Interview with writer Liu Xinglong: Eager to show the image of Wuhan's "City of Heroes"

China News Service Wuhan April 9 Title: Interview with writer Liu Xinglong: Eager to show the image of Wuhan's "city of heroes"

Author Wu Yili

The 200,000-word long documentary essay "If you come to Japan for a long time" New book sharing meeting was held in Wuhan on the 8th. The author of the book, Liu Xinglong, chairman of the Hubei Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature and writer, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency that night, "This work is not written as a writer, but as an 'ordinary citizen' of Wuhan", and said that "I am eager to show the image of Wuhan's 'Heroic City' to readers."

"If you come to Japan for a long time" describes the story of the author's relatives, friends, colleagues, neighbors, medical staff, as well as Wuhan men, women and children, and the "decisive battle" with the epidemic, and records the 76 days of Wuhan's "lockdown" from the perspective of witnesses.

In the early days of the outbreak, Liu Xinglong, who was in Wuhan, received invitations from a number of publishing houses and magazines on related topics. At that time, the sudden epidemic made Liu Xinglong, like all ordinary Wuhan citizens, only think about "how to survive and how to keep his relatives from being infected" and did not have the heart to write. But at that time, Wuhan staged too many stories that were either touching or sad every day.

"Writing" and "not writing" have become the dilemma of this experienced writer.

"Two things that happened later shook me." Liu Xinglong recalled. During the "lockdown", the 88-year-old mother was seriously ill and could not go to the hospital, and he and his mother were in two places, and they could only express their pain with the help of fragments of words. In addition, when materials were in short supply, friends in the literary circles around the world sent charcoal in the snow and sent masks, protective clothing, and pairs of goggles to Wuhan, which moved him with righteous deeds.

"Write!" Liu Xinglong made up his mind to take the name of "ordinary citizens" in Wuhan.

From the completion of the first draft to the publication of the new book, the birth of "If you come to Japan for a long time" lasted about a year. Liu Xinglong admitted that he had published nearly a hundred single books, and had never been as anxious and expectant as this work, eager to show the image of Wuhan's "City of Heroes" to readers. When it comes to emotional writing, he often lifts his pen and sheds tears. "The process of writing is like experiencing a closed period of mixed feelings, and the more I write, the more I feel that I will not write a second part of such a work in this life." He said.

In "If you come to Japan for a long time", there are both anti-epidemic stories of medical staff and volunteer groups, as well as trivial household affairs: a medical worker on the frontline of the fight against the epidemic did not go home to meet his daughter for 55 days, he and his friends used all their strength to raise epidemic prevention materials for the hospital, and the 8-year-old granddaughter brought different impetus to the family's fight against the epidemic in a childish way like "Little Superman"...

The work reveals the true feelings of Wuhan's "ordinary citizens" between the lines, writing out the days and nights that seem to be painful to the outside, and the painful minutes and seconds in the experience of Wuhan people.

"For our three towns in Wuhan, where we have two rivers and four banks, it used to be life and existence, and now it is the intersection of life and death." Liu Xinglong wrote in "If you come to Japan for a long time". He said that this work just wants to express what the people of Wuhan saw, heard, thought and felt during the "lockdown" period in the name of "ordinary citizens", so as to thank everyone inside and outside the city for their sincere companionship. (End)

Source: China News Network