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

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 my passion.

But the advantage of the older writer, I would say, usually the best work was always written when you are very mature, when you are getting older. Why is that? Because you got more materials and you got more skills, and technically you know how to create a very good novel.

We all know, all those masterpieces, all those classic novels and dramas, everything, was written after the author was thirty or forty I would say. So that’s the thing, even though the young writers have the passion that we older writers don’t have right now, the young writers don’t have one thing that older writers have, what is that, it’s your thoughts, your mind, the depth of your understanding of the humanity and the society. That requires time.

When you were young, you don’t have that much experience, you don’t know what these people are thinking, that person is thinking, you don’t what is happening in this world, you don’t know all these political movements because you have never experienced it before, and you don’t know how to react on it. But when you are getting older, you have experienced enough, you know how to handle it. And you can see through all the things, you can see through all the society and every single person in depth, because you know how to read the people, and you have experience on how to react during all those political movements and everything. You have your own mind, and the independent, completely independent thought, you’re adult already. So that’s the advantage older people would have.

Yes of course, I agree, not every one can be a writer, you have to be having that kind of talent, plus you’re working hard, plus some kind of training, unconsciously or consciously, but, trust me, if you are a talented writer, you will show up; don’t worry about it. If you are not, you will never (be), so just give up.

Interviewer: What will you do when you are not writing?

Yilin Zhong: That’s the thing. That’s why I came to England actually. The reason I came to England is because I don’t want to live in a writer’s life. Because before I came over here, I was twenty-five and in China, I published five books already. I was interviewed by the CCTV, the Chinese Central National TV station as a youngest talented writer, so I got everything most writers would dream of already. In Beijing, I had a very good life, I worked as a journalist in the magazine and also in the TV station, everything I had in Beijing was everyone would dream of. So why I came to the UK?

Because I wanted something different. I don’t want to be that kind of person in that society, or in short, I don’t want to be a writer, in a society. I want to be a nobody. I want to be someone, nobody knows who I am. That’s what exactly what I am here! That’s why I am so happy, living here just as Juliet, because nobody knows my pen name in China, and nobody knows I have published so many books in China, -- I think about nine or ten (books) right now.

So I enjoy my freedom of life. It’s like, when I was in China, everyone knows you’re a writer, or everyone knows you are a journalist, then for me, I couldn’t get an ordinary life. Yeah, I was in an ordinary life as a writer or journalist in China, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted a total ordinary life that nobody knows who I am. I’m just a girl called Juliet, when I was twenty, or twenty-five, or whenever, I’m just me. Nobody knows I’m writing, and nobody knows I’m journalist even, because journalist is still a kind of, you know, part of writer’s work.

Yes, I want to be completely estranged from that kind of writer’s life, that’s why I am here in London, nobody knows me. That’s perfect. Awesome.

Interviewer: Is this the way you enjoy the exotic life? Being a nobody, like a flaneur?

Yilin Zhong: Yes, I think it’s the way I collected all my materials in the Pandora’s box, is just to be a nobody. Nobody knows you, they will never know that you are going to write about something, about what’s happening right now.

Let’s say for example, if I’m dating a man, the simplest way, if I’m dating a man and tell him, okay, darling, I am going to write about our romance, he’ll be completely scared away. No way. That’s the thing. But if I’m just dating a man, say: ‘Hey, I’m Juliet, I’m a student coming from China.’ Okay, that’s fine, then we’ll have a proper romance.

You see, that’s it. But it’s not really that I will write down all my romantic stories or the one I loved before, or whatever. It’s not really like that. I do write some love stories, and part of those stories are based on my true experience, but no really (all of them are).

Actually you reminded me, once I had a very fun conversation with one of my ex-boyfriends. I always tell my ex-boyfriends, after we broke up, I always tell them my real identity. Because we broke up already, and I know nothing is going to happen, so I always tell them afterward, not beforehand, or even when I was in love with him, no, I’d never tell him.

So once time, I broke up with one of my exes, we’re friends now, of course, then I told him, I said: ‘Actually I write stories, and I write fictions.’ and he said: ‘Oh really?’ I said: ‘Yes, actually I published some in China too.’ Then he was so amazed, you know, he was so surprised.

