Beijing, 3 Mar (ZXS) -- Topic: Kenzaburo Oe's multifaceted life

China Newsweek reporter Qiu Guangyu

According to Japanese media reports, Kenzaburo Oe died on March 3 at the age of 3. He is the second Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature after Yasunari Kawabata, and is also considered to be an extremely humanistic writer. His ideas were influenced by the French philosopher Sartre, with the shadow of existential thought, and at the same time, the works of Chinese writers such as Lu Xun and Yu Dafu also had a crucial impact on his life.

He brings together the nutrients obtained from different cultures in his works, using words to show the mental state of people living in different corners, and also remind people how to deal with the darkness of the human soul and the countless setbacks in life.

Fate with Lu Xun and China

On January 2009, 1, inside the Lu Xun Museum in Fuchengmen, Beijing, people suddenly discovered that the Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe had disappeared. After some searching, it turned out that the seventy-year-old squatted down on the side next to him and burst into tears. Later, when watching Lu Xun's manuscript, he also took a quick look at it and quickly put it down, for fear that he would lose control of his emotions again and affect the people around him. In the heart of Kenzaburo Oe, he has always regarded Lu Xun as a spiritual teacher.

Over the years, Kenzaburo Oe has interacted frequently with China. He began visiting China in 1960 and has visited China six times, according to incomplete statistics. He was received by China's older generation of leaders, and became friends with writers such as Ba Jin and Mo Yan.

Kenzaburo Oe. Photo by Lang Congliu

Kenzaburo Oe's parents had been to China before he was born and lived in Beijing for a long time. Later, his father also told him how the word "fennel" in fennel beans was written. When he was 9 years old, his mother, who loved literature, gave him a collection of Lu Xun's novels published by Iwanami Bunko. When he was a teenager, he was deeply impressed by the novel "Kong Yiji", and he also wanted to grow up to become the "storytelling teenager" in the novel, to observe society and human beings.

At the age of 23, Kenzaburo Oe was inspired by a plot from Lu Xun's short story "White Light" and published his first novel, "Wonderful Work". After the novel was published, he excitedly showed it to his mother, but her mother was unmoved and told him that she had hoped that he would use Lu Xun's "Hometown" as a benchmark for literary creation, but his level was still far behind.

Kenzaburo Oe strictly followed the high requirements given by his mother to fulfill his dream of becoming a professional writer. Soon, he made his mark in the Japanese literary scene. In 1958, Kenzaburo Oe's short story "Feeding" was published in "Literary World" and won the 39th Wasagawa Literature Award, becoming a rising star. In the 10 years since, he has continued to produce high-quality works. In 1967, his masterpiece "Wan Yan's First Year Football Team" caused a sensation in the literary circle. The story establishes a connection between reality and history through mythological expression, and although he does not mention the connection between this work and Lu Xun, it is clear that this technique is inextricably linked with Lu Xun's "New Compilation of Stories".

In 1960, during his first visit to China, Kenzaburo Oe met Guo Moruo, Ba Jin, Lao She, Mao Dun, Zhao Shuli and others, and also tasted Peking duck, gaining the first intuitive understanding of Chinese culture and making these writer friends. When Ba Jin died in 2005, Kenzaburo Oe wrote an article of condolence, saying that Mr. Ba Jin's "Caprice" set an eternal example of how writers and intellectuals should live in the tide of the times. I will look up to this example to look back on myself.

The friendship between Kenzaburo Oe and Mo Yan is even more enjoyable. As early as when Kenzaburo Oe won the Nobel Prize in 1994, he began to recommend Mo Yan's works to the world literary circle, and even made a prophecy early on that Mo Yan would definitely win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2002, Kenzaburo Oe finally came to Mo Yan's hometown of Gaomi, Shandong, to meet Mo Yan's family, eat dumplings together, and have a good conversation. Kenzaburo Oe feels that he and Mo Yan both started from the small village where they were born and brought their feelings and scars after leaving their hometown to the world through literary means, and from this point of view, the two are very similar. Mo Yan felt that Kenzaburo Dae, like Lu Xun, was also seeking "hope in despair". In his later years, Kenzaburo Oe still regarded Lu Xun as a spiritual teacher, and even quoted sentences about Lu Xun casually.

Kenzaburo Oe and Mo Yan. Photo by Ying Ni

Familiar names, difficult works

Xu Jinlong, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Languages of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is one of the main translators of the Chinese edition of Kenzaburo Oe's works and a close friend of Kenzaburo Oe. When the news of Kenzaburo Oe's death came, he was uncomfortable for a long time.

