Q & A

Feng Tang, writer and poet

1. What are your favorite writers and books?

Over the last two years, due to the podcast Feng Tang's Comments on Book, I have reread a lot of classics, and changed my views on some of them. So far, my favorite is Kawabata Yasunari's Yukiguni (Snow Country).

2. What is the book that has had the greatest impact on you? Why?

What influenced me most was Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government), which established my outlook on history and life. In the vast river of history, our single life is just like a boat and a small leaf. In this book, you learn how to go with and against the flow, how to stand on the peak, and how to avoid overturning and so on. Moreover, ways to live and manage your life well can be found in Chinese history and in this great book.

3. What are the writers or works that enlighten your personal writing?

Lady Chatterley's Lover by David Herbert Lawrence. It shows me what is the true meaning of passion.

4. Among traditional Chinese literary works, what are the writers and works that have had the greatest impact on you?

Li Bai. For me, he is the best poet in China in history.

5. Why is reading (or not) important?

Life is limited, and a single person's human experience is also limited. And it is not only limited, but also ordinary. Reading can help us gain different life experiences, joys and sorrows, and make us have empathy. Empathy is the way people connect with the world. Through reading, we acquire the ability of empathy, which gives us access to a broader world.

6. On World Reading Day, what book (related to traditional culture) would you recommend to people born after 1995? Why?

Liu Shahe's book about ancient poetry, Liu Shahe's Comment on The Book of Songs. This book and Nineteen Ancient Poems are the source of Chinese poetry. Confucius said that "one can't speak if he doesn't read poetry". If you don't read poetry, your speech is dry and tasteless. So, let's read poetry.

Wang Fang, TV host and writer

1. What are your favorite writers and works?

Of the foreign writers I prefer those with a little sci-fi color, such as Jules Verne, or Ernest Hemingway with a little realism. In regard to domestic writers then I opt for Feng Zikai's works and for contemporary works I prefer Liang Xiaosheng.

2. What is the book that influenced you the most? Why?

It is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. When I first read this book in secondary school I felt that the world was so interesting, and I fell in love with geography. I was particularly willing to share it with teachers. Finally, I became a teacher. My first occupation was a teacher.

3. Among traditional Chinese literary works, what are the writers and works that have had the greatest impact on you?

I personally like traditional literature very much. For example, I have written Crossing the Historical Line to Understand Short Ancient Articles and The Best Way to Read Tang Poetry. If any of the ancient Chinese books has a great impact on me, I think it is The Book of Songs, because I read the elegant ode of The Book of Songs carefully about 20 years ago. After reading it, I was amazed that the ancient Chinese people would write such beautiful things that modern people can't write. So, I personally suggest that children now read The Book of Songs more.

4. Why is reading important (or not)?

Reading is of course very important. I have a daughter who is 15. I have attached great importance to the cultivation of her reading ability since childhood. I often tell her that children with good reading ability are not lonely because books can give strength when life is difficult. So, I think reading is very, very important. It can make a person unafraid of the future. I think this is the essence of reading.

5. On World Book Day, what book (related to traditional culture)would you recommend to young people born after 1995? Why?

I recommend Here Comes the National Treasure. The author has written about the origins of 21 national treasures with very rich technique. The story behind the book involves aspects of history and humanities. More importantly, the book is equipped with many exquisite illustrations to take you into a world of national treasures that you may not have seen before. In fact, national treasures are just one aspect. I think what is more important is what is behind national treasures. It is the cultural history of the Chinese nation over thousands of years, so I think young people must embrace reading, because the words are really meaningful. This is my recommendation to you on World Reading Day.

Zhu Yujie, writer

1. What are your favorite writers?

Albert Camus, Milan Kundera, Alice Ann Munro.

2. What is the book that has had the greatest impact on you? Why?

L'Étranger. Culture mostly exists in the form of performance. Can a man's thought finally reach another's innermost being? Are we hiding with camouflage from being identified and recognized? This book releases my anxiety about identification and makes me forgive myself when being carried along by the tide or out of tune with the world.

3. Among traditional Chinese literary works, what are the writers and works that have had the greatest impact on you?

Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber.

4. Why is it important to read?

I can only say it is personally important for myself. Reading brings me new knowledge and experience. I mature and refresh my mind by reading. Obviously, the more time we spend, the more we gain. The true return is that it makes me really understand myself. At least, I can enjoy a peaceful time when reading.

5. What books have you been reading recently? How do you feel about them?

I am now reading Jaroslav Seifert's memoir Všecky krásy sv ta. Because of home quarantine, I once lost the focus of my life. But reading brought me peace. I really want to choose a book related to memory to read because it is lively when everything surrounding me pauses. I see a romantic elder full of wisdom trying his best to share his most valuable experience with us, unwilling to wait for death. A mind map unfolds itself slowly to us readers. His childhood, romantic relationships and friendship, poets, a heavy snow, a chair, a cigar, the strike of Nazi Germany's army ... our life will be deathly gloomy if we don't recall the past.

