Liu Zhenyun’s Milan Reader Event
On December 2, 2024, the “Liu Zhenyun Milan Reader Event” was held at the Martinotti Auditorium of Bicocca University. Liu Zhenyun is one of the most successful contemporary Chinese authors, with his works translated into over twenty languages and distributed worldwide.
Recently, his most significant novel, Someone to Talk To, was published in Italian. This book won the 2006 Mao Dun Literature Prize, the highest literary award in China.
It was later adapted into a film of the same name, for which Liu Zhenyun served as the screenwriter and received the Best Screenwriter Award in the Asian Brilliant Stars section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.
Born in 1958 in Yanjin, Henan Province, China, Liu Zhenyun graduated from Peking University’s Department of Chinese Language and Literature. Many of his works have been adapted into films and have won numerous domestic and international awards.
In 2008, he was awarded the “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” by the French Ministry of Culture.
Nearly 300 seats for Liu Zhenyun’s Milan book talk were fully booked in advance, and the auditorium was filled to capacity. Consul Yao Liangjun and Consul Wang Xinyi from the Chinese Consulate General in Milan, Prof. Fu Haifeng (Chinese Director) and Prof. Bettina Mottura (Italian Director) of the Confucius Institute at the University of Milan, Prof. Silvia Pozzi of Bicocca University’s Department of Chinese Studies, Lucrezia Goldin from Italy’s SkyTG24 news channel, and several Chinese teaching representatives from the Milan Confucius Institute attended the event.
Connections with Italy
When discussing his connection with Italy, Liu Zhenyun shared a story from Someone to Talk To about a missionary who traveled from Milan, Italy, to Yanjin, Henan, China.
The locals affectionately called him “Lao Zhan” in Chinese. Lao Zhan lived in Yanjin for over 40 years and converted only eight followers. Despite this, he tirelessly spread his faith in the streets and alleys every day. Each night, he wrote letters to his young nephew in Italy, who deeply admired Lao Zhan, believing him to be the greatest missionary in the world, having converted millions in the East. The nephew once wrote back, saying, “You are the person I admire most in the world. When I grow up, I want to be just like you.” Upon receiving the letter, Lao Zhan cried through the night.
When the French edition of Someone to Talk To was released, a professor from Paris Diderot University told Liu Zhenyun, “Do you know what Lao Zhan’s nephew became years later?
He became the archbishop of Milan Cathedral.” Liu Zhenyun was deeply moved and visited Milan Cathedral the following day. During a solemn Mass, he saw an elderly man wearing a ceremonial crown, dressed in white, and holding a staff, slowly walking out.
From a distance, Liu Zhenyun looked at him and thought, “I know you. You are Lao Zhan’s nephew.”
The Power of Communication
Much of Liu Zhenyun’s work explores the concept of “speaking.” In Someone to Talk To, he categorizes people into two types: those “who can communicate” and those “who cannot.”
The protagonists from different eras, whether leaving home or returning, share the same ultimate goal: to find someone with whom they can truly connect. Similarly, I Am Not Madame Bovary tells the story of a rural woman striving for her voice to be heard.
During a book discussion event for I Am Not Madame Bovary in Amsterdam, a woman told Liu Zhenyun that she had never been to China and her understanding of the country was limited to Western media reports, which often portrayed Chinese people as neither thoughtful nor humorous.
“But while reading your book, I laughed from beginning to end,” she said. “The language was so witty, but then there was a part where I cried. It was the scene where the woman, after being ignored by everyone, started talking to the cow she raised, saying, ‘You know me best. You should know I’m not a bad person.’”
The reader fully understood the feelings of the book’s protagonist, demonstrating that harmony can be created between characters outside the book and those within the pages of the novel. Dialogue and storytelling transcend languages and cultures.
Liu Zhenyun was deeply moved by this observation. He noted that communication is essential, but listening is equally vital. Authors write to express, but listening, even more than speaking, demonstrates the profound power of connection that communication can bring.
Opening the Window of Communication
In Liu Zhenyun’s novels, profound philosophy is often expressed through humor, and complex matters are conveyed in a simple yet impactful way, touching hearts and prompting reflection after the laughter subsides. As Liu Zhenyun remarked, “Humor is humanity’s wisdom in facing sorrow.”
While many theories assert that “literature reflects life,” Liu Zhenyun takes a different view, believing that where life stops, literature begins. The protagonists in literature often see deeper and farther than real-life individuals.
Literature offers the quickest way to understand a culture.
Despite the significant differences between Eastern and Western cultures, outstanding works often evoke universal resonance. With increasing interactions among diverse cultures and regions, there is also growing integration on emotional and spiritual levels.
This event is not only a literary dialogue, but also an important opportunity for cultural exchange between China and Italy, opening a window for Italian readers to understand Chinese culture.
In Someone to Talk To, after Lao Zhan’s death, a butcher Wu Moses discovered a blueprint for a church in the abandoned temple where Lao Zhan had lived. “Everything on the blueprint seemed alive; the church’s seventy-two windows opened one by one; the bell at the top of the tower rang out thunderously.
As the church’s windows opened, a window also seemed to open in Wu Moses’s heart.”