Wang Yiliang, an exiled Writer who was imprisoned for two years in China, died in Thailand in early January of esophageal cancer at the age of 58. Before that, he had been living in exile, working as a building manager in the United States and living in a very modest youth hostel; in his hardship, he helped create the magazine “Free Writing” The online journal, which preserved millions of words of underground and exile literature in China, witnessed the truth of Chinese history, and airlifted the fountain of independent thought of writers back to China, influencing future generations. In an exclusive interview with the Voice of America from Thailand, his wife, Bai Yang (real name Li Yu), said that Wang Yiliang dreamed of returning to China, but could never do so, and had to wither away in a foreign land at the end of his Life. Wang Yiliang’s death is a reflection of the exiled writer’s turbulent, displaced and tumultuous life.
Born in Shanghai, Wang Yiliang was an active member of the Shanghai underground Culture at that Time. In an interview, American exile writer and founder of Independent PEN, Pei Ling said that Wang Yiliang presented the underground culture with a more incisive term “subculture”, meaning Wang Yiliang is an important representative of the “subculture” social form.
According to Beiling, “Subculture represents a cultural form that confronts the system, the government and the imperial culture of the Communist Party, and creates aesthetic differences with it, especially in Shanghai and Jiangnan. The 1980s and 1990s were an important period in the formation of the subculture, and he (Wang Yiliang) was an important representative of that time. “
Two years in prison for participating in the “Chinese Cultural Revival Movement
In 2000, Wang Yiliang was sentenced to two years in prison for his participation in the “Chinese Cultural Revival Movement” in mainland China, where he played a film that won dozens of international awards, including the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2000, Wang Yiliang was sent directly to reeducation-through-labor by the Shanghai police for “distributing and peeping pornographic videos” without trial, and was imprisoned for two years. He was sent to reeducation through labor for 2 years without trial. The maximum length of reeducation through labor is three years, but Wang Yiliang spent two years in prison.
Wang Yiliang’s wife, Bai Yang, told Voice of America that the saddest thing is that her husband was talented and innovative in his youth in his 20s, but after a brief decade of opening up, China began to engage in an ideological blockade after the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and people in their circle, who were naive at the time, prided themselves on being a different culture from the official “subculture” and the pursuit of independent and free thinking, all ended up being arrested on various charges and met with tragic ends.
White Night said: “The Chinese Communist authorities do not allow you to have free thinking, everything you do, no matter your literary creation or your thoughts, if you say you stand inside my team, you join the Communist Party, and then you join my Writers’ Association, in the scope of my rule, my control But if you tried to break away from my control, if you broke away from my organization, you were arrested on all kinds of unpleasant charges. He (Wang Yiliang) was arrested for spreading yellow thoughts, the pianist and her lover, and others were arrested for rape and hooliganism, in the form of stigmatization to pursue you, to incriminate you, so their circle, are very miserable. “
White Night: The Chinese Communist Party has been killing intellectuals for a whole generation
White Night stressed that the Chinese Communist Party’s physical and psychological killing of intellectuals, not just a few arrests, the impact is a whole generation: “You can see that they (China) is this totalitarian rule, for a generation of cultural elite, it is a whole generation, to their generation, to their entire era is representative of representative. Because first of all, it is a kind of killing from your human body, not to mention the mind. I think the Chinese Communist Party it is like this, it is itself a kind of bad money to expel good money a system, that is, where you have talent, have ideas, as long as you do not listen to me, I would rather kill you, I would rather kill you, destroy you, I do not allow you to grow independently. “
After Wang Yiliang was released from prison in 2002, he had to go back to living as an underground translator because of his black history of reeducation through labor, and despite being a university graduate, he had a hard time finding work in the increasingly commercialized Shanghai. Later, when the Independent Chinese PEN Association, a group of exiled writers and Chinese underground writers, was founded, Wang Yiliang joined as a member and wrote for the then “Free Writing” website. From 2005 to 2013, he edited and published 100 issues of the online magazine “Free Writing”. From 2005 to 2013, he edited and published 100 issues of “Free Writing” online magazine, which later became the most important place to publish Chinese underground and exile literature abroad at that time.
During this period, millions of words of underground literature and exile culture were circulated in this way,” says PEN founder Bei Ling. This is the most important achievement of Independent Chinese PEN, leaving very important works for history. “
Later, with the assistance of Beiling, Wang Yiliang was invited to participate in the Boston Poetry Festival and was granted a visa to the U.S. After he arrived in Boston, he applied for political asylum and was finally freed, but was never able to return to China for the rest of his life. Even when his mother passed away in 2016 and he wanted to return to China to mourn, he was denied a visa by the Chinese Consulate in New York. He has been separated from his mother for more than a decade, and all he has been waiting for is the sad news that his loved ones have passed away, and that he will not even be able to see her for the last time. However, cutting ties with his mother may be a painful decision for all exiles, and a reality they have to face.