Even if you are not a lover of literature, you will not be unfamiliar with the name of Kenzaburo Oe, and in the series of Nobel Prize writers, although the sales of Kenzaburo Oe's Chinese editions have not been low, they are still limited to a small range, and the popularity is far less than that of his compatriots Haruki Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata and others.

If Kawabata's Japan is "beautiful Japan," Kenzaburo Oe's Japan is "ambiguous Japan." As Kenzaburo Oe himself mentioned in his speech, the ambiguous process has led Japan to play the role of aggressor in Asia. However, modern Japanese culture, which is open to Western Europe in all directions, has not been understood by Western Europe. His works represent this Japanese who has an ambiguous identity in the process of modernization between East and West.

The combination of various factors has made Kenzaburo Oe's works very popular in intellectual circles, but they have never been able to completely enter the public eye. This phenomenon is not only happening in China, but also in Japan and around the world. So far, not all of Oe's works have been published in China; Some of his works have been adapted into film and television dramas around the world, and the response has been relatively lackluster overall. Kenzaburo Oe himself noticed this phenomenon, and once at an event in Beijing, he joked that he was even a little "jealous" of how enthusiastic Murakami was discussed in China.

In recent years, the Chinese translation community has been non-stop translating Kenzaburo Oe's works, but unfortunately, the author himself left before the results were published. Xu Jinlong and the People's Literature Publishing House have been working on the translation of Kenzaburo Oe's anthology, which will produce a total of 40 volumes, of which the first series of 14 volumes will be published soon. Xu Jinlong said: "We must continue to walk along Mr. Dajiang's unfinished road, we will do what he has not yet done, how much can be done, how far can be counted." ”

The multifaceted nature of the writer

Kenzaburo Oe, who came from a wealthy rural family, lived in a beautiful environment and had a large collection of books at home. Just as his mother expected him to be strict, Kenzaburo Oe's demands on his writing were equally harsh. He believes that literature should not stop at describing the current situation, and hopes that his words are not only games in the book, but also point to reality and explore a spiritual path.

Reality also seems to be constantly testing him.

In the 20s of the 60th century, Mitsu Oe, the eldest son of Kenzaburo Oe, was born, but he suffered from a congenital brain disability. In order to treat the child, Kenzaburo Oe spent a lot of effort, but with little success, he almost died for it. In his novels "Personal Experience" and other works, he describes this inner torment, in which there is a dark, terrifying side of human nature. But in the end, the protagonist still chooses to overcome this gloom and suffering, and insists on completing the road of life.

In fact, Kenzaburo Oe's words also influenced his and his family's life choices. Kenzaburo Oe and his wife have always insisted on treating their son, and the three have always lived together. Every night, he helped his son, who had limited mobility, put on a blanket, an event that ritually lasted for years. Later, Hikaru Oe miraculously overcame his congenital disability and grew into a well-known Japanese composer; Inspired by his son, Kenzaburo Oe, traveled around the Hiroshima area to conduct research, and completed the writing of the Hiroshima Notes. This strength from setbacks seems to have been motivating him. After winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kenzaburo Oe continued to create for nearly 30 years, breaking the "death curse" often referred to as the Nobel Prize in Japanese.

In September 2006, during his visit to China, Kenzaburo Oe visited the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invading Forces and held discussions with the survivors of the Nanjing Massacre. His whole life was against militarism.

In September 2006, Kenzaburo Oe visited the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invading Army. Photo by Lang Congliu

Kenzaburo Oe's life is full of contradictions. His perseverance, self-discipline, pursuit of peace, anti-war and good things, which are his bright side; At the same time, he will also be crushed by the pressure, sometimes depressive episodes, falling into inner darkness, and even relying on alcohol to help sleep, these are the dark side of his heart. But more often than not, he was an ordinary person. Those who have approached him say that he is not a serious intellectual as one might think, often with humor and even a bit of funny.

Kenzaburo Oe is not a writer framed by symbols, but a real and complex person. Even if people can't read him now, they will be able to approach him and empathize with him at some point in the future. Perhaps after his death, his work will have a greater and more profound impact on the Chinese world. In 1994, the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded him the following words: "With poetic expression, create a world that combines fiction and reality, and portray the plight of modern people in a way that shocks the reader's heart." (End)