Chen Ruoxi: Why can female characters last so long in overseas Chinese literature?
China News Service, Beijing, September 7 Title: Why can female characters last so long in overseas Chinese literature? ——Interview with Chinese writer Chen Ruoxi
Written by Liu Likun Jin Xu
"I write about the mainland on the mainland, about the local people in Taiwan, and about the Americans and Chinese in the United States. The Footprints of the Chinese are all over the world, and the story is really endless. Chinese writer Chen Ruoxi said in an interview with China News Agency's "East and West Question" recently.
Today's young people may not know who "Chen Ruoxi" is, but in retrograde 30 years, everyone in Taiwan's literary circles is familiar with it.
Chen Ruoxi, real name Chen Xiumei. Born in 1938, he graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of National Taiwan University and received a master's degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University. In 1960, he founded modern literature magazine with Bai Xianyong and Wang Wenxing, and won the Zhongshan Literary and Art Award, the Special Prize for Novels of Lianhe Bao, and the Wu Sanlian Literary and Art Award. In 1989, she founded the Overseas Chinese Women Writers Association. In 1995, he returned to Taiwan and settled down.
Chen Ruoxi is famous for his realistic novels, his writing is delicate and simple, his style is realistic and kind, and his silhouettes of Chinese life in the second half of the twentieth century have a profound impact on today's Hong Kong and Taiwan literature.
Infographic: New Yorkers eat at a Chinese restaurant. Photo by Liao Pan, a reporter from China News Service
"Paper Marriage" collides with culture
"Writing literature for life, works should have something to say, never moan without illness", this is Chen Ruoxi's consistent literary proposition.
The most common of Chen Ruoxi's works is the story of Chinese living overseas. His early work "Paper Marriage" was also adapted into a script and became one of the famous director Ang Lee's "family trilogy" "Wedding Feast". These stories more or less stem from Chen Ruoxi's personal observations and insights.
"I've always written about my observations, adding an ideal ending at best." Chen Ruoxi told reporters that the story of "Paper Marriage" comes from her experience of visiting friends in France. At that time, a friend's family lived with a Beijing girl, in order to get a permanent residence "fake marriage", and finally found herself in love with each other. "Some people said that the heroine of "Paper Marriage" was also too brave, and I admired her at that time."
Traveling in China and overseas for many years, Chen Ruoxi believes that Chinese culture and Western reality do have differences or conflicts, but if you patiently insist, the exchange of Eastern and Western cultures will definitely achieve breakthroughs and collide with sparks, and the success of "Paper Marriage" is a kind of "collision". "I believe that those who have the will can do it."
Chinese stories cannot be written
In 2008, Chen Ruoxi's autobiography "Persistence, No Regrets- Chen Ruoxi's Seventy Self-Descriptions" (hereinafter referred to as "Seventy Self-Descriptions") was published in Taiwan. At the press conference, her classmate at National Taiwan University, the famous writer Bai Xianyong, said: "Chen Ruoxi is the most colorful in our generation. She turned her experience into literature, and her novels, decades later, still have their value. ”
"If I had any contribution, it would probably have been writing a little earlier. Later, mainland Wenyou wrote more elaborately, all above me. When it comes to his masterpieces, Chen Ruoxi is very modest.
In fact, this elderly man has been tossing and turning all his life, and he has never stopped working. Even if it is just a flat narrative, falling on paper is enough to make a legend. Her characters have laughs and tears, and the details are vivid and real, which is also the standard of "good story" that she has always adhered to: whether it is tragedy or comedy, good works make people feel real and expressive.
Chen Ruoxi said that good works must reflect life and reflect real life. "People write about the mainland on the mainland, local people in Taiwan, and Americans and Chinese in the United States. In short, the Footprints of the Chinese are all over the world, and the story is really endless. ”
Infographic: Library. Photo by Wang Jia
Speak up for women
"People in the United States don't want to be Americans anymore, so how can they let their children be born in the United States?" Chen Ruoxi wrote in the "Seventy Self-Descriptions" that her generation Chinese, the national consciousness is particularly strong, lamenting that China has been weak for a hundred years before it has been insulted by foreign countries. "Intellectuals should regard the world as their own responsibility, and they should worry about the worries of the world, and it is a matter of course for them to learn to serve the motherland."
