As a critically acclaimed writer of dense, doorstop-sized novels, Qian Fuzhang said he had finally developed a guilty conscience.
Moreover, as a writer in a country that tends not to pay its authors very well, he faced a challenge immediately familiar to writers everywhere: how to make a living cranking out prose.
Now, at the age of 42, Qian Fuzhang, whose highly inventive, imagery-laden work has earned him comparisons here to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, thinks he has found a solution to both problems.
The author's answer, entitled Out of the Fortress, showed up on tens of thousands of mobile telephone screens on Friday. It is the short-message novel, a new literary genre for the harried masses in a society that seems to be redefining what it means to be harried.
Weighing in at a mere 4,200 words, Out of the Fortress, is like a marriage between haiku and Hemingway, and will be published for its audience of cellphone readers at a bite-sized 70 characters at a time -- including spaces and punctuation marks -- in two daily installments. Other "readers" may choose to place a call to the "publisher," hurray.com, a short-message distribution company, to listen to a recording of each day's story as it unfolds. All this for a small fee charged, like any text message, directly to the readers' mobile phone accounts.
Cruel to readers
"When I worked in advertising, I learned to think for the customers, and as a writer, I have learned to think for the readers," the author, whose real name is He Xingnian, said in an interview on Friday. "In this age, with a flood of information I thought it was cruel to force readers to wrestle with a 200,000-word book."
Out of the Fortress made its debut at 10am Friday. The first words paraphrased a famous literary passage from another author, Zhang Ailing, a coded message between two lovers arranging their secret rendezvous: "Meet the one you met for thousands of years, in the borderless wilderness of the time, neither a step before nor a step behind. Be there right on time."
The idea of publishing his book by telephone evolved naturally, said He, a native of Inner Mongolia who now resides in the southern city of Guangzhou. "My last book, Red Horse, was published on Sina.com in installments, and I found it very comfortable to read it online," he said. "I thought with the change of technology there could be new ways of reading, and then I thought of my cellphone, because I am a huge cellphone fan. It has become an indispensable electronic organ for me."
His mobile telephone will become an important source of income, too. With the publication of Out of the Fortress, He has become a media star, with more than 100 journalists interviewing him recently. He said he received an advance of 180,000 Chinese yuan, or more than US$20,000, for the book from hurray.com. Another company in Taiwan has offered him an even larger sum for the publishing rights there.
Asked to describe the novel in 70 words or less, He failed woefully, speaking for several minutes before being informed that he had exceeded his word limit. "The word fortress is a metaphor for marriage in Chinese," He said, among many other things. "People on the inside want to get out. People on the outside want to get in, meaning having extramarital affairs.
"My book is about two people who have a passionate affair, which is not supported by morality or law, but is very understandable."
If He's explanation of his book's theme ran on a bit, his timing of its publication is impeccable, when e-mail has replaced old-fashioned letters only to be replaced in turn by text messages in much of the world.
Build something new
With its phenomenal economic growth and huge ambitions, China is in the throes of change. Many of the urban landscapes here were not even blueprints a decade ago, and the zeitgeist seems to be, "Why bother with itsy-bitsy evolutionary steps when you can build something new altogether?"
Though others will dispute whether he truly invented the short-message novel form, He had an understanding of how fast cellphones are changing life here, and a keen grasp of marketing.
In addition to providing the usual functions, like e-mail, web surfing, restaurant reservations, dating and global positioning-aided directions and maps for the lost that are already commonplace in East Asia, China's mobile phone world has become the latest frontier of individual enterprise.
Self-styled comedians sell jokes to the humor-challenged. Others sell pickup lines and romantic advice to the bashful or socially awkward, like this pearl: "Stop always asking your boyfriend to accompany you shopping. Men seldom like shopping, and forcing it can trigger rebellion." There is even a mobile phone for sale for those who are clueless about contraception, or perhaps ashamed to see a doctor in person.
Indeed, another author, a Beijing television and radio personality, Dai Pengfei, claims to have published a short-message novel a few weeks before He, after having started out as a short-message columnist. "Perhaps I am boasting, but I am said to be number one among China's short-message writers," said Pengfei, who is 30. "Qian Fuzhang is more successful at turning this into money, though, and I respect him for that."
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a