Chi Li is a special figure among Chinese writers because she doesn’t like to get together with people in literary circles. “If my unsociability is thought to be a flaw, I admit I’m a person with a flaw,” Chi says.
In contemporary Chinese literature, it’s not difficult to find female writers. They are active and diligent cultivators of their art. However, most of them appear and vanish like meteors against the vast sky of literature, except for Chi Li. Among female writers, Chi uniquely stands out. Her novels have been best sellers since she picked up a pen and started writing some 20 years ago. At the age of 15, Chi expressed her love and piety to literature by composing poems.
“I wanna burn myself, only for you, literature,” one of her poem exclaims. Chi’s works weave vivid pictures with characters, depicting the daily lives of common people.
Chi was born in 1954 in Wuhan, Hubei province. Before attending the Institute of Literature at Wuhan University in the early 1980s, Chi studied and practiced medicine in the countryside. She began writing a year before going to the college, so magnetic was its appeal. One of her early novels, Nice Moon, earned her a reputation among critics. But great fame came to her in 1987 after her novelette, Troubled Life, was released. It was considered a masterpiece of neo-realistic novels. Troubled Life just served as a handsome beginning of Chi’s writing career, a number of novels characterized by neo-realism came from her delicate pen, pouring a fresh stream into the vast ocean of Chinese contemporary literature.
Set in the large industrial city of Wuhan, Chi’s stories focus on the lives of young people as they deal with troubles of love and marriage, and everyday problems such as job-hunting, housing, family planning and bringing up children. The detailed and earthy descriptions conjure up a vivid picture of life in China today. There’s nothing special in their lives, but their experiences are just so real as Chi tells them, with her natural narration and vivid depictions providing a taste of their hopes and dreams.
Chi Li: Best Seller
If best sellers existed in China’s book market, Chi would absolutely be one of them. Her books have enjoyed a large readership that other contemporary writers can only dream of. Since Collection of Chi Li’s Stories IV was published in 1995, a large number of copies have been printed every year to meet the enormous demand in the book market. Till now, the 10th edition of the book has been published. And the Collection V and VI published later also have seen their 10th editions. More than 200,000 copies of Comings and Goings were sold out two years after it was first published.
Some of Chi’s works were published more than 20 years ago, yet they are not forgotten by readers. One can still find them in the marketplace. Literature critics find it difficult to explain why Chi’s works are capable of grasping readers for years against the briskly changing societal picture that is China. In an age when reading is not a fashionable habit any longer, people still choose to take up reading, thanks to Chi’s stories. And some of those who have already abandoned reading printed publications turn back to books after they happen to have a glance of Chi’s works.
Chi Li: Simple Woman
Chi is an inborn writer. Her sharp observations of life and natural narrations are outstanding among writers. Famous writer that she is, her life and writing remain simple. Since Troubled Life, the story that brought her fame, Chi has locked her pen on the lives of common people and those in the so-called lower classes. Reading her novels is like appreciating a Yamato-e painting of modern China. However, her stories do not stay at depicting simple scenes, but enter into characters and dig out the essence of human nature.
Chi never denies writing is a job to make a living. She admits she is a citizen who takes down what happens around her in her daily life. So readers cannot find pretentious plots or specious writing skills, nor will one encounter difficult words and complex jargon. She does exploit her amazing skills, but they just seem to match her stories.
Chi Li: Tough Person
Chi is a tough person, too. If a hand were said to be beautifully presentable, she would tell readers “the fingernails are full of dark dirt.” Her sharp eyes are visible even through words in the paper. Behind the seemingly bitter description is her whole-hearted concern for the lives of the people she has encountered. “How should we live our life?” Chi writes in her diary. “What do we live upon? Loneliness or revelry, hardship or coziness, disparagement or glories… Why and how do they have unavoidable impact on us? Where comes the power to give up or acquire them? My dear friends, what can I turn to comfort you and myself?”
In Chi’s latest novel, Shout Out When You Feel High, the sex-implied title has drawn sweeping controversy among readers. Chi just takes the criticism with a grain of salt. “The criticism and comments all have the right to exist. They are none of my business. Actually negative comments are better than flattering compliments because listening to the former is like a vaccine injection while being flattered is like taking nutrition. I feel cool when my stories are criticized.”
（Source: chinaculture.org）