The famous Chinese writer Nie Hualing once used "marginal, marginal, and marginal" to describe the situation of overseas Chinese female writers at that time. They are highly educated, writing the sad situation of "being alone in a foreign land as a stranger", using delicate brushstrokes to tell the troubles and confusion in the cultural exchanges between China and the West, and using a unique female perspective to tell the Chinese women to seek survival, actively independent, and constantly pursue the growth and transformation of self-worth.
"In my time, women were not very high, and it became my duty to write about them." Chen Ruoxi loves to write about women, and her works are always full of ultimate care for women, and her female characters can always grow and awaken after experiencing various choices and experiences. "I've always thought that if you want the world to be one, you must be equal to men and women. I believe that women can be soft and rigid, as long as they work hard, they will always gain, and they can also achieve their goals. ”
After the reform and opening up, Chen Ruoxi also contributed to cultural exchanges at home and abroad. Her home in Berkeley has attracted many Chinese writers to visit, and once had the reputation of "Chen Ruoxi Hotel". Later, in order to facilitate Sino-US literature and cross-strait literary exchanges, Chen Ruoxi was determined to organize overseas Chinese writers, and the first step was to start with Chinese female writers.
In September 1987, Chen Ruoxi and Ms. Yu Lihua jointly initiated the preparation of the Overseas Chinese Women Writers Association. Two years later, the first Overseas Chinese Women Writers Conference was successfully held at Chen Ruoxi's home in California. Pouring out their feelings, exchanging writing experience, and focusing on the development of overseas Chinese literature have become their goals, and they are also their continuous creative motivation.
In recent years, a new generation of overseas Chinese female writers such as Yan Geling, Zhang Ling, and Hongying has emerged. In the context of cultural collision, they will probe into the hearts of female newcomers, and interpret the role's attitude of life in order to achieve the efforts of "taking root" in the country of residence and bravely pursue the value and meaning of their own existence with a more open vision and a more tolerant attitude.
"The East and the West are different, the East 'values harmony' and advocates 'integration' rather than conquest, while the West is more 'clear about right and wrong' and emphasizes 'self-righteousness.'" Chen Ruoxi said that the growth experience of wandering between the East and the West and a foreign country allows Chinese female writers to capture rich emotional details, examine the differences between different cultures, have unique advantages in literary creation, and also have a cross-cultural perspective, which has a great effect on promoting oriental culture and improving the status of women.
Taking "Vision", "Erhu" and "Guizhou Woman" as examples, Chen Ruoxi shows the psychological journey of Chinese Americans in the 1980s to break into foreign countries. In the face of cultural differences between China and the West, they still adhere to the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation of self-reliance and self-reliance. Under the collision of pluralistic values, the Chinese women in the novel untie the shackles of feudal traditional marriage, freely choose marriage, and find their true selves.
Infographic: Foreign students experience Chinese painting. Photo by Li Peishan
Today, the forms of cultural exchange between the East and the West are becoming more and more diverse, but in Chen Ruoxi's view, Chinese culture is broad and profound, and the understanding of the West is still incomplete. Chinese writers still need to continue to work hard, adhere to the characteristics of Chinese creation, and use their works to show the world a more comprehensive and rich Chinese culture.
Overseas Chinese writers are at the forefront of the dialogue between Eastern and Western civilizations, and through their literary works, they let the mainstream society overseas understand the Chinese as a group and also know the homeland of the Chinese. Chen Ruoxi said that literature can promote cultural exchanges to a certain extent, and it has always been the main theme of her writing to let Westerners understand China. A large number of excellent Chinese works have been translated, literary exchange meetings have been held, and Western people's understanding of Eastern culture has been enhanced through works of art such as films. More talk and more writing, multi-pronged approach is a good policy. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Chen Ruoxi, real name Chen Xiumei, was born in 1938. In 1960, while studying in the Department of Foreign Languages of National Taiwan University, he founded the magazine "Modern Literature" with Bai Xianyong and Wang Wenxing, which was famous for its realistic novels. After graduating from university, he went to the United States for further study and obtained a master's degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University. In 1989, she founded the Overseas Chinese Women Writers Association. In 1995, he returned to Taiwan and settled down. Wandering between the East and the West, Chen Ruoxi wrote works such as "Erhu", "Foresight", "Paper Marriage", "Inside and Outside the City", etc., telling the story of overseas Chinese life, and was selected as one of the twelve cross-century writers by the human supplement of Taiwan's "China Times" in 1999.
Source: China News Network