Su Tong's redemption pays off
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China's Su Tong, 46, won the prestigious Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong Kong yesterday, with his latest work, The Boat to Redemption, a realistic novel set during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).
Its title, in Chinese, He An, means "river and shore", representing the worlds of two different types of people - those who live on steady ground are politically reliable; those who live on boats are "exiles" or politically questionable.
"I'm not sure if The Boat to Redemption can help overseas readers know more about China. It's just a novel centering on the fate of people caught in an absurd time," Su said in an e-mail interview, adding his upcoming novel will be set in contemporary China.
"A nation must have the courage to face its own history, whether it's glorious or shameful, beautiful or gray. Misunderstandings often come from hiding and evasion.
"After all, a novel does not stand for the truth of history, so I'm not afraid of misunderstanding."
The action takes place in a small town in eastern China where former town head, Ku Wenxuan, takes his teenage son into self-imposed "exile," while his wife and others denounce him and doubt if he is the real descendant of a revolutionary mother.
The legendary young woman died while smuggling pistols to Communist fighters. Her infant was tossed into the river but a giant carp carried it to an old fisherman. Years later, the fisherman identified Ku in the orphanage, because he had a fish-like birthmark on his bottom. Ironically, almost every man in town has a fish birthmark.
Su's portrayal of the protagonist turns surreal as Ku's quest for redemption becomes extreme, from self-castration to suicide. The story concludes with Ku's son finding a fish at the place where Ku threw himself into the river, carrying his mother's tombstone.
The story is told through the eyes of Ku Wenxuan's son, whose tension with his father drives the story and whose journeys between the boat and shore bring to life an absurd period of Chinese history.
Both of Su's parents come from a small island in the Yangtze River and Su was born and grew up by the river in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. It was a dream of his to write a novel themed on the river.
"I'm very sensitive to the word 'river.' Sometimes I get startled at the word, as if a fire was lit in my heart," he said in a speech at Peking University in September.
Su became an avid reader at 9, when nephritis confined him to bed. The newspapers pasted on the wall and ceiling were his first teachers, until his elder sister found banned foreign literature from friends and trash tips.
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