Gao Laozhuang (Annotated Edition)

Author: Jia Pingwa, with annotations by Chen Ze
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "Zi Lu decided to return to Gao Laozhuang, while a landslide occurred on Ji Jiaoling, five miles north of Gao Laozhuang." The opening line of Gao Laozhuang integrates a person's subjective consciousness with a sudden natural phenomenon. It gives a sense of something emerging from nowhere, reminiscent of García Márquez and Borges. Gao Laozhuang, this strange village, is the hometown of Gao Zilu, a professor from the provincial capital. He returns with his remarried wife, Xi Xia, to pay a three-year anniversary offering for his father. In Gao Laozhuang, they will encounter Ziwawa, his ex-wife who is divorced but still lives with him, Wang Wenlong, the director of the floor factory, Shi Tou, a disabled but extraordinary son, as well as Cai Laohai, Su Hong, and countless inscriptions that stir Xi Xia's imagination. Life, death, birth, eating, defecating, the supernatural, and the human condition all converge into a chaotic rural battle in a changing era. On the surface, it seems lively, but the disjointed structure, ambiguous hints and metaphors, overly artificial character traits, and excessive focus on petty actions all contribute to a sense of boredom and oppression. As a symbolically significant Gao Laozhuang, it is the hometown where Zilu grew up. The people there are said to be pure Han Chinese, yet they are short, coarse, and increasingly degenerate with each generation. Thus, Zilu managed to leave Gao Laozhuang early in life, becoming a distinguished professor; but upon his return to this remote town years later, the old culture, environment, and people push him back to his old ways, regaining traits like conservatism, selfishness, petty behavior, infighting, hypocrisy, and more. On this level, Gao Laozhuang acts as a mirror, reflecting the "decline of the old culture and the of the human race" (Jia Pingwa's words). Such a theme naturally reflects the profound reflective consciousness of the author's level. However, in the actual writing of the novel, we see more chaos, disorganization, artificiality, and forced symbolism. For example, the novel frequently features UFOs, the mysterious Baiyun Pool, the prophetic disabled Shi Tou, and a hairpin said to be given by the dead. The author clearly intends to imbue these elements with symbolism and allegory, but the tangled descriptions and forced symbolism are so inadequate that they resemble a martial artist who, in their haste to improve, goes astray. Their nonsensical ramblings not only fail to reveal the true essence of the practice but also lead us to follow them into a state of delusion. (At the same time, these fantastical elements easily remind us of the philosophical, overly elaborate ox in Waste Land, which is a weak point!) And at the end of the novel, when the city dweller Xi Xia resolutely stays in Gao Laozhuang, while the rural Zilu has no choice but to return alone to the city, I can only read two words: artificiality!
It is undeniable that Jia Pingwa has always been an anomaly in contemporary Chinese literature. The language of Gao Laozhuang still flows like clouds and water, maintaining his signature style. But what is heart-wrenching is that in his postscript and conversations with Sun Jianxi, Jia Pingwa repeatedly expresses, "My effort is to break free from artificial arrangements. Even the most brilliant writers, no matter how wonderful their stories may be, cannot match the harmony and order of the real world arranged by heaven. This is the grandeur of history. I always try to secretly approach this realm." Pursuing naturalness is right, but as seen in Gao Laozhuang, Jia Pingwa still lingers in the shadows of works like Waste Land, White Night, and Tumen, far from breaking free from the delusion of delirium. As Sun Jianxi jokingly says in a Shaanxi dialect, it's "stuck in the past, haunted by the supernatural." Gao Laozhuang is Jia Pingwa's sixth full-length novel. Evaluating the significance of this new work seems easy but is also difficult to articulate. The reason lies in the fact that Jia Pingwa and some artists in Shaanxi, who constantly pursue artistic improvement, always achieve breakthroughs through relentless climbing. My duty is to guide readers in understanding this book, to feel the author's soul and thoughts through these words. But my thoughts are often carried away by the changes in the book's events. I feel as if I am not reading a novel but truly experiencing a real life. I am excited and moved by this. The more I see the ingenuity of the novel's structure and composition, the deeper I sink into it, and the harder it becomes to write my annotations. I know that the author wrote this book with a calm and natural heart. In their excitement, it is impossible to truly convey the depth and meaning of the book to the readers. Therefore, I try to calm my mind and approach my annotations with a sense of tranquility.