Bulletin Number Five 1984

and stir their feelings. In recent years, as I grow older and mellower with more worldly experi ence, I usually have second and third thoughts before doing anything, refraining from acting on impulse like a young man. Q. Most o f your novels were published before the Liberation. Why haven' t you produced more since? A. In the past, I used to depict the sordid and painful side of society. After the liberation, I tried to turn away from these themes and write about people in the new society, their happiness and their feelings. Unfortunately, I was not familiar with these things and familiarization took time, but I was fully occupied with other jobs, and much time was spent on the many social obligations. That is why I have not written much and what I have written is nothing but short pieces. It is indeed a grave mistake for me to try my hand at unfamiliar topics instead of those familiar to me. Q. You are at present planning to write two novels on the Cultural Revolution, aren't you? A. A couple of years ago, I drew up a five-year plan, and announced that I would write eight books, two of which being novels. My health was better then and the plan was revealed to foreign reporters during an interview. I was hoping that an early announcement of my plan would serve to egg me on, and that people may leave me alone to concentrate on my writing. The two novels I had in mind are: A Pair o f Beautiful Eyes and Inextinguishable Flame, which deal with the fate of an intellectual couple during the Cultural Revolution and how they supported and encouraged each other. The first book was started about two years ago. I planned to write a thousand words a day, but my schedule was interrupted by other business and the work was laid aside. In the last three years, ill health confined me to hospital one third of the time. At present my condition is getting worse. I am suffering from Parkinson's disease ， which affects my hands ， making writing extremely difficult. I have to struggle with my characters stroke by stroke, like a primary school boy. No more than two hundred words can be produced every day. Should my health improve and I am spared the interruptions, I might be able to finish this sixteen-to seventeen- thousand-word novel in about one year's time. Q. Will there be autobiographical elements in this novel? A. It is hard to say at this stage. In the past, when I embarked on a new novel ， I had only a theme in mind and no outline at all. Once the novel got started, all the characters were left to develop in their own setting. I can only answer your question after the novel is completed. Q. What progress have you made on your other writing and translation projects? A. Apart from the eight books I just mentioned, I have also a plan to translate the five-volume memoirs by A . Herzen. In total, I still have seven books to write and translate. So far, I have published Reminiscences o f My Works and four volumes of Random Thoughts. I have just begun the fifth volume of Random Thoughts and I hope to complete at least one novel, if not both — I may never have a chance to write Inextinguishable Flame. The first volume of Herzen's memoirs has been trans lated and published, the rest will be carried on by a friend of mine if I should prove unable to complete my task. Q. When you were interviewed by reporters in 1979, you mentioned that you would not write your autobiography until you are eighty. Have you thought o f working on that now? A. I f time permits me to do so, after I have finished the last volume of Random Thoughts and a novel, I may consider it. However, the trouble is that my memory is now failing. When Mao Dun wrote his Memoirs, his last book, he spent much time and effort looking for verification of what he had written. I am afraid I do not have the energy and time to do that. Q. In Random Thoughts, you repeatedly stressed the importance o f speaking the truth and the necessity o f thinking fo r oneself. What is this in aid of? A. That book was intended to serve as my will. Having written for four or five decades and I have come a long way through life, it is now * time for me to sum up the way I look at things. What I have said in the book may not necess arily be correct, yet to the younger generation, it may have some value as reference. To speak the truth simply means to lay bare one's heart, say what one believes in and what is the fruits of one's reflections. After the 22 INTERVIEWS