Wang Kao

A novelist who is difficult to interpret, a classic that cannot be ignored in the history of Taiwanese literature. Winner of the United Daily News Literary Novel Award, Tong Weiguo's works are introduced for the first time. ◎ Editor's recommendation★ Tong Weiguo is the most representative of Taiwan's sixth-grade novelists. He has won recognition such as the Taiwan Provincial Literature Award, the United Daily News Literary Award, and the Taiwan Literature Golden Classic Award. He is considered to be the "culmination of the introverted generation" after Yuan Zhesheng and Luo Yijun.
Magical realism, localism, modernism, the introvert generation... We can glimpse many styles in Tong Weige's writing, but it is difficult to sum him up with a single adjective. As Luo Yijun said, "The terrifying thing about Tong Weige is that he can explain everyone else, but no one can explain him."
As Tong Wei-ge's first imported work, "The Imperial Examination" holds a significant place. Published at the age of 25, it immediately captivated the Taiwanese literary world, demonstrating the artist's mastery of various novelistic techniques. As Huang Jinshu once remarked, "Tong Wei-ge's novel writing was mature almost from the outset, as if he had skipped the apprenticeship stage. Many of the short stories in his first collection, "The Imperial Examination," are practically masterpieces."
"I asked my grandfather, 'What is love?' I asked him, 'Why are people so foolish?' I asked, 'Why do we live?'" In "The King's Test," Tong Weige uses sharp, bleak prose to capture life's mysterious moments, telling the story of an old soul's unhappy childhood. He dismantles specific plot points, freezes narrative time, and allows characters to engage directly with fate. The story moves swiftly, always shrouded in the shadow of death.
In this collection of short stories, Tong Weige employs a variety of narrative styles, including rural narratives, magical realism, and even a fusion of history and mythology, to create nine complex works. These stories, starting from a coastal village, repeatedly depict the people who come and go there. They cross mountains, cross seas, travel on roads, head to the city, and ultimately return to the village. The constantly wandering people and recurring scenes create a series of images frozen in time, and in these frozen moments, they face fate head-on.
◎ Celebrity Recommendation★ I was truly captivated by Tong Weige's beautiful, pure novels. "How could they be so good?" They were decades ahead of my novel enlightenment, a vast and complete landscape of "man directly conversing with fate," "before narrative was tainted."
—Taiwanese novelist Luo Yijun★ The thoroughly lyrical style of "The King's Test" also reveals Tong Weige's affinity with lyricism. In this respect, his writing can be said to be an extension of two of his contemporaries who died young, Yuan Zhesheng (intense lyricism) and Huang Guojun (standard modernism), attempting to move further toward their vanishing point—the end of possibility that can never be approached.
—Malaysian Chinese writer Huang Jinshu★ "A childhood filled with an unhappy old soul"—this is my take on Tong Weiguo's novels. He tells stories almost from the voice of a child, sharp yet calm, with flowing plots. His remarkable skill is his ability to use characters' actions to depict inner states, pure and simple storytelling. Reading his novels, the image that comes to mind is: "An old man in front of a village grocery store, telling stories from his childhood."
——Taiwanese novelist Gan Yaoming★ In the novel "Wang Kao", the shadows of death and loss are everywhere, as if it is irresistibly trapped in the gap between time and time, the pointer is stuck, so the characters are hurriedly flowing on the edge of dreams and reality, and life and death seem to become two sides of the same coin, and the mottled memories become pieced together incomplete fragments.
——Taiwanese writer Hao Yuxiang◎Award record★ "I" won the 1999 "Taipei Literature Award" short story judge award★ "Shadow" won the 2000 "College Student Literature Award" short story third prize★ "Hide" won the 2000 "Taiwan Province Literature Award" short story selection★ "Wang Kao" won the 2002 "United Daily News Literature Award" short story first prize★ The author won the 2010 "Taiwan Literature Award" book category novel gold classic award with the novel "Northwest Rain"

2019-07-01

四川人民出版社

Houlang, Houlang Literature

192

9787220113468