Product Code Database
Wang Xiaobo () (May 13, 1952 – April 11, 1997) was a renowned contemporary Chinese novelist and essayist from Beijing.
Wang was born into a family of in Beijing. He was transferred to a collective farm in Yunnan during the Cultural Revolution, which later became the writing background for his most famous novel Golden Age. This novel won him the 1991 United Daily News novella award. In just a few years he wrote an avalanche of novels, stories, essays and newspaper articles, especially popular among young people. He died of a heart attack in 1997.
Wang is one of the most influential and popular novelists in China. The values upheld in his works, such as wisdom, fun, and freedom, are a unique example in the literature field of China. He has become a cultural icon of the country. "Wang Xiaobo hot" continues to this day.
In 1977, he met and fell in love with Li Yinhe, who was the editor of the Guangming Daily. In 1980, they married and he published his debut work, Earth Forever. In 1978, he entered the Department of Trade and Economics of Renmin University of China with a bachelor's degree, studying trade economics and commodity science. In 1982, he worked as a teacher at Renmin and began to write The Golden Age. In 1968, he began to try to write in Yunnan Corps. This is the writing background of The Golden Age and the inspiration for The Endlessness. In 1984, he studied at the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and received a master's degree. He began to write novels based on the legend of the Tang dynasty, during which he received the guidance of historian Xu Zhuoyun. While studying in the United States, Wang traveled throughout the country and used his 1986 summer vacation to visit Western Europe.
Wang returned to China in 1988, and served as a lecturer in the Department of Sociology of Peking University. In 1991, he served as a lecturer in the accounting department of Renmin. He became a freelance writer in 1992. His only screenplay, East Palace West Palace, won the Best Screenplay Award at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina and was nominated for the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival. (2026). 9787542637949 ISBN 9787542637949
Wang died in Beijing on April 11, 1997, after a heart attack.
Wang's unique black humor runs throughout his works, which also show his attitude towards life. His novels were drawn from his life experiences, including his time as an "educated youth" in Yunnan and as an engineer engaged in technical work. The age and background of the works are also related to Wang's life. Growth periods overlap. In these works, he portrays a reality: "I see a world without intelligence, but wisdom exists in chaos; I see a world without sex, but sex exists in chaos; I see a boring world, but interesting exists in the chaos".
Judging from his essays, the philosopher Bertrand Russell had a deep influence on Wang's thoughts. He admired and advocated science and rationality, and believed that people's lives should pursue the unknown. He opposed the imprisonment of thoughts and advocated that people's thinking should be diverse, to make life interesting, and that they should love wisdom. His work was particularly influential with college students in the 1990s, but his influence is still felt.
Wang's sudden death in 1997 marked the beginning of the Wang Xiaobo phenomenon. His works have been disseminated and accepted unprecedentedly, and have prompted serious reactions in both folk and intellectual circles. In the 21st century, he is among the most-read of 1990s Chinese novelists. Various forms of Wang Xiaobo commemorative meetings and work seminars continue.
The explosion of the Wang Xiaobo phenomenon lies in his essays. It is worth mentioning that his essays have received attention before him. Critics have compared Wang Xiaobo's sudden rise in popularity to that of Chen Yinke, signifying the second boom of the liberal wave in China.
Though Wang Xiabo continues to be very popular, mainstream critical reaction to his novels has been limited and the focus of interest is his essays.
Before his death, Wang once said, "One day we will all die, and there will be people walking on the path of pursuing wisdom. I can't see what happens after death. But when I was alive, I thought about it, and I thought about it in my heart. I'm very happy."
The famous contemporary Chinese writer Wang Meng commented: "Wang Xiaobo is a very thoughtful person. I am interested in his philosophical prose and essays. But for his novels, to be honest, I didn't finish reading them because his style is not great to my appetite."
Huang Ping, a professor of the Chinese Department of East China Normal University and a young critic, said: "(Wang Xiaobo) joking about aesthetics, a masterpiece of a generation". Chinese American musician Gao Xiaosong regards him as a "god-like existence"; writer Feng Tang has said called Wang "a miracle" and "a very good start."
Wang has been identified as an inspiration for and early representative of minjian, grassroot intellectuals, a population of alternative intellectuals who were able to grow around the 2000s in China.
|
|
