Yan Lianke

Life

Yan Lianke was born in Song County, Henan Province, China. Though he lives in Beijing, he has said that his heart remains in Henan, and he has based numerous works on life in Henan, including Dream of Ding Village. He entered the army in 1978. He graduated from Henan University in 1985 with a degree in politics and education. In 1991, he graduated from the People's Liberation Army Art Institute with a degree in Literature.

Literary career

(1) Fictions

Yan published his first short story in 1979. So far he has published 14 novels and over 40 short stories. His novels include The Passing of Time [Riguang liunian], Hard as Water [Jianying rushui], Lenin’s Kisses [Shouhuo], Dream of Ding Village [Dingzhuang meng], Books of Odes [Feng ya song], The Four Books [Sishu], The Dimming Sun [Rixi]；over 50 novellas including “The Dreams of the People of Yao Valley” [Yaogouren de meng], “Summer Sunset” [Xia riluo], “Years, Months, Days” [Nian yue ri], “Awaking in Spring Peach Garden” [Taoyuan chun xing]. His early writings are mostly Realist pieces heavily influenced by 19th century Realism. But towards the end of the 1990s his style displayed a major change. His subsequent works are more infused with wild imagination and creative allegories. His sometimes myth-like dramatic plots are often allegorical depictions of the human conditions. His representative works, including the novellas “Years Months Days” [Nian yue ri] and “Marrow” [Balou tiange], and the novel The Passing of Time [Riguang liunian] have received critical acclaim from critics. His “Peace Regiment Series”, “Yao Valley Series” and “Balou Mountain Series” are particularly influential. A good number of his fictions are set in the natural environment of Balou Mountain. It has become the most important setting of Yan’s literary world, and the most noted fictional landscape created in Chinese literature. This is particularly true with the publication of the “Balou Mountain Series” comprising The Passing of Time [Riguang liunian], Hard as Water [Jianying rushui] and Lenin’s Kisses [Shouhuo] around 2000. The depictions of Chinese history and reality in these novels are characterised by a sharp edge which is simultaneously profound, absurd and carnivalesque. Yan’s protagonists are strange in behavior, and psychologically twisted and complex. This represents another major change in Yan’s style from his earlier works. They often provoke surprise in his readers and critics, and debates and controversies at the time of their publication. Yan became “sensitive” in China at the time of publication of Lenin’s Kisses. He openly challenged what he described as Realism of the spirit(s) [Shengshi zhuyi], and advocated for a return to “a realism that transcends reality”[1]. This has revived the prolonged debate in the Chinese literary circles on Realism. In France, the French translation of Lenin’s Kisses has also received critical acclaim. Its translations in other languages have been equally popular. A writer of Le Monde rates Yan’s writings highly, and rates him one among the great writers in the world. The same writer suggests that Yan distinguishes himself with his sophisticated insights on the society expressed in his fictions, and that his writings often shows a devastating humour.[2] The Guardian describes him as a master of satire with a rich imagination[3]. Vanity Fair (Italy) notes Yan’s mastery in writing between magic and reality.[4]。The Frankfurt Christian Science Monitor suggests that Yan possesses both the talent for writing great works and the courage to confront difficult issues[5]. The Japanese magazine The World considers Yan and his writings important setters of standard for Chinese literature and freedom of expression[6]. The bans imposed on Serve the People and Dream of Ding Village have turned him into the most noted, therefore the most controversial Chinese writer.”[7]. The Four Books was published in 2011 in Taiwan. In this novel Yan has shown attainment of his imagination to a new level. It was also around the same time when he advocated a Realism of the spirit(s) [Shengshi zhuyi] [8], purporting that Chinese literature should represent “the invisible reality”, “the reality that is covered up by reality”, and “the non-existing reality”. This advocacy in the construction of an “absolute reality” is put into practice in his own novels The Explosion Chronicles and The Dimming Sun. The characters in these works are “Chinese through-and-through”. Their plots are depictions of a reality that is “Chinese through-and-through”, but filled with imaginative “possibilities” and “mytho-realist” “impossibilities”, which express his vision of his China being a “dark”, “desperate” place where the idea of “future” only brings “anxieties”[9]. These works are his practice of his avowed aspiration in Discovering Fiction [Faxian xiaoshuo] to create a Chinese literature endowed with the modern spirit of world literature, and differentiate themselves from Western Surrealism, Absurdism and Magical Realism, and that is modern and belongs to the East. In this sense, Yan Lianke can be appreciated as a writer of world literature. His novels Serve the People, Dream of Ding Village, Lenin’s Kisses, The Four Books and The Explosion Chronicles have been translated into a number of languages and distributed widely in the Americas, Europe and the Australia. Almost all these translations have attracted attention and critical acclaim for the novels in their respective literary markets.

