The Lonely Clear-Headed One

Liang XiaoshengBeijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. · ChinaJun 2024

Rating 4.0
Word count
148K words
Chapters
43
ISBN
9787559674869

Tags

Social Fiction Social ObservationFate and FortuneGroup BiographyHuman NatureComplex HumanityPsychological InsightMoral DilemmaSatirical Style

Summary

After decades of deeply engaged realist writing, Liang Xiaosheng here lets his imagination run free and turns to fiction with an absurdist bent.

This collection brings together ten new novellas and short stories, in which unfinished tales from "The World" play out anew:

A veteran detective who has cracked many a baffling case meets his Waterloo;

A professor turned internet celebrity, enjoying a second spring in his career, is thrust into the spotlight overnight;

A woman bent on revenge wakes one morning to find she has become a mosquito;

Two people who swap hearts find their temperaments utterly transformed;

……

They are swept up in the tide of the times: when most people go along with the world, the clear-eyed choose to resist; refusing to accept the verdict of fate, they are destined to stand alone.

When murkiness becomes the norm, is clarity a crime?

Editor's review

A Lonely Sober Mind is an important recent collection of essays by Mao Dun Literature Prize winner Liang Xiaosheng, gathering the author's profound reflections on changing times, cultural phenomena, and individual destiny. With his characteristic austere prose and humanistic concern, Liang dissects the spiritual predicaments of contemporary China during its social transformation. The book is especially incisive in its discussion of topics such as "the situation of intellectuals," "the disappearance of collective memory," and "the alienation of people by consumerism," continuing the attention to ordinary people's fate found in A Lifelong Journey, but with a broader perspective and more philosophical depth.

As a writer who has always kept a dialogue with reality, Liang shows rare lucidity and courage in this work. He rejects cheap optimism and is wary of nihilistic pessimism, instead seeking a foothold for the individual spirit amid the complex interweaving of history and reality. Essays such as "Why We Are Different" and "The Silent Majority" offer constructive reflections on contemporary people's identity anxiety and loss of meaning.

Reading this work requires some patience, because Liang's thinking is often not conclusive but instead presents the complex dimensions of a problem. Yet this is precisely its value—in an age accustomed to simple answers, he insists on asking difficult questions. The book's style is steady and restrained, without ornate rhetoric, yet it feels weighty because of its density of thought. For readers concerned with the spiritual condition of contemporary Chinese society, this is a record of thought worth chewing over repeatedly.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read in chapter order or start with the titles that interest you most; each chapter stands relatively on its own
  2. Taking notes or annotating is recommended to record your thoughts and questions while reading
  3. Reading alongside Liang Xiaosheng's fiction, such as A Lifelong Journey, can help clarify his intellectual trajectory

About the publisher

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 1993

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. is a publisher known for its literature and history titles, with 2,065 books in the collection. Its publishing covers foreign literature, contemporary Chinese prose and essays, history, folk literature, and cultural books. Its list ranges from Sima Qian's complete edition of the Records of the Grand Historian to foreign classics such as The Book of Disquiet, All Quiet on the Western Front, Snow Country, The Stranger, and Jean-Christophe, as well as modern Chinese works including Teahouse and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. Its authors and translators include Yasunari Kawabata, Fernando Pessoa, Erich Maria Remarque, Jin Xinyi, Zhou Miao, and Chen Chao. Public information is limited, but its catalogue reflects a balance between Chinese and foreign literary classics and historical and cultural works.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 作者简介
  3. 悬案
  4. 网事
  5. 醉源
  6. 遭遇“王六郎”
  7. 一
  8. 二
  9. 三
  10. 四
  11. 五
  12. 六
  13. 复仇的蚊子
  14. 一
  15. 二
  16. 三
  17. 四
  18. 丢失的心
  19. 风马羊
  20. 一
  21. 二
  22. 三
  23. 四
  24. 五
  25. 六
  26. 太平灯
  27. 有那么—座城市
  28. 太平灯之诞生
  29. 好感动哦
  30. 好传统要继承下去
  31. 谁盗窃了十万美金
  32. 同志们，请暂停一下
  33. 真相与谣传
  34. 谁举报了我？
  35. 后遗症
  36. 不该发生的悲剧
  37. 金原野
  38. “马亚逊”和狗
  39. 一
  40. 二
  41. 三
  42. 四
  43. 五

FAQ

How does this book differ in style from Liang Xiaosheng's fiction? Compared with the nuanced character portrayal and narrative development in his fiction, this essay collection presents the author's views and critical thinking more directly, in more concise language and with more immediate contemporary relevance.
Is the content of the book too heavy? Liang Xiaosheng does confront many real social problems, but not to cultivate pessimism. His reflections contain a search for human warmth and spiritual possibility; the overall tone is serious and constructive.
Is this book suitable for younger readers? If you have an initial interest in social issues and are willing to think deeply, this book offers valuable perspectives. It does require some accumulated social observation and reading patience; trying a few chapters first is recommended.

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About the author

Liang Xiaosheng Author · Chinese · 1949

Liang Xiaosheng is a contemporary Chinese writer, born in 1949 in Harbin, with ancestral roots in Rongcheng, Shandong. His original name is Liang Shaosheng. In 1968 he went to the Great Northern Wilderness as a sent-down youth, and in 1977 he graduated from the Chinese Department of Fudan University. He later worked as an editor at the Beijing Film Studio and as a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University. Known for his novels about educated youth, he draws much of his material from his years in the Great Northern Wilderness and from the lives of ordinary people. His plain, substantial style intertwines personal fate with social change. His representative works include *Tonight There Is a Snowstorm*, *Snow City*, *The Ring of Years*, and *The Human World*; in 2019 he received the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize. His writing also touches on themes of inspiration and personal growth and has reached a wide readership.