Butterfly Can't Fly Across: A Long Autobiography of a Model in Literature

Author: Huang Wen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Longing for love but rejecting attachment, a talented and agile woman who rivals Shi Kang. In the bars of Beijing at night, I often feel that each long note of music holds a swarm of dark sprites dancing. These sprites belong to the streets and alleys of Beijing, and they are also connected to places beyond Beijing. Destined, when Beijing is illuminated like a stage by lights, the sprites descend onto the stage—Huang Wen is one of them. She often wanders among these bars, perhaps she has been wandering for a long time. Listening to her scattered and confused voice, those desires and demands, those pains and joys, those restless and bewildered monologues, those quick remarks about herself and her former friends, are like listening to the sound of the wind sweeping through fallen leaves. Those voices rustle through time, through the dust and mist of Beijing, as if trying to tell you, if you don’t listen, those voices will stubbornly disturb you, demanding your attention. That is the voice of hope for understanding. Huang Yuhui brings her unique experiences; the experience of being a model on a T-stage; her obsession with the night, her sensitivity to the body; her extreme thirst for security; yet unable to erase the emptiness and confusion in her eyes. In her novels, there is only subversion, no way out to be found; only pain, no comfort; only memories, no future. This is an extremely realistic record, tinged with a touch of urgency and immaturity; but it is real. These vivid words, condensed from the darkness, from a gorgeous body, always touch the memories in unexpected places; and with their internal force, they compel one to confront the inner existence they keep avoiding. Her words are filled with a postmodern sensory atmosphere—collage, fragmentation, no central focus, and disdain for grand narrative structures. Like the excessive colors and dazzling displays of a lavish fashion show. Behind all of this, stripping away layer after layer of wrapping, one can reach the core: the inner writing that has always been covered. In one love story after another, seemingly casual and without reason, there hides Huang Wen’s extraordinary talent for intuition. She always watches her actions with a detached eye; whether she has loved or not, she never lets it obscure her profound judgment about love and the other person.