Chapter 9 appendix

brief introduction The author, Su Tong, male, was born in January 1963 in Suzhou, Jiangsu. In 1980, he was admitted to the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University. In 1984, he went to work in Nanjing. He once served as the editor of "Zhongshan" and is now a professional writer in Jiangsu Branch of the Chinese Writers Association. He began to publish novels in 1983, and has so far written over one hundred thousand words, including seven collections of short stories and two novels.At present, Su Tong is in the limelight, and there are excellent works published from time to time.After being adapted into the film "Raise the Red Lantern" by the famous film director Zhang Yimou, which was nominated for an Academy Award, Su Tong's reputation has been well-known at home and abroad, and he is undoubtedly the leader of the young generation of writers.

Su Tong's famous work should be the "Escape in 1934" published in 1987. Since then, Su Tong has been regarded by the critics as the leader of the "avant-garde" (or "post-new wave"). After 1989, "Su Tong's style has changed. From the form to the story, trying to tell some old-fashioned stories in the old-fashioned way, it is a typical masterpiece. To be precise, it does not reflect Su Tong's face as an "avant-garde". This novel Already with the intention of returning to tradition, many people even push this novel as a representative work of "new realism". Here, this novel is selected as a representative work of "avant-garde", mainly because this novel has great influence and also marks the Su Tong's narrative style is maturing. Moreover, this seemingly classic novel also shows a very modern narrative method; it emphasizes language feeling and narrative syntax, and still does not take off the cloak of formalism. Therefore, it is regarded as an "avant-garde" The representative work is also appropriate,

This novel tells the story of a marriage tragedy suffered by a woman.Contrary to most of the "new youths" during the "May 4th" period, Song Lian, a "new woman", walked into an old family. She almost consciously became a victim of the old-style marriage, and her ability and determination became the driving force behind her road to despair. .Obviously, Su Tong endowed this woman with too much femininity. She is familiar with the jealousy and intrigue among women, and even wins Chen Zuoqian's favor with "smartness on the bed".However, her pure temperament and straightforward character can't save the fate of Xiao Wang after all.

There is almost no detailed description of Chen Zuoqian in the novel. This old-fashioned man who is passionate about his son-in-law looks a bit like Ximen Qing. He uses his enthusiasm for his bed brother to cover up his decadent and empty life.In the whole story, he is the supreme and pale and empty background, so that in Zhang Yimou's adaptation of the film, Chen Zuoqian is only left with a dignified and vague back.Feipu seems to bring some kind of vitality, but under the cover of his handsome appearance, it is the fear of women. For the people of this family, for this old-fashioned and decadent life, Feipu is another categorical negative.Su Tong not only writes about the tragic fate of women in the patriarchal society, but also writes about the catastrophe of the inevitable collapse of patriarchal history.Although the symbolic meaning of the well is somewhat reluctant, however, the gloomy background silently swallowed the bright hope of life, and the old life was exhausted.

Su Tong is obviously not repeating the story of feudal marriage tragedy. For Su Tong's narrative, "story" does not seem to be particularly important, and the theme does not even need to be delved into.This is not a new and unique story, but it can give people a particularly deep impression because of Su Tong's charming narrative, the pure and transparent language feeling; the extremely vivid story situations; the warm and sentimental. Obviously, this story can see, ,, and "A Dream of Red Embrace", and even shadows; the author's playful observation of this kind of life can still be seen to some extent the traditional attitude of old Chinese literati.These make Su Tong's narration not only have the handwriting of historical decadence, but also have deep cultural connotations.

In a sense, this novel expresses the strange view of history of Su Tong and even a generation of young writers.That is to say, "sex" is regarded as the root and driving force of history.Due to the disorder of "sex", the fate of the family and even the ruin of history cannot be escaped.In addition to the historical memory of Zuo Qian as an ancient culture, he tried to obtain fertility (life force) from young women. The failure of his attempt only symbolized that the ancient Chinese history had completely lost the possibility of continuation.In this sense, this novel unintentionally presents a situation of historical decay, a historical destiny of cultural failure.

Su Tong is particularly good at portraying female images, and the ancient adage of "beautiful women are hard to live" is particularly full of charm in Su Tong's hands.In his view, perhaps "women embody more elements of novels", those women are elegant and clear, willful and hard-working, exuding sentimental poetry.However, the women in Su Tong's works also give people a sense of similarity.They have a similar heart, the same fate.Obviously, the ending of "Wives in Crowds" is a bit reluctant, as if it intentionally created a tragic ending. The fate of Su Tong's women has already been doomed a priori.

Su Tong's narration is elegant and calm, as pure as water, especially his characteristics.It is plainly written but full of meaning and rhyme; the writing is elegant and full of Jiangnan sentiment; this should be attributed to Su Tong's proper combination of narrative and lyricism.Su Tong had doubts about his own elegant style; Northern writers ridiculed it as "famey" and "feminine".In recent years, Su Tong has increased the material of "fierce" and told more stories about bandits and revenge.In any case, Su Tong is very talented, has excellent savvy, and can know the enemy and the enemy. Although he has been labeled as a "prolific writer", his future is still limitless.