youth Daily: From writing "Zhiqing Novel" to the present, what is your consistent attitude towards women in your works?

Liang Xiaosheng: When I was very young, my father was a construction worker, first in the "small third line" in the northeast, and later in the "big third line" in the northwest and southwest. I haven't written too bad images of women, probably somehow related to my experience. In the past, women did not go to work, which led to her family status has been lower than that of men, and there may be a kind of self-dwarfing from the heart, so I am both sympathetic and respectful of Chinese women.

China Youth Daily: You mentioned in "My Life and Me" that "people are the sum of social relations" and people have "three lives", so will we be subject to this "relationship" and "life"? For example, some of the troubles caused by the "relatives in the hometown" mentioned in the book.

Liang Xiaosheng: Parents and original families give the name "Mandate of Heaven", what family was born, what relatives, male or female, how to look... There is no choice but an attitude towards the "sum of social relations" that are not chosen.

Attitudes can be divided into several types: one that doesn't need you to worry about it, you are good to him; one is that you have the ability to help; and the other is that you don't have the ability to help. I am sympathetic to those who have no strength in their hearts, and I cannot let young people face such a heavy pressure; and I also have respect for the heroine in the novel, who helps her family within her ability.

Therefore, the first thing is to judge whether you have the ability, if you have the ability, family affection poverty alleviation is also a responsibility. We regard warming between our hands and feet as part of our lives, and it will be pleasant to do so. Some film and television dramas are purely to intensify the contradiction and emphasize the conflict with the original family, and I am very uncomfortable watching it.

China Youth Daily: Li Jingze said that you are always writing "the right way of the common people", what is the "right way of the civilians"?

Liang Xiaosheng: This can also be called "folk humanities". The two words of humanities are one thing in the temple and different in the folk. First of all, we must admit that there is humanity in the folk, otherwise we are no different from cattle and sheep; but it is different from the humanities of the intellectuals, the temples, and the power field; and most importantly, if the humanities of the people collapse, everything will collapse. In the folk humanities, the word "benevolence" is very important. In the past, ordinary people were illiterate, but if a person was praised for his "benevolence and righteousness", it was the highest evaluation. Relying on it, the people have established a human being.

China Youth Daily: Zhiqing novels originate from your many years of life experience, "My Life and Me" seems to have nothing to do with your personal life, what preparations do you need to make when writing?

Liang Xiaosheng: It's not that there is no relationship, it's that the relationship is too close. My own son is a post-80s, the daughter of two younger brothers and a younger sister is also a post-80s, and their classmates are still post-80s. When I teach at the university, I will look at some students' files, care for some students who may have difficulties in their families, and take this into account when I have daily contact with them and when talking about choosing a career. Therefore, I am not unfamiliar with the post-80s generation.

I didn't go out of my way to experience the novel, and maybe I had the advantage of being deeply involved in society. I am not a bookish writer, not a person who lives only in the circle of writers, nor does I live only in literature. I once wrote "Analysis of All Strata of Chinese Society", and before writing "My Life and Me", I also wrote a short article about the "death of overwork" of young people, so these are all placed in my vision of social scanning.

My concept of the writer: first, human beings have an ancient good habit, that is, to read, and the writer is the one who serves this good habit; second, the writer constantly writes all kinds of "others", to show all kinds of "others", I understand that writers write about "others", not write about themselves, and do not need to use literature to show off their talents; the third point is very important, because you write all kinds of people, you inevitably become the clerk of the times, you are always observing, feeling, and your feelings are invested in emotions. Therefore, my writing has no bottleneck in what to write, only limited by the level of my own writing.

China Youth Daily: What are your next writing plans?

Liang Xiaosheng: In my contemporaries, I think everyone is tired of writing, and I am tired of writing. I've been writing with a pen, and I have a lot of cervical spondylosis, so I want to quit more often. But there's constant intrusion into new subjects in my head — and I'm overcoming that — and then I'm going to turn around and leave. Maybe next year you will still see my news, but that doesn't mean I'm going to write about the last moments of my life, but I'm really preparing to leave step by step and in a planned way. If there is another work, it is a closing work.

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Jiang Xiaobin Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily