Chapter 69 appendix

The Opera That Turns Sadness into Gold Powder Bai Xianyong's Novels in Europe Yin Ling French book critic Hugo.On March 24, 1995, Hugo Marsan commented on Bai Xianyong's "Evil" on the Friday reading edition of Le Moude, the largest French newspaper, in almost the entire page. Son", praised this novel as an opera that grinds sadness into gold powder.This book was translated into French by the famous French sinologist Professor Andre Levy, and was published by Flammarion Publishing House earlier this year.Readers responded so enthusiastically that it was reprinted as soon as it was published.In the foreign literature edition of the second largest French newspaper "Liberation" (Liberation) on Thursday, May 18th, Eileen.Helene Hazera also used more than two-thirds of the page to comment on this book with pictures and texts; several other periodicals and magazines also made reports or reviews successively.The German translation was published in May (German translation title Treffpunkt Lotossee, publisher: Bruno Gmunder).Publishers in Spain and Greece have approached and expressed their willingness to translate and publish.

It is rare for a novel in translation to attract such wide attention and sensation.Marsan praised "Nie Zi" as a great novel, and the translator's translation is extremely brilliant, and the two complement each other.The emotion in the hearts of French readers when they read "Nie Zi" may become ambiguous because of Bai Xianyong's description of a humble, obscure, and dirty world, but it reminds me of reading "Les Miserables" when I was a child. , "The Wandering Child" and other books: the same anxiety, the same fun, the same fear.Marsan believes that "Nie Zi" is the same as these masterpieces, it awakens the most primitive depth of our self, because reading here is no longer a pastime, but illuminates the abyss of our hearts with a strong light.

Marsan described "Nie Zi" as shocking. It has the tension and intensity of a legend, but it has no imposed optimistic ending; although it describes the destroyed and ravaged side of human nature, it does not divide the executioner from the victim, the good man from the good. The line between villain, savior and penitent, and without provoking any desire for revenge; this is one of those rare works. The charm of "Nie Zi" is not only in the moving plot: it is fixed, but it is not straightforward and orderly, mixed with many small story details for elaboration and exaggeration, and composed of small sections; Echoes of the travails of adolescents who lose their social place, who are handed over to the fate of an existence that cannot be planned in advance, where the immediacy of feeling and the knack of survival often kill will and real hope; Marsan believes that the success of "Nie Zi" comes more from the author's writing style, which is rich and unsettling, like a rising river; he poetically records the real atmosphere, and uses night like a dream A veil makes it look better.We readers, involuntarily thrown into this shadow play with the cable already cut, are played out to harsh, harrowing effect by a cast of strange, anomalous characters, Bai Xianyong avoids the excesses of popular fiction, But it appropriately responds to the anxiety in the current reality.In this sense, "Nie Zi", which describes Taiwan in the 1970s, is very close to another equally excellent novel, "Dark City" by American writer John Rechy published in 1963. (Cite de la nuit), Bai Xianyong should have read it.Like the darkness of New York's Times Square and Central Park, the darkness of Taipei's New Park shelters ostracized teenagers, victims of dead-end conflicts, but heroes nonetheless, who create different myths; In it, sarcasm, paranoia, and fanaticism condemn the lies of a hypocritical society.Marsan believes that what Bai Xianyong describes is a marginal world, a marginal world within the margin of acceptance: our kingdom has an ambiguous history, we don’t know who founded it, and we don’t know when it started. However, in our extremely secretive world, In the extremely illegal small country, there have been many vicissitudes and pains that are epic, inhumane and outsider in these years. (Page 15 of Bai Xianyong's Works Collection III "Nie Zi").

