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A Dream Record & another

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OK, finally, it comes: In London (my latest published novel)

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Apologise to all my readers who have been waiting for so long.. The publishing contract was signed in Feb last year when I was travelling in Sydney, south of the earth, the novel was signed to be published in August 2017, however it finally comes out just now, March 2018, plus even not yet now, as Amazon still needs 3 more weeks to get those books from my publisher and to send to readers. In the past six months when the publishing issue was taken on place for many unexpected reasons, trust me, I have fighted from the beginning to the end and even went through all senior positioned people such as the chairman of the PLC pulbishing house, however, I am sorry to say, my effort couldn't make any chances, and even made things worse: because right now what you can read from this book/novel, for the well known publishing censorship in China, there are more than 5000 words being deleted straight away from my original script, due to relating to some poitical and government movement (such

【伦敦场景】3:伯爵大人

【伦敦场景】伯爵大人 作者: 小说家   钟宜霖   (现居伦敦) 2018-01-03 16:48:25 来源: 阅读 标签 伯爵 伦敦 大家都说他是伯爵大人,从他父亲那里继承来的头衔。 他邀请我去他家吃午饭,带我参观了他位于伦敦市中心最黄金地段的富豪街区四层楼高的独立豪宅。不是公寓,是永久产权的独栋,修建于爱德华时期的历史建筑,价值人民币几个亿。 “我二十年前买下来的,以前这里是某个国家的驻英国大使馆。”伯爵大人在带我楼上楼下地参观这套他一个人居住的豪宅时说。 “这么说,这些装修都是你自己设计的咯?”我四处张望着,像进入了一个巨大迷宫的小兔子。因为房子太大,房间太多,走着走着就迷路了。 “也不完全是,”伯爵大人笑了笑。他今年不过四十五六岁,还很年轻,笑起来非常俊朗迷人。 也许这就是他至今未婚的原因吧。拥有贵族头衔和伦敦上流社会的顶级豪宅,却仍然单身的伯爵大人。 “怎么样,你喜欢吗?”他微笑着,看着我的表情。 我点点头,虽然心里仍然对他的一切都感到好奇:“当然喜欢。这么敞亮的挑空大客厅,至少有五米高吧?” 伯爵大人得意地点了点头:“六米五。” 参观完整栋楼,伯爵大人带我到三楼单独的饭厅坐了下来。 “你想请我吃什么?”我开始幻想会不会像电视剧里表演的那样,有无数男仆端着盘子前来送餐。 “我订了外卖,刚才已经送来了。”伯爵大人说着,开始亲手去餐厅隔壁的厨房准备午餐。 我有些惊奇,忙起身跟着他跑了过去,帮他从外卖的盒子里把热乎乎的饭菜扣到镶嵌着18K金丝的大白瓷盘里。 “看,知道你要来,我特意订了上海滩餐厅的中餐。”伯爵大人笑眯眯地说。 我开始感觉自己像个小红帽,正在面对一只温顺得像小狗一般的大灰狼。 “谢谢,谢谢。”我同样笑嘻嘻地回答。心想,我才不怕你呢,反正有什么问题的话,吃完饭我可以兔子一样撒腿就跑啦。 更何况现在还是中午,强烈的阳光从巨大的玻璃窗外直射进来,整个餐厅一片明晃晃的白昼。三楼的窗外,老邦德街繁华忙碌的街道上车水马龙,距离各种林立的顶级名牌店铺咫尺之遥。 我和伯爵大人坐下来开始共进午餐。因为是中餐,我们用的都是筷子。 “没想到你还会用筷子。”我恭维他说,“而且你用得还很不错。” 他看着我一笑:“我很喜欢吃中餐,经常吃就

