阎连科

choi

This is a very, very long article.

Jiayang Fan, Yan Lianke's Forbidden Satires of China; How an Army propaganda writer became the country's most controversial novelist. New Yorker, Oct 15, 2018.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazi ... en-satires-of-china

(1) "in June, I travelled with him from Beijing, where he lives with his wife and son, to Luoyang, the city nearest his ancestral village * * * Luoyang, in Henan Province, is an arid backwater, but its position in the Yellow River Basin made it one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. For fifteen hundred years [off and on; 东周, 东汉 (one of its three capitals), 曹魏、西晋、北魏 (1 of its 4 capitals)], from the eleventh century BC, it was an imperial capital; on its streets, Confucius, a failed official turned itinerant sage, is said to have met Laozi [something unheard of in Taiwan], the founder of Daoism. Nowadays, Luoyang is best known for the Longmen Grottoes * * * we entered a disorienting simulacrum of the past: a labyrinth of imperial gardens, stone bridges, and pagodas with crimson eaves. A statue of Wu Zetian, the only woman in China’s history to hold the title of emperor, in the seventh century, surveyed our arrival with impassive serenity. We had come to Shangyanggong 上阳宫, an opulent new facsimile of Empress Wu’s palace, built on the site of the original

(2) "his scandalous satires about the brutalities of its Communist past and the moral nullity of its market-driven transformation. In 'Serve the People! 為人民服務' (2005) * * * he is credited with developing a strain of absurdism that he terms 'mythorealism 神实主义.' As he puts it, 'The reality of China is so outrageous that it defies belief and renders realism inert 中国现实的复杂、荒诞、丰富和深刻，已经远远把作家的想象甩到了后面。生活中的故事，远比文学中的故事传奇、好看得多，也深刻得多，但作家没有能力把握这些，也没有能力想象和虚构这些。作家的想象力和现实的复杂性进入到同一跑道进行赛跑，跑赢的是中国现实，输掉的是中国作家的想象力。即便作家有天大的想象力，都无法超越现实本身，这是不言而喻的事实.'  Henan is ground zero for Yan's mordant imagination, and in his fiction it becomes a world of remorseless venality—of corrupt local officials, amoral entrepreneurs, and peasants with get-rich-quick schemes that prey on desperation and run on an engine of betrayal.

(3) "his books often feature an alter ego, also named Yan Lianke, a hack writer * * * In 'The Day the Sun Died 日熄 [published on Dec 26, 2015],' which will be published in the US in December, he writes, 'For Yan, this town and this village functioned the way that a bank did for a thief—offering him an inexhaustible warehouse full of goods.' * * * Yan's novel 'The Explosion Chronicles 炸裂志 [2013]'

(4) "A waitress entered with a large bowl of yellow broth, part of a traditional Luoyang meal called the Water Banquet 洛阳水席. According to legend, the soup [here referring to the same broth mentioned in the previous sentence], known as the Swallow Dish 牡丹燕菜, was Empress Wu’s favorite. An imitation peony, carved out of egg, floated regally on top. * * * After dinner, Yan said that he’d like to hear some Henanese opera; its tunes have captivated him since childhood, and the lyrics often find their way into his novels. [dinner host] Zhang proposed a theatre 洛阳豫剧院 [address 洛阳市老城区东南隅街道文化街20号; its outer appearance looks like a rundown row house] in Luoyang’s old town, which dates back three thousand years but is currently being redeveloped as yet another historical pastiche aimed at tourists.

(5) "At the theater featuring Henanese opera, "a man [surnamed Wei]drew him aside, introducing himself as the manager of the old town's redevelopment, and insisted on giving us a tour. * * * Wei would chant the project's [the project: 洛阳古城保护与整治项目] slogan: 'Preserve the old photographic image of Luoyang. Work to build its new welcome lounge! 留住老洛阳 "底片" 建好新洛阳 "客厅" [at 老城区].' Yan nodded graciously as the monologue continued. If he was taking mental notes, he betrayed no judgment. In China, you keep your principles elastic; a favorite proverb of Yan's is 'It's best to live life with one eye open and the other closed.'