At the same time, Marsan believes that what is commendable is that Bai Xianyong looked at the problem of male prostitutes with a detached attitude, understanding, tacit understanding and tenderness. The tragic beauty of two bases of pride defying.In tackling such a thorny subject that transcends any spectacles, Bai Xianyong is a daring tightrope walker who, perhaps with pity, but a witness without innate reasoning, slips into the book to buy sex. between the rich hallucinations of the guest and the sentimental dreams of the prey. Speaking of the readers of this book, Marsan said that we are completely submerged in these "bad children", sucked, swallowed, and smashed by a devastating typhoon, we are an adventure and survived the failure Blessed One.Although it makes people feel very uncomfortable (it is really hard for us to feel comfortable with a few taverns with seemingly relaxed names such as Taoyuanchun, Anlexiang, etc.), readers will find comfort in those legends and stories that have been passed down for a long time The human side, and reconciles humanity and the misfortune of death.The villains in the book are fragile children, abandoned on the street, kicked out of the house, repeatedly escaped from home, or not understood, they gather in half-light recesses, wallowing in love for money. Love, surrender to the elders who set the beacon for their short-term fate, and in the end, after all, they still have to warm each other in the rough and violent tenderness of each other's fate.They would all be dumbfounded to hear a tale of the hidden kingdom; depraved and perverse, yet emotional and sacrificial; stories of their predecessors would often serve as a sort of collective identity for them.These lost, uncollared children, they survived by some unthinkable thing that was forced out of their downfall.In the book, Mr. Guo, a pleasure-seeker in the sex market, keeps images of every newcomer when he arrives. His Youth Bird Collection is an eternal photo album, which preserves those who are in danger but still A deified youth.

Marsan praised Bai Xianyong's talent, thinking that when he described festivals, feasts, depression, detention, visiting the exhausted old man Fu in the hospital, and the dragon son who stabbed Ah Feng to death in order to steal his partner's heart, he was like a It is as perfect as grinding many misfortunes and sufferings into gold powder. "Nie Zi" is like a baroque opera, which beautifies the night and makes a dim red moon hang high in the sky like wet coal.The covered side of the city at night is so perfectly described by Bai Xianyong that readers even forget that there is still a place where the sun rises.Marsan especially pointed out the most admirable episodes, such as the scene where Ah Qing went to visit her dying mother, the spark of dreams shone through despair, and the excellent text was unbearable to read: For a moment, I felt that my mother and I were in some After all, they are very similar.My mother had been fleeing, wandering, and searching all her life, and finally she was paralyzed on this bed filled with sweaty quilts, covered in a dirty tent, infected with poison, and waiting to die. (Pages 76-77) And the scene where the brothel bodyguard crow brutally beats the mouse is described with extremely precise pen and ink.The author changed the appearance of tears.Visible writing and rhythm guarantee the beauty of the most violent events; for example, the following paragraph: And I still sat alone and waited silently, until the night deepened and the rain became heavier, until a huge and bloated figure, dripping with water Flashed into the pavilion, towards me, slow, cumbersome, but aggressive pressure over. (Page 261) In addition, the description of the game of Pai Gow in the attic behind the tuberose is almost suffocating, and the prostitution of prostitutes and prostitutes, theft, rape and the sale of the body, etc. The author uses metaphors to get rid of the idiomatic words here, which is refreshing.Every character in the book leads a life of predictable adventure for several months, yet, as mythical heroes in the shadows, they bear the hope of being betrayed by humanity; Innocence and innocence entwine the narrators of these secrets, recounting the thrilling and bizarre experiences of children rejected by love.

Marsan emphasized in the conclusion that Bai Xianyong was a real writer in an era when psychoanalytic works were scarce, and "Nie Zi" was an outstanding novel. Another book reviewer, Arthur Ha, introduced in detail Bai Xianyong's family background and his experience in founding "Modern Literature" in his early years and publishing "Taipei People", which has now become a classic of modern Chinese literature, and regretted that "Taipei People" was not translated into French. Aseha talked about the sensational publication of "Nie Zi" in Taipei and the movie "Nie Zi" based on this book.She believes that in Chinese classical literature until "A Dream of Red Mansions", the theme of homosexuality exists, but in the past 150 years, there has been no Chinese novel with homosexuality as the theme.She mentioned that "Nie Zi" also has a large readership in mainland China, and this book made Ba Jin, who is anti-gay, very disapproving.But in fact, Aseha believes that this is not a work that encourages homosexuality. It describes a circle: it is the circle by the pool in Taipei’s new park. At night, some teenagers who left home gather around the pool, looking for Or wait for a grown man willing to buy them for a night.

