20 not 46

Author: Daxian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: After seven years, from "One Cut Can't Sever Both" in 1998 to "20 Not 46" in 2005, poet Daxian's second collection of essays is published by China Friendship Publishing House. Daxian says that although he has been writing essays for many years, he still can't distinguish between essays and prose, even thinking they are the same genre. But he believes that essays should be whimsical and unrestrained, moody and reserved, stirring just a faint ripple between solitude in an empty room and the fair ladies of the imperial court, drifting away with the wind. "I don’t have a 'philosophy of essays,' only 'essay backflips,' like the Nigerian Martinis of Inter Milan, who performs five or six backflips after each goal." The title "20 Not 46" easily brings to mind Wong Kar-wai's film. "My book '20 Not 46' is not simply twisting and turning Wong Kar-wai's '2046,' nor does it have any relation to his film. It just uses his unreliable movie title to achieve an even more unreliable realm of essays." Daxian says, "Seven years have taken us from the 20th century to the 21st, from angry youth to the petite bourgeoisie, from the human brain to the computer, from noodles to the Santana 3000, from CRT screens to LCDs, from the Third Ring Road to the Sixth Ring Road, from the bull market to the bear market in the stock market, and from to duplex and row houses. Time changes everything." The text of this book was written from 1999 to 2004, covering topics such as Sanlitun, Houhai, the SARS epidemic, real estate projects, literary youth and resentful wives, as well as the 70s and 80s generations.