Also excuse with Ke Xue

Author: Cai Zhiheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Cai Zhiheng's portrayal of love in this book transcends the emotional dilemmas of his previous works. He ingeniously uses the metaphor of "carving a void" to describe a new understanding of emotions. In the novel, the protagonist visits the coastal area of Hualien to escape the rain and accidentally enters an outdoor studio of a stone sculptor. There, he discovers a female sculpture and is instantly moved. It turns out that during the sculpting process, the artist unintentionally carved a void in the woman's left eye. This makes the statue's left eye collect water droplets when it rains, creating a tender, watery expression, while it shines brilliantly on sunny days. Such a work deeply moves the male and female protagonists, who both learn to "carve a void within themselves" and open up to accept each other's feelings, resolving misunderstandings and exchanging gentle yet passionate emotions. This beautiful metaphor also reflects the creator's own new opportunity to break free from creative dilemmas and find redemption. Cai Zhiheng says, "I feel that rediscovering the part of myself that once got lost is the greatest of this writing. I personally love the metaphor of 'carving a void within oneself' in Yi Shu and Ke Xue. I am grateful that I have carved a void within myself and replenished my creative passion." Here, we see Cai Zhiheng's dedication and caution in his writing; it also reveals that compared to other best-selling authors,'s publishing frequency is far from being "psty"! With a touch of humor, Cai Zhiheng discusses the process of writing this book: "This work was written intermittently over a year—during which I played for a month, coughed for one and a half months, and gave up on it for two months. I once thought that as I aged, certain parts of me would die too, but during the writing of Yi Shu and Ke Xue, I found that these parts were still very much alive." The readers of Cai Zhiheng's works are growing, and the novelist himself is also facing his own writing challenges. fears that with age, he may lose his sharp writing mind and fall into a dead end of repeating himself—especially under the burden of fame, the pressure of each new book release only grows. How to break free from this threat both internally and externally and regain the joy of writing is not only a challenge for the author in his writing but also a question of how he views himself in life. It is precisely this self-exploration that led Cai Zhiheng to the metaphor of "carving a void within oneself." Through trials, time is needed. Cai Zhiheng's return this time is more mature with every step. Although it left readers eagerly waiting, each of Cai Zhiheng's writings ultimately receives the readers' response and support. He faces himself seriously, accepts the challenges of writing, and seeks the reason for his self-existence—this is the fundamental source of Cai Zhiheng's writing charm. From The 17th Time of Intimate Contact in 1998 to the youth fiction wave sparked by Mistletoe and Night Rose in the Greater Chinese region, plus the inclusion of Night Rose in the top ten Chinese literary book rankings in 2003 alongside Norwegian Wood, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Fantasy City, as well as the inclusion of Mistletoe and The 17th Time of Intimate Contact in the top ten "Most Loved Novels" at Taiwan's Eslite Bookstore in 2004, among others—these phenomena indicate that Cai Zhiheng is gradually transforming from historical (the emergence of the internet) through the power of his own growth, continuously deepening and expanding his territory in literary creation. From this perspective, Yi Shu and Ke Xue can be seen as a brand-new creation, marking a new starting point for Cai Zhiheng to "carve a void within himself" and replenish his creative passion. Cai Zhiheng's writing has always focused on the process of love's birth and formation. From The 17th Time of Intimate Contact, Mistletoe, and Night Rose, compared to other young adult literary writers, Cai Zhiheng's writing is neither loud nor noisy, with simple and concise language, focusing entirely on imagery, yet revealing the essence and truth of love at its inception. The new novel Yi Shu and Ke Xue particularly crafts metaphors for love, which can be described as poetic and painterly, leaving readers feeling calm and contemplative after reading, savoring the fragrance of love's. At the beginning of the novel, a science-loving engineer working at a construction company idly wanders to a nearby café. His work-related frustrations, along with the influence of his screenwriter roommate, inspire him to write a novel, hoping to change the atmosphere of his life. However, he struggles to know where to begin. At this moment, a girl who loves painting accidentally bumps into his table corner, and they start talking. The engineer thus decides the starting point of the story: a girl named Ke Xue who studies art and a boy named Yi Shu who studies science. The entire novel unfolds between the engineer and the girl who paints, while the characters Yi Shu and Ke Xue in the protagonist's novel progress in sync with his life story. Additionally, his friends in real life and a female colleague he admires at work are involved, totaling four storylines.