Love & Faith

A scene from the new TV series based on Lin's work.
From the moment I delved into Riddles of Belief…and Love: A Story (Wai Po De Gu Cheng) by contemporary writer Lin Zhe, I was totally engaged. The novel - bold, compulsive and thought provoking, is the sort of book you can't put down once you start.

A new English version hit the shelves last month, translated by US-based George Fowler, who lived and traveled in Asia for over 30 years.

Centering on the bitter stories and internal spiritual pilgrimages of protagonists Ninth Brother and Second Daughter, who are fervent followers of Christianity and based on the author's grandparents and the two generations of their family that followed, the novel integrates almost 100 years of contemporary Chinese history, including the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) and the numerous political movements after the founding of New China in 1949. It culminates with the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

The historical novel set in Old Town, the current Fuzhou, where Lin's grandparents were born, offers a unique insight into the catastrophes and upheavals of people's lives and struck a chord among many Chinese when it was released in 2006, with its tale of love and faith during political turmoil.

According to Lin, the dominant theme is the inner strength that comes from belief and the power that love wields in people's lives. She said that it was a work she had always wanted to write - a portrait of an ordinary family's changing fortunes.

"I have long cherished the idea of writing a novel based on my grandparents' own lives and for a long time I failed to find a suitable angle for the novel until one day an idea hit me, from the perspective of faith and love," Lin told the Global Times.

"The stories of my grandparents and parents are such representative examples in Chinese history and the novel resonates with many people who had somewhat similar experiences," Lin said. "The system of belief and faith, no matter how hard the environment is, sustained the older generations to negotiate countless sufferings throughout their lives."

Lin's parents, the second generation in the novel, were firm believers in communism, only to be taken as victims faced with countless political movements and persecutions, leaving them confused and bewildered and finally in suspicion of faith and values.

第二页
Lin's generation learned the bitter experiences of believing in nothing except themselves, devoid of the spiritual strength of their ancestors.

Lin said that amid the abundance of modern society in China, spiritual strength that flourished among older generations has been lost as a result of vast changes in recent years. Traditional values of Chinese people have been impacted and the modern generation is the most confused and chaotic in their minds, she added.

"If life is rice, I am the fermentation material and this novel is the wine which has been fermented from the rice by the activity of the fermentation factor," Lin analogized. "This is a story related to many personal experiences of my family and for me life is the most important motivation for literary creations."

Linguistically speaking, the novel is translated amazingly well and reads as if originally written in English. The flow is smooth, even when dealing with the culture-rich content. It is also a fantastic window into Chinese life from an insider's point of view.

"Many Chinese people write books about China, but they write for Westerners and I'm translating the book Lin wrote not for Westerners, but for Chinese and this helps Westerners get a better view how Chinese view themselves. It's less diluted and not tailored for Western readers," Fowler told the Global Times.

"This is a book I would like Americans to read because if you read this book, Chinese people are not stick people, they are real three-dimensional, flesh and blood normal people, this book is full of humanisms. I want Western readers to enjoy it like the Chinese readers," Fowler added.

Since its debut in 2006, Lin's novel has been adapted into a TV series titled Army Doctor that aired in 2009. Currently another TV series based on the novel is in production and is set to meet audiences at the end of the year.

Born in 1956, Lin has penned 14 novels with an emphasis on marriage and love. She is currently working as a playwright for several TV series, including her own.

Book tag Riddles of Belief…and Love: A Story by Lin Zhe 515 pp, Dog Ear Publishing, $23.95

By Du Guodong

Source: Global Times/Agencies