Fantasy City

Author: Guo Jingming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: A freshman student, using grand (grand fantasy) to open a door for people, through which flowed ten thousand copies of Fantasy City, quickly becoming the second on the bestseller list at the Beijing Book Fair. Before the end of 2002, Guo Jingming was little-known, but now he is hailed as the new champion of youth novels following Han Han. This is a peculiar book. On one side, there are the Fire Tribe and the Ice Tribe; on one side, the City of Flames and the Empire of Illusory Snow. The work belongs to pure fiction. The fiction of the void is actually harder than the imitation of reality. Compared to the ability of fiction, I believe imitation is merely a basic skill, while fiction is a higher level of skill—and the ability that distinguishes whether literature has entered a realm of brilliance. The reproachable aspect of Chinese literature lies in its stagnation in imitation over the years and its failure to lead words into fiction. China once had two great traditions of fiction: Dream of the Red Chamber and Journey to the West, but in later times, it neither connected with the lineage of Dream of the Red Chamber nor inherited the spirit of Journey to the West. Imitation is superficial and fleeting, while the ability to create fiction has basically decayed. As a result, Chinese fiction has remained mediocre for decades, wallowing on the ground, lacking the joy and beauty of soaring. In such a context, reading Fantasy City naturally brings joy and comfort. Fantasy City comes from fantasy. And this fantasy is ethereal, romantic, unrestrained—it is the kind of "grand fantasy" I call it. Its scenes and stories are not on the ground but in the sky. The conception of the work resembles a boundless journey of the mind. The vast expanse of the sky, the spirits of thought wandering in the boundless world, wherever they go, the scenery is limitless. Guided by the author, what we see is far beyond the human world. All images, all scenes, are beyond the earth—they are in the mist, in the fog, in the dreams. Such fantasy can only come from a free heart, unshackled, unbound by conventions, without hesitation. This heart is still crystal...