‘Overseas Chinese writer is now a label’: Interview with youth author Xia Zhou
Originally published on Global Voices
Screenshot from AsiaPacificMemo YouTube channel
What does it mean to leave your country but keep its language?
Xia Zhou (夏周) is a Chinese writer who studied multimedia design in Australia and currently lives in the US and writes in Chinese. His works, including “The Crown-wearing White Cockatoo” (戴王冠的白鹦鹉), focus on the life and growing pains of China's younger generations. A number of Sinophone authors live outside of their country and produce works in Chinese or in foreign languages, such as Ha Jin and Guo Xiaolu. Global Voices interviewed Xia by email to find out what motivates him to continue to write in Chinese while living outside of China.
Portrait of Zhou Xia, used with permission.
Filip Noubel (FN): You belong to the younger generation of Chinese writers. How do young people in China consume literature?
夏周: 生活中也常常听到这样的声音，年轻一辈读书少了，读文学书的就更少了。随着互联网和移动设备的普及，地铁上的“低头族”多了，捧着书读的人却逐渐少了。
同时，现在年轻人的消遣方式也越来越丰富，除了读书，我们还有电影、游戏等渠道。当然，我认为优秀的电影、游戏等都离不开文学的基础。我们也看到不少文学作品被搬到了银幕上。中国的四大古典名著就不断被改编解构成各种各样的作品。除了经典作品，其他类型的文学，像J·K·罗琳《哈利波特》系列和托尔金的《魔戒》系列，也是从小说开始最终变成成深受大家喜爱的文化品牌。另一方面，我们也没有停止让叙事更变得有沉浸感和交互性，从2D到3D，我们甚至开发出VR/AR等设备去帮我们讲故事。当我去环球影城玩哈利波特游乐项目的时候，当我跟着过山车移动，配合画面声音，这样我感觉自己不仅走进了故事，而且成为故事的一部分。
Xia Zhou (XZ): It is often said that younger generations read less books, and that even fewer read literature. With the popularization of the internet and mobile devices, there are more “bowed heads” on the subway, but fewer people read holding books in their hands.
At the same time, young people now have more and more means of entertainment. In addition to reading, there are movies and games. Of course, I think excellent movies and games are inseparable from the foundation of literature. We have also seen many literary works being adapted to the screen. China's Four Classics have been continuously adapted into various works. In addition to those, other literary genres, such as JK Rowling‘s “Harry Potter” and Tolkien's “Lord of the Rings” series, also started as novels before eventually becoming popular cultural brands. On the other hand, we have not stopped creating more immersive and interactive narratives. From 2D to 3D, we have even developed Virtual Reality/Alternative Reality and other devices to help us tell stories. When I went to Universal Studios to take the Harry Potter tour, as I moved on a roller coaster, and with the sound of the picture, I felt like I was not only walking into the story, but becoming part of it.
FN: Whom do you regard as key Chinese writers?
夏周: 这是一个比较难回答的问题。我认为民国时期的作家比较具有代表性，比如鲁迅、张爱玲、林语堂等。以鲁迅先生为例，作为五四新文化运动中的代表人物，他在《新青年》杂志发表第一篇白话小说《狂人日记》，对于文言文转向白话文的过渡中起到了重要作用。
总的来说，鲁迅作品以其批判性见长。他说过“学医救不了中国人”，所以他就弃医从文，通过文字去批判当时中国社会制度的封建迂腐，探讨人性中的弱点。《阿Q正传》塑造了阿Q这样一个典型“我弱我有理”的形象。
五四新文化运动之后，中国文学进入了一个欧化阶段。鲁迅自己也表示，自己也是受到西方文学的影响，加上一定的医学知识。鲁迅的《狂人日记》或多或少也是受到果戈理的《狂人日记》的启发。
XZ: This is a more difficult question to answer. I think writers of the Republic of China period are more representative, such as Lu Xun, Zhang Ailing, Lin Yutang and others. As a representative of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Lu Xun published his first vernacular novel “Diary of a Madman” and it played an important role in the transition from classical to vernacular Chinese.
Generally speaking, Lu Xun's works are known for being very critical. As he once said, “studying medicine cannot save Chinese people,” he thus abandoned medicine and followed literature, criticizing the feudalism of the Chinese social system at the time. He explored the weaknesses of human nature through writing, including the famous “The True Story of Ah Q” that created the cult quote of “acting weak is reasonable.”
After the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Chinese literature entered a stage of Europeanization. Lu Xun himself also said he was influenced by Western literature, and by a certain amount of Western medical knowledge. In fact, Lu Xun's “Diary of a Madman” is to some degree inspired by Gogol‘s “Diary of a Madman.”
FN: You are Chinese, you write in Chinese, and you live in the US. How do you manage this multi-faceted identity? Is there a global Sinophone literature scene today?
