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The Chinese do not need novels anymore
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Jun 20, 2007 - 12:12:07 PM

By Feng Q.Y, Translated by Peter Yang

The renowned novelist Yang Hengjun recently said that "I have discovered the reason why a Chinese novelist could no longer fabricate an attractive story." In his recent wide-spread web article "The Chinese do not need novels anymore", the spy novelist claimed that all Chinese novelists are running out of constructive ideas, which are the roots in novel writing.

 Yang Hengjun's spy novels "The Fatal Series" are one of the most famous Chinese novels on the internet. In his novel "Fatal Weapon", he delves into the miserable life of the Chinese lower class. The combination of reality and intrigue undoubtedly made his thriller a best- selling novel.

 Recently, he was appalled by the child slavery in a brick factory in the Shanxi province, China. He read about 8-13 year olds, skin and bone, forced to work around the clock. There was one slave who died, and was unceremoniously buried on site. It was a gut-wrenching story. It was then when Yang Hengjun came to the conclusion, that "He would never have imagined that horrible scene in his novel, because this is not seen now in the modern 21 st century, only in the most extreme of horror stories." He added, "Chinese novelists will never imagine such absurd, such horrible, such cruel a plot in their novel."

 Interestingly, Yang Hengjun also points out why the then so famous Chinese novelists like Laoshe (who committed suicide in the Cultural Revolution) and Bajing, Maodun, who achieved a lot before 1949, did not write a good novel after 1949. This was the time when the Chinese Communist party came into power. He concludes that before 1949, the authors were accomplished at describing all the misery Chinese people received, but after 1949 when Chinese communists incurred terrible hardship on them, they just lost all creative thought, because the misery they received was far beyond what was once only in their imagination. This is ironic, as how can you write a novel about suffering and horror, when the life you lead now is at the pit of human suffering?

 Yang Hengjun concludes by quoting his 80 year old father's words: "You don't need to be a novelist to imagine miserable and horrible stories, you just need to open your eyes and jot down all the human suffering in  China around you, and if you do, your works will be better than a novelist's imagined novels."