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hardback £15.50
University Presses Of California, Columbia And Pri
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More reviews by Wes Stevens
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I Love Dollars and Other Stories of China by Zhu Wen
The titular novella in ZHU WEN's I LOVE DOLLARS AND OTHER STORIES OF CHINA asserts Zhu's reputation for rebelliousness. He's been compared to both Kafka and Borges. Henry Miller could perhaps be added to that list. Zhu's brash, over-the-top challenges to sexual and social taboos reflect Miller's penniless exuberances, and sixty years later, in a China struggling with ideological paradox, censorship remains a force.
In imagining a conversation with his son, the narrator hopes that as a father he won't "…end up with some idiot who only knew how to offer a pious faceful of empty respect". The narrating "I" then proceeds to entertain his own father on a hapless quest to find affordable prostitutes, for which there are none. The irreverence toward sexuality and Confucianism can read like swagger, but given existing taboos against the discussion or teaching of sex in schools, the comedy brings a smile on multiple levels.
Julia Lovell further illuminates the social milieu in her lengthy translator's preface. Reading it ahead of time -- even if one is not so usually inclined -- sharpens the effect of the prose. She delineates a remarkable backstory, highlighting the radical twists and turns in modern Chinese literature.
A major theme of the book, including the second novella "A Hospital Night", is that money alone affords a modicum of compassion. The idea that people will pull together in difficult times a myth, not only in hospitals, but in the factories, diners and crowded cityscapes. The social contract has faltered, and in Zhu's colloquial voice, it unravels with disarming matter-of-factness.
Employing loose punctuation and description uninterrupted by speech, this dense formatting matches the claustrophobic unpredictability of the stories, but gambles for reader engagement. Zhu, who has successfully transitioned to film directing, appears confident in taking chances.
The story "Pounds, Ounces, Meat" comes last and uses the interesting technique of referencing a prior novella title, thereby heightening the sense -- whether true or not -- of thinly disguised fiction. Ma Jian does this as well to similar effect.
Zhu Wen's work ranges from slapstick and light-handed to nihilistic and violent, the latter typified by the "Boat Crossing", which demonstrates a seriousness bordering on paranoia. The narrator's dark humor fades on a proverbial journey up the river: "Quick, he called to me again. I shook my head, wiping a frothy dribble of blood from the side of my mouth. Wait, I said, where am I following you to? I have to know that first." In the context of Zhu's 1990s China, boxed between communism and the emergence of hedonistic individualism, no obvious answer exists.
Wes Stevens
13/03/2007
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Wes Stevens is a Hong Kong-based writer and educator. His first book is A-R-C-H-I-P-E-L-A-G-O, a collection of Asian short stories. |
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