Li Bihua Works Collection. 19. Still Prefer Pain

Author: Li Bihua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Li Bihua's essays are strongly imbued with social awareness, but this awareness is not analyzed from a high political or social perspective. Instead, it comes from the perspective of ordinary people, revealing the amusing, regrettable, tragic, or pitiful aspects of events through the lines of news, both big and small. In the essay collection Still Prefer Pain, this style is fully demonstrated. The collection includes Li Bihua's piece Blood Like Red Lipstick and a Butterfly Dress, written in memory of the singer (Leslie Cheung), who took his own life. It showcases a rarely seen emotional side of Li Bihua. She writes: "On April 8th, you turned into a wisp of smoke, a handful of dust. You truly left, never to return. You were always afraid of death, afraid of heights, loved beauty, and cherished your body. I can't imagine how much courage and resolve it took for you to leap from the 24th floor."