A checkered flag[1]_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

A checkered flag[1]

CD: You used to laugh at literary works selected for textbooks. What would you think if one day your writing appears in textbooks? Another scenario: what if your work is officially condemned as a bad influence?

HH: It's good in either case - the first one means society is more open and things have changed; and the second I get the same treatment as Confucius (who was for a long time condemned in China).

CD: You said literature should not make it a priority to "convey the way", meaning social relevance. Actually your work contains "the way", only it's different from the traditional "way". What position should social messages have in literature?

HH: An important position, but they should be implied, especially if they are good. In Chinese literature there is too much preaching, which turns it into a user's guide. Readers tend to become dumb after being exposed to too much of this stuff.

CD: If you were asked to write a eulogy and you knew the content was true, would you do it?

HH: I'll do it. I often praise things, but it rarely gets into the news.

Literary gifts

Triple Gates (2000)

Han Han's debut novel, published at the tender age of 17, is filled with autobiographical details of high-school tomfoolery and the cut-throat nature of China's get-ahead mentality - that, and loads of similes and metaphors that jab at figures of authority.