FOR NEWSWEEK SELECT’S MAY ISSUE. I HAD TO PURSUE WANG SHUO FOR ABOUT A MONTH. I INTERVIEWED HIM IN CHINESE, BUT I TRANSLATED THE Q&A.
Q&A
Wang Shuo
The notorious punk lit writer Wang Shuo won’t let you call him an author any more than he’ll allow you to label him an addict. In a rare interview, he tells Newsweek Select’s Megan Shank how he feels about everyone else.
It’s been seven years since your last book. It took you a long time to write this one.
Actually, it only took two or three months to write it. I’m a drug abuser. I sleep when I want to sleep. When I had nothing to do, I wrote. I didn’t do it in any one block of time.
Where did inspiration for the title come from? (Ed. note: The title’s English translation is “My Millenium,” but the Chinese translation of the title is actually, “My Cold Millenium”)
The book has a sentence “autumn rain brings the cold of a thousand autumns.” Coldness–people are frigid. This bitter, desperate nation of ours, this cruel and ruthless society, cold indifference, lack of compassion — these are the impressions I’ve received in my life.
Do you seek to inspire or sympathize with your readers?
It’s (writing) purely for my psychological comfort. I don’t know who the readers are, and I’m not interested in them.
Currently, many readers enjoy viewing material, such as yours, that criticizes and ridicules. Is this good for society?
I don’t give a damn. I want to say something, I’ll say it. I don’t care how you feel after you hear it. There are all these people doing ugly business, and they’re afraid of what I have to say? In China, to really achieve happiness, you must forget about this idea of “face.” (Ed. note: “Face” in Chinese society is equivalent to a person’s pride and respect. It is a very important aspect of the culture.) Face will crush and kill you. I discovered living without it gives my life the greatest efficiency at the lowest cost. My life goal is to embarrass those sons of bitches who live comfortably. I want them to know that people will call them out as the bastards they are.
Do you avoid sensitive literary topics?
This is all forced business. In literature, you want to write something, you write it–what could be sensitive about it–you write what you know. Don’t try to force understanding out of something you don’t understand.
Last month, we interviewed the Booker Prize Winner Kiran Desai. She said the Chinese voice hasn’t reached the international stage.
She’s a foreigner, right? We’re not writing for her. What the hell is she doing analyzing us? Readers have no right to make any demands of authors. They can only persuade the coarsest of writers to work for them, for their pleasure. Sorry, but that’s not me. Her (Desai’s) view of Chinese literature has nothing to do with me. I can only say you have no knowledge, you don’t understand, your interests have nothing to do with mine.
How do you view the Nobel Prize for Literature?
I look at the Nobel Prize as 1.2 million U.S. dollars, or as 10 million RMB. I think a lot of poor Chinese need this money. If they gave it (the Nobel) to me, I’d rush for the money. Don’t give me a non-monetary award though. Like someone is promoting me — who else needs to recognize me? The Nobel Prize is like American Most Favored Nation Status – it’s all the same kind of thing. Gao Xingjian won, but it was like no one even heard about it. You tell me what it (the Nobel) is worth. China has some particular idiots who say I’m the 40th most important linguist in the Chinese language. I say, go to hell, who are you to decide? Give me number one. You think I need your bootlicking? These stingy literati.
What about your next book?
I want to write the unofficial history of the People’s Republic of China. I want to take all the people and experiences that I’ve encountered and all the people and experiences that I’ve heard of others encountering and write it all out. Whatever I heard and whoever told me, it was the truth. For anything I didn’t hear, I’ll write a popular ballad. You tell me something, you explain something, I’ll put it all in the book. This is an entirely novel method that transcends the traditional boundaries of literary composition – everyone contributes to writing this history.
In addition, I won’t print my books anymore. It will all be done electronically. Whoever needs a paper copy, I’ll print one for them. No one in the world has yet done this. I’ll be the first to warn you: The information age has arrived. Print media is dying.
Anything else you’d like to share with your readers?
I don’t have anything to say to the readers. I don’t need anything from them.
Q&A
王朔
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