Novelist and screenwriter Liu Zhenyun is very popular with domestic readers for his strong sense of humor and sharp criticism of writing style. His latest work Cell Phone is currently playing in cinemas across the country (directed by the "New Year movie master" Feng Xiaogang). It portrays a love triangle between a successful middle-aged TV talk show host, his wife and his lover. Recently, Liu poured out the motives and inspiration for Cell Phone in an interview with People's Daily.
Reporter: Cell Phone is a story about talking, right?
Liu Zhenyun: Yes. I wrote a sentence on the back cover of the book version that there are probably no more than ten useful sentences you might say in one day. It's really different from my other work, Chicken Feathers Everywhere (Yi Di Ji Mao) shows concern for man's body, focusing on the material world. Reams of Rubbish (Yi Qiang Fei Hua) is about man's imagination. While Cell Phone focuses on man's speech, regarding how many words one would say in a 24-hour period and the relationship between words and mind.
You know words are both spiritual and material. We are often asked to speak the plain truth, to be frank or honest. But sometimes we just don't obey this principle. Many thoughts often cannot be compressed into words. There is a huge gap between Yes and No. Statistics show that in general we produce 2,700 sentences a day, from getting up to going to bed. How many of those words are useful? How many of them are true? It's really an interesting question.
Reporter: In your story, is the cell phone a metaphor? Or a signifier?
Liu Zhenyun: My novel is all about the cell phone, but essentially it depicts men's talk and his conversations. People talk very quickly, and sometimes are long-winded, now they have mobile phones. Very often, we can now see people walking on the street, talking to themselves, crying their hearts out one moment and suddenly roaring with laughter the next. Now that we have the cell phone, people are more likely to be forced to reinterpret the truth. The cell phone may changes people's relationships. In such a sense, it becomes a grenade. (The poster of Cell Phone is designed and decorated as a grenade.)
Reporter: A philosopher once said that language was created to express human thought. But once it came alive, it seemed to have a life of its own. It usually denies, disassembles and distorts man's real thinking. Does Cell Phone convey a similar idea?
Liu Zhenyun: Yes. Your words form the idea system step-by-step. It's hard to justify a lie without the fabrication of another story. So you have to make up story to justify the first story. These lies gather together, controlling and wrapping around man's state of mind. For instance, supposing you're having a meal with a beautiful lady, and your phone suddenly rings. It's your girlfriend. "What are you doing?" she asks. "Eating with writer Liu Zhenyun," you reply. But if she longs for further confirmation and asks, "Let Liu on the phone then..." See? You have to make up another story.
Reporter: Previously, your work has been full of metaphors and signifiers that were fantastical and mysterious and broke the logic of time and space. Yet, your latest which has been turned into Cell Phone the film and has been chosen by director Feng Xiaogang for its more "normal" and popular narrative style. Is this a signal of a change in direction and a return to your artistic roots?
Liu Zhenyun: For example, one doesn't like talking to begin with, then we find we keep talking all day long over certain periods, and then later, keep our mouths closed again. You must understand that the latter "silence" is different from the first silence. Similarly, when I began to write, I liked to write in a more complex way. After accumulating experience, I became fond of writing in a simple way again. Of course, "simple" doesn't mean rough.
Reporter: It is said that the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso showed a talent for realistic painting when he was very young. But he gave it up later. One reason is that realistic painting had reached its apex and nobody was expected to surpass their predecessors. Did you change your writing style for the same reason?
Liu Zhenyun: No. A writing career comprises varied stages. You may be fond of this in one stage and then turn to that in a later one. The continuous change of writing style indicates the boundless vitality of a writer. It means he is alive and keeps searching.
Reporter: Do you think you've reached the high point of your career or are you still in the ascendant?
Liu Zhenyun: There are two kinds of movement in one's life. One is of achievement, such as participating in many football competitions in which scoring goals means you will win; the other is for failure, like high jumping. In that case you come to an end the moment you bump the pole. Writing is an activity that searches out failure. Before writing, you feel good; after finishing it, you find you're in a complete mess. The exhaustion of a writer is not due to the shortage of his thoughts but the lack of his life experience. If you don't know what's going on outside, you cannot depict life as it really changes.
Reporter: What do you want to tell the readers?
Liu Zhenyun: You can only do one really good thing in your whole life. It's totally different between wanting it to be really well done and it being done really well. I want to be a good writer and I am still trying my very best to be. If you notice that Liu Zhenyun is something different from other writers, you might have recognized I've never stopped searching all this time. I don't know when I will find it. But all my work constitute the process of seeking.
Reporter: What do you think a good writer should be?
Liu Zhenyun: In my opinion, a good writer should find himself expressing his individual thoughts and feelings of the world. Real creativity doesn't occur in the period of the writing itself. In fact, it happens earlier than that. As you have to look for it. If your points of view were the same as others, your work would be completely meaningless. Besides, whether or not it is unique, the answer is only knowable once the work is complete.
(China.org.cn by Lixiao and Daragh Moller, December 29, 2003)
