The Write Advice 217: CAN XUE

 

As soon as I learned to read, I fell in love with it.  When I read primary literature stories, I began an undertaking — playing the parts of my stories in my mind.  Those parts — sometimes they were from my reading materials, sometimes they were just my inventions — but if I loved a certain character in a book very much, I acted that character many times, and was moved deeply by the acting.

      Language is a magical thing.  When a child who is very sensitive to spiritual things enters that world, his or her imagination will proliferate wildly, and performances will become his or her real life.  So although I didn’t begin writing formally until I was thirty, I gave performances all the time.  And only these sorts of performances could satisfy my needs.  All the other things were at most second-best compared with this.

 

 

Interview [Chinese Literature Today, 2010]

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read about the life and work of Chinese novelist (and recent Nobel Prize candidate) CAN XUE:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-67014660

 

 

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 

 

The Write Advice 193: CAN XUE

 

 

 

The Write Advice 117: JENNIFER EGAN

 

 

The Write Advice 041: MAYA ANGELOU

 

The Write Advice 193: CAN XUE

 

The particular characteristics of my stories have now been acknowledged.  Nevertheless, when someone asks me directly, 'What is really going on in your stories?  How do you write them?' I'm profoundly afraid of being misunderstood, so all I can say is, 'I don't know.'  From any earthly perspective, in truth I do not know.  When I write, I intentionally erase any knowledge from my mind.

      I believe in the grandness of the original power.  The only thing I can do is to devoutly bring it into play in a man-made blind atmosphere.  Thus, I can break loose from the fetters of platitudes and conventions and allow the mighty logos to melt into the omnipresent suggestions that inspire and urge me to keep going ahead.  I don't know what I will write tomorrow or
even in the next few minutes.  Nor do I know what is most related to the 'inspiration' that has produced my works in an unending stream for more than two decades. But I know one thing with certainty: no matter what
hardships I face, I must preserve the spiritual quality of my life.  For if I were to lose it, I would lose my entire foundation.

 

Interview [Manoa, Volume 18, Number 1 – 'Beyond Words: Asian Writers on their Work' – Summer 2006]

 

 

 

Use the link below to read about the life and work of Chinese novelist (and recent Nobel Prize candidate) CAN XUE:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-67014660

 

 

 

 

 

You might also enjoy:

 

 

The Write Advice 105: SUSAN SONTAG

 

 

The Write Advice 128: GRACE PALEY

 

 

The Write Advice 147: BERNADINE EVARISTO