Novel
在同一地平線上
Not translated into English
Zhang Xinxin · 1981
Synopsis
Two young people from Beijing speak in turn. She is preparing for an exam, he paints and draws. They married, then separated, and each pursues, separately, a difficult success, crossing the city by bicycle from morning to night to work and look for a path; they pass each other, clash and find each other again. According to the French publisher's presentation, the author is the same age as her characters and has a life close to theirs; the narrative is likewise regarded as partly autobiographical.
Context
The novel appeared in the sixth issue of 1981 of the journal Shouhuo, according to the China-West database in Zurich. It made its author known; she had written it during her studies in directing, and it was then targeted by the campaign against spiritual pollution; Jiemian reports that it was denounced as the representative of existentialism in China. Emmanuelle Péchenart translated it into French for Actes Sud as early as 1986, Marie-Luise Beppler-Lie into German the following year. The French publisher saw in it an answer to the questions raised about a Chinese youth whose hopes were cut short by the repression of 1989.
Who it is for
A short novel, whose two narrators alternate; it has existed in French from Actes Sud since 1986.
Prizes and reception
The author's first success according to Jiemian, before the attacks of 1983 that targeted her in the national press.
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