Suspect Trilogy

Author: Wang Xiaobo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: The Trilogy of Doubt was a publishing plan by Wang Xiaobo in the past. He had already written the preface for it. However, he later changed his plan and included these three novellas in The Golden Age and The Bronze Age. Thanks to the publisher's kind intention, The Trilogy of Doubt is now being published, which can be seen as a fulfillment of Xiaobo's early wish. Among all of Wang Xiaobo's novels, Red Flap at Night is my favorite. Reading it, I often imagine Dalí's paintings, as the surreal style in his art resonates with this novel: the details are extremely realistic, yet impossible in reality. The scene in the ancient Chang'an City where Li Jing walks through the streets like a large bird on stilts closely resembles Dalí's floating horse in his paintings. Wang Xiaobo's effortless movement through different times and spaces in his writing is truly magical. Love in the Revolution is also captivating. Some scenes and language in it leave a lasting impression. For example, the catapult used during the student militia fights in the university; a child on a tree witnessing someone on the brink of death, remarking that he could only pronounce vowels () but no consonants; the college student whose surname is Yanse (Red? Yellow? Blue?); and so on. The Search for Wu Shuang explores how people develop selective memory in certain periods or atmospheres, a condition that once became a common ailment for our nation. Wang Xiaobo's initial impression of this condition probably came from the misfortunes his family suffered. When a family suddenly falls from the upper echelons of society to the bottom, they gain a clearer view of the true faces of various social figures than others.