Ying Chen (writer)

Ying Chen (Chinese应 晨; * 1961 in Shanghai, China) is a Chinese, who emigrated to Canada writer. Her works written in French, so far only one has been published in their mother tongue, Chinese.

Life

Chen Ying studied at Fudan University in Shanghai languages ​​and French literature. In addition to French and Mandarin, she speaks English, Russian, Japanese and Italian. From 1983 to 1989 she worked as a translator at the Institute of Astronautical Research in Shanghai. In 1989, she moved to Montreal, where he studied at McGill University. In 1991, she received her degree in Creative Writing. In 1992 her first novel was published. From then on it was called Ying Chen. The first name took the place of the family name. Before leaving China, Chen has not been written in Chinese. To this day, she still has no texts in China published or written in Chinese, but her third novel, L' Ingratitude, even translated into Chinese. By 2003, Chen, mother of two children lived with her family in Magog (Quebec ). Her present residence is located in Vancouver.

Writing style

Her works are in Québec to the genre of immigrant literature. Your writing style is different from other writers of the region, such as Michel Tremblay or Réjean Ducharne, representing the Quebec French. They in turn cherishes a lively fascination with the classic French language. Her book Les Lettres chinois illustrates this through the use of vocabulary and syntax of a simple and correct French ( français soutenu ).

On the role of memories and water in her novel La mémoire de l' eau Ying Chen himself says: " The image of water is in almost all my books, it is sometimes a source, another time a current - it can be a pond or be the sea. Their common features are the unseizability and strength. everything is filed in writing, so to speak. " They favored the form of a letter as a writing style. Chen is convinced that this style of writing allows very open to communicate directly and spontaneously. In her first six novels, her focus was on China, Quebec, immigration or events that have heavily influenced the life of the author. However, these are not autobiographies: "It's true that I write any autobiographical literature in the narrow sense, to escape reality to create through the use of metaphors, dramatization and dynamics of the language to a wahrhaftere reality. " In her latest novel, her style and her focus has changed, the space-time division is blurred and the protagonists lose their materiality.

The choice of the French language

Ying Chen wants the French rather than Chinese readers respond to their native China almost bringing the westerners. ( Il apparait naturel d' écrire dans une langue pour donner un étrangère poids à la notion d' étranger fondamentale, comme pour l', importance interroger et de la signification des mots entre deux langues différents ). Your connection with the French language is special, since the language is an expression and a statement of how difficult it is at the present time to be Chinese - a back and forth between tradition and modernity.

Works (content)

In her first novel La mémoire de l' eau, she tells the modern history of the 20th century in China from the perspective of women of different generations.

Their second Les lettres chinois, the epistolary novel, which consists of 57 letters between the main characters and Sassa yuan, two lovers and Sassa and Da Li, two girlfriends. A central theme of the novel is the juxtaposition of Chinese tradition and North American modernity and life in exile.

Her third album L' ingratitude is written at the beginning in the form of a journal, towards the end, is a monologue. The novel is a revolt against tradition, against the mother and the parents and the home of the state. For this book, she was awarded the Prix Québec - Paris, also gave her the magazine La Presse de la semaine Personnalité the title.

Her fourth plant Immobile describes the time and the memories that are omnipresent.

Your sixth novel Querelle d'un squelette double avec son is a dialogue between a living and a dead phantom, which are probably related to one another or even one and the same person. It covers many topics, such as the identity, social justice, doubts about the eternity and the struggle for life. Chen wanted to write a novel kind of theater.

My seventh novel Quatre milles marches, un rêve chinois deals with a variety of personal texts of the author and his lifestyle. It is a kind of exercise book ( carnet d' écriture ).

Nominations

Awards

Works (list)

Secondary literature

• Aubonnet, Brigitte: Ying Chen. In Encres Vagabondes, July 2011. (Available online ).
• Bordeleau, Francine: Ying Chen: la dame de Shanghai. In. Lettres québécoises: la revue de l' actualité littéraire, No. 89, 1998, p.9 - 10th (available online).
• Guibert, Virginie: Biography sommaire: Ying Chen. (Available online) In Littérature du Québec Catherine Pont- Humbert, Editions Nathan, Paris, 1998..
• Huot, Marie Claire: Un itinéraire d' affiliations: l' écrivaine francophone, Ying Chen. In: Culture française d' Amérique, 2002, pp. 71-89.
• Lorre, Christine. Ying Chen's ' Poetic Rebellion'. Relocating the Dialogue, In Search of Narrative Renewal. In: Asian Canadian Writing Beyond Autoethnography, ed. by Eleanor Ty and Christl Verduyn. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2008, pp. 267-295.
• Paquette, Johanne et Cauchy, Gabrielle: Trois questions à Ying Chen In Boreal, Éditions du Boréal, Montréal, 8 septembre 2010 (available online).
• Paquin, Eric: Ying Chen, Madame et son fantôme. In Querelle d'un squelette avec son double de Ying Chen, Editions du Boréal, Montreal, 2003, p. 162 (available online).