Don't Ask Me

Don't Ask Me is one of the representative novellas by the writer Dong Xi (born Tian Dailin). In 2017, Writers Publishing House released it as a standalone volume in the "Masterworks of Contemporary Chinese Fiction" series. The protagonist, Wei Guo, is an associate professor in the physics department who was exceptionally promoted to associate professor at the age of twenty-eight. His life has gone smoothly, and he has never truly experienced failure or humiliation. At a weekend gathering, he is plied with drink by several colleagues who failed to win associate professorships, and at their urging he forcibly kisses Feng Chen, the class beauty. The incident causes an uproar, and he resigns in disgrace, leaving his former life behind. On a train from Xi'an to Beihai, Wei Guo meets Gu Nandan, and the two take to each other at once. Yet during this journey, by a strange twist of fate, he loses a leather suitcase containing all his worldly possessions—and, more fatally, besides the cash, all the documents that could prove "who he is" are lost with it. A young scholar who once established his place in the world through his education, professional title, work unit, and personnel file suddenly becomes a person who cannot be verified in the web of social relations. He is suspected when looking for work, treated with caution in his dealings, unable to verify his identity, and his livelihood and dignity collapse at the same time. The novel thus unfolds a string of absurd encounters and crises of trust. With a blackly humorous touch, Dong Xi renders an almost allegorical predicament with a lightness that is also heavy: a person is defined by his social identity, and once the papers that prove it disappear, the body remains but its place has nothing to rest on. Through Wei Guo's experiences in the south, the work reflects the spiritual anxiety and existential bewilderment of the individual in modern society, and critics have seen it as a writing of "a comprehensive retreat from identity to the body." Xie Youshun comments that it "starts from the subtle perplexities of the ways of the world and the human heart, and reveals the laughter and tears of the era." This edition also includes the author's afterword, "In Search of a Chinese-Style Inspiration," offering a glimpse into his creative thinking.