6. What book (related to traditional culture) would you recommend to people born after 1995?

Biography of Su Dongpo. We cannot get ourselves lost in a hard life. Su's story is encouraging. No one has a smooth life. If we can learn a little about his mind, we will be enlightened and unmoved either by gain or loss.

Ye Jun, documentary director

1. Why it is important to read?

The essence of reading is the input and disposition of information. Reading comics, watching animation, movies and TV series, and even observing people's daily life could be considered as a rough concept of "reading", which should not be narrowed down to reading a book.

As for reading books about traditional culture, which is a focused topic, I think it contains significance. There is a popular metaphor, "a man's stomach connects with his spirit. A person's present moment seems to have nothing related to his/her surroundings, but in fact it is inextricably connected with the soil, environment and generations in which he/she lives. We can comprehend such connections, which are difficult to clearly explain.

2. What's your favorite book recently?

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The conclusion of the book might be controversial, but it is a respectable work containing knowledge from various subjects, and offers rigorous exploration.

Why was it that Eurasians who conquered, drove away or mass killed Indians, Australians and Africans, and not the opposite? Why do wheat and corn, cattle and pigs and other "unaffordable" crops and livestock in the modern world appear in some specific areas rather than elsewhere? In this pioneering book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond revealed the environmental factors that helped to form the most extensive model of history, thus destroying the theory of human history based on racism with shocking power.

3. What book would you recommend to young readers?

Chinese Architecture, Natural Suite by Zhao Guangchao.

A lot of books contain professional knowledge, but few books have specialist knowledge and keep readers interested. Although it is a picture book for children, it wants to convey not only architecture, but also Chinese traditional culture.

My favorite paragraph is: Farmers cut down trees and the nobles cut down forests. Huge trees are transported to the capital across thousands of mountains and rivers. They are separated with sharp tools and reunited with tenons and mortises. The wooden columns of high-rank buildings stretch out the bucket arch like turning back into a big tree, on which are painted flowers that ever bloom. Under the huge roof, they say in the most gorgeous tone: "Look, we come from the forest, and the tree has never left nature ..."

Lu Shan, writer

1. What's your favorite writer and book?

In different stages of life, I have different thought and awareness, so my favorite writer and composition always change. For example, when I was a pupil, my favorite book was Selection of Poems in the Tang Dynasty. But after I entered secondary school, I start loving Louis Cha Leung-yung's Kung fu novels and Agatha Christie's detective stories. In college, I read quite a few literary classics. And I have read a batch of representative works of William Somerset Maugham in previous years. Last year, I became addicted to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels.

2. What is the book that has the greatest impact on you? Why?

Dream of The Red Chamber. I also want to mention Louis Cha's Condor Trilogy. I read the books when I was a child, after watching the classic TV series produced in 1983 with the same name. This collection of books influenced the "formation of 'three outlooks' in the puberty" of our generation. Our excellent traditional culture can create such wonderful and beautiful literary and artistic works with profound and meaningful aftertaste.

3. Among traditional Chinese literary works, what are the writers and works that have had the greatest impact on you?

There is no doubt that it is Cao Xueqin's Dream of The Red Chamber. Since the senior grade of primary school, I have kept it at hand today. I often turn a few pages when I'm free. I often say that if you read the book thoroughly, you can have a more essential understanding of ancient society.

4. Why is reading important (or not)?

I think George Martin's answer to this question in the fantasy masterpiece, A Song of Ice and Fire (the original work of HBO series The Game of Thrones) is the most appropriate: people who don't read can only live once, and people who read can experience a thousand kinds of life.

5. What book (related to Chinese traditional culture) would you recommend to young people born after 1995? Why?

Can I recommend my two reprinted books Guide to Travel through The Tang Dynasty and Guide to Settle Down in the Tang Dynasty? These two books were written about 10 years ago, centering on mistakes in historical dramas and popularizing the truth of ancient social life confirmed by archaeological results and literature analysis. With a brisk writing style, it is loved by many readers. Later, it was assembled into a book and published, which has been sold for 10 years.

At present, there are a lot of books that like "talking and laughing about history". The authors pay attention to the way of expression and strive to be close to the audience. Of course, there is nothing wrong. However, if the positioning is a knowledge popularization work, the author should first have a certain amount of in-depth reading of the subject and be able to give a clear and reasonable explanation, so that the work can be more "readable" and make people feel the sense of value after reading.