A call for calm amid the acclaim

Chinese author is keeping a level head as he makes a name for himself internationally

Soon after Bi Feiyu's 2008 novel Three Sisters was published, when the Chinese author was hosting a book-reading session in London, a member of the audience stood up during the recitation.

"She stood up when the main female character, Yumi, called her boyfriend 'brother'," Bi says.

"She felt upset and thought my novel touched on an incestuous topic. It was a misunderstanding caused by cultural differences."

Indeed, Yumi was addressing her boyfriend as "brother" because in Chinese society brothers and sisters are terms of endearment and respect. One can even address strangers on the street as older brother or older sister.

"The reader couldn't understand the meaning even through translation because the cultural context is different. In the West, brother and sister can only mean blood relations, and the fact she felt shocked by what I had written gave me an insight into Western culture," Bi says.

Bi then explained the context, and the woman understood.

"I felt it was important for me to explain properly."

Bi, 50, one of China's most celebrated authors, and a native of Jiangsu province, was recalling this story during a chat at this year's London Book Fair.

In China his works have gained much recognition. He has won the Mao Dun Prize and Lu Xun Award, which are highly respected literary awards named after great Chinese writers. His novel, The Moon Opera was long-listed for The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2008 and Three Sisters won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2011.

As one who frequently attends book fairs and authors' symposiums abroad, Bi has met many authors and developed great understanding of cultural and literary differences between China and the Western world.

However, he also says there are shared literary memories between Chinese and Western people and that such memories bond him and other authors well.

"Sometimes I go to some events and meet some foreign authors, and we seem to have nothing to say to each other. And suddenly someone mentions a book, or an author, and then everyone contributes to the conversation, as those topics are so familiar to every one of us."

But for him such experiences also exist outside the literary world.

In the autumn of 2011, Bi was in London for a short stay before traveling to the Edinburgh International Festival, and by chance found out that his hotel was near what was once the home of Charles Dickens, and is now a museum.

Intrigued, he decided to visit it.

"I didn't know how to get there. And my English is very poor, but what I did know is how to say Charles Dickens," Bi recalls.

On the street, Bi repeated "Charles Dickens" every time he met someone, and each person pointed Bi in a certain direction.

"I followed their directions, and soon I arrived at the reception desk of the Dickens Museum. It turned out that each of the directions was correct," Bi says, explaining this incident made him realize the power of shared literary memory by people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Bi began to write in 1987, while teaching at a school in Nanjing, Jiangsu. He started by writing short stories, and worked as a reporter with Nanjing Daily between 1992 and 1998.

Perhaps this experience sharpened Bi's insight into social realities and led him to write his most famous novels.

Three Sisters is a study of how the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) in China affected people's lives, and The Moon Opera examines the struggle of Peking Opera actors whose lives become mixed with the characters they play.

But Bi says Western writers such as Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Victor Hugo have had a defining role in the beliefs and style of his writing and that of his contemporaries.

"I first started reading Western classics in secondary school and read a lot more in university. It was a time when Western literature had just become widely available in China."

In Dickens, Bi sees a writer full of sympathy for the poor, which Bi found highly appealing.

Quoting the Chinese literary critic Li Jingze, who says Dickens is one who writes while carrying God on his back, Bi says Dickens often writes in an omniscient style and is ready to judge what is right and wrong. "This is a task that ought to be done by God, but Dickens did it himself," Bi says.

In Hardy's writing, Bi found descriptions of the countryside and wide stretches of fields and plantations, which are reminiscent of the views of China's countryside in his childhood.

As well, he says he could relate to the human nature of love, jealousy, betrayal and forgiveness, which are universal across cultures.

"I think love and betrayal are two important elements of human nature, like two rooms in one's heart. To accommodate them both, I need to always respect my heart. I allow myself to be a human being."

More importantly, Bi says, Hugo has indelibly influenced the way he sees the world, which is reflected in all of his works.

"Hugo, whose works extensively feature the right of the individual, has shaped my view of putting the human in a high place. So all the powers that constrain humans, including nature, society, and politics, I see as enemies."

With this view in mind, Bi's characters are all rounded individuals with a mind, personality and determination of their own.

Just as Western literature once influenced Chinese writers like Bi, Chinese literature is now making its mark in the West. Two of Bi's novels have been translated into English and two others into French, German and Spanish.

But Bi plays down his international achievements. He is convinced that Chinese authors are receiving international recognition because China's fast-growing economy is attracting global attention and creating curiosity about Chinese culture.

"I don't think the Chinese literature of today is necessarily better than it was 30 years ago, but there is more international interest in it because people want to understand China and its literature because it is a good way to understand its culture. I think Chinese authors should not pretend that it is their works that are gaining popularity."

He does, though, acknowledge the new opportunities for Chinese authors as a result of the increasing curiosity about China.

"A few decades ago it seemed like the international literary scene only had space for a few Chinese authors, but there is easily space for 20, 30 or even 40 today."

Since 2012, when China was featured as the country of market focus at the London Book Fair, a lot of work has been done to promote the works of Chinese authors to the world.

One example is the new bi-annual magazine Chinese Arts & Letters launched at the fair this year by Phoenix Publishing & Media Group, which has translated some of the works by Bi and his contemporaries into English.

This kind of opportunity has opened a new window in the Western world for Chinese literature, but Bi advises younger Chinese authors to be patient.

"My advice for them is to focus on writing good works, and not to become big headed just because one's work receives publicity and recognition from Western media and audiences. The best communication is done in a calm manner."

Wang Shiyu contributed to this story

cecilyliu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/18/2014 page29)