The Wonder of Art

Story told by Liu Zhenyun Text by Wen Hongwei

Once I asked the director Liu Yulin,who directed the filmSomeone to Talk To,what a good film was in her eyes.She replied simply,“A good film should be the one that doesn’t seem to be directed.”

Coincidentally,when Liu Yulin was seeking a cinematographer for the film,she asked Wu Di over a meal,“How would you define a good cinematographer?” Wu Di said,“A good cinematographer is one who seems to be invisible in his works.” So they hit it off at once.But not until later did she know that Wu Di had won a Golden Horse Award.Likewise,a good novel should be the one in which the characters outshine the author.It is the names of the characters,like Xiaolin,Niu Aiguo,Yang Baishun,and Li Xuelian that people should remember,rather than the name of the author,Liu Zhenyun.

My novels have been translated into over twenty languages.WhenCellphonewas published in America,a granny told me that she particularly liked the beginning of the novel—Yan Shouyi and Zhang Xiaozhu,five and seven years of age respectively,are like brothers.They often go to school together,with arms around each other’s shoulders,and even go to toilet together.The reason they are so close is not because of what they have in common,but what they both lack.One of them was motherless as a child,and the other’s mother is alive,yet mentally handicapped.Their favorite pastime is to write in the sky with a miner’s lamp.One of them would write,“Mom,where are you?” And the other would write,“Mom,you’re not silly.”

The granny said,“I also grew up without a mother,so I often ask myself in my mind,‘Mom,where are you?’ I don’t know how to write in the sky with a miner’s lamp,but you helped me write them in your book.In real life,even if you point a flashlight into the sky,its beam will disappear immediately.But in your book,you let it stay for five full minutes.So I must visit China one day to see the sky there.” This is the wonder of art.

(FromEsquire,October 2016.Translation: Zhu Yaguang)