Crossing Boundaries Without Borders: Yan Lianke's Prose

Author: Yan Lianke
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: A series of essays and reflective writings that observe society, nature, life, culture, and art; pursuing broad, unique, and genuine perspectives; striving for the infectiousness and appeal of the gaze that conveys these perspectives; releasing a mature work, followed by another; hoping more people can possess a brighter and more profound gaze. This book includes over 40 essays, most of which are observations and portrayals of the rural life, farmers, and their destinies that the author was born into, deeply loved, and could never forget. The author's childhood years, military life, sentiments for hometown, family, and friendship, as well as reflections on creation and reading, also occupy significant places in the book. Whether it is longer pieces like Missing Father, The Village and Sex, Six Sayings of the Village, The Vastness on the Land, Three Topics on Llosa, or Language is God, or grouped thematic works, or shorter pieces like A Blue Electric Bicycle, Zhaosen’s Pain or Not, Borderless Crossing, I Was Once a Tea Illiterate, or Alternative Warfare, even a sketch or a fragment, all reveal the author’s profound yet nimble gaze and his attitude toward life, people, and writing. The language of the works is simple and intimate, coexisting with truth and goodness, showing distinctive tension within conciseness and restraint.