【伦敦场景】1-2:《干洗店》·《超市女性》

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【伦敦场景】干洗店·超市女性 南方周末    作者: 钟宜霖   2017-11-08 23:57:41   查看源网址 干洗店 ​​ 在英国伦敦,人们在超市购物(资料图)(新华社/路透/图) 我去街角的干洗店取衣服。 我顺手想拉开门,却发现拉不开,正想推门,站在落地玻璃门口的一个小男孩从里面为我拉开了门。我赶紧推门进去,笑嘻嘻地对他说: “真是个好孩子!谢谢你啊。” 男孩眨着黑亮亮的眼睛,看着我笑了。他是个七八岁左右的穆斯林小孩,深棕色的皮肤。店内,他的母亲,一个穿着印度传统纱丽长袍的胖女人正坐在靠门右侧的缝纫机前,制作着裙子一类的东西,他的父亲则在大门对面一个两米高的巨大的干洗机旁边,开着洗衣机门,正往外拣洗好的衣服。 听见我这个新来的客人一进门就夸他们的孩子,夫妻俩都不由自主地笑了。正午的阳光从玻璃门外直射进来,光影浮动在巴掌大小的干洗店柜台上,也洋溢在他们的脸上。 “我来取衣服。”我走到柜台前,从手袋里取出小票递给掌柜的,这个四十多岁的中年印度男人。 他放下手上正在收拾的衣服,接过小票看了看,开始去干洗机旁边的衣架上查找。 在这个空档,我回头看了看刚才为我开门的那个小男孩,只见他还靠在门边,手里拿着一块抹布。 “他几岁啦?”我问。 “八岁。”店主人说。他的妻子在阳光中再次微笑了一下,继续缝着那条鲜艳的印度纱丽。 “他真乖。”我不禁说,“这么小就这么懂事了,还知道替你们招呼客人。” 店主人在林立的衣架和贴着各种标签的衣服套中寻找着小票上的号码,回应我说:“今天星期六,不用去上学,所以他跟我们在店里玩。” 说话间,他已经找到了我的衣服,取下来拿到柜台前,问我:“这是你的衣服,需要用袋子装起来吗?” “不用,我家就在拐角,两分钟就走到了。”我收了衣服,转身要走的时候,居然看见那个小男孩现在已经站到了他妈妈正在工作的放缝纫机的柜台上,用那块抹布擦着门框顶上的灰尘。一个小小的身影站在一米高的柜台上,擦着头顶的玻璃,背景是落地橱窗外繁忙的街景,这幅画面,在我看来简直就是不可思议。 “天哪!他居然这么小就帮你们做事了?还会擦玻璃打扫卫生?”我惊住了。 店主笑道:“是他自己要做的。” 我对这孩子的家教感到惊讶得不行:“他怎么这么懂事啊?一般像他这么大的男孩儿,都很贪玩啊,他居然还

In London (A novel) is coming out in Nov 2017

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In London (Novel) book cover My new book is coming out this month in China, it's a novel I wrote 12 years ago, in London, and the title is 'In London'. Published by Jiangsu Literary Publishing House. When writing this novel in March 2005, I was just a graduate struggling to find my first job in this city, and living in London as unemployed. The story is about a group of unemployed adults, same as me, but they are all English, the local residences. They are artists, writers, rock band singers and musicians, photographers, etc.. The only thing in common between they and I is that we are all jobless and poorest in this glamorous city, whilst the only thing left in our lives is our hope. Most reviewers and literary editors wondered why John, the English man and Juliet, the Chinese girl didn't fall in love in this book, however in my own view, that is all this story about. It is hard to understand, and if you want to find out the answer, you will have to read th

How long does it take me to write a novel? --with my novel list

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London Single Diary (2009) This is the Chinese version I tweeted today; blow is the English version. 突发奇想,总结一下我过去每部长篇小说所用的创作时间: 14岁:《拥抱朝阳》:一个半月(16万字) 16岁:《阳光雨季》:一个月(13万字) 19岁:《言情故事》:两个月(20万字) 21岁:《非一般爱情》:两个月(18万字) 22岁:《后现代生活》:两个月(23万字) 23岁:《北京北京》:两个星期(20万字) 25岁:《伦敦单身日记》:三年(24万字,因为是写了三年的日记) 28岁:《伦敦爱情故事》:七天(20万字) 28岁:《唐人街》:七天(15万字) 28岁:《文本生活》:七天(18万字) 29岁:《伦敦单身女郎》系列:五年(五部共150万字) 2015年写的首部英文小说:六个月(英文30万字) 2017年刚写完的这部长篇:三个月(52万字) Summaries the writing time for each of my novels At the age of            Novel Title                           Writing Time          Word Count(in Chinese)            14            Embracing the Sun                    1.5 months               160K            16            Sunshine and the Monsoon     1 month                    130K            19            Say Love                                      2 months                  200K            21            A Romance                                 2 months                  180K

为什么石黑一雄这次没得布克奖,却得了诺贝尔文学奖?

