"A Knife, a Thousand Words" Author: Wang Anyi Publisher: People's Literature Publishing House

Wang Anyi's novel "A Knife, Thousand Words" begins with Yuan Mei's "The moon reflects on bamboo and becomes thousands of words, and the frost-covered plum blossoms are full of flowers" in the Qing Dynasty. It uses the extraordinary growth experience of a famous Huaiyang chef as the narrative clue. He was born in the snowy land of Northeast China, but his memory began in the pavilion where he was brought to Shanghai for refuge. As the ancients said, if you lose etiquette, you can find it in the wild. He was enlightened by the vividness and breadth of his ancestors' Yangzhou country chefs, and transformed by the oral and physical teaching of the masters of the Huaiyang School in Shanghai. Later, he became a chef for private customized banquets in Flushing, New York... Just as his spiritual enlightenment came from "Dream of Red Mansions", "Huang Li" and "Yi Jing", the delicacies on the tongues of different regions actually opened up another exquisite world that integrates the understanding of heaven, earth and nature, and the personal destiny and choices swept by the changes of times and repeated erosions also present folk memories under multiple perspectives and commentary systems.

"A Knife, a Thousand Words" was first published in "Harvest" magazine and received widespread attention and praise. Readers and critics were impressed by the characters, stories, and connotations presented by Wang Anyi in this book. With deep thinking, profound skills, deep emotions, and exquisite expression, Wang Anyi's novel creation has reached a new level.

A knife, where does the story begin? A thousand words, where does it end?

The knifework is delicate and the calligraphy is profound. In the tension of the world, it questions, ponders, and constantly explores human nature.

"One knife" is used to kill fish and chop bones. From Shanghai to New York, countless delicacies have been prepared with the knife.

"Thousands of words", under the moon and in front of flowers, the bamboo shadows are like people, can't be recognized, can't be finished.

Chen Cheng, who is from China, makes a living in Flushing, New York with his cooking skills. His sister often brings her American boyfriend to his brother's house for dinner. His sister is sarcastic, while his sister-in-law is straightforward, and they often have verbal battles. His sister's boyfriend knows a little Chinese, and often inserts a few words that make people laugh or surprise. Chen Cheng's father and his friends often have conflicts during casual chats, with the seriousness and persistence of the older generation.

Chen Cheng left home at a young age and lived under someone else's roof. He was quiet and introverted. In the past, when his parents were busy with work, his sister took charge of the household chores and dared to think and act. His parents' personalities were similar to his and his sister's. His father was steady and prudent, while his mother was lively and thoughtful. The family was harmonious and compatible.

The change in life trajectory was related to social unrest. Chen Cheng was sent to Shanghai to live with his aunt. The lonely aunt gave him cultural enlightenment and the ability to make a living, and the life in the alley gave him reliable friends and an unexpected wife. The disappearance of his mother has always had a profound and invisible impact on his father, sister and him, adding many stories, many happiness and misfortunes to them. Many years later, his aunt passed away, and Chen Cheng returned to Shanghai to attend the funeral. Seeing things reminds me of people, recalling the past, the mystery of my youth is solved, and I can only sigh and cannot express it.

If we only regard A Knife, Thousand Words as another masterpiece of Wang Anyi's skill, we may overlook the great difficulties that this novel challenges: it is the difficulty of novel narration, and it is also the difficulty of speaking and expressing in today's era. The novel begins with a Yangzhou cuisine chef who exists anonymously in Flushing, New York, and traces his journey from childhood to middle age. As time goes by, the times change, and the geographical space moves again and again, no matter when and where, a black hole in life cannot be eliminated: it is empty, but it is everywhere. It is the sequelae of the previous era. The heroic mother resolutely threw herself into the fire, but the price was by no means limited to personal sacrifice - the next generation without a mother will spend almost all of their lives dealing with, dodging, resisting, and fighting the ghost of this sequelae. Wang Anyi questions, thinks, dialectically and describes sincerely and sharply, advancing the narrative amidst the tension between revolution, ideals, beliefs and the daily necessities of life, dinners and the mundane world. She writes word by word about the irreconcilable entanglements and lasting traumas of history, the times and individuals. The work she created not only proves once again the enduring freshness of her creativity, but also reminds the superficial and noisy reality of the solemnity and depth of literary engraving.

——Zhang Xinying, professor at Fudan University

Wang Anyi is a contemporary writer. She is the president of the Shanghai Writers Association and a professor at Fudan University. She began her literary career in 1977 and has written more than ten novels, including "The Class of 1969 Junior High School Students", "Documentary and Fiction", "The Song of Everlasting Regret", "The Peach Blossoms", "Heroes Everywhere", "The Age of Enlightenment", "Heavenly Fragrance", "Anonymous", "Kaogongji", as well as works with millions of words, including short stories, essays, and scripts.

He has won the National Excellent Short Story Award, the National Excellent Novella Award, the Mao Dun Literature Award, the Lu Xun Literature Award, the Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Award, the Shanghai Literature and Art Award, etc. In 2013, he was awarded the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.