Επιμέλεια συνέντευξης: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Bio: JAMES TIAN, from China. His works have been published in more than 50 newspapers and magazines in China and abroad and have been translated into many languages.
Dear author. Please share your thoughts about the future of literature. When you start writing? I started trying to write when I was six years old, but I was too young to write well that time. And what the first thing I tried was ancient Chinese poetry. And there’s really not much to say about the future of literature. Because the vitality of literature is nothing more than reflected in two points: first, true feelings, and second, reflecting reality. And it’s by no means like the current state, just a toy for some people who do not love literature at all in their hearts to express themselves or satisfy their vanity. As long as we can get back on this right track, there’s hope for literature.
The Good and the Bad. Who is winning in nowadays? I think good and bad are the positive and negative sides of a state, and there’s no relationship between who wins. Maybe at a certain moment, it shows that the good is strong, or the bad is strong, but in the long run, it’ll eventually return to balance. As for the argument that “the good must defeat the bad”, it’s just wishful thinking and illogical, but it can be pursued as a dream too.
Tell us about your books, your projects and what makes you inspired? In terms of my books, I actually wrote a lot, especially in college, and published some after graduation, including poetry selections, short stories selections, lyrics selections, and screenplays. In terms of activities, the most I did is poetry activities, and of course there were other activities too. The main work is still in writing and translation. As for the specific projects, there’re actually many, because my original intention remains the same (and I don’t want to change), to try my best to serve as many poets and writers as possible. Most of my inspiration comes from my careful analysis or feelings from the things I paid attention to. The rest is the real feeling, with a little modification, it becomes a new inspiration then. Just so.
The book. E book or Hardcover book
What will be the future? As long as it’s a book, no matter what form it’s in, it has one nature—that is, to convey informations. Maybe people read more e-books nowadays, but this doesn’t prove that it‘ ll completely become the mainstream in the future, because e-books haven’t completely replaced paper books, etc., so, I think, the development of things cannot be judged by temporary popularity direction, which is arbitrary.
A wish for 2023. A phrase from your book. My wish for 2023 is: the world can have less desire and more reality.
A sentence in my book: The ferocity of one person is crime, and the ferocity of a group of people is justice.
