The famous contemporary Chinese writer Zhang Jie passed away due to illness on January 21, 2022.
This news immediately took me back to the 1980s when I was crazy about reading literary magazines. Wang Meng, Zong Pu, Ru Zhijuan, Xu Huaizhong, Liu Xinwu, Chen Rong, Kong Jiesheng... these writers who were very active at that time have emerged from the depths of my memory with Zhang Jie's departure. The strange thing is that when I tried to recall the details of their works, most of them were blurred. Only one scene written by Zhang Jie in her novel "Heavy Wings" remained vivid in my mind.
Afraid of being misled by my memory, I found "Heavy Wings" from the bookcase and started browsing. Fortunately, time has not disturbed me.
Zheng Ziyun, a deputy ministerial cadre committed to reform, has a vain and overbearing wife Xia Zhuyun. Their youngest daughter Zheng Yuanyuan reluctantly lived with Xia Zhujun under the same roof because she couldn't bear to leave her father, who was always being made things difficult and bullied by Xia Zhujun. The elegant parents, both professors of French at the university, died during the Cultural Revolution. This huge blow caused Mo Zheng, who was good at cooking Western food and proficient in French, to sink to the bottom of society and live passively. Ye Zhiqiu, who took Mo Zheng to live with him, could not cheer up Mo Zheng despite all kinds of encouragement. However, all this changed after meeting Zheng Yuanyuan. Zheng Yuanyuan, who admired the talent, chose Mo Zheng between the rich and powerful son Xia Zhuyun was looking for for her and Mo Zheng who told her Hugo's "Les Misérables" in French. Xia Zhuyun chose Mo Zheng. Hence the rage. After a fierce quarrel, Zheng Yuanyuan decided to run away from home. Before leaving, Zheng Yuanyuan took off the blue duck down hiking jacket that Xia Zhujun bought for her and put on an old cotton-padded jacket that was obviously too small...
Set After getting into her little cotton-padded jacket, Zheng Yuanyuan took the military coat her father handed her and swung the door and left. This moment is deeply imprinted in my memory, and it has not faded after so many years. At this moment, I ask myself, among so many works by contemporary Chinese writers I read in the 1980s, why is this scene in "Heavy Wings" engraved deep in my memory? The answer is that it continues the view of love promoted by Zhang Jie's previously published short story "Love Can't Be Forgotten", which uses literary images to question Chekhov's poem she quoted in "Heavy Wings". That sentence: "Love, either, is something that is deteriorating, a remnant of something that was originally great; or, it is a factor that will become something great; but now, it makes people unable to Satisfaction, which gives much less than one could hope for.”
Presumably, Chekhov is Zhang Jie’s favorite writer, right? In addition to quoting Chekhov in the novel, the name appears several times in "Heavy Wings." In "Love Can't Be Forgotten", a selection of Chekhov's novels becomes a love token for Shanshan's mother, Zhong Yu.
"Love Can't Be Forgotten" is a short story with an uncomplicated plot: "I" is Shanshan, who is thirty years old but still undecided about whether to marry Qiao Lin. It's not because Qiao Lin is not good enough. Shanshan feels that it is difficult for Qiao Lin to resonate with her soul as the person she likes. She also firmly remembers the heartfelt words that her mother emphasized to her many times during her lifetime: "Shanshan, if you are not sure, "What do you want? I think it's better for you to live alone than to marry out of nowhere."
After her mother passed away, Shanshan followed her mother's last wish and handed over the deed. A selection of Khov's novels was burned to her mother, but she left a notebook with the inscription "Love can never be forgotten." Shanshan also got a glimpse of her mother's love code: the "white man" who had a chance encounter with Shanshan. The "older man" who "happened grandly and magnificently" gave his mother a set of Chekhov's novels. "Sometimes, when she gets tired of writing, she will sit across from the bookcase with a cup of strong tea, She was lost in thought while reading the collection of Chekhov's novels. If I suddenly walked into her room at this time, she would look flustered, either spilling tea all over herself, or like a girl in love for the first time or having sex with her lover for the first time. Going on a date makes people blush as if they were bumping into her.”
The relationship between her mother and the man who gave her a collection of Chekhov's novels is self-evident. However, they met too late and they were destined to only communicate with each other from a distance. The closest distance was when her mother and Shanshan were waiting by the roadside, waiting for him. When the car passed by, he got out of the car, shook Shanshan's hand, and commented face to face on the work his mother had just published, "It (love) gives much less than what people hope for." The reason why in his works Chekhov has been mentioned many times and Chekhov's famous quotes are quoted. What Zhang Jie wants to lament is the love that cannot be loved and cannot be forgotten.
Times have changed. Today, readers who read "Heavy Wings" for the first time may ask the writer a question: Since the marriage is dead, why didn't Zheng Ziyun divorce Xia Zhuyun? Today, readers who read "Love Can't Forget" for the first time may ask the author a question: Why didn't Zhong Yu choose to bravely pursue the love in his heart? What Zhang Jie writes is the real marriage life and expectations for love of people who have just emerged from the desert of love. However, Zhang Jie wrote the marriage life, especially the love life, of Chinese people in the 1980s into his works. , adding a color of idealism with a clear imprint of Zhang Jie. Because of this, Zhang Jie's novels can stay in the memory of readers for a long time.
After Zhang Jie passed away, CCTV host Zhang Yue wrote a long article to mourn her friend. Zhang Yue wrote: "She often told me that she didn't like "Love Can't Be Forgotten". Although so many people liked it, it was just for self-entertainment. She told me not to be obsessed with that tune. If "You can't meet a man who is really good to you, and you would rather not get married, because marriage may be a huge harm." It can be seen that Zhang Jie, who once praised love in a high-profile novel, is no longer so convinced by Chehe. Chekhov's judgment on love has changed to question the indispensability of love more radically than Chekhov.
Indeed, in the 1990s, especially after entering the new century, the standards for choosing a spouse for young people in the golden age of pursuing love were different from those of Mo Zheng, Zheng Yuanyuan and Shan who were written about by Zhang Jie in her works. Sisters, great changes have taken place. Whether they can have sexual intercourse mentally is no longer the first criterion for choosing a mate, but has given way to social status and factors related to social status, such as IQ and wealth. , social relationships, etc., and youth, health, strength, etc. that can ensure the longevity of the other party's social status.
Despite this, writers are still looking for pure love based on the spiritual level and recording it in literary works. In October 2021, Yilin Publishing House published the latest novel "The Only Story" by the famous British writer Julian Barnes. In the novel, Paul and Susan, who have the same pursuit, overcome their age difference, fall in love against all odds and live together. However, the love between Paul and Susan, which had overcome many obstacles, ultimately failed to withstand the test of time. As the differences in social status, ability to control daily life, and especially health grew larger, Paul and Susan's love fell apart. .
Since it is fiction, Julian Barnes can completely whitewash the love between Paul and Susan in "The Only Story". However, good writers are well aware of the relationship between fiction and life. Therefore, even though he believes that love is the only story worth writing about, Julian Barnes still chooses to follow life. However, "The Only Story" by Julian Barnes also allows us to read that literature has never stopped looking for innocent love stories. Only in this way, "Love Cannot Forget" and "Heavy Wings" etc. Zhang Jie's early creations are particularly valuable. In addition to faithfully recording the love we longed for during that period, they also make us believe that love that cannot be forgotten is always on the road.