Lu Nei: Aiming for greatness
- By Zhang Lulu
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 24, 2018
"Cibei" (Mercy) is published in 2016. [Photo courtesy of People's Literature Publishing House]
China.org.cn: How do you look at the relationship between your fictional writings and the real world?
Lu: It's impossible for a writer to catch up with [what's happening in the real world], as the world is changing too fast and China even faster. For example, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Wenchuan earthquake, but there is no notable novel about the quake. The quake is too huge a thing that is impossible to write about from the periphery – you have to go to the core of the events to produce great literature.
But for writers who are in their 50s, for instance Mo Yan and Yu Hua, they wrote about things from their time. It is difficult to write from the periphery of the [fast-changing] times and values.
China.org.cn: So is it a good time for great works in China now?
Lu: First of all, there are nothing of interest or intensity today. The classic works published in the 1980s and 1990s are tremendously powerful, but that power is lost nowadays. For writers who are born in the 1970s or after, everything is about entertainment and few have real substance.
However, it is [still a good time for great works]. The world is waiting for Chinese writers to produce a great novel. China is a very special country, with its special experiences and values. So if we failed to deliver on that, we novelists are actually the ones to blame.
China.org.cn: Do you personally expect to contribute one of those great works? What would be your timetable for that?
Lu: Of course. The pursuit of great literature is always there, it is there until the day I die. But I won't be fixated on that, or become self-satisfied with what I already have.
I haven't set a personal timetable, but I hope to write a great novel before I turn 50. The novel I am working on now could be published by 2020 if all goes well. I hope it'll be a great novel. And I hope from then on, every book of mine are headed for greatness.
China.org.cn: Did you have lesser expectations for your previous novels, such as "Young Babylon" and "Mercy"?
Lu: Those two are not bad, but when it comes to a work being recognized as a classic, Chinese writers often come across two problems. First, even if Chinese writer do not reach out to European and American readers, they can be masters in the Chinese literary field as China is such a big country. But when Chinese literature stands on the same stage with writers from all over the world, it suddenly becomes a minor literature. If your writing is too old fashioned, it won't be read in China, let alone the world.
There's a peculiar thing about Chinese literature, that too much of it is about farmers. It has always centered on people's hunger – it is an important subject in a certain period of time, but not any more now.
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