Nightmare of the Seeker

Author: Ji Hongzhen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: For some reason, I can never forget that stretch of mountains. The mountains stand like a barrier, separating me from my past life, yet memories flow like springs, seeping through the cracks of the rocks, murmuring gently, bringing me a sense of coolness. The female writers in this series deliberately avoid texts with obvious feminist tendencies, seeking only the shortest path to reach the heart. The six women included in the collection have each experienced the daily lives and inner turmoil shaped by the grand events of the 20th century. During those times, they breathed together, and the answer was one I could not turn back from. Once delving into each soul, the collective fades into the background. What you face is no longer mere group mentality, but the memories, the unconscious, the instincts—those acquired qualities, personalities, or even sacrifices. What you face are simply individuals. The images exist independently of the authors and are brought to life. Yet they also pertain to naming, in the act of "kneading earth," there lies hidden enlightenment, or an awakening in a cultural and intellectual movement. Creating a person is a process of giving life, but it is also a process of influencing the future through the creation of that person. Educated women are not content with being spoken about and directly participate in public affairs through their words. They are dissatisfied with public affairs merely serving as descriptions of external appearances and undertake a cultural effort to break free from linguistic habits, providing their individual souls with a reference to history and reality. The six women gathered here are but a drop in the ocean. They have, to varying degrees, courageously touched upon and revealed various aspects of the female spirit. Within the broader cultural critique, they do not stop at theory but quietly practice. Their creations are not based on the biased struggles of gender rights. They have all abandoned the two poles of gender theory and returned to experience, to the individual, to authenticity. Thus, only then can that tunnel be unobstructed as it rushes toward the heart.