The Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-Yi (Taipei, 1971), one of the most anticipated guests of the 42nd Festival of fantastic genres, is walking around Barcelona these days to talk about his work L'home dels ulls compostos (Chronos), recently translated into Catalan. An ecofiction influenced by nature, the climate crisis and the myths of his country.
His book is in itself an environmental complaint.
I know. But, when I started writing it, I didn't do it with that intention.
With which one then?
I was trying to describe in words what I had just seen on television. She didn't know about the great island of garbage floating in the Pacific. I heard about it in 2005 and seeing it in images shocked me.
And then he started writing.
The same day. The garbage vortex was then moving near Taiwan so I wrote a story around it.
His novel was originally published in 2009, but its content is still more relevant than ever.
It's funny because the years go by and it is translated into more and more languages.
You could say that it awakens consciences.
I don't think a novel can have such a big impact on the environment. But I do hope that the younger generations ask questions. After all, they will inherit the planet.
And what planet are they going to have left?
Countries are increasingly taking more actions. In Taiwan, for example, laws related to the environment are stricter and there is more international research on the issue of maritime pollution. I just hope it's not too late.
Because it says?
Because there are more and more meteorological disasters that happen because of climate change. In the book I narrate a few, but over the years it seems to get more. In the case of Taiwan, the summers are longer and sweltering and the typhoons are much more virulent and dangerous.
And, according to the novel, there are many earthquakes.
There have always been them and that's why I didn't want to stop putting them in the novel. Every week there are and a year more than a hundred are higher than level 4 on the Richter scale.
Now that you see how the climate crisis is progressing, if you wrote this book again, would it be more apocalyptic?
I just published another novel in Taiwan that is also environmentally conscious and readers have told me that the characters are much more negative.
It was also negative when in this book he sent the second children of the family to die in the ocean because there were not enough resources.
Seen this way, I was negative. But I wanted to approach it more as an adventurous person. In fact, I don't kill them all. The idea arose because it caught my attention how many populations live with birth restrictions.
And what opinion do you have about it?
The best-known case is that of China, which imposed the one-child policy. But it was a disaster because many families wanted a boy and, being able to only have a boy, it killed the girls. And now there is a very big difference between the number of men and women.
That's terrible.
Yes, but in Taiwan I don't think we face this dilemma. Today it is the country with the lowest birth rate in the world.
Few births and death and suicide, at least in his book, are very present.
Human beings are the only species that choose suicide as an option. There is no other animal that does it and this question has always interested me. Also the perspective of many religions, which value life so much that they punish those who are against it and those around them. What you should do is listen to people. I am a professor at the university and there are several students who have confessed to me that at some point in their lives they have considered that option. I myself confess that I considered it in the past. Why do people sometimes feel that urge? I don't have a concrete answer. Again, I tried to find an answer with writing.
Have you found it?
Not a definitive one, but I have realized, at least in my experience, that the more responsibilities you have, the further you distance yourself from those negative thoughts. One of its protagonists, Alice, tries to get rid of everything before ending her life, although she forgets that idea when she becomes attached to a cat. She feels that she has someone to care for and worry about. And she feels loved by that animal. I think the two of them have helped many readers.
Yeah?
Many people write to me acknowledging that they have seen themselves in that situation and that, seeing how Alice copes with it, they have applied certain advice to themselves. Sometimes I also receive criticism saying that I can cause a domino effect but, in general, the messages are of gratitude. I think it is important to talk about certain issues and that keeping them quiet will not prevent them from continuing to occur.
Just like China, which doesn't even want to hear about Taiwan. He had to deal with Xi Jinping when he was nominated for the Man Booker.
Before he became president, there were not so many problems between China and Taiwan. When they announced the nomination and I saw my name next to Taiwan's, I was so happy that I shared it on Facebook. It should be normal, but not all countries recognize mine. China, which is very eager for the world to look towards it, found out and asked for it to be rectified. Everything was solved by putting the country/region in the label.
Were you comfortable with the change?
Each person, depending on their opinion, could read Taiwan as a region or a country. For me, Taiwan is a country, my own. But by putting that, China could no longer complain.
Has the controversy caused you any problems?
My books are no longer published in mainland China. But that is not important. The real problem that should concern us all is the climate crisis.