The harsh reality of exile: It is difficult to meet with relatives again
I think it’s very tragic that you can’t go back to your Home, you can’t even send your Family home, and you can’t even go to visit them,” says Beiling. When Yilang passed away, his father was still alive, and his stepmother and his brother could not go to his prayer service over there (in Thailand), or even see him leave the earth at last, all because of his exile status. He wanted to apply to go to his mother’s post-mortem prayer ceremony, and China would not grant him a visa. This situation is a harsh reality that almost all exiled writers or exiles have to face: you have almost no way to meet with your mother. “
Wang Yiliang’s life in exile in the United States was not easy either. He went to New York to work as a community security guard, but life was hard, sleeping in a youth hostel bed for $15 a day for years, sharing a room with six or seven people, sharing the kitchen and bathroom with everyone. Belling said that Wang Yiliang lived in poverty for many years, and then life became more and more difficult, so he brought Wang Yiliang to Boston to live with him, and then brought him to Europe, and gave him to PEN members Liao Yiwu and Jing Bu Te, and Wang Yiliang was drifting in this wandering life.
It was not until he met his current wife, fellow PEN member writer Bai Yang, that Wang Yiliang was able to spend his days in Thailand, where the cost of living is lower, on a yearly pension visa, that he finally had a relatively stable life.
Bai Ling said, “I think this is a very classic life of a writer in exile, that is, uprooted, in exile, in turmoil, and relatively speaking, also in poverty, without the means to experience good treatment, and finally leaving in a place like Thailand. On the other hand, he was lucky to have his wife by his side at the end of his life to take care of him, to take care of him and to live a more stable life. “
Wang Yiliang translated a lot of Havel and Jung’s books
During his stay in Thailand, Wang Yiliang systematically translated several books by Carl Gustav Jung, one of the originators of modern psychology, including “Meeting Jung: A Record of Conversations 1946-1961” and “Jung’s Last Years: A Journey into the Alchemy of the Mind”. According to Belling, he was not only a purveyor of Jung’s doctrine, but later in his life he was even more fully committed, which also made him a believer in Jung’s doctrine himself. But earlier, Wang Yiliang is best known for his translations of former Czech President Havel’s memoirs and books written while in prison. Wang Yiliang also has his own extensive literary output, including Subcultural Apocalypse, The Wisdom of Friends, The Road to Sapochatsio, The Naked Run in Stockholm, and We Came to the World to Play, but unfortunately, as a writer in exile, he was a dissident in his homeland and was “banned in his home country, he was “banned from publication”; abroad, he was “a man of few words” and had no market. There is no market, and his personal writings cannot be published.
Wang Yiliang’s wife, Bai Yang, said with tears in her eyes: “I think what I regret very much for him is that, as a talented writer, any writer, if you lose such a soil, you first of all have no audience (readers), your works have no way to communicate with people in your hometown. Because no matter what, you as a writer, he still hopes that his works, these ideas can be accepted by the readers of the motherland, you are not writing in English after all. “
Wang Yiliang was the first of the 10 writers whose names were explicitly blocked in the “red head document” of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department at the time, and whose works were destined to never appear on the bookshelves of China. His works were never allowed to appear on the bookshelves of China.
Writers in exile face a language, cultural and economic divide in a foreign land. White Night says that for a literary person, they cannot physically compete with others, and it is difficult for them to do physical work.
Writers in exile lose their soil and can only shout to the wilderness
White Night says: “Any authoritarian government will punish exiled writers in the same way as politicians, by sending you into exile, because you didn’t grow up in exile, you lost your native language, you lost the soil of your native language that you can express, basically you have cut off your roots, that is to say If you lose your mother tongue, if you lose the soil of your mother tongue where you can express yourself, you are basically cut off from your roots, that is to say, your stuff cannot influence your countrymen, or your expression is a cry in the wilderness. “
Having lost the soil of his native language, Wang Yiliang could not publish his creations, but only on his blog; however, through the “Free Writing” webzine and the translated works, Wang Yiliang’s Through the translation of his books, the independent ideas of Havel, the soul of the Czech Velvet Revolution, were flown to China.
Hong Kong documentary filmmaker Wen Hai told Voice of America that he first saw Havel’s book and noticed that the main translator was Wang Yiliang, so he was impressed by him because of the excellent translation.
