【长篇小说《纸厦》英文版内容提要】
2017-05-17 23:36阅读：
【长篇小说《纸厦》英文版内容提要】
Introduction to the Novel
Paper Tower
Starts with a writer and jellied bean curd seller in a
small town — Zhu Tugai submitting his writing for publication, the
novel tells the decline and fall of Phoenix Press — a renowned
publishing house with fifty years’ history. The task of the
publishing house was to introduce the Chinese culture to the
outside world, but as the protections on it had been removed in the
economic reform, it had to turn to the domestic market. However,
fifty years of life in ease and comfort under protection had
infected the staff with the “Syndrome of Secure Lifelong Job”. They
were lazy, greedy, they scrambled for power, but were capable of
nothing. Wu Shiyan, who was in charge of the administration, played
mah-
jong during working hours; Zheng Sanfa, who was in charge of
printing, asked for kickbacks from each client; the sales manager,
Wang Jingang, embezzled public fund; Zheng Sanfa’s wife Huang
Lianhua, the accountant, fleeced people wherever possible; even the
driver, Fang San’er, would take the advantages of the publishing
house. Bored by the repeating days, senior staff Li Daheng, came up
with the grotesque idea of building a “hundred storey skyscraper”
with cigarette cases. He attempted to break the Guinness Record to
celebrate the new millennium.
Disappointed with the situation, some young editors,
such as Aliba, found no stage to exhibit their capabilities, so
they just muddled along without clear purposes. The former
literature shrine with supreme nobility was confronted with the
danger of bankruptcy. Several foreign language journals were
eliminated. The only hope lied in the issuance of a Chinese
journal. However, the internal conflicts between different
departments counteracted the efforts. The soap bubble was broken,
the situation was getting worse.
The founder of the publishing house Sun Wenfu, together
with Aliba, decided to seek help in Qiangdao from a friend Zhang
Yifu, who used to be a poet, but then the president of a big hotel.
Zhang gave them a million yuan as book fund. Back in Beijing, Sun
found editor Yu Jian committed suicide, the driver Fang San’er, was
injured in a car crash. Therefore, the money was spent to pay the
funeral, the medical treatment and the car repair. Soon after,
Zhang Yifu was involved in an illegal funding and was put into
prison. When the people from Qiangdao Public Security Bureau came
to confiscate the book fund, there was hardly any money
left.
Zhu Tugai spent three years to finish his novel, but
the sales department of the Phoenix Press refused to sell his novel
because of the high price resulted from the high printing costs. To
help Zhu Tugai, as well as making some money for the publishing
house, Aliba recommended the novel to a big book seller “Northern
Wolves” through a woman journalist Jin Lingzi. The novel made an
unexpected hit and turned out to be the best seller of that year.
However, owing to some erotic element in promotion, the book was
banned. Meanwhile, based on the good first impression of a senior
writer Yuan Feibei from Guocheng, Aliba promise him to publish his
everywhere-rejected novel, regardless of his colleague Wei Ziye’s
dissuasion. After publication, Yuan blackmailed Aliba for 100,000
yuan. Zhu Tugai, who was then already famous overnight, went to
Guocheng to offer help. In the court, Aliba defended for himself,
he showed Yuan’s letter and made the truth known to the
public.
Despite of the painstaking efforts that Sun Wenfu had
made, his journal came to an end on the day of the anniversary.
Then he left with despair. The director of the publishing house
Zhao Xiaoyue was quite a dictator. He promise Wang Jingang with a
higher position, so he colluded with Wu Shiyan, Zhou Quan and Fei
Yingxiong, who respectively in charge of the department of
administration, editing and translation and attempted to take the
place of Qian and Sun, but as Zhao is really greedy and mediocre,
he was driven out of power. Qian Qisi took his place and became the
director of the publishing house. Li Zhongguo, a French-Chinese
translator who was just back from Paris became the editor in chief.
Wu Shiyan, Zhou Quan and Wang Jingang’s dream was broken, so they
just kept a critical eye on Qian and Li and try to create some
trouble with other people who had lost their
interest in the reshuffle. Being innocent intellectuals, Qian and
Li were totally unaware of their conspiracy, they were planning to
handle with the messy business, pay off the 2 million-yuan debt and
bring a brand new start in the brand new century. Wei Ziye had been
fed up with the ongoing theatre of absurd. He predicted that
Phoenix can be revived only by destroying the old rules, so he just
stayed aloof and concentrated in his writing career. While Li
Zhongguo was in France, he somehow saw Wei’s book in a Chinese book
store and was deeply impressed by his humor. He translated the book
into French and attracted significant attention in the Western
literature circle. After that, Li and Wei became very good friends.