In terms of the contents, Yan’s fictions have all shown tremendous anxieties in his vision of “the Chinese people”, Chinese reality and history. In terms of generic treatment, every one of his novels has displayed a new structure and linguistic style. To many it is his diverse styles, his readiness to break norms, and his capacity to create new literary norms that have differentiate him from other Chinese writers. It is in this connection that he describes himself as “a traitor of literary writing”[10]. His is a pioneer of 20th Century Chinese literature, and is the only Chinese writer who has gained international acclaim without any support, either strategic or financial, of the Chinese Government.

（2）Literary Criticism

Yan is the only contemporary Chinese creative writer who has systematically published critical appreciations of 19th and 20th century literatures. These include numerous speeches and dialogues he has given and participated in around the globe, and various pieces of theoretical writings. They are collected in My Reality, My -ism [Wode xianshi, wode zhuyi], The Red Chopsticks of the Witch [Wupo de hong kuaizi], Tearing Apart and Piling Up [Chaijie yu dieping], Selected Overseas Speeches of Yan Lianke [Yan Lianke haiwai yanjiang ji], and Silence and Rest [Chenmo yu chuaixi]. In these works he expresses in detail his understanding of Chinese literature, world literature, and the changes literature has gone through in the past decades. His 2011 publication Discovering Fiction [Faxian xiaoshuo] is an exegesis of his re-discovery of 19th and 20th century Chinese literature and world literature. The book is characterised by his personal style of argument and rationality. It is also in this book that he advocates the differentiation of “full causal relations”, “zero causal relations”, “half causal relations” and “inner causal relations” in the plots of fiction. He considers this a “new discovery” of fiction writing, and designates it a “Mytho-realism”[11] of Chinese literature. This is the first attempt from a Chinese writer active in the international literary circles to contribute to the theoretical discussions of Realism in the global context. This view of his has been discussed in the academe internationally.

In 2016 Yan Lianke was appointed Visiting Professor of Chinese Culture by the Hong Kong University of Science Technology to teach writing courses. The course material is collected in Twelve Lectures on 19th Century Writings and Twelve Lectures on 20th Century Writings. They contain his analyses of and arguments about the most influential writers of world literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. Of the two Twelve Lectures on 20th Century Writings is more influential, since it represents an attempt of a Chinese writer to review and research on in a comprehensive manner the dissemination and impacts of 20th century world literature on China. It can be used as a research reference or a writing guide.

In the area of critical and theoretical writings, Yan Lianke is the most prolific and vocal among contemporary Chinese writers. Not all writers and critics agree with his views, but he is widely recognised as being unique among contemporary Chinese writer in terms of his persistence in reflecting on methodologies of creative writing.

（3）Essay

Yan Lianke’s body of creative works include not only fiction, but also a considerable number of lyrical essays which read in stark contrast to his fiction. While his fiction is characterised by an acute sense of contemporaneity, rich imagination and a compelling creative impulse, his essays are characterised by a conventional aesthetic of the Chinese essay which comes across as gentle, lyrical, and showing much finesse. His long essay My Father’s Generation and Me [Wo yu fubei], House No.711 [711 hao yuan] and his other collections of essays mostly depict the daily life of the Chinese people, and nature in the four seasons, in a lyricism that comes across familiar to Chinese readers. The styles of his fiction and that of his essays are so different that it is difficult to reconcile them as the same body of works by a single writer. His non-fiction works have created an image of the author in both positive and negative light, so that the author becomes a figure who is rich and multi-faceted in his personality.