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《被掩埋的巨人》这个小说,我在亚马逊上买了英文版,但是因为现在石黑一雄的书脱销得很厉害,亚马逊网站上写的是一个星期之内送货,到现在都已经六天了,书还没给我送到。这是题外话。我为什么这个小说特别好呢,因为石黑一雄他以前写的小说,他每一部小说都是在创新,都是在突破他自己,他每一本书写的都是不一样的。但是这部小说我为什么还没看,因为我很久都没有关注他了,在此之前他十年都没有出小说啦。这个小说是2015年在英国首版出版的,然后瑞典和中国都是2016、17年翻译出版的,所以特别地新,要不是这次他得诺奖我都没注意到。我个人认为啊,我认为他这次得诺奖就是因为这部小说。因为他前面六部小说其实都写得不错,但是都没得过奖,这部小说一出来就得了。 所以我认为他这部小说应该就是,前面他可能一直都是在积累积累积累,但这是最重要的一部,就是压倒骆驼的那最后一根稻草。这个小说应该是他所有小说中写得最好的一部,而且我看了一下这本书的内容简介,认为他这个构思也好,整个故事的设置也好,都是一个非常牛逼的作品。因为我现在没有看到书嘛,所以也不能多说。但是我搜了一下,这本书在英国的反响特别奇怪,石黑一雄他是个非常好的作家,他在英国也是非常有名的一个作家。他之前的六本书,可以说每一本,大概从《长日留痕》之后,《长日留痕》是他第三本小说,获得了布克奖,从那之后,他出版的每一部小说都会被布克奖提名。但是,唯独只有这一本《被掩埋的巨人》没有被布克奖提名,连long list那个长名单都没有。对于他这个级别的作家来说,这简直是非常不可思议的。 而且这次他获诺奖以后,其实英国的媒体报道,BBC啊泰晤士报啊什么的都有报道,但是我们可以看到,就是没有像以前那些作家,甚至都没有鲍勃迪伦得奖那么火。也没有品特以前那么火,还有莱辛等等,我说的是那种大篇幅的正面报道。所以英国人对这次对石黑一雄得奖的这个情绪啊,非常的微妙。就是他不是很满意的,但是他不会明面上说出来。英国人就是这样,我不高兴,但我也不会驳你诺贝尔奖的面子,所以我也不会说出来,那我就什么不说好了,我就简简单单例行公事地报道一下就好了。 当然也有很多电视台媒体啊什么的,都跑到石黑一雄家里去采访什么的,然后石黑一雄他自己呢,其实他是一个很纯粹的小说家。他根本不管你外界怎么评价他的作品,他也不管得不得奖什么的。所以他回答那些采访什么的,都回答特别好

Re:2017年诺贝尔文学奖:石黑一雄(Kazuo Ishiguro)

#2017诺贝尔奖#写个帖子答瑶草兄,顺便随口胡说几句,以下纯属个人观点。 @瑶草:@钟宜霖 这句颁奖词怎么翻译呢? ——那我就先翻译下这句授奖词:“Who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” FT中文网的翻译是:“他在具有巨大情感力量的小说中,揭示了在我们对于与世界的联系的错觉下存在的深渊”。我翻译为:“他,在那些极具感情张力的小说里,揭示了我们与这个世界虚幻的联系感之下的深渊。” 这个句子中核心的illusory这个词,我不同意翻译成错觉,因为它的词义是虚幻,虚无感的意思,而并非错误的感觉。换句话说,就好象我们看一本玄幻小说,总不可能说那些神仙妖怪全都是错觉吧?又比如当我们做一个梦,在梦境里的那些感觉,也不能说是错觉,只能说是幻觉,虚幻的世界,对吧?两个词义的区别就在这里。所以说,文学翻译完全是另一种翻译。 回答完瑶草出的问题,现在说说我个人对石黑一雄获奖的感觉。第一时间听说获奖的人是他,我就哈哈大笑,因为可以铁定村上明年连陪跑都不用再陪了。我个人非常不喜欢村上春树的小说,每年中国美国各方媒体翻天覆地地拿他炒作,年复一年地炒,看得我都快吐了。求你们饶了村上吧,人家都那么大岁数了,就是一个有点理想的文学男青年而已,经不起你们这么逗他的,好吗?我为什么不喜欢村上?因为他就是个写男版言情小说的主啊,我怎么可能会喜欢他?看他我还不如看琼瑶去,个人口味,ok? 然后第二个感觉,就是既意外,又是意料之中的不那么意外。意外的是,前几年英国的戏剧家品特刚得过奖,后来又是英国的莱辛得了奖,按理说不会这么快再轮到英国人了,结果大英帝国的人才就是济济啊,又得了一个。英国的移民三雄奈保尔,石黑一雄,拉什迪三个人,现在前面俩都得了诺奖,不过呢,因为被教主追杀的关系,我估计第三个拉什迪也不太可能得奖了,虽然他的小说写得超好看。老实说,三雄里面,我最爱的就是奈保尔,其次拉什迪,最后才是石黑先生。为什么呢?可能是因为我来自中国吧,石黑一雄的文风真的很东方味,所以我这个东方人读起来太过熟悉,无惊艳之感,但对西方人来说则正好相反。村上说石黑一雄的小说“自然而亲切”,真没文化,要

