Dream shattered at the pass

Author: Ling Li
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Dream of a Broken Pass presents the Opium War from the perspective of ordinary people. This is not merely a change in creative perspective and focus on strategy, but a new pursuit in historical concepts and creative thought. Ordinary people are the main subjects of social life, and secular life is universal and eternal. Only by delving deep into the depths of social life can one reflect the essence of history. The novel brings the lives of ordinary people and the emotions of family closer to history, making heroic legends more down-to-earth, softening and emotionalizing the tough subject of blood and fire. This allows grand narratives of major themes to be light, touching, and refreshing. At the same time, it enables the novel's characters to share joys and sorrows with historical figures, making it easier to express a sense of nostalgia for the past, allowing the heart to be open and emotions to find a place to rest, and enhancing the artistic effect of a vivid sense of presence, thereby intensifying the emotional impact of history.
The novel depicts the six-day battle of Dinghai during the Opium War, where General Ge Yunfei heroically sacrifices himself yet remains steadfast. His concubine Yinglan and Tian Shou, among others, search for his body in the moonlit night as the smoke still lingers, a scene so tragic and fierce that it reminds one of Lu Xun's introduction to the German female printmaker K?the Kollwitz's The Peasants' War: a mother, hunchbacked and bending over in the dark night strewn with corpses, her wrinkled old hands illuminated by a lantern as she recognizes her son's body. The novel and the print share a similar artistic effect—they are both narrative of life, not of stories. They are collisions with war that have been truly experienced by life, the memory, grief, and cries of life against war. This subjective inner experience of life directly confronts the essence of the characters' lives. History resides in the characters' hearts, surpassing all detached and objective descriptions and evaluations. This also demonstrates the artistic power of this new creative approach.
Dream of a Broken Pass is another long historical novel by Ling Li, a renowned historical novelist and winner of the Third Mao Dun Literature Prize. Set against the backdrop of the Opium War, the novel centers on the fate of Kunqu opera performers, composing a historical epic of ordinary people's righteous resistance against national crisis and showcasing a love story intertwined with the storms of the times between a famous opera star and the vicissitudes of life.
Dream of a Broken Pass presents the Opium War from the perspective of ordinary people. This is not merely a change in creative perspective and focus on strategy, but a new pursuit in historical concepts and creative thought. Ordinary people are the main subjects of social life, and secular life is universal and eternal. Only by delving deep into the depths of social life can one reflect the essence of history. The novel brings the lives of ordinary people and the emotions of family closer to history, making heroic legends more down-to-earth, softening and emotionalizing the tough subject of blood and fire. This allows grand narratives of major themes to be light, touching, and refreshing. At the same time, it enables the novel's characters to share joys and sorrows with historical figures, making it easier to express a sense of nostalgia for the past, allowing the heart to be open and emotions to find a place to rest, and enhancing the artistic effect of a vivid sense of presence, thereby intensifying the emotional impact of history.
The novel depicts the six-day battle of Dinghai during the Opium War, where General Ge Yunfei heroically sacrifices himself yet remains steadfast. His concubine Yinglan and Tian Shou, among others, search for his body in the moonlit night as the smoke still lingers, a scene so tragic and fierce that it reminds one of Lu Xun's introduction to the German female printmaker K?the Kollwitz's The Peasants' War: a mother, hunchbacked and bending over in the dark night strewn with corpses, her wrinkled old hands illuminated by a lantern as she recognizes her son's body. The novel and the print share a similar artistic effect—they are both narrative of life, not of stories. They are collisions with war that have been truly experienced by life, the memory, grief, and cries of life against war. This subjective inner experience of life directly confronts the essence of the characters' lives. History resides in the characters' hearts, surpassing all detached and objective descriptions and evaluations. This also demonstrates the artistic power of this new creative approach.