This is NOT Qian Zhongshu, dummy
As I re-read the essay "Qian Zhongshu and Fortress Besieged," I'm struck how Yang Jiang's voice is directed very specifically at a popular readership that stubbornly seeks biographical details from novels. So what she does in this essay is actually give her audience lots of biographical details, just as they wished, but showing at the same time how much of the story is purely a creation. Characters and plot are based on reality, but not limited by reality. It's a very simple point, but remarkably, it needs to be said over and over again, and I know for a fact that it needs to be said in both Chinese and English reading cultures.
Tomorrow: start putting together my notes on this with the essays on Yang Jiang's childhood. What's the connection I'm looking for?
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