Shanghai Daily: Chinatown’s invisible residents

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《唐人街看不见的居民们》|Chinatown’s invisible residents A screenshot of a map showing Chinatown in central London’s Soho. Home to Chinese restaurants, bakeries and other Chinese-run businesses, it is a popular tourist destination. Zhong looks beneath this surface in “Chinatown”. 《上海日报》的英文报道:《唐人街看不见的居民们》(作者:须勤  中文翻译:钟宜霖) Chinatown’s invisible residents By Xu Qin | August 30, 2015, Sunday | ILLEGAL immigrants have rarely been welcome in any place, at any time in history. And by their legal status — or rather lack of it — they are often invisible to much of the general population; non-citizens. “Most people have only the faintest idea of how their life is ‘under the radar’ because, as part of the subaltern class, they tend to hide away from the public eye, and are thus invisible,” writer Zhong Yilin told Shanghai Daily at a recent interview. 非法移民历来很少会在任何地方收到欢迎。由于他们的法律身份--或者说缺乏合法的身份--在大多数情况下,他们都是一个看不见的群体:非居民。 “大多数人对这个神秘群体的生活一无所知,作为底层群体的一部分,他们大多都会试图躲避公众的视线,所以才会变得看不见。”作家钟宜霖在访谈中告

Novel Chinatown Interview (Part 8/8-9/8)

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Yilin Zhong in Sydney. March 2017 https://youtu.be/KvciZDc_cWU Novel Chinatown Interview (Part 8/8) Time: 16th February 2017 Venue: London Interviewer: UCL Documentary Film student Shi Yi Han Interviewee: Yilin Zhong (Author of book Chinatown) Topic: Chinatown, the novel Part 8-9 video length: 12’56’’ Interviewer: (In Chinese)Why do you want to answer these questions in English? Yilin Zhong: The reason I want to talk in English is, even though Chinese is my mother tongue language, some kind of thing is quite weird, that when I was writing this novel, even I was writing it in Chinese, but you know, I was educated in the UK, and all those kind of illegal immigration things and the literary theories, such as subaltern studies, and post-colonial studies, and so on, all those literary terms I’d learned in England, from the English context. So even though I wrote this novel, the fiction in Chinese, actually the main spirit, or the main thought behind this s

Novel Chinatown Interview (Part 6/8-7/8)

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Yilin Zhong in New York, June 2016 https://youtu.be/KvciZDc_cWU Novel Chinatown Interview (Part 6/8-7/8) Time: 16th February 2017 Venue: London Interviewer: UCL Documentary Film student Shi Yi Han Interviewee: Yilin Zhong (Author of book Chinatown) Topic: Chinatown, the novel Part 6-7 video length: 14’07’’ Yilin Zhong: (continued) But you know what, now I’m forty, I couldn’t write that book now. Even though all those memories and all those events are still there, and I still remember them all, if you destroy that book and ask me to write that again, I couldn’t do it now. That’s the difference. Because I had passion at that time, I had the passion to write down all those stories that happened around me in Beijing, at that time. I had all those experience, it’s not perfect experience, but I had passion to write them down in that way. Now I’m forty, those stories and those experiences I still have it, but I can never write it down again. Because I lost

Novel Chinatown Interview (Part 4/8-5/8)

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Yilin Zhong in Chinatown. July 2017 https://youtu.be/KvciZDc_cWU Novel Chinatown Interview (Part 4/8-5/8) Time: 16th February 2017 Venue: London Interviewer: UCL Documentary Film student Shi Yi Han Interviewee: Yilin Zhong (Author of book Chinatown) Topic: Chinatown, the novel Part 4-5 video length: 9’41’’ Yilin Zhong: (continued) If you look at all those backgrounds, and if you dig inside all those characters’ possibilities, that’s quite another story already, I could have written a pure novel just about his mother. But that’s not my job, my job is trying to focus on A-bao: why she became a prostitute, one by one step. That’s the most important key point, and I couldn’t erase that, I couldn’t delete that part. I couldn’t lie to all my readers, just to make this story seems to be more reasonable, or seems to be more believable, or more like reality. I couldn’t do that. Because it is what happened, and I couldn’t change it on this poi