When Li came back to China, he gave up his translation career which
is at the peak, and spent no efforts to revitalize the publishing
house. He recommended Wei Ziye to director Qian Siqi. Wei was about
to be a professional writer in the city’s Writer’s Association, but
he promised to stay and help them get over the hardships. In order
to open up a new prospect for the publishing house, the director
hired the so-called “Book-selling Expert” Lu Weima with a decent
salary. Meanwhile, the higher authorities appointed Guo Tiehan the
vice-director of Phoenix Press. Wu Shiyan, who had been longing for
the position agitated the staff to boycott the appointment.
However, Guo Tiehan still became the vice-director and soon seized
the power by his sophisticated politician’s
tact.
Qian Siqi’s three measures end in failure one after
another. Due to the differences of social ideology involved in, his
attempted cooperation with German Robert Culture Group was ceased
by the higher authorities. Then came the unsuccessful cooperation
with The Dragon Company. The last stake went to the “Book-selling
Expert” Lu Weima. But he turned out to be an armchair strategist.
His only ways of promotion is drinking and playing cards with
bookstore managers, and pretend to lose money in the game as
commission for the managers. As this money can not be refunded in
the account, his way of promotion did not work. However, Lu managed
to transfer the responsibility to Aliba. Qian Siqi trusted Lu
Weima, but Wei Ziye knew the truth. He suggested Aliba to recommend
these books to other publishing houses and left the troubled
water.
The messy situation is far beyond retrieval; therefore,
Aliba announced that he would follow Li Hengda, who was building a
paper tower by cigarette cases. Huang Shuo, who was young but
sophisticated, took Wei Ziye’s position. He would make use of the
power, which is time-limited, to trade for personal relationships,
which is of no time limit. By conniving at corruptions and
embezzlements, he gradually won support from some of the staff. Li
Zhongguo wanted to practice what he acquired from abroad in the
Phoenix Press, but was hampered by those who would possibly lose
their interests in the reform. Huang Lianhua took the lead to
initiate the conflict; afterward, Wu Shiyan abetted Wang Jingang in
beating Li Zhongguo. Guo Tiehan had always wanted to drive Li out
of power; he just made casual mention of the beating and shelved it
in the end. Li was so disappointed, his enthusiasm was
quenched.
The novel ends in a small dark room behind the logistic
office. In that room, Li Hengda’s skyscraper was built to the 99
storey; the Guinness World Record was greeting to him.
Unfortunately, he found a brood of rats in the first storey, he
wanted to get rid of the rats, but wound up destroying the whole
building. Tortured by anger and regret, he died of a sudden.
Meanwhile, an unprecedented tragic and stirring new was waiting for
the Phoenix Press. The higher authority had decided to close down
the Phoenix Press. There’s special character - granny Xie who
permeated the whole novel, her words best conclude the whole novel:
“You living spirits, you have nothing to do but eating, shitting
and clamoring, one day you will clamor down the whole
tower”.
The novel is prophetic as well as realistic; it is the
first novel about a publishing house out of billions of
publications every year. There are over a hundred characters in the
novel. Besides the characters in the Phoenix Press, the novel
vividly portrayed the character of some modern women, who have some
romantic stories with the hero – Aliba, who is always kept on the
run and busy play games with those women. In the novel, one can
read Aliba’s stubborn and intractable personality; his rejection to
surrender; his separation of soul from body; his inner conflict
between love and sex as a modern soul.
