As one of the few historical novels that reflect the hard work of overseas Chinese in "Going to Southeast Asia", Ping An Pi attracts readers’ extensive attention with its unique local writing.
Today, "local writing" has become a popular trend, the novelty of Ping An Pi lies in the spreading of a regional culture and the creation of a cultural atmosphere, or more precisely, the extremely remarkable theme characteristics formed by the perfect display and interpretation of Chaoshan culture. But what is extremely valuable here is that from the author’s value standpoint, he has not completely fallen into some paranoid judgment based on "cultural perspective", such as trying to show the characteristics and charm of Chaoshan culture. For example, the paragraph about "Dong Girl" in the appendix of the novel attempts to re-examine the so-called "Chaoshan culture" from the perspective of outsiders, which reflects a more complex and profound insight into China’s traditional culture, including Chaoshan culture.
Ping An Pi by Chen Jiming, Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House/Huacheng Publishing House
In fact, apart from the display of regional culture, the novel is even more impressive because it is an out-and-out "industry novel". That is, as we can see, Ping An Pi has set foot in a new industry with a very long history, but it has almost never been described in the novel before-"Overseas Chinese Pi" industry. When it comes to the term "overseas Chinese criticism", most people are extremely unfamiliar, and the novel is precisely to explain this unfamiliar thing. The beauty of "Ping An Pi" lies in its vivid and detailed description of the lives of people unfamiliar to readers, its disclosure of the operation mode of an industry, and its unique life experience and its arduous historical quest in special times. From this point of view, Zheng Mengmei’s "express" career, or his "logistics" years, and the private financial institution formed on this basis, that is, the so-called "overseas Chinese approval" industry with both the functions of bank and "express" in the novel, have aroused readers’ strong interest in reading.
It has to be admitted that the novelty naturally carried by relatively unfamiliar subjects can naturally stimulate readers’ thirst for knowledge and then arouse their strong interest, which is the simplest reading motivation of novels. On the other hand, from the perspective of the relationship between historical narrative and literary narrative, it is not difficult to find that "overseas Chinese criticism", as an industry that has disappeared in history, "Great History" obviously has no way to record its secret details so vividly, or at most there are only some cold text summaries. At this time, where historical narration almost stopped, the advantages of novel as an art form were reflected. In fact, as a part of history, those vivid details that are closely related to characters can only be engraved and recorded through novels. From this perspective, Ping An Pi actually provides an important opportunity for us to re-examine the meaning of the novel.
At the same time, it is precisely because the novel focuses on the industry of overseas Chinese criticism that Ping An Criticism is actually a "biographical novel" around important people in the industry from the narrative subject. In the novel, Zheng Mengmei’s life is almost completely presented to the readers. Through his persistence and choice in many aspects, such as personal career, family honor, professional ethics, and national dignity, the novel profoundly interprets the feelings of "overseas Chinese" people who care about the world with impressive specific events and narrative details. This is probably the significance of the novel in the close connection between local culture and theme writing. Zheng Mengmei here seems to be reminiscent of the image of a local rural sage, but it is not clear to study her prototype, which looks more like the "refinement" and "generalization" of a kind of people.
When it comes to theme writing, it can’t be ignored that the most direct writing motivation of Ping An Pi may need to be implemented as a kind of "non-legacy novel" as a "world memory heritage", which can actually be clearly presented through the explanation of the fate of the characters at the end of the novel. At the end of the novel, Zheng Mengmei seems to be faced with a difficult choice. Surprisingly, however, between being communist party’s father and being the son of the Kuomintang, he gave up his political choice and resolutely chose to return to Siam and restart his original career. Even until his later years, he was still thinking about "Shen Pi Museum" and "Overseas Chinese Cultural Relics Museum", which seemed to be laying a more practical foundation for the intangible story of "Overseas Chinese Pi". In this sense, Ping An Pi actually tells a vivid story of "World Memory Heritage" as "the unique outstanding value in similar international immigration documents", which is also an important part of "China Story".
What is worthy of attention in Ping An Pi is that in the process of writing the seemingly mainstream theme, the novel does not forget to use the elements of popular novels to gain a simple reading motivation. What is more valuable is that this seemingly pursuit of popular elements tries to break the stereotype of various plots and present a different narrative form. For example, at the beginning of the novel, a very special mystery of regional culture was incorporated, which made the whole work in a slightly weird and mysterious atmosphere. At the beginning of the novel, from the legend of the abandoned well to the prediction of the peddler, and then to the journey of the protagonist Zheng Mengmei, many links of personal growth are different from our common narrative mode of personal struggle. For Zheng Mengmei, his so-called "going to the South Asia", that is, "going to the South Asia" in the novel, is not to actively pursue a personal way out, but to escape the fortune teller’s prediction of his fate. This passive escape, rather than active departure, actually implies his yearning for the world, but to a greater extent, it is to reflect the "anti-personal struggle narrative" contained in the novel.
In addition to the mystery of regional culture, the novel also incorporates a suspense of family vendetta. Just like the suspense set at the beginning, the bizarre death of family elders is obviously questionable. This seemingly family-hating plot arrangement firmly attracted readers at once, but the novel was sold off again, and it was not in a hurry to reveal the answer, which always kept the reader’s appetite. The final plot reversal was not blunt, but it was quite different from popular stereotypes. The reader originally thought that the novel would be operated according to the usual mode of family hatred, catching the real murderer, getting revenge for great hatred, and shining the lintel, but the final truth was just a wonderful reversal of "suspicion breeds dark ghosts." Of course, in order to make the final plot of the novel more natural, the author inserted the story of George and Li Tairan, an Englishman, to pave the way for the story that chapman’s early prosperity actually depended on opium and "piggy" trade, which implies that the history of Zheng Jiazu’s prosperity may also be disgraceful. The final investigation found that this was the truth. Such a plot arrangement makes Zheng Mengmei’s "overseas Chinese criticism" career contain an "anti-glory narrative".
In addition, the novel also incorporates a gripping adventure story in Zheng Mengmei’s concrete action as "criticizing feet". In the novel, under the special background of "Anti-Japanese War", the "overseas Chinese criticism" industry opened up a unique "lifeline" in the state of war, which obviously contained a rare sense of adventure. The adventures of Zheng Mengmei and his party all the way, surviving from bandits, Kuomintang soldiers and Japanese, even the sacrifice of his son at the end of the novel, and Zheng Mengmei’s own escape from a fire are all important manifestations of this thrilling feeling. However, what we need to pay attention to is that the novel is also trying to avoid the conventional links when arranging this thrilling feeling, and it is more moderate. In the novel, there is nothing "magical" about Zheng Mengmei, except the heroic feats of two sons, which are thrilling but reasonable.
Generally speaking, with the help of solid desk work, Ping An Pi shows the excellent texture of "industry novels" in the capture and creation of regional cultural atmosphere. Besides the distinctive regional culture and the "novelty" created by the special industry, many popular elements in the narrative process of the novel have finally given it a simple reading motivation, which makes the "theme writing" of the novel show a vivid and interesting face. At the same time, the novel tries to break the conventions of various plots and show the unique charm of narrative. All these are enough to make it a symbolic sample of contemporary novel creation and provide important enlightenment for the diversified development of mainstream literary creation.
(Original title: Different Expressions of Regional Culture, Industry Landscape and Theme Writing —— Literary Enlightenment of Ping An Pi)
Source: Beijing Daily Author:Xu Gang
Process Editor: u017
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