That’s one example I would say, because it’s just so funny. Then I think it’s about a few months later, I’d get a new book publishing in China, called London Love Story, so I told him about this news, because we broke up already and we’re pure friends now. So I told him about this: ‘You know, actually a few months later, I will have a new fiction published in China, it’s called London Love Story.’

He was so excited, and then he asked me: ‘Is that story about me?’

(Laughing) I said: ‘No no no. Wait, we just broke up a few months ago, I wouldn’t be able to write a novel in that short time, and even if I write that in that short time, I couldn’t get it published so soon.’ I said, it’s definitely not your story, it’s another story.

And then he was curious, he said: ‘If it’s not my story, whose story is that?’

Then I told him: ‘Okay, it was about three years ago, I was dating a man. Yeah, so basically this book is about a story happened three years ago.’

Then he started to be more curious, and he said: ‘So, in the past three years, how many boyfriends you had?’

And I was trying to calculate, I said: ‘Probably, two or three? Or four? I’m not sure.’

He’s an English, OK, but the funny thing is, the next thing he said,-- he was joking, of course I know -- the next thing he said was: ‘Oh, you such a slut!’

(Laughing) I was madly laughing. I knew he was joking, but still, I just thought, it’s just so so funny. You understand, because that’s some moment, when the fictional world and the reality world were combined and joint together, it’s just so much fun. So much fun.

But it’s not happening all the time, it’s just one case, that’s why I still remember right now. It’s just so funny.

Yeah, as I said, that’s a way how I collect my materials to write a novel, because I want to be a nobody, and nobody noticed me. So I will be the ordinary people, and people will treat me as ordinary people, that’s the exact life I want. And the reason I chose to live oversea rather than (to live) in China, is not only about the exotic way, it’s also about one, I could learn, I could learn all those cultural difference between wherever, America or UK, or China or wherever. Whenever you go to a new country, you will learn that country’s culture, that’s the kind of thing I want to learn.

And two, it’s a kind of, you know, estrange. You line up the distance between your personality and the real life, and then you can observe things in the different angle and view, so, that’s quite a kind of thing all writers would love to have as well. Another reason is as I said, because in social way, that’s they only way I can pretend to be a nobody. Because in China everyone knows me, so I couldn’t get much (stories). For example, I can never meet all those illegal people (in Chinatown) -- oh there’s no illegal people in China anyway -- that’s just an example, if I were in China, I couldn’t meet those people at all. How could I? I was not in that society, so how could I met them? It could be quite difficult to me to drag more stories like this. But in England, I’m completely free, I can do whatever I want, I can be anyone I’d like to be. It’s a kind of very interesting life here.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2yxcOcrbvY

Interviewer: (In Chinese) Can you talk about the relationship between the fiction and the reality that you are in?

Yilin Zhong: Okay, when you become a nobody or a stranger in this society, nobody knows who you are or what you are doing, then you can do whatever you want. You can collect all the materials as you like, it’s more convenient or as Benjamin said, it’s more like a city flaneur, because nobody will notice you. You are invisible. If you are invisible in this society, you can get whatever you want. So it’s like a kind of invisible coat you wear, if you are living in a foreign land. For me this is quite useful.

I know there are a lot of foreign writers living i other countries in the history, there’s quite a lot. But I guess not many of them, as far as I know, I don’t know anyone who is acting like what I do, that I completely buried my pen name in this country, even nobody knows I’m writing at all, and even nobody knows my name, knows any of my other name rather than Juliet. And even ‘Juliet’ is fictional.

So I’m a fictional character, here. I’m not existing.

‘Juliet’ is existing, but the real me is not existing in this country. That’s how. It’s quite tricky, I know, but that’s the fun part. I love it.

Interviewer: So where is your reality?

Yilin Zhong: The reality is in my book.

Interviewer: The real you is in your book?

Yilin Zhong: Yes, the real me is in my book. In the reality, the character I’m creating is myself: Juliet.

Interviewer: So the book is your invention of world of yourself?

Yilin Zhong: I present the real me in my fictional work, and the way I’m writing my novel is my reality. However in the true reality, ‘Juliet’ is a creation, fictitious character that I created for my own.

I enjoy this kind of game, that’s very funny. But I guess when people are watching this documentary, I couldn’t do that much more, but still, I think the audience (of this film) are limited, so I still can play on.

(End of part 7/8)

Written by Yilin Zhong

To be continued.