Aseha thought that the circle in the book was full of Buddhist meanings. The parents of these prostituted children believed that they were sent to the world to redeem their previous sins; Aseha analyzed that the background of the book is six In the early 1900s, Taipei was a society that still had traces of the Sino-Japanese War, the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and the retreat from the mainland to Taiwan. Things that were originally allowed in ancient Chinese civilization are now a kind of austere Puritanism. The author Bai Xianyong is like an entomologist, carefully observing the mini-society of Taipei New Park: a small theater, with protagonists, supporting roles, secondary players, stories and legends.

The author's method, apart from direct narration, is like what Ah Qing said in the first few lines: Three months and ten days ago, on an unusually sunny afternoon, my father drove me out of the house.There are also indirect narratives, using the epistolary style, without ignoring the martial arts novels that the teenagers in the book are addicted to.Aseha believes that "Nie Zi" belongs to our modern society. People give Omega watches to teenagers while drinking European and American spirits, but in fact, the soul and its ghosts of China are still entrenched. Its myth or history Allusion, its etiquette.Its faith, respect for elders, and the basic need to belong to a family: for being ostracized by a family is the worst misfortune.The first part of the novel depicts an unchanging world, with quarrels, love, hotels for prostitutes, police patrols, etc., and even a noble love that makes everyone yearn for a love that ends in death: Ah Feng and Dragon's love.After stabbing a dragon-patterned heart with his lover, Longzi was sent to the United States by his family; he told Ah Qing about his wanderings in New York and the street children he took in, and then he returned to Taipei, he was himself shadow.Asherha metaphorically said: Bai Xianyong's novels may make readers think for a moment that he likes the cruel prostitute mother, the missing father, the son who is not allowed to attend the father's funeral, the idiot and the disabled child; But it is as precise as an acupuncture needle, piercing deeply into the acupuncture points for treatment.

Aseha made a summary for the second part of the novel and concluded that: when the book is closed, these characters are still in front of our eyes. Like a baton, it lays out the layout for this hidden world; a mouse with a kleptomania, a primitive man who eats snacks, Axiong, etc., the whole humanity sounds softly in your heart.Marsan and Asseha's comments can reflect French readers' views on Taiwanese novels and Chinese writers. Professor Lei Wei'an, the translator of the French version of "Nie Zi", is a famous sinologist and an excellent translator.He was born in Tianjin, China on November 24, 1925, and left Tianjin in 1937 to return to France.In 1945, he began to formally study Chinese at the School of Oriental Languages ​​in Paris. In 1974, he received a doctorate in French national literature.He has served as the head of the French Far East School in Hanoi, Vietnam, the director of the Chinese Department of the University of Bordeaux III in France, and the director of the Chinese Department of the University of Paris VII. He is currently retired.Professor Lei Wei'an specializes in Chinese popular literature and traditional novels, especially historical scripts, "Jin Ping Mei", "Journey to the West", etc., and has a lot of related translations.The "Jin Ping Mei Complete Translation" translated in 1985 was published in Paris and became a sensation; after 1989, French translations such as "Journey to the West" and "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio" were published successively.Professor Lei has visited Taiwan several times and attended the Second International Sinology Conference held at the Nangang Academia Sinica from December 29th to 31st, 1986. Professor Lei's papers published in the conference are "Comparison of Jin Ping Mei and Journey to the West", the author once conducted an exclusive interview with Professor Lei on January 2, 1987, which was published in the third issue of the seventh volume of "Sinology Research Newsletter" (September 1988 Published in June), it has a detailed report and explanation on Professor Lei's personal experience of learning Chinese, teaching situation, and the overview of Sinology research in France.

The French translation of Bai Xianyong's "Nie Zi" has attracted so much attention and response in Europe. The perfection of the novel itself is of course the most important reason, but Professor Lei Wei'an's brilliant translation is also indispensable.In addition, the special theme of the novel can arouse the interest of the French, and the publicity made by Faramarillon Publishing House with its reputation and strong financial resources is the reason for the success of the book. (Only a small oversight, the name of the original publishing house was mistranslated as Yunnong wen hua)