Our Ferocious Self-Doubt

Abstract

Xu Zechen has been acclaimed as the “best writer born in the 1970s” in China. In this interview by literary critic Zhang Xiumei, Xu talks about his works, in particular his novel Jerusalem, the fiction writing of other ’70s generation Chinese writers, and his view of literature in general. Some key concepts in his fiction, such as the “world” and the hometown, are discussed in connection with notions about history, religion, spiritual search, and growth. Xu conceives of his fiction writing as a means to answer questions, and one central question he seeks to answer concerns the origin and destination of life as a never-ending journey.