作者简介
野莽：原籍湖北竹溪。武汉大学毕业。中国当代作家。曾在银行、文化馆、文联、作协、出版社等单位任职与写作。1980年发表小说处女作，迄今已著有长篇小说《荒诞斯人》《王先生》《陈谷新香》《禁宫画像》《纸厦》《行色仓皇》《云飞雨散》《大律师施洋之死》《阿洋的别墅》《寻找汪革命》《黑鸟》；中短篇小说集《野人国》《乌山故事》《乌山人物》《乌山景色》《世上只有我背时》《黑梦》《京都人兽》《窥视》《死去活来》《独乳》《不能没有你》《人活一世》《黑夜里的老拳击手》《流泪的百合花》《少年与鼠》《女人与猫》《公元1984年的逃跑事件》《痛苦》《逃婚记》；长篇方志小说《庸国》系列《伐纣》《叛魏》《攻城》《破寨》《越狱》；长篇传记《刘道玉传》（上下）；散文随笔集《墨客》《竹影听风》《此情可待》《难得聪明》《教育诗》《写在手纸上的恨》《记忆》；学术著作《诗说新语》《诗经选译》《志怪选译》《史记选译》《点评何典》；在国外出版有法文版小说集《开电梯的女人》《打你五十大板》《玩阿基米德飞盘的王永乐师傅》，共计５０余部，１０００余万字。多次荣获国内刊物的优秀小说奖、优秀散文随笔奖、优秀对外传播作品奖等各类文学奖。大量作品被选入《小说选刊》《小说月报》《短篇小说选刊》《中篇小说月报》《传奇文学选刊》《小小说选刊》《作家文摘》等国内选刊，中国作协选编的1996、1997、2000、2001、2003年《中国优秀短篇小说选》，老舍文学基金会与《北京文学》杂志社合办的2001、2003年《中国文学排行榜》，以及《二十世纪末中国文学精品选》《新世纪编年文选》等２０余种选本。同时被翻译成英、法、日、俄等国文字，并被国外大学选为中国语教材。《开电梯的女人》一书被巴黎《世界报》《费加罗报》《法兰西晚报》选载和评介。此外还主编有《中国文学宝库》《中国当代精品文库》《中国当代才子书》《中国作家档案书系》《新世纪长篇小说丛书》《重说千古风流》《锐眼撷花丛书》《中国当代长篇小说绘画评点本丛书》《走向世界的中国作家文库》等大型文学丛书一百多种，累计亿字。
野莽著作
长篇小说
《荒诞斯人》黑龙江人民出版社1993年
《王先生》中国戏剧出版社1997年
《陈谷新香》中国文学出版社1999年
《禁宫画像》中国文学出版社2000年
《纸厦》长江文艺文版社2002年
《行色仓皇》新世界出版社2003年
《云飞雨散》花山文艺出版社2004年
《大律师施洋之死》《啄木鸟》杂志社2010年第1期，《作家文摘》转载
《阿洋的别墅》中国工人出版社2010年
《寻找汪革命》新华出版社2012年
《迷失》中国工人出版社2012年
《黑鸟》中国工人出版社2016年
《儿子》待出
《万寿无疆 》（三卷，上卷完）
长篇方志小说《庸国》系列
《伐纣》中国工人出版社2009年
《叛魏》中国工人出版社2009年
《攻城》中国工人出版社2009年
《破寨》中国工人出版社2009年
《越狱》中国工人出版社2009年
中短篇小说集
《野人国》中国文联出版公司1998年
《乌山故事》漓江出版社1993年
《乌山人物》漓江出版社1993年
《乌山景色》漓江出版社1993年
《世上只有我背时》中国文学出版社1993年
《京都人兽》中国文学出版社1994年
《黑梦》中国文联出版公司1995年
《窥视》长江文艺出版社2001年
《死去活来》蓝天出版社2003年
《独乳》群众出版社2004年
《不能没有你》云南人民出版社2005年
《人活一世》中国工人出版社2005年
《黑夜里的老拳击手》河南文艺出版社2006年
《流泪的百合花》光明日报出版社2010年
《少年与鼠》文化发展出版社2016年
《女人与猫》鹭江出版社2018年
《公元1985年的逃跑事件》中国文史出版社2019年
《痛苦》中国言实出版社2019年
《逃婚记》文化发展出版社2019年
长篇传记
《刘道玉传》（上、下）华文出版社2012年
散文随笔集
《墨客》中国工人出版社2008年
《竹影听风》地震出版社2012年
《难得聪明》地震出版社2014年
《此情可待》地震出版社2014年
《教育诗》四川文艺出版社2012年
《写在手纸上的恨》江西高校出版社2015年
《记得》中国言实出版社2018年
学术著作
《诗说新语》文化发展出版社2016年
《诗经今译》外文出版社2001年
《志怪今译》新世界出版社2001年
《史记今译》新世界出版社2001年
《评点〈何典〉》中国盲文出版社2003年
外文版
《开电梯的女人》（法）中国之蓝出版社2001年
《打你五十大板》（法）中国之蓝出版社2002年
《玩阿基米德飞盘的王永乐师傅》（法）中国之蓝出版社2004年
影视作品
《祝你好运》《电视电视文学》2002年第１期
《高爸再见》中央电视台第９频道（电影）2002年６月
《浪潮》（２７集电视连续剧）2004年
野莽在诺贝尔文学奖得主马里奥.巴尔加斯.略萨见面会上
