Dancer on the Arc (Tuvan)

Author: Liang Xiaosheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-24
Features: How Liang Xiaosheng is as a writer has long been recognized in various common ways. This Is a Magical Land, Blizzard Tonight, Snow City, and Tree Rings made him the founder of "sent-down youth literature"; Father, Mother, Younger Brother, Mid-Autumn Again, Black Button, and White Hair Card established him as a representative writer of "family-themed fiction"; while works like Elected, Right to Silence, Archives, Speaking, and Death of a Scholar are his powerful mid-length novels that confront reality with profound depth, proving his unwavering commitment to literary realism—a stance that earned him the nickname "Liang Xiaosheng Year" in 1984. Thus, when a newspaper publicly ranked the "Top Ten Writers Who Touch China," Liang Xiaosheng was included on the list. He is therefore called a "commoner's writer." He is also hailed as "China's Balzac."
Regardless of whether these evaluations are fair or how Liang Xiaosheng himself feels—we have no choice but to decide to publish his collection of mid-length novels. And we believe many readers are certainly expecting such a decision to fulfill their desire to understand the full scope of Liang Xiaosheng's mid-length fiction. Once we truly began this task with the author's cooperation, we were indeed surprised—unaware that in two decades, he had written over sixty mid-length novels! In quantity, he is undoubtedly one of the most prolific writers of mid-length fiction in contemporary Chinese literature. And in terms of the breadth of themes and diversity of styles, he is truly remarkable. In his mid-length novels, from intellectuals to college students, workers, farmers, police officers, and criminals, as well as various female figures from different eras—all form a literary "River Scene at Qingming Festival" depicting Liang Xiaosheng's portrayal of Chinese society.
Or perhaps, when editing these mid-length novels of Liang Xiaosheng, we truly recalled La Comédie Humaine by Balzac.
Liang Xiaosheng once described himself in a creative discussion as a "writer standing on an arc," using the "arc" to symbolize the humanistic quality and stance of literature. Therefore, we have used his own words as the title of this collection of mid-length novels—Dancers on the Arc. In our view, that "arc" is also composed of the squares of the manuscript paper. He is one of the few writers in China today who still writing by hand, and the pen is his only dance partner.
On the "arc" formed by the squares of the manuscript paper, this writer still tirelessly observes reality, still tirelessly dances, dancing, dancing.