介绍:
American essayist James Baldwin once said: "People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them."
From the pioneer of modern Chinese literature Lu Xun to the noted Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, the fates of ordinary people under certain historical backgrounds have been inexhaustible sources of ideas to many wordsmiths.
Chinese novelist Lu Nei is one of them. For him, the time period between the beginning of the Cultural Revolution to the inception of Chinese economic reform is an ultimate inspiration.
"In fact, I spent my boyhood in the 1980s. Although I didn't experience those episodes of 1960s, there are lots of tales past down from my parents. 1966 and 1992 are equally important to China. During this period, what happened to the average citizens of a small town? Within this particular historical and political context, what was life like for ordinary people? I wanted to pen down the legends of that time. "
In his 250-thousand word novel "Along the Flower Street", or "Hua Jie Wang Shi" in Chinese, the author unfurls the ebb and flow of a fictional town from the mid-60s to the early 90s. Instead of illustrating major historical events in details, Lu mutilates them into scenes of daily life. Through the book, readers could experience the market gyration brought by the emergence of self-employed individuals, people's curiosity and excitement towards the first television in the town, and the collective revel in disco dance during the 1980s.
Just like Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "Along the Flower Street" is a novel about a family's story. Refined but cowardly, the father Gu Dahong is a good-looking widower who always draws unwanted attention from women; strong-willed and ambitious, the elder sister Gu Xiaoyan becomes the first college student of the town but finds her relationships and career path less rewarding; and the son Gu Xiaoshan, the protagonist narrator of the book, is a victim of Torticollis, or wryneck, and suffers discrimination from the society.
The author explains why he chose a character with wryneck as the narrator of the whole story.
"I think it is an interesting perspective. Many writers have already written on the 1980s, so if I depict something about the 80s, the validity between my text and their works are not comparable. That is why I decided to choose a unique perspective, which could keep an aesthetic distance from the history instead of restoring it. In my opinion, if you see the world with a tilted head, it will become distorted and imbalanced. "
With his head tilted, the handicapped Gu Xiaoshan acts as a spectator of the tempestuous time. He witnesses the birth and death, love and betrayal of the populace along the flower street with a cool eye. Meanwhile, the character is also a negligible participant whose fate is against the dramatic backdrop of a changing China.
Written in a light and cynical style, the novel has an open ending. Although the story portrays the absurdity and frustration of mundane routines, the writer still attempts to convey a sense of humor and warmth.
"I remember that a director once asked me to summarize the storyline of my book in one sentence. I thought for a while and said: men of low estate always yearn for a better life. "
In 2013, "Along the Flower Street" won Best Novel for New Writer Award of the magazine People's Literature. Its unique narration and profound research of the vulgar life during the past 40 years have helped the fictional piece receive a wide acclaim. Now the book is going to be adapted into a movie.
Talking about the screenplay, Lu Nei says.
"The screenplay is about a group of dance lovers in a fictional town during the 1980s. But now, I want to set the story in Shanghai. If the film is all about dance, Shanghai might be a more attractive location. "
For Studio Plus, this is Liu Xiangwei.
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