by Astrid Bouwman
A rainy afternoon in Utrecht
On a rainy but still warm Saturday afternoon in September, the narrow streets of Utrecht are freshly washed away by the last shower. Shoppers don’t care much about it; With or without an umbrella, they stroll or hurry through the crowds. It is also full at bookstore Broese. On the first floor, a group of about 25 people listens attentively to FD journalist Jeroen Bos and the Chinese author Zhang Yueran. After a five-day tour of Germany, she is in the Netherlands to promote her new novel Zwaan House. The interview with signing session is organized by Broese and VNC. We were there to meet this important contemporary Chinese writer. For those who could not attend, here is an impression.
Who is Zhang Yueran
Bos asks Zhang how and when she started writing. She says that she was already writing stories at the age of fourteen. Through a socio-economically desirable study Computer Science – popular at the time – she found her way back to literature. She now also teaches at the University of Beijing. She often works on several projects at the same time. She regularly writes short stories for Chinese magazines, which are very popular there. In the meantime, she is already working on a new novel, but she doesn’t want to reveal anything about it yet.
Themes in her work
The conversation is extensively about De Spijker, her previous, very successful novel, and about the themes that keep coming back. With his questions, Bos balances between interpretation and spoilers; it is also difficult for Zhang not to reveal too much. For example, she drops that there is a murder in Huize Zwaan, something that was not in the blurb.
She did a lot of research for De Spijker, including through conversations with her parents about the Cultural Revolution – a period that no one in China likes to talk about. She wrote the story based on the idea that you have to know history to understand the present. Just as the two main characters reveal a big secret bit by bit, Zhang – and her generation – have had to discover the past like a puzzle.
The nanny is central
In Huize Zwaan, nanny Yu Ling plays the leading role. Zhang wanted to write a story about a nanny, an important but often misunderstood figure in Chinese society. She used to have a nanny herself. Where this work used to occur mainly in wealthy families to relieve mothers, today it is a necessity to make women’s careers possible. Chinese society is much more conservative than in the West, where women have more freedom of choice.
The idea for the book arose after a widely reported scandal in the Chinese press: a government official accused of corruption fled to Hong Kong with his family and left his young child with the nanny. With this bizarre but realistic fact, Zhang works out an exciting plot. In doing so, she does not lose sight of the real relationships in China: the feeling of imprisonment, being stuck in social class or marriage, regardless of gender, power or wealth.
Yu Ling was bought away from her previous employer by her current boss without a say. She feels trapped, but can do little to change. To improve her status, she wants to get married, but the money is lacking. Her boss, mother and artist, does not believe in her own talent and cannot finish anything. She too is stuck – in a golden cage – where creativity is stifled by money and power. At the same time, she cannot fully choose to raise her son.
One of the central questions in the book is: who is the real mother, who has a successful relationship with the child? Another theme is hierarchy. The men quickly disappear from the story, but their shadow remains palpable. They are not free either; There is always someone higher up in the hierarchy pulling the strings. Only the son is still free – he doesn’t know his place.
Writing for two readerships
While writing, Zhang sees both her Chinese and her international reader in front of her. She even thinks ahead to the questions her translator can ask. For the Chinese market, where social criticism is quickly met with censorship, she manages to get her message across by having characters discuss their own lives and experiences. In this way, she avoids an explicit judgment and still makes sensitive topics discussable.
Despite her success, Zhang sees a bleak future for young writers. People read less and less and prefer to watch series. The older generation reads classics or historical novels, but hardly any work by young authors. Even her students need a lot of encouragement to finish a book. But, she says, this is a global trend, not just in China.
The challenge of translation
Zhang’s regular translator Annelous Stiggelbout explains that not everything can be translated literally. Sometimes it is a matter of looking for a suitable alternative. For example, the swan in the story is actually a goose. In Chinese, the word for goose and swan is the same with a difference in degree: a common goose and a heavenly goose – our swan. The boy in the story does not yet understand that difference and calls the goose a swan.
The title De Spijker is also such an example. In Chinese and English, the book is called Cocon, which has a negative meaning of oppression and imprisonment. In Dutch, ‘cocoon’ evokes something positive – time for yourself, cozy with friends on the couch. That is why a title was chosen that better suits the Dutch context.
Finally
After the interview and the questions from the audience, Zhang not only signed for the attendees but also for the pile of orders through the bookstore. Some seized the opportunity to have all of Zhang’s books signed by her.
It was special to meet Zhang, an important writer of her generation who broke through internationally thanks to De Spijker. Huize Zwaan reflects today’s Chinese society, with persistent corruption, great inequality between rich and poor and the inferior position of women. Thanks to Annelous Stiggelbout, we can also admire Zhang Yueran’s work in Dutch.
