Xiaolu Guo explores the nature of identity in new novel
Xiaolu Guo explores the nature of identity in her latest English-language novel, writes Sue Green
by Xiaolu Guo
Chatto and Windus
4 stars
For Xiaolu Guo, writing poses a constant challenge: containing the philosophical ideas which interest and preoccupy her in narrative form. "I want to write something that makes sense in a philosophical way," Guo says of her work.
Yet her new novel, I Am China, multilayered and rich in intellectual ideas, is also highly accessible. Told from the point of view of three main characters and encompassing three realities which intersect only peripherally, it provides multiple entry points and points of reference and empathy for a wide cross-section of readers.
Iona Kirkpatrick is a Chinese-language interpreter living in London, but hails from a small Scottish island where she has a vexed family relationship. She is translating the diaries and letters of Kublai Jian, an exiled Chinese political activist punk rocker whose diaries are written from European detention centres, and his girlfriend, Mu. She writes from China, and the US where she tours as a performance poet.
In the West, your self is your identity. The search for self is ongoing, whereas in China identity is assigned, fixed
Guo, 40, is a mainland-born author who attended film school in Beijing. She had published five Chinese-language novels before leaving for film school in London in 2002 and there began polishing her English with the aim of writing in that language.