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"Searching for Home" Author: Gao Ertai Publishing House: Yinke Literature and Life Magazine Publishing Co., Ltd.
"Searching for Home" Author: Gao Ertai Publishing House: Yinke Literature and Life Magazine Publishing Co., Ltd.
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Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
The scenery remains the same, but the new world is not new. It seems to be an extension of the old world, except that there is no home. - Gao Ertai
An idealist's pursuit of dignity, aesthetics and freedom
A work about life and death by Gao Ertai, a famous aesthetician
In 2007, he won the "Contemporary Chinese Contribution Award" from the Institute of Contemporary Chinese in Beijing.
Hailed as one of the most beautiful achievements of contemporary prose
It has been a long time since you have seen such a work. The words can be so simple and yet extremely elegant, the emotions can be so pure and yet extremely full. It turns out that stories can be told this way, and history can be viewed this way. It doesn't require shouting or weeping, but it makes you understand! You truly understand from the bottom of your heart.
This book consists of three volumes.
The first volume [Home in Dreams] tells a story from a child's perspective. A small town in the south of the Yangtze River, fleeing during the Anti-Japanese War, a small village in the mountains, returning home after the war, power changes, "land reform", "anti-counterrevolutionary movement"... For the safety of the child, his parents arranged for him to go to school away from home. The child missed home away from home, and his family was broken up.
The second volume, "Falling Letters in the Quicksand", tells the story of a college student who was investigated for "ideological problems" during the "anti-corruption movement". After graduation, he was assigned to the northwest, labeled a rightist, and sent to a rightist concentration camp on the Gobi Desert that held more than 3,000 people for "labor education". In less than three years, more than 2,000 people died. He survived by chance and was able to return to society and start a family. He was persecuted again during the Cultural Revolution, and his family was broken up again.
The third volume, "The Vast Sky and Vast Earth", tells the fate of an independent intellectual in the "new era". After being "rehabilitated" and "returning to the army", he was "purged of spiritual pollution" for violating the "Four Cardinal Principles" and was banned from teaching and publishing. Later, he was awarded the title of "National Expert with Outstanding Contributions" by the State Science and Technology Commission. Later, he was arrested and imprisoned for "counter-revolutionary propaganda" and fled China after being released from prison.
Gao Ertai said, "Besides living, there is more. One of the more is the pursuit of meaning." He also said, "In these days when information is surging, words are rolling, and printed materials are overflowing like a tide on the shelves of the market, I have repeatedly told myself to write slower, slower, and less, and less." His writing is clear, full and heavy. There are accusations and tolerance in the book, as well as inquiries into reality and thinking beyond history, which allows people to see the darkness under the whiteness and the true whiteness under the darkness. In the face of history and the past, Gao Ertai chose to forgive, but for the present world, he used his upright character to issue a strong voice of "never compromise."
About the Author · · · · · ·
Gao Ertai is a famous aesthetician and scholar living in the United States. He was born in 1935 and graduated from Jiangsu Normal University in 1955. He has worked in the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Research Institute, the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Lanzhou University, Nankai University, and Nanjing University. He currently lives in the United States and is a visiting scholar at the University of Nevada. He has written "On Beauty" and "Beauty is a Symbol of Freedom".