夏周: 我曾在澳洲和美国留学，念的是设计，日常生活也需要用到英文进行交流。中文是我的母语，我也喜欢中文独有的美感，所以对我来说用中文写作似乎是一件自然而然的事。
关于海外华语文学本身，我最近也正在主持中国大陆的著名文学杂志《鸭绿江》的《海外华语小说速递》栏目。那么对于文学分类，将海外华语小说作为一个独立单元的意义何在？
当我阅读海外华语小说，除了文本风格有所不同，还是能感受到小说在气质上有相似之处。身在海外的这几年，结识到不少优秀的华语作家。在这个群体中，大多都有自己的本职工作，故作家更多的是一种身份，而非职业。这批作家不依靠写作为生，其中一部分外语能力也非常出色，对他们来说，尝试用外语写作也并非不可能。身在海外，华语圈是一个相对小众且非主流的生态，是什么让他们没有放弃写作，并且依然坚持用中文写作呢？与他们的交流中，我感受到他们对于母语有着痴迷的热爱。中文表达讲究含蓄之美，而英文更多注重的是逻辑性与条理性的阐述。两者侧重不同。
谈了语言的部分，再讲一下题材。海外华语作家得益于自身背景，相对拥有广阔的全球视野，他们的故事背景时常发生在国外，通过生活截面去反映华侨或移民身在异乡的境遇，描述他们在面对陌生环境中如何与当地不同的人事、文化、社会产生碰撞与交汇。
另一方面，被定义为“海外华语作家”，虽可以更快找到自己的同类，但这样的标签也会使人陷入迷茫。对于国内来说，这批写作者属于海外作家，对于国外，他们也不归为本土作家，位于这样两难的境地，华语作家可能会遇到身份和文化认同的问题——这对于移民来说是一个普遍的问题。虽然小说家在写作时，更多关注叙事本身，而不是标签。我们也是诚心地希望能找到喜欢自己作品的读者，所以在取材上，难免会陷入是忠于内心还是所谓去迎合读者的纠结之中。那么海外华人的故事便是一个很好的切口，因为我们即是参与者观察者，同时也是记录者。
XZ: I studied design in Australia and the US, and I need to use English to communicate in my daily life. Chinese is my mother tongue, and I like its unique beauty, so writing in Chinese seems natural to me.
Regarding overseas Chinese literature, I am currently hosting the “Overseas Chinese Novels Express” column of the famous literary magazine “Yalu River” in mainland China. So indeed what does it mean to treat overseas Chinese novels as its own literary category?
When I read overseas Chinese novels, apart from the difference in style, I can still feel they share similarities in terms of character. In those past few years living overseas, I have met many outstanding Chinese writers. Most of them have jobs, so being a writer is more an identity than a profession. For those authors who do not make a living from writing, it is not impossible to try writing in foreign languages, as some are very good at it. Being outside of China, this Chinese-speaking circle is relatively niche and does not belong to mainstream literature. So what keeps them from giving up writing, or from writing in Chinese? In my communication with them, I feel that they have an obsessive love for their mother tongue. Chinese underlines the beauty of implicitness, while English is more focused on logical and orderly elaborations. Those two emphases are different.
After talking about language, let's talk about subject matter. Overseas Chinese-speaking writers benefit from their own cultural background and have a relatively broad global perspective. Their stories often take place abroad. Through different life situations, they reflect on the fate of overseas Chinese or immigrants in foreign lands, and describe how they interact with local people in an unfamiliar environment.
On the other hand, although it can help you fit into a specific category faster, being defined by the label of “overseas Chinese-speaking writer” confuses people. For writers back home in China, such writers belong to the outside world, yet in foreign lands, the same authors are not classified as local writers. In such a dilemma, Chinese writers may encounter problems of identity and cultural self-definition—this is indeed a big problem for immigrants, and a very common question. But when novelists write, they focus more on the narrative itself, rather than on labels . We also sincerely hope to find readers who like our works, so when it comes to collecting material, we inevitably fall into a contradiction: should we be loyal to our hearts, or cater to readers? In this context, stories by overseas Chinese have a notch, because we are not only participants, and observers, but also recorders.
FN: How would you define your own writing? What motivates you to write?
夏周: 我目前的作品以短篇小说为主，另外还有一部分诗歌。我认为自己是幸运的，能够有机会在澳洲留学，于英国实习，去日本旅游，到韩国度假，抵美国读研……这些经历拓宽了我的视野，也藉此为灵感创作了我的第一本小说集《戴王冠的白鹦鹉》（故事发生在上海、悉尼、纽约、伦敦、东京、首尔）。在作品中，我还是会更多把切入点放在同时代的年轻人身上，出国留学的学生，定居海外的移民。
该小说集的另外一个特点，是受近年电影宇宙的概念的启发，我很喜欢这种在故事中构建完整世界观的方式，便萌生了创造一个“小说宇宙”的想法。我在书中创造了“白先生”这个人物，白先生这个人物是地狱使者白无常的化身，其原型是悉尼皇家植物园常见的黄顶白鹦鹉。我用戏仿小说的技法，将白先生这一角色和传说中的地狱使者白无常结合起来。每当书中的人物遇到死亡或意外，他就会以第三人称出现，传达一些写作者不便言说的观点。
XZ: My current works are mainly short stories, but also a few poems. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to study in Australia, get some practice in the UK, travel to Japan, vacation in Korea, and study in the United States… These experiences have broadened my horizons and inspired me to create my first collection of short stories called “The Crown-wearing White Cockatoo” (the story takes place in Shanghai, Sydney, New York, London, Tokyo, Seoul). In my works, I focus more on young people of the same age, students who study abroad, and immigrants who settle overseas,
Another feature of this collection of prose is that it was inspired by the concept of the movie universe. I like this way of constructing a complete world view in a story, so the idea of creating a “novel universe” was born. In my book, I created a character called “Mr. Bai”, who is the incarnation of Bai Wuchang, the messenger of hell in the Chinese tradition. The prototype for him is ,the yellow-capped white parrot that is common in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. I use parody to combine Mr.Bai's role with the legendary Bai Wuchang. Whenever a character in the book encounters death or an accident, he reappears as a the third person, to convey viewpoints that the writer is not comfortable expressing himself.
Originally published in Global Voices.
