Qiao Ye: From the city to the countryside, how does literature write about the current China?

China News Service Wuzhen, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- From the city to the countryside, how does literature write about the current China?

——Interview with Mao Dun Literature Award winner and writer Qiao Ye

China News Service reporter Gao Kai

On the evening of November 11, the 19th Mao Dun Literature Award was presented in Wuzhen, a thousand-year-old town. Among the five award-winning writers, Qiao Ye is the only "post-70s" and the first "post-70s" female writer in China to win the Mao Dun Literature Award.

Published at the end of 2022, Qiao Ye's award-winning work "Baoshui" tells the story of Baoshui Village, a traditional village in the depths of the Taihang Mountains, which is transformed into a new type of village featuring cultural tourism.

Qiao Ye said that "Treasure Water" is the most patient novel she has written, and she spent seven or eight years "running the village" and "soaking the village" before writing it. "Treasure Water" tells the story of the countryside, but compared with the local literature of the past, it shows the collision and integration of all aspects between urban and rural areas in China today.

China News Service's "East and West Ask" interviewed Qiao Ye a few days ago, asking her to tell how she views the writing of literature in China today as a novelist, and how she views the current situation of Chinese literature "going global".

The transcript of the interview is summarized as follows:

China News Service: What was the original intention of the creation of "Treasure Water"?

Qiao Ye: I grew up in a rural area in Henan, and when I was a teenager, I left home to study outside, and I started a process of "gradually leaving". From a certain point of view, the essence of literary creation is to reminisce and constantly look back at the path you have traveled. I started writing novels in my thirties, and it was only in my forties that I realized more and more about the meaning of my hometown. The countryside is a "root" of my spirit, and writing about the countryside is an inevitable "lookback" for me.

There is also an opportunity for "explicit". In 2014, I went to Haotang, a village in southern Henan Province to participate in a literary event, and at that time, I had been away from the village for a long time, and I saw many villagers in the village planting rice and doing farm work to maintain their farming life, and at the same time started to do business, open homestays and restaurants, and receive tourists from all walks of life. I saw the new vitality and interest of the countryside, which was not a "hollowed-out" village, and it was not the same as the countryside in my childhood memories.

The ecology of Haotang Village is very complete, and the villagers have also encountered many changes and problems in the process of urban-rural mobility, such as the sense of boundary and the spirit of contract. What is happening in the countryside is not only the transformation of the mode of production, but also the transformation of culture, ideology and many other aspects. I feel that the development of China's contemporary countryside is very lively and fluid, various cultural tourism projects in the countryside attract urban people, and the development of transportation and various information also allows rural people to have a very good understanding of urban life. At the same time, the two sides collide with a lot of interesting things in this increasingly blurred blend of boundaries.

Haotang Village. Photo by Luo Xinghan

China News Service: In your acceptance speech, you said, "When I was very young, I was very reluctant to let my novels show a distinct sense of local and feminine characteristics", can you talk about the reasons for your change in this regard?

Qiao Ye: When I was young, I was very afraid of being "framed", and I wanted to get rid of the shackles, probably because I was born in the countryside and the local literary tradition in Henan is already very strong, I really wanted to have some completely different creations. The same is true for women, and I was very much in favor of gender-neutral writing in my early years, for fear of being tied down by gender. But in fact, when a person goes all out to overcome something, it just proves that these factors have a powerful impact.

As I grew older and more experienced, I slowly realized my narrowness in this area, if the countryside has limitations and women have limitations, is there no limit to the city and men? The so-called "whether there are limitations" and "whether they are restricted" actually depends on the grasp of the creator himself, whether the writer has a deep enough understanding of things, and whether he observes and understands society in a larger way. So over the past few years, I have been constantly "returning" and "adopting" my true nature.

Joe Ye. Photo courtesy of the interviewee

China News Service: There is a tradition of vernacular writing in Chinese literature, and "Bao Shui" is considered by many critics to be quite an oriental narrative beauty.

Qiao Ye: I personally attach great importance to details, and I believe that not only novels, but also prose are determined by details. There are gods in the details, and if a grand idea lacks details to explain, it is not convincing, and there is no way to "land". Even the bigger the idea, the smaller the incision is needed in the writing.

Only by going to the interior of the countryside and taking a closer look can you discover what a rich and rich novel life contains. The countryside is undergoing great changes, and all the great changes must be in the details. This detail is constructed by countless simple people and small things, like a trickle eventually becoming a river, and every drop of it is "treasure water".

In addition, there are emotions, and the moving part of literature lies in the emotional power of words, and I hope to write about the countryside in many people's hearts and trigger real emotional resonance.

The cover of the novel "Treasure Water". Photo courtesy of the interviewee

China News Service: What elements of contemporary China inspire your creative impulse the most? What kind of targeted material accumulation do you do in your literary creation?

Qiao Ye: Life itself is rich enough, going deep into life is always effective, and the material is endless, especially in China, there is no shortage of good stories. My most convicted creative path is to "go to the scene". "Finding sentences behind closed doors is not poetry, but just recruiting your own poems."

"Treasure Water" is the most patient novel I have written, and it took seven or eight years to "run the village" and "soak in the village" in the early stage. I hope that the "Baoshui Village" in the novel will be quite common among countless villages in the new era, so "running the village" is to look at more rural samples. From my hometown of Henan to Jiangnan, and then to the northwest and southwest, I have visited many villages.

"Pao Village" is mainly rooted in Henan, and I have identified three long-term observation points, and I will go to live when I have time, and maintain close contact with the villagers, even when I can't go to live there. This process is very important, and after getting acquainted, the villagers can speak a lot openly. Whether or not you really go deep into the countryside is too important, and if you don't go deep but think you go deep, this misunderstanding will be terrible.

On the evening of November 2023, 11, Qiao Ye was awarded the 19th Mao Dun Literature Award. Photo courtesy of Zhejiang Satellite TV

China News Service: Many of your works have been translated into multiple languages and promoted to the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Italy, Japan, South Korea and other countries.

Qiao Ye: It is very meaningful for Chinese literature to "go global", because literary works are warm and full of emotion, and can play an important role in enhancing understanding between China and foreign countries.

For a long time, there has been an asymmetry between the export and import of Chinese literature "going out" and foreign literature "entering China". Needless to say, the translation of classics in foreign literature, the latest works of various categories are often translated into Chinese in a timely manner, and will soon appear in bookstores everywhere, which is a good thing in itself, and the Chinese have always been very learning. But comparatively, we have a lot of good writers whose works have not been disseminated in a timely and effective manner. It's a long and important job that requires a lot of patience to move forward. (ENDS)

Interviewee Profile:

Qiao Ye is a professional writer at Beijing Laoshe Academy of Literature and Vice Chairman of the Beijing Writers Association. He has published many novels such as "Treasure Water", "The Slowest is Alive", "Confession", "Hidden Pearls" and essay collections "Waking Up in the Night" and "Wandering". She has won many awards such as Mao Dun Literature Award, Lu Xun Literature Award, People's Literature Award, 2022 China Good Book, Beijing Literature and Art Award, October Literature Award, Spring Breeze Women's Award, Annual Award for Selected Novels, Hundred Flowers Literature Award, etc., and many of his works have been translated into Russia, Spain, Italy and other countries.