Lesley McDowell - interviews Yan Lianke: ‘It’s hard to get my books published in China’
Yan Lianke published
his first story in 1979 at the age of 21, and has gone on to produce a
formidable body of work. Some of Yan’s novels have been banned in his native
China for their satirical take on contemporary life, including his latest
work, The Day the Sun Died, which had to be published first in
Taiwan. The novel, about 14-year-old Li Niannian, who tries to save his fellow
townsfolk from themselves during one dreadful night of “dream walking”, has
been read in the west as a critique of Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream” of national
greatness. Yan has won the Man Asian literary prize and the Franz Kafka prize,
has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker international prize, and has been
widely tipped for the Nobel. Born in Henan province, he lives in Beijing, where
many of his novels are set.
What was the idea
behind the novel?
I had experienced some instances of sleepwalking myself, and I kept seeing reports on my phone of other people sleepwalking. The idea for the novel came from this. I wanted to write about people’s inner worlds, and how they might manifest themselves if they behaved according to their innermost, most secret, desires.
I had experienced some instances of sleepwalking myself, and I kept seeing reports on my phone of other people sleepwalking. The idea for the novel came from this. I wanted to write about people’s inner worlds, and how they might manifest themselves if they behaved according to their innermost, most secret, desires.
Why did you choose
a 14-year-old narrator?
A story like this has to have a certain element of randomness and unpredictability, and if a very switched-on adult was to narrate it, it would be much less believable. But by having an adolescent tell the story, one who isn’t very bright, it becomes much easier for people to believe.
A story like this has to have a certain element of randomness and unpredictability, and if a very switched-on adult was to narrate it, it would be much less believable. But by having an adolescent tell the story, one who isn’t very bright, it becomes much easier for people to believe.
If this novel is a
critique of Chinese society, as many believe it to be, was it easier for you to
write that kind of critique from the perspective of a more innocent, even
rather foolish or simple, narrator?
Yes, by choosing a very innocent, very pure voice, I did find it a good way to discuss things in China that are the most difficult, the most complex things to talk about, the deepest reaches of Chinese people’s hearts. And it was by looking at society through the eyes of such a person that I could describe people behaving in the most basic ways, often in very dark ways. But I could also emphasise the occasional blast of the very opposite of all of that, of great goodness... read more:
Yes, by choosing a very innocent, very pure voice, I did find it a good way to discuss things in China that are the most difficult, the most complex things to talk about, the deepest reaches of Chinese people’s hearts. And it was by looking at society through the eyes of such a person that I could describe people behaving in the most basic ways, often in very dark ways. But I could also emphasise the occasional blast of the very opposite of all of that, of great goodness... read more:
