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© Hartwig Klappert
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Wei Hui
China
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Wei Hui was born in 1973
in Ningbo near Shanghai. In 1990 she was among the first students
compelled to complete a full year of compulsory training at a military
school, following the student unrests. It was at this time that she
began to write. Wei Hui studied Chinese Language and Literature at
Fudan University in Shanghai, graduating in 1995. Afterwards she worked
in various professions, including as a journalist and a television
editor.
Wei Hui belongs to the younger and more liberated generation
of Chinese authors, who have proved controversial in breaking with the
tradition of collectivism and state propagated moral dictates; not only
do they unashamedly and comprehensively portray individuals oscillating
between the desire for life and the fear of existence, but they also
discuss sexuality openly.
The overriding compulsions of the
protagonist in Wei Hui's semi-autobiographical first novel »Shanghai
baobei« (1999; Eng. »Shanghai Baby«, 2001) are inebriation and
hedonism. »Every morning when I open my eyes I wonder what I can do to
make myself famous. It's become my ambition, almost my raison d'être,
to burst upon the city like a firework.« The main character, an author,
is torn between two men. As her sensitive Chinese boyfriend is unable
to be physically intimate with her, she embarks on a passionate
relationship with a German businessman. »Shanghai Baby« flirts with
cultural stereotypes, plays with the theme of identity and illustrates
the lifestyle of a new generation in an emboldened China, which is
becoming attuned to Western standards as a result of increasing
prosperity as well as unshackling itself from strict social taboos and
precepts. The authorities found the novel provocative in the extreme
and the author was labelled »decadent, debauched and a slave of foreign
culture«. The work was banned, along with all four of Wei Hui’s
collections of short stories which had previously been available. The
publishing house was closed down for eight months, and 40,000 copies of
the book were burned. Nevertheless, millions of copies were distributed
illegally throughout China and the novel has also become an
international bestseller, with translations in thirty-four languages.
The film version of the novel is currently being produced and the
project was presented this year in Cannes. The film is due to be shown
in cinemas in 2007.
Wei Hui’s most recent novel »My Zen« (2005; Eng.
»Marrying Buddha«, 2005) follows on from her first work. The story is
set in Shanghai and New York, where the protagonist is again caught
between two men; one American and the other Japanese. It seems that pop
literature has received official approval in China between the
publication of the two novels. After the author changed certain
details, the four and a half year ban on her work was lifted, allowing
the novel to be published in China. The book immediately found itself
at the top of the bestsellers’ lists, and was translated into 14
languages. The author lives in Shanghai and New York.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Marrying Buddha
Ullstein
Berlin, 2005
[T: Susanne Hornfeck]
Shanghai Baby
Ullstein
Berlin, 2006
[T: Karin Hasselblatt]
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