Vera Peneda of the Global Times English edition interviewed Chan Koonchung and talked about "The Fat Years". The Globlal Times is an affiliate of the People's Daily of China.

Shiny, happy China

·                                 Source: Global Times

·                                 [10:27 March 24 2011]

By Vera Penêda

It's 2013 and China is happy. The country dodged the economic crisis slapping the West and is living well off the fat of the land. People celebrate the unprecedented prosperity and especially in metropolises like Beijing everyone's euphoric about rising China…until someone discovers why there is no memory or record of the 28-day period of China's swift ascent to bliss.

Piercing and thought provoking, Chan Koonchung's new novel 2013: The Fat Years (2013: Shengshi Zhongguo) presents thoughts on China's development model. Chan's novel hit the Chinese mainland exclusively online where it became a hot topic among intellectuals and curious readers. Chan talks about his futuristic vision of Chinese society during his recent visit to the Bookworm.

Age of prosperity

With his grayish hair and metallic zip coat, Chan, 58 is a combination of Buddhist monk and Star Trek entity. "I truly wanted to be quite ambivalent and show a mixed vision of China," he says with a deep voice that bears a hint of prophecy. "A novel can show both sides, it allows contradictions and you don't have to send out one single message. That's exactly what I needed to tell how I feel about China and try to give a sense of how people with different positions think about this particular moment in history," the author says, disagreeing with reviews that label his book as dystopian or utopian.

Mixed feelings and the 2008 events inflamed Chan's inspiration. "I had many false starts [in doing fictional work about China] since I relocated to Beijing in 2000," says the Shanghai-born writer. "I wasn't born and didn't grow up here so I didn't feel like I had a genuine grasp of how Beijingers think," says Chan, who lived most of his life in Hong Kong and Taipei. "But 2008 was a tremendously important year in the history of China. China's WTO entrance in 2001 or coming out of SARS in 2004 were major, but nothing quite like 2008," recalls the author, counting the heavy snow in the south of China, the incidents in Tibet and the Sichuan earthquake up to the Olympic Games. "The mindset of many people changed, specially the young people, who now had different expectations about China. This was something new. Suddenly, the perception of Hong Kong, Taiwan and even the West also changed and they now felt they had to catch up with China."

The author recalls the advent of this new age. "During the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic I remember seeing a big banner at a post office in my neighborhood with the word shengshi, which was only used to refer to the peak of Chinese civilization during the Han and Tang Dynasties. It hadn't been used for over 100 years and now it was back." 

Parallel reality

Chan describes the surrealism of an outwardly winning China where everybody drinks at Starbucks Want Want and looks infected with unfazed happiness. He's a "dispassionate observer," just like his narrator, Taiwanese writer Lao Chen, a long time resident who shares the relatively comfortable life of most intellectuals and affluent people in the capital until he bumps into two friends. "Xi and Fang are the only ones who seem to be out of sync. They're not content about the changes and can't really understand why people ceased to be critical." 

Fang insists that the entire month between the global economic crisis and China's rise was wiped from history. "It's metaphorical. Young people don't even know about it and China's boom tended to make others, even those who were involved, forget about harsher times," Chan says. Fang involves Chen and Xi in his quest to unveil what happened. Their investigation brings to light the darkness and fright that propelled and sustains China's "golden age" and culminates with the kidnapping of a high-ranking Chinese official who's forced to reveal the secret about the "lost month."

References to real headlines about milk scandals and secretive religious gatherings mix with new concepts like "90 percent freedom" and the introduction of figures never seen before in Chinese novels. "Wei Guo is probably the most controversial character. He's an outstanding young man from a new generation at an elite university yet a hyper-nationalist whose biggest dream is to work for the government," says the author, confirming that his characters were inspired in "real role models."

Sustainable development

Chan breaks through the less explored minefield of political fantasy with a Midas touch to intertwine fiction and reality to portray the complexity of China's golden age. "China is too big, it combines features of the first and the third worlds in one country, development and under development, rich and poor; but the mood of the moment is very helpful to the ruling state," he says.

"I tried to project a China that is based on its present political system and see how it'll evolve; will China overcome all obstacles, will China be stronger and what will it be like living in China especially for the intellectuals and urban people like Beijingers?" resumes Chan, who's reasonably optimistic. "Even with the present system there's room for improvement. A sustainable and smarter development is possible with an environmentally friendly policy, better multicultural policies and common citizenry as well as the understanding that China's national interest lies in the participation of global governance for a more equitable world."

More "humorous and colorful" than its dystopian cousins, "the book was mainly targeted at shrinking this perception gap that especially people in Hong Kong and Taiwan have on what's currently happening in the Chinese mainland by shocking them into this new reality," Chan says.

"I wanted it to be somehow discomforting," says the author. His attempt fully resonates when he evokes poetic dilemmas and responsibilities of individuals in modern China. One can't help but feel unease and wonder about his own role in a Truman Show-like scenario, even if you're just a foreigner witnessing China's changes. "It's not easy to live in China, but with effort, you can be rewarded."

Chan's book sold about 17,000 copies in Hong Kong and Taiwan and is being translated into 11 different languages, including English. Pleased by the attention, Chan says "several major studios and directors in Hollywood asked for a copy of the book."

For more about Chan's writings visit: chankoonchung.spaces.live.com    verapeneda@globaltimes.com.cn