[1] “Prologue”, Lenin’s Kisses.

[2] http://baike.baidu.com/view/294700.htm

[3] http://www.anyv.net/index.php/article-271557

[4] http://chuansong.me/n/2721032

[5] http://www.anyv.net/index.php/article-271557

[6] http://culture.ifeng.com/a/20160319/47974091_0.shtml

[7] Comment by Chinese literary scholar Chen Sihe.

[8] Yan Lianke, Discovering Fiction. (Nankai University Press, 2011).

[9] Yan Lianke, “The Individual who is Assigned by Heaven and Destiny to Feel Darkness”, acceptance speech of the Kafka Literary Prize.

[10] Yan Lianke, Prologue of The Four Books.

[11] Yan Lianke, Chapter 6, Discovery Fiction [Faxian xiaoshuo].

Serve the People!

This phrase was coined by Mao Zedong in 1944 when he wrote an article, "To Serve The People", to commemorate the death of a red army soldier Zhang Side (张思德). In that article Mao said:" To die for the benefit of the people, is more important than Tai mountain; working for the fascists and dying for those who oppress and exploit the people, that death would be lighter than a feather. Comrade Zhang Side died for the benefit of the people, so his death is heavier than Tai mountain."
During the Cultural Revolution, this article was required reading for millions of Chinese; it was also one of the Three Old Articles(老三篇). "To serve the people" became one of the most popular slogans of all times, even being used today. However, there was evidence suggested by author Jung Chang's book Mao: The Unknown Story, indicating that Comrade Zhang Si-De was in fact killed while processing raw opium when the kiln collapsed on him.

Yan Lianke used Mao's phrase for the name of his novel "Serve The People!", which contains vivid and colorful descriptions of sex scenes, resulting in extensive controversy when it was featured in 2005 in a magazine "Flower City". The Chinese government ordered the publisher to stop the release of 30,000 copies of the magazine, which in turn created huge demand for the novel.

The storyline is similar to D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover: the younger wife (32 yrs) of an old and impotent army general (52 yrs), begins to seduce a soldier (28 yrs), assigned to do the domestic chores for the general. During a three-day run of sex, the soldier runs out of energy. They discovered that when he smashes a bust items with Mao Zedong's image, he can get aroused again. Afterward they smash or deface all of the Mao imagery in their residence to prove their love for each other. The story's background, the Cultural Revolution, means the main characters are fully aware of the consequences of smashing Mao's statues: death by firing squad.

The novel was banned by the Chinese government at least partially because of its depiction of items related to Mao Zedong and political issues. It has been translated into French, Danish, German, Dutch, Italian, Czech and English.

Dream of Ding Village

Another award-winning novel by Yan Lianke, Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦), is about a heavy subject: AIDS sufferers with almost no outside help. To get first hand knowledge about the subject, Yan Lianke visited AIDS sufferers, eventually seven times, and even lived with villagers for periods of time. Dream of Ding Village has been compared with Albert Camus' The Plague (1947). Dream of Ding Village was published in Hong Kong in 2006, where it was again banned by the Chinese government. The reasons put forward were its use of "dark descriptions, to exaggerate the harm and fear of AIDS".

Major Works

Yan started publishing in 1979. So far the body of works he has produced includes 15 novels, more than 50 novellas, more than 40 short stories, 3 extended essays, 5 collection of essays, 6 collections of literary criticisms, and about a dozen TV and film scripts, amount to over 10 million Chinese characters. However, because of both the controversial nature of and the Chinese government’s ban on his works, a considerable part of this body of works has not been published in China. These include the novels Serve the People [Wei renmin fuwu], Dream of Ding Village [Dingzhuang meng], The Four Books, [Sishu], The Dimming Sun [Rixi], and a range of his essays and speeches. Many of his works have been translated and circulated in more than 30 languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and Mongolian.

Major Works published in Chinese:

Novels

Collections of Novellas and Short Stories

Collections of Essays

Awards and honors