Balzac and the Chinese Tailor

Author: Dai Sijie
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: In the 1970s, my friend A Luo and I were sent to the remote and isolated Tianfeng Mountain for re-education. There, we encountered a mysterious suitcase and a beautiful rural seamstress, and a plot-driven drama directed by knowledge and beauty, youth and passion unfolded, interspersed with the unique wit and dark humor of an era devoid of culture but not devoid of humanity. The novel was published by the highly renowned French literary publishing house Gallimard in 2000, achieving overnight fame and becoming a bestseller, winning awards five times. Its foreign rights have been sold to over twenty countries, with the English edition now selling over 300,000 copies. The same-named film, written and directed by the author, stars Zhou Xun, Liu Ye, and Chen Kun as the three main characters, has been completed, and is being shown in theaters worldwide. The film was nominated for the 2003 "Golden Globe" Best Foreign Language Film for France.
Author's Preface
This little book of mine has actually done well in China. An outstanding old translator, Professor Luo Xinzhang, who is known as the heir to Fu Lei, recommended this book to Beijing October Literature Publishing House. He met with the enthusiastic support of editor Mr. Han Jingqun, and then it was translated by Mr. Yu (I was afraid of my limited talent and would disappoint his writing. For years, I have been a loyal reader of World Literature, and I always read the works translated by Mr. Yu). Thus, this novel written by a Chinese person in a foreign language became, like magic, a Chinese book. I felt as if I were in a dream, floating and as if a poor man had returned home in fine clothes. I have a friend who is Russian by origin and American by nationality, a very decent writer. He said that although he detests traveling, he keeps going abroad to experience the pride of showing his American passport at customs. Since I had the good fortune of publishing a book in Beijing, every time I go through customs and take out my Chinese passport, I also feel a sense of pride, not inferior to that of foreigners. The author of this book is four years younger than the author who is writing the preface now. He has been in France for over fifteen years. At that time, all my Chinese friends had become French citizens, bought houses, drove cars, and lived a stable life as small-town bourgeoisie in France. They traveled abroad without visas, "pointing wherever they went." I was envious and couldn’t help but ask myself whether I could also transform and assimilate, becoming a foreigner. I thought at the time, "Let me try. If I can write and publish a novel in French, then I will become a French citizen." Since this was my first attempt and the language I used was not my mother tongue, I decided to choose a passage that I was most familiar with...