Wen Hai said that he first met Wang Yiliang in 2016 when he and his new wife came to Hong Kong for a vacation, when Wang Yiliang called Wen Hai and invited him to meet him on Cheung Chau Island for a stall. However, the famous writer in the heart of Wen Hai, when you see him in person is not quite the same as in your mind, “how a little scribble feeling? “
Wang Yiliang’s translation of Havel’s books was as natural as being possessed with precision
Wen Hai said the most impressive thing that day was Wang Yiliang talking about his translation of Havel’s memoirs, as if possessed by Havel, the words flowed naturally and precisely, almost without further revision. After that, they met again in Taiwan and also arranged to go to Thailand to film the couple working as translators, but unexpectedly the outbreak of the New Crown Epidemic prevented them from doing so.
Hong Kong director Wen Hai said, “I thought it was amazing at the time because I love Havel’s books and I think the whole civic movement in China is heavily influenced by him. The most important source of ideas for the Chinese civic movement, strangely enough, is instead these exiles airlifting these most important sources of ideas to China, because most Chinese people are not familiar with English, the structure either. These translators which are the authors themselves, have this feeling. “
Wen Hai said, exile writer Gao Xingjian won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000, and immediately compared all those so-called official literature in China, he as a reader of exile literature, the idea is deeply influenced by exile literature, and even become the pillar of life efforts.
Exile literature has become a pillar of strength for future generations
Wen Hai said: “When we are a northern artist, our bottom strength comes from the standard provided by these exile writers. Nobel Prize, are inside their editorial board. In 1995, they did a debate on the Holocaust, articles from East Germany and Germany, including articles from their symposium, which I think is particularly important, saying that when you were in China, we were all very disgusted with the official system, the university teachers were quite corrupt, and we couldn’t even look at them. It actually comes from a very important pillar that they provide us with. “
Literary critic Zhou Bingxin has said in a seminar that literature in exile, as a kind of literature of witness, is a supplement to the world’s proper history. Chinese exile writers are the most real life presence in contemporary China, and their texts are an important part of the history of contemporary Chinese suffering. Exiles carry their conscience and the truth out into the world, exiled by their homeland, living a wandering nomadic life in the Western world, often with a bleak end and an inner pain that no one can understand.
Wang Yiliang’s wife, Bai Yang, said that after learning about Wang Yiliang’s difficult experiences, she became even more heartbroken for him. Although they had not spent much time together, only five years, they were dependent on each other and inseparable in Thailand, never separated, and the two together were the world. In the last days of Wang Yiliang’s life, in and out of the intensive care ward, Baiye was always at his side, taking good care of him.
I felt that after I learned about his life, I appreciated and admired him, but more than that, I loved him, and even though we were both exiles, I hoped I could warm him up for the first half of his life after we formed a family,” he said. (Hospital care) felt very hard at that time, now if I have to take care of him even all the time, I feel quite good, I didn’t expect him to go away so soon! “
China: the hometown he could never return to
Asked Wang Yiliang will want to return to China? White night said, Wang Yiliang had three times to apply for a visa to return to China, but were rejected, so he was deeply shocked, but also know that it is useless to try again, so although the mouth will curse China, said never want to go back, but in fact he drifted half a lifetime, dreaming of going back, because the most often heard, is that he told when he was young, in China with friends did happy things, it seems that Wang Yiliang all the happy are fixed! Before he left China and went into exile.
White Night says, “Actually, I know that inside he wants to go back to China so badly! He had tried so many times, and every time I told him about my homeland, he was fascinated. But because he is afraid, because he has the psychological shadow of being rejected again and again, sometimes he will suddenly say I never want to go back, but I think in fact this is not the truth in his heart, because I know him too well, his heart wants to go back to China too much, he is hurt, so he does not dare to try again, do not dare to have this extravagant hope, he just let himself seem to break this idea. How is it possible to not want to go back to China? At least those friends from his youth, he likes to live a collective life, and his work reflects it. “
Exiled writer Wang Yiliang passed away in the early hours of January 4 at Masai Hospital in the northern border town of Thailand due to pneumonia caused by terminal esophageal cancer. Independent PEN founder Bei Ling said that Wang Yiliang was a typical underground writer, but also a classic writer in exile, whose turbulent life path presents the strength and fragility of life and reflects the sad situation of writers in exile.
Perhaps, as Wang Yiliang himself said in his essay “The Hometown I Can’t Return”, the memory of hometown is like a compressed cookie, which is tightly pressed. The nostalgia for the hometown will last a lifetime; the criticism of the hometown may last a lifetime. China, is no longer a story in his memory. Like many writers in exile, as a person with no roots in his body, Wang Yiliang has lost his real country and home, and China is the hometown he can never return to, only loneliness and isolation irrigate his remote territory.
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