The Age Absent of Classics and the Writer’s Anxiety: An Interview with Yan Lianke

Abstract

This interview was conducted on a summer day at the International Culture Center of Capital Normal University in Beijing: August 12, 2019. Suffering from a relapse of his backache, Yan Lianke had to talk and answer questions by reclining on the couch for nearly three hours. Despite of it, he was patient and impressively open to questions that may not have quick or easy answers. The interview covers a wide range of topics, primarily focusing on three aspects: 1) the multiple dimensions of Yan’s anxiety stemming from living in today’s social reality, literary creation itself, and the incapability of grasping the future; 2) Yan’s understanding of classics against the backdrop of contemporary Chinese literary reality; 3) the paradox of Yan’s emotional attachment to the “native soil” (xiangtu) both in life and in literature, and his perception of a writer’s social responsibility as not running away from the life with which one is most familiar.