MCLC: Pathlight and Peregrine (4,5,6)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bill Goldman <billgoldman at mac.com>
Subject: Pathlight and Peregrine (4)
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Jiwei Xiao wrote:

"Technically, Gao Xingjian was not a Chinese citizen in 2000. Julia
Lovell's book "The Politics of Cultural Capital: China's Quest for a Nobel
Prize in Literature" (or the article version with the same title) would be
a good read (if not a must read) for anyone who wants to reopen a
discussion on this complicated case."

But Gao's book was written long before 2000, in the late 1980s I believe.
Furthermore, I agree with a Beida professor of Literature who told me that
he - having acquired a copy "from a bookshop in South China" - found it to
be "very Chinese indeed." I can agree with this even though I myself am
not Chinese, because the book consists of accounts of the narrator's
travels through Sichuan and his conversations with and observations of
many Chinese people that he met. These include old stories passed down by
the peasants - indeed, it is hard to think of a more Chinese novel, or
even how any novel could be more Chinese than this one. Whether by 2000 he
had had to take French citizenship - because he no longer wanted to live
in the PRC or be restricted as a writer by its censorship - can hardly be
relevant to the Chinese-ness of the book!

Thanks for the recommendation of Julia Lovell's book, which I hope to find
and read - or at least the article, especially if that's freely available
on the web.

Bill

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From: Costas Kouremenos <enaskitis at gmail.com>
Subject: Pathlight and Peregrine (5)

This is the link to "The Curse" by A Yi (transl. Julia Lovell), mentioned
in Ms. Lovell's article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/curse-a-yi-story-china

Costas

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From: Lily Lee <l.lee at sydney.edu.au>
Subject: Pathlight and Peregrine (6)

French citizen or Chinese citizen is beside the point. No one can deny
that Gao Xingjian was nourished by the Chinese culture. It is not
necessary to take such a narrow view regarding who he is.

Lily