After All, the Vogue Passes
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Summary
Editor's review
Her sketches of cultural figures such as Cui Jian and Bei Dao do not linger in nostalgia but, through personal encounters, reveal the spiritual portrait of an era. Zhai's characteristic delicate perception and cool brushstroke give these texts both documentary value and literary charm. Her attention to women artists and reflections on the artistic ecosystem display a cultural vision that transcends gender.
Most worth savoring is the book's dialectical thinking about "the popular"—when all that is fashionable passes, what remains? Zhai offers no simple answer but lets readers intuit it through specific people, events, and scenes. This open-ended writing suits her poetic essence: not drawing conclusions but posing questions.
The reading experience is like walking with a wise companion, pausing to gaze at cultural scenes, turning back to personal journeys, ultimately pointing to a deep understanding of creation and memory. The SDX Joint Publishing edition is elegantly produced, matching the content's temperament—a contemporary cultural observation worth collecting.
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in Chinese cultural scenes since the 1980s
- Literary lovers who enjoy cross-genre, poetic prose
- Readers concerned with women's artistic creation and cultural expression
- Thinkers who wish to see how a poet observes the world
Not a good fit for
- Academic readers expecting systematic theoretical analysis
- Readers seeking light entertainment
Reading tips
- Read alongside Zhai Yongming's poetry collections to appreciate the intertextual relationship between her prose and verse
- No need to read in order; enter at any chapter that interests you
- Note the dialogue between the black-and-white photographs and the text
About the publisher
SDX Joint Publishing Company is a publisher known for its humanities and social science titles, covering classics, culture, history, social fiction and politics. Its catalogue of 826 books includes Chinese and foreign literary classics such as The Scholars, Camel Xiangzi and Selected Short Stories of Chekhov, scholarly works such as Studies of Chinese Cave Temples, A Study of the Tuoba History (Revised Edition) and The Nine-Rank System: A Prehistory of the Imperial Examination, and translations such as Red Star Over China and Notes from the House of the Dead. Its authors include renowned Chinese and foreign writers such as Wu Jingzi, Lao She, Su Bai and Chekhov, as well as scholars and translators such as Chen Xiaoming, Wang Benhua, Guo Changbao and Zhu Xiansheng. Its publishing character lies in balancing the popularisation of classics with academic depth, with attention to textual quality and the transmission of knowledge.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 前言
- 毕竟流行去
- 写真留影记
- 壹
- 贰
- 叁
- 少年杂读记
- 看电影记
- 一、坝坝电影
- 二、电影院
- 三、内参电影
- 四、阵营电影
- 观影进化史
- 川菜小记
- 水煮凉粉
- 吉祥三宝
- 郫县豆瓣
- 小人书小记
- 杂搜录
- 禁欲时期的爱情
- 青春无奈
- 发育的烦恼
- 广阔天地的自由
- 隔着三十年的回忆
FAQ
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About the author
Zhai Yongming is represented in this Chinese-language book database by two works, namely After All, Pop Culture Goes and What Comes After Completion. The database holds no record of her nationality, dates of birth and death, education, or awards, and publicly available information is likewise limited. Judging from the works at hand, her writing spans documentary literature and literary appreciation: the former focuses on observing and recording real-life experience and contemporary phenomena, while the latter reflects close reading and evaluation of texts. She attends to the connections between popular culture and literary taste, and her prose is plain, marked by personal judgment, and free of embellishment. Because verifiable material is scarce, her life details and the full scope of her writing remain difficult to sketch completely; readers may nonetheless use these two works to understand her choice of subjects and her style.