(6) "we arrived at her [Yan's mother's] house, in Tianhu 洛陽市嵩县田湖镇田湖村, thirty-five miles from Luoyang

(7) "The book that Yan claims to owe his career to is a largely forgotten novel, 'Boundary Line 分界線,' by Zhang Kangkang 张抗抗 [female]

(8) "The first of his novels to land him in trouble was 'Summer Sunset 夏日落,' published in 1993; it was quickly banned, and he was ordered to write self-criticism for six months. Yan maintains that he didn’t realize he had crossed a line. The plot centers on the suicide of a young Army cook; two military heroes blame each other for having treated him harshly and become bitter enemies, but eventually a suicide note is found, in which the man says that he suffered from depression and that no one was to blame. * * * Advised to tone things down, Yan tried to comply in 'Dream of Ding Village 丁莊夢' (2006), but it was a hopeless enterprise

(9) "In April, Yan came to New York, to visit his American publisher, Grove Atlantic, in advance of the publication of 'The Day the Sun Died.' International travel makes him apprehensive. Western food disagrees with him, so he stuffs his suitcase with dried ramen and pickled vegetables. He doesn’t speak a word of English except for 'Long live Chairman Mao,' a phrase he learned in middle school.

(10) "particularly since the removal of Presidential term limits, last year, he had sensed a gradual backsliding, especially when it came to issues of free speech. Not only has he frequently been prevented from publishing new books but publishers have also suppressed his backlist: 'Anything that has the name Yan Lianke is indiscriminately removed from the shelves.' * * * In practice * * * The ban on Yan's work is de facto rather than official, and his less tendentious titles remain somewhat available.

(11) "The rock carvings of Longmen reached their apogee during the rule of Empress Wu. For Wu, Buddhism was not only a religion but also a means of establishing political legitimacy, particularly after she seized the throne from her son, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang 唐中宗. Proclaiming herself an incarnation of the Maitreya 弥勒 Buddha * * * We arrived at the Fengxian Temple cave 奉先寺区, the largest of the complex, whose figures are held to be the apex of Tang-dynasty Buddhist sculpture. In the middle—flanked by bodhisattvas, heavenly kings, and thunderbolt holders—is the Vairocana Buddha 大日如來 [also known as (毗)卢舍那大佛, whose transliteration into English is Lu She Na Buddha: en.wikipedia.org], a colossal seated figure in a delicately carved rippling tunic. It is the largest statue in the complex, nearly sixty feet high * * * The day before, he and his friend Zhang had been discussing a powerful monk who enjoyed the patronage of a senior Party official. The monk spearheaded the construction of the Spring Temple Buddha 中原大佛 [at 佛泉寺], in central Henan. Completed in 2008, it is the tallest statue in the world.

(12) "a mausoleum 天子驾六 that was unearthed during construction work in 2002. The burial chamber, which is now a museum, dates back to at least the third century B.C., when the city was the capital of the Zhou dynasty. To archeologists’ astonishment, the occupant of the tomb was buried with an entire fleet of chariots and seventy horses. * * * The book [memoir], published in 2009, is called 'My Father's Generation and I 我与父辈' * * * 'My father and his father had hard, bitter lives. Their struggles were unremarkable, but their bullheadedness—the city word for it would have been "perseverance," I suppose—is something I admire and pity.'

Note:
(a) in quotation 2. mordant (adj; Did You Know?)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mordant
(b)
(i) pastiche
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pastiche
(ii) What does pasticcio looks like? pasticcio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasticcio
(section 1 Etymology: Greek dish pastitsio)

The en.wikipedia.org does not have a page or photo for the ITALIAN dish.
(C) A Pasta Bake by Any Other Name. Pasticcio di Pasta Al Forno. The Paddington Foodie, Feb 13, 2013
https://thepaddingtonfoodie.com/ ... -by-any-other-name/
("Pasticcio di Pasta Al Forno. Literal translation?  From the Italian. Oven baked pasta pie.  Known quite simply and affectionately as pasta bake in our house")

Italian-English dictionary:
* forno (noun masculine; from Latin [noun masculine] furnus/ fornus [oven]): "oven" (Italian noun masculine fornace meaning furnace)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forno

(c) quotation 9. disagree (vi): "to cause discomfort or distress  <fried foods disagree with me?"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disagree

(d) quotation 10.
(i) backlist (n): "a publisher's list of books published before the current season and still in print"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/backlist
(ii) tendentious
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tendentious

(e) quotation 11. Maitreya
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/maitreya
(etymology; pronunciation)
(f) quotation 12. bullheaded (adj): "stupidly stubborn : HEADSTRONG"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bullheaded