South Bridge.
Emerging writer Xia Zhou's ** collection "The White Parrot with a Crown" consists of six short stories, which take place in Shanghai, Sydney, New York, London, Tokyo and Seoul. The author is originally from Shanghai, and when I first read it, I always thought of Han Han, and the book contains young men and women studying and graduating, parties and dinners, love and sorrow, but it takes place in different cities. Because of the age gap and the difference in circumstances, I don't have a deep sympathy for this kind of writing, but as I read it, I found that the author's ambition is more ambitious and the writing is quite daring, and many readers may not necessarily see this.
The title of the book is "The White Parrot with the Crown", which is white and has yellow crested feathers on its head. This unforgettable bird was chosen by Xia Zhou as the image spokesperson of the messenger of another world. Xia Zhou is a "post-90s" writer, but he didn't expect him to dare to touch the big topic of birth, old age, sickness and death, rather than the fragmented thoughts that may be full of this age. Of course, writing doesn't have to do with age, and a young person may have a wise head on his shoulders. And the body that has traveled through thousands of mountains and rivers can also include a foolish and closed heart. Besides, apart from birth, old age, sickness and death, what is left of literature? Art needs to be a sword, not a steady one. In this way, it is refreshing to turn the "Grim Reaper" into a white parrot wearing a crown.
This ** book is full of "accidents", and it is full of sighs that people are not as good as heaven. There is a saying: "Life is everything that happens when we do other plans." "Ancient chapters return to the body**, and often arrange a character to be "pressed for the time being", out of the conventional narration. Not all stories have a logical beginning, development, climax, and end. It can be seen that Xia Zhou hopes to write about his life experiences after the accident hit his life and the impact on others, such as after Cui Mengran committed suicide in "Time of Mourning", Han Xiaoyu can only use amnesia to cope with sadness. And the response to grief is as difficult as death, and even a hurdle that people can't climb. These accidents push people out of the old track, but new possibilities will also appear.
This ** book is rooted in the author's life or travel in six cities. Every city is full of stories, and as we walk through them, we hear all kinds of stories. Those who have no heart pass by, and those who have a heart are curious everywhere. For ordinary people, what they care about most is social news, and even the little people in gossip. True stories and news are full of loopholes in reporting, understanding, and even annotations, and Xia Zhou tries to fill these loopholes through imagination, and even shuttles between the spiritual world and the human world, which is full of fantasy. **'s characters are not all plump, and I sometimes prefer that he can slow down and explain well, and not rush to push the narrative. The narrative should not be so urgent.
Xia Zhou graduated from Australia and the United States with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree respectively, and he has just graduated, so there is still a lot of content on the subject that is more suitable for young readers, but he has the courage beyond his age and dares to touch on big topics. **The technique is also quite innovative, for example, the stories in "The White Parrot with the Crown" are interrelated, and the forms are scattered, forming a ** small universe and a new world.
Xia Zhou has a strong imagination, and his writing is also open-minded, full of experimentation, and he switches between reality and surreality with ease. The internationalization of the environment in which he grew up has given his works more global thinking. As a cutting-edge writer, he has a broad vision, a magnificent imagination, and a novel and unique way of writing. I'm optimistic about his future.
The author is a writer and translator).