Many readers will be disappointed after reading "Muslim Funerals", because the plot of the book is so far from the reader's imagination. Everyone thought that the book would mainly write about the characters' love, hate, fate and ups and downs under the background of the big times, with historical and poetic nature, supplemented by some quintessence of Chinese culture (jade culture in the book), it would be perfect. The novel "The Tea Man Trilogy", also for MAO Dun Literature Prize, has a similar setting. Some of you may not be familiar with it, but the TV series "Big House gate" is a household name. This is the model. "A Muslim's Funeral" is not, of course, written that way. It is almost a kind of introverted ethical novel.
Many people make fun of the title of "Muslim funeral" to fool people, I also have some sympathy, if change a mild name, even called "Jade Shadow moon mark", which can let us associate with the pursuit of good in life and Muslims serious and generous view of life and death, will not let the reader come up with such a big misunderstanding.
Some people regard Mu as worthless in the light of the literature of the national epic model, but I think mu, since it is not a national epic, should not be forced to use this set of standards. According to the standard evaluation of ethical novel, it should be more appropriate.
The Muslim's Funeral has a pair of cross-linking elements, which are related to the theme. One of them is English. During the Anti-Japanese War, Han Crescent's parents took refuge in the home of a jade understanding foreigner (Hunter) in Britain. The book mentions Jane Eyre and other English classics. As Christian believers cannot have two wives, Jane chooses to leave Rochester, which exactly corresponds to the situation that Muslims cannot marry sisters at the same time, and Liang Bingyu finally chooses to leave Lao Han. The second is the Spirit of the May 4th Movement (or p has a very liberal tendency). In the book, Han Xinyue and his teacher Chu Yanchao co-translated Lu Xun's work New Stories, which is also the last effort of the seriously ill Han Xinyue to realize his own life value. Han Xinyue reads "Jane Eyre" the understanding that gets equality and self-strengthening, also be identical with May 4 spirit. Campus on the generation of Liang Bingyu accepted the idea of freedom and independent personality, humiliating despair by boyfriend betray a sit-in, initiation, walk in a foreign country regardless of her traditional constraints and brother-in-law, returned home found his life philosophy and sister and tze-ki hon, resolutely looking for home life, give a person the sense with independent women, of course, there are some people think that she is too "self-centered", oneself didn't consider others, including the "love freedom" is absolutely right, ignoring intervention is unfair to the elder sister, elder sister marriage even haven't every compensation. Liang Bingyu left the letter to her daughter is a comprehensive expression of this life concept.
On the other hand, "Muslim Funerals" is also about obfuscations, which, in the author's eyes, are well intentioned but distorted by obfuscations. Is a religion, Muslim man, my aunt and others on behalf of the Muslim and progress, tolerance and kindness, but Korean wife because of her character in the conservative, dictatorship and selfish side do a lot of things wrong, still put them on the cloak of religion, dividing star son and his girlfriend, she used to design the family better daughter-in-law to marry into the door, then on the grounds that the hui nationality should be married for hui, refused to the female and the teacher fall in love, in the novel and special emphasis on her "jihadists" behavior is not doctrine, her feelings towards her husband "betrayal" has been flourishing, but her husband died, repent himself not hui, because for her husband's love, She brings out the good side of her human nature, and several generations of Muslims in the book (Master Liang, aunt, Crescent, and Lao Han) are blessed with religious tolerance at the time of their death. Second, socialism, the crescent dying, Chu Yanchao to Lenin read Jack London "love life" story, encourage his girlfriend strong face of death. Zheng Xiaojing, who was deeply influenced by the Communist Party's ideology, was selfless to his classmates (such as letting beds, criticizing Shanghai students and ridiculing the behavior of rural students, etc.). He was enthusiastic about the organization, but he also had a side of restraint and interference. The book also mentions the damage the Cultural Revolution did to people. Three is jade, jade culture extensive and profound, jade is a symbol of good, but because of high value is coveted, the old master to jade theory, open and aboveboard; Pu Shusheng mercenary, hit the jade for profit, was despised; Mrs. Han selfish heart, because of the loss of jade forced death of employees, the final economic interests were deprived of; Henry and Han Ziqi love jade, at the same time also have the heart of private, but can be broken in time on the thought of liberation, also calculate commendable; "Good son does not inherit the ancestral inheritance", rejected the state to the huge compensation for the jade, the new generation, has a new outlook on life towards the truth and the good.
What I don't like about The Muslim's Funeral is that the main male characters are weak in character, which is often a shortcoming of female writers. However, Han Ziqi's characters are complicated. In his early years, he endured humiliation (pretending to go back to work as an apprentice and turning up as a client), but he also took care of the surviving family of his master, and later became rich and became the king of Jade. Middle age into emotional entanglements, in order to keep the existing status and property to give up his lover, the weakness of his character exposed, his old age was knocked down by the failure of his family and career, but before he died, he was aware, reviewed his fault in life, to gain inner peace, the figure is still very good.
Han Crescent has her mother's personality and outlook on life, but also some of her mother's shortcomings, such as school classmates have taken a good berth, but it is not a big mistake. Her life is relatively simple, and her life is mainly affected by diseases, unlike Liang Bingyu, who felt the complexity of life in an early age. Compared with Chu Yanchao's despair of being passed over by His daughter in the name of religion and being useless after marriage (really unlike a translator of Lu Xun's works), Han Xinyue's idea is that if he becomes independent one day, the marriage will of course be his own decision, not under the control of the stepmother, which undoubtedly makes us more respected. She has her own life ideas. During her serious illness, she still insisted on finishing the translation of Lu Xun's short stories. Her short life before the age of 20 left a mark on the society.
The linguistic aspect of the Muslim Funeral may be too dramatic for some readers, and I agree with an earlier response that Hoda is influenced by The English playwright Shakespeare and mentions Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet several times in the novel.
It is estimated that the author has not been influenced by Goethe's Affinity, after all, the author's specialty is English literature. Affinity mainly tells that the reorganization of love is influenced by both humanistic spirit and religious spirit. War and religious art are also shown in the development of the story, and death brings peace to the parties in the end. The two have a lot in common.
Again, I am not satisfied with the novel. First, the novel does not focus on describing the fate of human beings in the course of social evolution and history, but takes such a heavy title. Personally, I think that since this book focuses on ethics and inner conflicts, except for the May 4th movement and socialism, which affect the value judgment of the main characters, the rest of the historical background should be diluted, otherwise it is too distracting. Second, the introduction of religious spirit is very good, but the direct and indirect influence of religious spirit on the third generation is too weak, which is not conducive to the performance of the theme. If han Xinyue is given some self-sacrifice spirit similar to religion, it can make up for the relatively thin image of the character and also fit the religious theme of the novel.
Finally, I would like to say that The Muslim Funeral is an excellent novel and deserves the MAO Dun Literature Prize, although it is not very high on the list.