Dancer on the arc. Earth roll

Author: Liang Xiaosheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: It is widely acknowledged how Liang Xiaosheng is as a writer. This Is a Magical Land, Tonight There Will Be a Blizzard, Snow City, and Tree Rings made him the founder of "sent-down youth literature"; Father, Mother, Younger Brother, Mid-Autumn Night Again, Black Button, and White Hair Pin established him as a representative author of "family-themed fiction"; while works like Elected, Silence of Rights, Archives, Speaking, and Death of a Scholar are powerful middle-length pieces that confront reality with profound depth, proving his unwavering commitment to literary advocacy focused on society—hence the year 1984 being hailed as the "Year of Liang Xiaosheng." Consequently, when a newspaper publicly ranked the "Top Ten Writers Who Touch China," Liang Xiaosheng was included. Thus, he is called the "commoner writer." And so, he is celebrated as the "Balzac of China."
Whether these evaluations are justified or not, and regardless of Liang Xiaosheng's personal views—we have made the resolute decision to publish his selected middle-length novels. We also believe that many readers certainly expect such a decision to fulfill their desire to understand the full scope of Liang Xiaosheng's middle-length fiction. When we actually began this task with the author's cooperation, we were genuinely surprised—unaware that in two decades, he had written over sixty middle-length novels! In quantity, he is undoubtedly one of the most prolific authors of middle-length fiction in contemporary Chinese literature. And in terms of subject matter and stylistic diversity, he is truly remarkable. In his middle-length novels, from intellectuals to college students, workers, peasants, police, and criminals, to various female figures across different eras—a vast array of characters—form a literary "River Scene at Qingming Festival" depicting Liang Xiaosheng's portrayal of Chinese society.
Or perhaps, when editing these middle-length novels of Liang Xiaosheng, we truly recalled La Comédie Humaine by Balzac. Liang Xiaosheng once described himself in a creative discussion as a "writer standing on an arc," using the "arc" to symbolize the humanistic quality and stance of literature. Therefore, we have chosen the title Dancers on the Arc for this collection of his middle-length novels—as far as we see it, the "arc" is also composed of the gridlines of manuscript paper. He is one of the few writers in China today who still writing by hand, and the pen is his only dance partner. On the "arc" formed by the gridlines of manuscript paper, this writer tirelessly observes reality, tirelessly dancing, dancing.