On March 6, Nobel laureate writer Abdelrazak Gurnar participated in his first public event in China in Shanghai, where he had a dialogue with Chinese writer Ge Fei and gave a public speech. In his speech, Gulna, who has always hoped to experience the splendid and charming oriental culture, connected the history of his hometown Zanzibar with Chinese history through the well-known story of "Zheng He's voyage to the West" familiar to the Chinese. Gulna also recited a passage of Zheng He's "Voyage Diary" affectionately. Seven hundred years ago, Zheng He used the Maritime Silk Road to connect China and East Africa across the ocean, and now the two places meet through literature and writers.
Ghurna's speech began with the relationship between his hometown of Zanzibar and China. Archaeological excavations by archaeologists in Zanzibar have shown that travelers from all over the Indian Ocean have met, interacted and settled there, and that visitors from the East African coast include the famous Chinese fleet of Zheng He.
Gurnah recalls the journey of Zheng He, the greatest seafaring hero in Chinese history, who commanded seven voyages to the West between 1405 and 1433, visiting Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and East Africa. At the lecture, he also read a passage from the stele of Zheng He's "Records of the Heavenly Concubine Lingying" erected in Changle, Fujian Province, in Louise Leviathes's "When China Ruled the Seas" (1996): "It is more than 100,000 li. Guanfu ocean, the waves are connected to the sky, the huge waves are like mountains, and the Zhuyi domain is separated by the mist and mist. And my cloud sail is high, day and night starry, wading into the turbulent waves, if walking through the thoroughfare......”
"I've heard since I was a kid that we've been in constant contact with places across the ocean," Gurnah said. Walking along the sandy beaches in some parts of the coast, you'll pick up celadon shards, which were made in China and are remnants of Zheng He's fleet. In some stories, the Chinese did not leave with the fleet and remained on the land forever. Honestly, stories of such transatlantic connections sound like legends or myths, yet the colourful evidence of human activity I see on my doorstep every year convinces me that they are true. ”
On the same day, Gurnah had a dialogue with the famous Chinese writer Ge Fei on the theme of "We must talk about pain".
Ge Fei first shared his feelings when reading Gurnah's works: "When I read Mr. Gurnah's works, I can clearly feel these two things, one is 'truth', he conforms to the rules of modern society, and he wants to know the truth;At the same time, he is firmly based on 'sincerity', which is the clarity of our hearts. ”
The host, Mao Jian, asked the two writers why the "pain" has not been alleviated in the slightest in their years of writing. To this, Gurnah replied that the "pain" in his work is not the physical pain, but the pain that accumulates with age, looking back on life: "I think of my father's last year of life, when I saw him sitting quietly alone looking at the street, and I asked him what he was thinking, and he replied that he was thinking about the things that made him miserable. So as life experiences accumulate and memories grow, so does your suffering. ”
"Hometown" is another important theme in Gurnah's work. When talking about the topic of "nostalgia", Gurnah's answer moved all the teachers and students present: "For me, nostalgia does not mean being away from home, but losing one's home. This also echoes the experiences of the protagonists of several of his masterpieces, such as "Paradise", "Afterlife", "By the Sea" and so on.
Just like Gurnah's tribute to Shakespeare's "Gravel Heart", the background extends from Africa in the 60s of the 20th century to London in the 90s, with delicate brushstrokes, layered echoing narrative techniques and perspectives across time and space, composing a tragic song of the fate of ordinary people in turbulent times.
In "By the Sea", Gurnah wrote about an old man from Zanzibar who was forced to go to England as a refugee. "I am a refugee and have come to seek asylum. Gurnah lets the protagonist Omar tell himself. Omar is educated, has some money and speaks English, but he knows that he can only be allowed to enter ...... if he makes himself look like a "refugee" in the imagination of border control
In 2021, Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his "uncompromising and compassionate insight into the impact of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the divide between different cultures and continents." Born on a small island off the coast of East Africa and later emigrated to Britain as a refugee, the writer is adept at depicting the wandering minds of strangers: "memory", "refugees", "identity", "cruelty", "love" and "weakness" are consistent themes in his work.
From 15:00 to 17:00 on March 7, Gurnah will also have a literary dialogue with Chinese Mao Award writer Sun Ganlu on "Separated People, Looking for Stories Home".
On March 9th, Gurnah gave a speech at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and held a book signing event in Ningbo.
On March 11, Gurnah gave a lecture on literature at Beijing Normal University.
Volkswagen**, Volkswagen News Client, Reporter Shi Wenjing).