Feb 18, 2009 00:02
- 14:17 I'm looking for someone who can do an oral translation of Chinese and Japanese. Any recommendations? #
- 16:12 Do the math, CA Republicans! tinyurl.com/d4yw8z #
- 19:35 I'm going to live tweet the Yu Hua talk at the Bookworm! He is the author of To Live and Brothers: is.gd/jNYB #
- 19:37 From RH author bio: He finished high school during the Cultural Revolution, worked as a dentist for five years before beginning to write. #
- 19:39 Eric Abrahamsen of Paper Republic (paper-republic.org) will be translating. #
- 19:46 Jenny Niven introducing Yu Hua as one of the most influential Chinese authors of the last 50 years. #yuhua #bookworm #
- 19:49 Brothers was originally written in two halves, reflects the changes and problems of modern Chinese society. #yuhua #bookworm #
- 19:51 Yu now reading an excerpt from Brothers in Chinese, which will be read in English by Abrahamsen next. #
- 20:01 "The second half of the book is very evocative of the more extreme changes of China's commercial culture." #yuhua #bookworm #
- 20:04 We're listening to another excerpt from Brothers. In the meantime, from the NYT Magazine: is.gd/jO6W #
- 20:07 Now in Q&A. Abrahamsen asks about the contrast between the violence of the Cultural Revolution and the commercialism of modern China. #yuhua #
- 20:08 Yu: Has always been thinking about how to represent the Cultural Revolution, contrast between these two eras is stronger in reality. #yuhua #
- 20:10 Fenqing complained about characters in Brothers wearing used Japanese suits in the 1980s, an actual practice in China. #yuhua #
- 20:11 They wanted French suits. He jokes that they would complain about the suits depending on what country was not in favor at the time. #yuhua #
- 20:13 When the book came out, it was very controversial. Went to Fudan university for what was supposed to be a sympathetic seminar. #yuhua #
- 20:14 But all the sympathetic professors were out, so he just got cursed out again. Now readers more welcoming to message in Brothers. #yuhua #
- 20:15 A lot of the controversy was about the literary style and its black humor, which was considered a low literary device. #yuhua #
- 20:16 Also readers complained about airing China's dirty laundry for everyone to read. #yuhua #
- 20:16 When he was in France promoting the book, the organizers thought that the Chinese govt organized the outcry against the book. #yuhua #
- 20:17 But govt has more important things to do, points out that opposition was grassroots. #yuhua #
- 20:18 One difficulty he faced in writing the book was finding the narrator for a book of this size. Book not narrated by any one character. #yuhua #
- 20:19 The voice of the book is narrated as a collective voice of the village. #yuhua #
- 20:21 The shifting narrative style of the book was also met with controversy. #yuhua #
- 20:22 Q: Was he more concerned with passing judgment or writing a story? Re: Brothers #yuhua #
- 20:22 A: He wasn't really interested in criticizing, but he is writing as a patient, not as a doctor. #yuhua. #
- 20:24 Q from audience: Are sales driven by controversy or by actual desire to read the book? #yuhua #
- 20:27 A: Sales driven by author recognition, but belief that fiction does not have power to change society, but does change people's attitudes. #
- 20:29 Q: Explanation of different attitudes re: Olympics and CCTV fire, and patients in China being emotionally unstable. #yuhua #
- 20:33 Yu Hua hoped that China would not win the most medals during Olympics, because during strong times, things change dramatically. #yuhua #
- 20:33 Example: 6/4 Tiananmen and after that people's attitudes radically changed. #yuhua #
- 20:34 Believes that with this economic recession, we'll see another radical change in Chinese society's attitude. #yuhua #
- 20:36 Re: CCTV, happiest reaction to CCTV fire came from other media outlets. Schadenfreude because of CCTV's monopoly over news. #yuhua #
- 20:36 This audience has a large amount of foreigners who speak excellent, excellent Chinese. #yuhua #
- 20:37 Q: Which part of Brothers was more difficiult to write? #yuhua #
- 20:40 A: He thought that the part about the Cultural Revolution would be easier to write because it is part of China's collective history. #yuhua #
- 20:41 A: But when he got to the part about modern Chinese society, he started writing very quickly. #yuhua #
- 20:41 A: He used beauty pageants during the 90s as a symbol of how China was changing. If you had one foreigner in your beauty pageant... #
- 20:42 ...then it could be called an international beauty pageant. #yuhua #
- 20:42 Now answering question about To Live and Zhang Yimou, which sorry, I missed the original question. #
- 20:44 Censorship of books & films are very different. Films are readily chopped up regardless of how much money it may or may not make. #yuhua #
- 20:44 Books, however, are censored based on economic motives and conducted by each head editor. #yuhua #
- 20:46 Q: Asking about proud vulgarity, is it a reflection of Chinese society or his own personal writing style? #yuhua #
- 20:47 A: The question about vulgarity is not just a Chinese question, but one that every country finds itself asking. #yuhua #
- 20:51 Q: Common criticism of his books because he's catering to Western audiences who want to hear negative things about China. #yuhua #
- 20:52 Also, question about whether or not he's sold out in these last few years. #yuhua #
- 20:56 We've lived through the Cultural Revolution, in 2006 there is still this lack of interest in our fellow man, I'd be ashamed if I... #yuhua #
- 20:57 was still writing the experimental style that I wrote during the 1980s. #yuhua #
- 20:58 Ok, that's it, the talk just ended. It was a GREAT talk! He'll be touring in the US next month to promote Brothers. #yuhua #
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