A lovely article in the October 15 issue of the New Yorker, called The Great Awakening is written by a staff writer named Jiayang Fan. It is about the Chinese writer Yan Lianke. It is also about modern China now. The province has a history that goes back to the 11th century B.C. That is a long history, no?
The featured writer has written 6 or 8 or so books that have been translated into English. They are satires. He is quoted as saying that "The reality of China is so outrageous that it renders any realism inert." The article states that his writings are quietly suppressed and made rare in China or are simply totally unavailable. He is said to know no English at all except the cry "Long Live Chairman Mao", which he learned in middle school. The city of Luoyang (population 6.5 million) is close to the village where Yan grew up. His mother is 85 years old and still lives in the village. She knows no language other than Chinese, is illiterate and knows nothing of arithmetic or calculation.
The writer Yan sends her money monthly. He offered to send her a year's worth at once but she was horrified at the prospect of losing her motivation to proudly hobble to the local bank each month to get money sent reliably by a loving son. Display and "face" and getting the best of someone else is said in the article to be a major source of pleasure among the mother and her neighbors.
Yan is reluctant to let others know when he intends to visit his mother because people in the nearby large city consider him to be a local boy who has made good. Once it is know that he is in town, he is immediately invited to this banquet or that party as a guest of honor, even though he is fully aware that nobody around there has actually read his books.
Despite the fact that he gets criticized by critics, even some official censors have praised his work and asked for signed copies. Yan is very aware of the restrictions and barriers to a good life that he has overcome, some by diligence and some by luck.
The article describes Yan's life and a recent visit to his mother and the area. He was accompanied by the Chinese-American writer Jiayang Fan who is conversant with Chinese, local dialects and the ins and outs of current life in modern China.
After resigning from his post in the army, Yan got a position in a university in Hong Kong, a place where information and communication flows much more freely than in central China.
