Wang Shuo

Wang Shuo ( Chinese  王朔 , Pinyin Wáng Shuò , born August 23, 1958 in Nanjing ) is a Chinese writer and screenwriter .

Wang Shuo is considered to be a representative of a class of society that in China is called Row liumang (rowdy, crook, rascal, villain) or 痞子pizi ( slacker, rascal ). This means people who appear in cliques, make fun of others, are mostly unemployed and consciously break the rules. The liumang values include freedom, independence and self-determination. Wang Shuo's literature, in which the protagonists also appear long , was called "hooligan literature" (痞子 文学 pizi wenxue) and in some cases was also banned.

biography

Growing up in Beijing , he joined the Chinese navy after graduating from high school in 1976. Not least because of pressure from his father, who hopes to be able to tame his rebellious son in such a way. Wang Shuo later worked as a drug salesman for a Beijing pharmaceutical company and led a wild life with his mates: women, crooked business, plenty of contact with the police. In 1978 he began to write literary texts. In 1984 he celebrated his first major success with the story The Stewardess ( Kongzhong xiaojie空中小姐).

In other novels such as "Oberchaoten" and "Herzklopfen", Wang Shuo uses strongly ideological political language - albeit in an ironic way. Style and plot are shaped by the ideology of the liumang , which is also expressed in the newly coined terms of the liumang language:

• 合法 hefa (German actually "legal"): You could quench your thirst, but you wouldn't have any fun doing it.
• 谎言 huangyan (German proper "lie"): If you repeat a lie a thousand times, it becomes the truth. But some liars just lose patience ...

After the Tian'anmen massacre in 1989, Wang Shuo's work was banned for the first time, and a second time for a short time in 1996, which only increased his already great popularity in China.

The great success of his novels, often qualified as " picaresque novels" in German, in the 1980s encouraged him to adapt some of his works for film and television in the early 1990s.

Novels

• Heartbeat is the name of the game , ISBN 3-257-22971-2 , 1995 (玩 的 就是 心跳Wande jiu shi xintiao , 1989)
• Oberchaoten , ISBN 3-257-06142-0 , 1997 (玩 主Wanzhu , 1987; 一点 正经 没有Yi dian zhengjing meiyou , 1989)
• I am your father! , ISBN 978-3-940527-62-2 , 2012 (我 是 你 爸爸Wo shi ni baba , 1991).

Secondary literature

• Long, Nian. 王朔 词典Wang Shuo Cidian ( Wang Shuo Lexicon ). Taihai Publishing House, Beijing 2001.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wang Shuo in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wang Shuo in the Internet Movie Database (English)