Wang Xiaobo

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
In this Chinese name, the family name is 王 (Wang).
王小波
Wang Xiaobo
Renmin University (BS)
University of Pittsburgh
(MA)
Spouse
​
(m. 1980)​

Wang Xiaobo (

Chinese novelist and essayist from Beijing
.

Wang was born into a family of Intellectuals in Beijing. He was transferred to a collective farm in Yunnan during the Cultural Revolution, which later became the writing background for his most famous novel Golden Age. This novel won him the 1991 United Daily News novella award. In just a few years he wrote an avalanche of novels, stories, essays and newspaper articles, especially popular among young people. He died of a heart attack in 1997.

Wang is one of the most influential and popular novelists in China.[1] The values upheld in his works, such as wisdom, fun, and freedom, are a unique example in the literature field of China.[2] He has become a cultural icon of the country. "Wang Xiaobo hot" continues to this day.[3]

Life

On May 13, 1952, Wang Xiaobo was born in a family of intellectuals in Beijing. From 1968 to 1970, he was transferred to a collective farm in

Xicheng District
Semiconductor Factory. This period of working life is the writing background for novels of his such as Love in Revolutionary Period.

In 1977, he met and fell in love with

Xu Zhuoyun. While studying in the United States, Wang traveled throughout the country and used his 1986 summer vacation to visit Western Europe
.

Wang returned to China in 1988, and served as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology of

Cannes International Film Festival.[5]

Wang passed away in Beijing on April 11, 1997, after a heart attack.[4]: 76 

Writing style

Wang Xiaobo was best known for

humanistic
spirit and independent intellectual character. In a letter to his teacher Xu Zhuoyun, Wang also stated that he tried not to be nudity but fascinating to write sexual content into his novels.

Wang's unique

black humor
runs throughout his works, which also show his attitude towards life. His novels were drawn from his life experiences, including his time as an "educated youth" in Yunnan and as an engineer engaged in technical work. The age and background of the works are also related to Wang’s life. Growth periods overlap. In these works, he portrays a reality: "I see a world without intelligence, but wisdom exists in chaos; I see a world without sex, but sex exists in chaos; I see a boring world, but interesting exists in the chaos".

Judging from his essays, the philosopher Bertrand Russell had a deep influence on Wang's thoughts. He admired and advocated science and rationality, and believed that people's lives should pursue the unknown. He opposed the imprisonment of thoughts and advocated that people's thinking should be diverse, to make life interesting, and that they should love wisdom. His work was particularly influential with college students in the 1990s, but his influence is still felt.

Wang Xiaobo phenomenon

Wang Xiaobo won the United Daily News novella award two times before his death and was widely praised in overseas Chinese literature circles. However, when he hoped to enter the mainland literary system, he was met with unprecedented coldness, and he found it difficult to publish his works. Wang confessed in the postscript of his collection of novels Golden Age: "This book was published thanks to an indomitable will and a positive attitude towards life. It must be said that these excellent qualities are not owned by the author. In view of the fact that publishing this book is better than writing this. This book is much more difficult, so if there is something about this book, it belongs to all the friends who helped publish it."

Wang's sudden death in 1997 marked the beginning of the Wang Xiaobo phenomenon. His works have been disseminated and accepted unprecedentedly, and have prompted serious reactions in both folk and intellectual circles. In the 21st century, he is among the most-read of 1990s Chinese novelists. [citation needed] Various forms of Wang Xiaobo commemorative meetings and work seminars continue.

The explosion of the Wang Xiaobo phenomenon lies in his essays. It is worth mentioning that his essays have received attention before him. Critics have compared Wang Xiaobo's sudden rise in popularity to that of Chen Yinke, signifying the second boom of the liberal wave in China.

Though Wang Xiabo continues to be very popular [citation needed], mainstream critical reaction to his novels has been limited[citation needed] and the focus of interest is his essays.

Before his death, Wang once said, "One day we will all die, and there will be people walking on the path of pursuing wisdom. I can't see what happens after death. But when I was alive, I thought about it, and I thought about it in my heart. I'm very happy."[citation needed]

The famous contemporary Chinese writer Wang Meng commented: “Wang Xiaobo is a very thoughtful person. I am interested in his philosophical prose and essays. But for his novels, to be honest, I didn’t finish reading them because his style is not great to my appetite."[citation needed]

Huang Ping, a professor of the Chinese Department of East China Normal University and a young critic, said: "(Wang Xiaobo) joking about aesthetics, a masterpiece of a generation".[citation needed] Chinese American musician Gao Xiaosong regards him as a "god-like existence";[citation needed] writer Feng Tang has said called Wang "a miracle" and "a very good start."[citation needed]

Wang has been identified as an inspiration for and early representative of minjian, grassroot intellectuals, a population of alternative intellectuals who were able to grow around the 2000s in China.[6]

List of works

Wang Xiaobo wrote several novels, short story collections and essays, some of which have been translated into English, French and Italian.

Novels

Plays

  • 《东宫·西宫》

Short story collections and Essays

  • 《沉默的大多数》 The Silent Majority [zh]
  • 《思维的乐趣》 The Pleasure of Thought [zh]
  • 《我的精神家园》 My Spiritual Homeland
  • 《理想国与哲人王》 Utopia and the Philosopher King
  • 《爱你就像爱生命》 Loving You Is Like Loving Life
  • 《一只特立独行的猪》 A Maverick Pig
  • 《他们的世界：中国男同性恋群落透视》Their World: A Look at the Chinese Male Homosexuality Community (Coauthored with Li Yinhe)

Filmography

Attitude

In response to the idea that Wang’s work lacked positive themes and inspiring messages, Wang wrote: “Though the author is a modest person, he cannot accept those opinions. Being positive is one of our norms, but it should not be always mentioned. I think my duty is writing interesting novels as possible as I can, and should not add some deliberate sermon. My writing attitude is to write some works for those people who read novels, not to teach undereducated youth...”[7]

Further reading

  • Fang Wei (January 2018). Biography of Wang Xiaobo 王小波传 (in Chinese (China)).
    ISBN 978-7-80768-220-2
    .

External links

References

  1. ^ "Sex Confessions and Protest From a Disillusioned Communist". The New York Times. 2022-07-26.
  2. ^ "他仍是特立独行的存在（图）". Tianjin Daily (in Chinese (China)). 2023-08-08.
  3. ^ "王小波精装珍藏集出版 "王小波现象" 余热未了". Lianhe Zaobao (in Chinese). 2016-08-15.
  4. ^ a b c Veg, Sebastian (2007). "Utopian Fiction and Critical Examination: The Cultural Revolution in Wang Xiaobo's "The Golden Age"". China Perspectives. 72 (4): 75–87. Retrieved 22 April 2023 – via JSTOR.
  5. ISBN 978-7-5426-3794-9
    .
  6. ^ Veg, Sebastian (2019-07-31). "What Role Will Intellectuals Play in China's Future?". ChinaFile. Retrieved 2022-11-13.
  7. ISBN 978-7-5426-3794-9
    .
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