Chapter 7 There is a China in the soul

(Editor's Note: The following is the full text of the interview with Haruki Murakami by Hong Jinzhu, a reporter from China Times in Japan. The interview time was around the end of the 1990s.) Hong Jinzhu: In "A Clockwork Bird Chronicle", you once wrote about things in mainland China, Manchuria and other places, and you also wrote about a bar owner, Chen Sang. Some people say that your novel has a very special description of China and Chinese people, and even thinks that "China" is the origin of your creation, what is your opinion on this statement? Haruki Murakami: I am from Kobe. There are many Chinese people there. Some of my classmates are Chinese. I have always lived around Chinese people. "Chinese" is very natural to me.In addition, my father was conscripted to mainland China during the war; he was conscripted as a soldier in college, and his life changed a lot because of that war. Although my father never mentioned the war when he was young, he often Speaking of Chinese customs and customs, "China" is not an actual existence for me, but a very important "mark".

I am also very surprised, why are Chinese people not Koreans in the novel?I haven't thought about it myself; I'm just writing out my memory images.For me, I don't want to write about China, but I deliberately imagine it. "China" is an important "mark" in my life. Hong Jinzhu: You once engaged in a student movement in college. Did this relatively affect your later writing? Haruki Murakami: There were many people involved in the student movement back then, but I was just one of them.The student movement had no effect on my novels, but that student movement made me "lose trust in words"; for example, there was a word called "revolution", when we heard this word, our hearts beat faster and we were so excited Yes, I think this word is very correct and just.But after the incident, I found out that "revolution" was just a "vocabulary"; I no longer had confidence in "nice words", and since then I don't want to borrow other people's language, I just want to create my own new vocabulary.

My personal best performance is: to express the most difficult truths with the simplest words, but most people express very simple truths with difficult words. My novels describe people's common experiences, and often give readers a medical effect after reading them. Hong Jinzhu: Do you also have the uneasiness of ordinary people in your heart? Haruki Murakami: I have reached a certain age, and I have goals in life, so there is no anxiety.When I was young, I was insecure. At that time, Japan was growing up. As long as young people have jobs, they usually don’t feel insecure. However, even if they have jobs, young people today still have insecurity.

Hong Jinzhu: Do you have any religious beliefs? Haruki Murakami: No.My father is a monk. He was originally a school teacher. Since the family has been the abbot of the temple for generations, he later became the abbot of the family temple. My father is a devout Buddhist, and I have no religious beliefs at all. Hong Jinzhu: Because of your continuous writing of "The Subway Incident", readers in Taiwan are very worried that the former "Haruki Murakami" will never come back. Do you have any new works recently? Haruki Murakami: I am writing a new novel, which is scheduled to be completed in January next year.It is a love novel that is completely different from the previous works, and the title has not yet been determined.Don't worry, "Haruki Murakami" is coming back.The writing method is similar to before, but the content is different from the past.I have never liked to do repetitive things, and challenge completely different themes every time.

My previous novels were rather long, but the romance novels I write now are relatively short novels, and I have thoroughly considered and simplified the text to make the novels more compact and exciting.I'm excited to write it myself, and it's a fantastic novel that's a little uncanny.This novel will be completed in January next year. January 12, 1999 is my 50th birthday. I hope to regard this novel as a commemoration of my 50th birthday, a new monument to my literary career. Hong Jinzhu: You lived abroad for many years because you deliberately wanted to keep a distance from Japan?Do you want to see Japan more clearly?

Haruki Murakami: It doesn’t matter if I stay in Japan or go abroad, because I can write anywhere as long as I have a computer.When traveling abroad, you can have more experience and new friends without the interruption of telephone calls. My three meals a day are mostly vegetables, fruits and fish. When traveling in the United States or other countries, most of them are easy to eat, so I don’t feel particularly homesick.I have always wanted to escape from Japan, so I lived in the United States for a long time, and later I returned to Japan because I wanted to know more about Japan; I always wanted to escape from the "big family" of Japan. I think the most important thing in the world is "freedom", but Japan What this "big family" lacks most is "freedom".

If you ask the Japanese, what is their favorite word?They will say that they like "effort", "patience", "kindness" and so on; "freedom" is often ranked last.This also means that Japan is a country that lacks "freedom", so I always want to escape from Japan and "home".For example, I never write about "family" in my novels, because I always wanted to escape from them. After I went abroad, I really got the freedom I wanted, but everything I did made me feel lonely.I think freedom is a good thing, but freedom is not the ultimate goal; after freedom, I have to think about how my life should be, so I came back to do what I should do.