"Classical" Travel Writers, Contemporary "Nomads"

The Lost Satellite-A Journey into Central Asia, [in Chinese]? Liu Zichao, Wenhui Publishing House, 22

Content Description: The Lost Satellite is far more than just a story about travel. It is a rare and extraordinary literary work, roaming in Central Asia at a very slow pace, like a Buddhist monk-by the way, this slow pace is also reflected in the leisurely language of this book. Unlike most travel writers, Liu Zichao did not try to talk to those "important people" or pretend to know everything about this land. On the contrary, he talked with men and women he met on the road and asked some seemingly simple questions, but he got unusual answers. All of the above give his works an unsurpassed sincerity. After reading this book, it's like you really went to Central Asia with Zichao. You know more about this land than reading a hundred political articles.

-Margrit Sprecher, chairman of the jury of the Global True Story Award in 219

Author: writer and journalist. Graduated from Chinese Department of Peking University, visiting researcher at Reuters Institute of Journalism, Oxford University (216). He once worked in Southern People Weekly and GQ Zhizu. His published works "Arrive before midnight arrival" and "Along the direction of monsoon" won the "Bookstore Literature Award and Annual Travel Writing Award". Other translations include The Amazing City, The Flowing Feast, The Long Farewell and so on. 218? , Central Asian works into? Choose the one-way street "mariner program" project; In 219, a series of Central Asian works were translated into English, and they were awarded the "True Story Award" for their special works.

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? "One must take knowledge with him when traveling, if he wants to bring back knowledge", this famous saying sounds a bit out of date today. Nowadays, tourism has become boring and stereotyped: a trip is about two or three travel guides, a series of sightseeing punch-in activities and several groups of friends circle positioning and intensive photos. Many "travel literature" in the market also meticulously record their own mental journey under the guise of travel. The whole journey has almost no experience on the road, and rarely involves the history, culture and tradition of the destination (but there are often beautiful encounters with locals or local tourists), just like a biography. In contrast, Liu Zichao, the author of "The Lost Satellite-A Journey into Central Asia", has actually returned to the original in this regard, restoring the true definition of the "classical profession" of travel writers.

? In 211, Liu Zichao, a journalist, went to Central Asia for the first time. Although he was deeply shocked at that time, he was too late to write in the face of such a complex, conflicting, free and mysterious land. "I understand that writing such a book is not easy, it will be a huge project", and he realized that he had to "slow down and sink". Liu Zichao entrusted his friends to bring back a large number of books and documents about the war in Central Asia from the "human flesh" of France and the United States, and began to consciously pay attention to the social news of the five Central Asian countries, and systematically studied various regional languages and investigated the relevant materials of this land, with all kinds of forms, from words and images to music and paintings. In this way, he set off again with knowledge and curiosity, and went to this civilized zone struggling between the trend of globalization and imperial power, and began an exploration spanning the past, present and future.

? In the past nine years, the writer Liu Zichao has traveled to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan successively. Due to the closed and conservative government of Turkmenistan, the planned trip to Turkmenistan has become a "failed journey", but the other four Central Asian countries have filled a crucial puzzle for his world picture. Take a minibus around Lake Issyk-Kul, hike the alpine Tianshan Mountains and alpine lakes, and rest in a military sanatorium in the Soviet era; Flying along the jagged national border, climbing in the Wakhan corridor by a four-wheel drive off-road vehicle and entering the Pamirs, the end of the world; Drive straight into the Fergana Valley-"the Balkan of Central Asia", all the way through the checkpoint with live ammunition and cross the Pentium Syr Darya River; Along the Amu Darya River, I went north to the Aral Sea, stopped by a Karakal Pak family in it runs in the family, and met a China man who made a living in the Aral Sea. Being in the Kazakh prairie, I chartered a car to the nuclear explosion test site in the Soviet Union to track the nuclear remains hidden in the depths of the wilderness ...

? "Compared with nine years ago, Central Asia is no longer strange, but it is still mysterious. After the invasion of Mongolia, the hegemony of the khanate, the remolding of the Soviet Union and the chaos and recovery after independence, Central Asia has returned to its long-standing appearance-like a satellite, wandering between different civilizations and forces, correcting its own position ... Central Asia began to have a new view of its own history and future, and different thoughts and ideas stirred up repeatedly in this land. Today, the rise of China will change the gravity here and bring different prospects to Central Asia, "he continued." During my trip, I have witnessed the embryonic state of this process-with the vitality, panic and fearlessness of new things-but as time goes on, everything will become clearer. "

? Traveling to Central Asia and seeing the world as a China person is the fundamental position of Liu Zichao's writing, which greatly eliminates the sense of separation in reading. His words and feelings often make readers feel personally and empathetically. For example, when telling the history of Fergana Valley, Liu Zichao described in simple terms the story of how Zhang Qian sent a mission to the Western Regions to bring back a bloody BMW, and how Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fought for the bloody BMW. There are many examples of such kindness: for example, in the ruins of the ancient Silk Road, as well as the murals of Wu Zetian and the legend of An Lushan ... It is worth mentioning that the author carefully consulted historians about these historical citations before the publication of this book. ?

? "The splendid history and culture of Central Asia are the eternal and magnificent scenery of this book ... I focus more on the present." Along the way, Liu Zichao met all kinds of people, and these living people provided him with a more profound and keen understanding of this land. In the Muslim restaurant in Bishkek, Zoe, the young proprietress, speaks impeccable English, Russian and Kyrgyz, with traces of Turks, Mongolians and Persians on her face, but her eyes and smiles are completely American. On the north bank of Lake Issyk-Kul after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, two Russian girls were "stranded" in an isolated town, and their lives seemed to be as calm as the lake, without a trace of waves. "Half-drunk Nadia and Dasha danced in front of me, not only engaged in action, but also sang affectionately to me:' Baby, baby, give me your soul!' ”

? Liu Zichao is like a ghost, an invisible shadow, jumping out of the reality and always looking at the world objectively and calmly. However, this mature and sophisticated documentary psychology is most obvious in The Lost Satellite. In his early works Arriving Before Midnight and Along the Direction of Monsoon, he often has a youthful mentality asking about the relationship between travel and life, self and the world. In the bar in Ljubljana, he saw couples drinking by candlelight and said with emotion, "When traveling alone, I sometimes get nervous. For example, it is inevitable to be lonely when I see such a scene ... What's the difference between me then and me now? Or, to what extent has travel changed me? "

? "I discovered at this time that the (Slovakia) mountain is magnificent during the day, but it is heart-rending at night. That huge and unknown existence stands forever day and night, which makes me feel small and fragile. If the mountain is willing, it can easily destroy me, and I am still alive at the moment, but I rely on its pity. "

—— Arriving before midnight in 215

" When traveling in India, you must learn to transcend the concepts of cleanliness and filth. In fact, you have to go beyond any concept ... I suddenly understood later that traveling to India is like a testimony: step by step to get rid of ideas, let go of yourself, and finally become a wise man, a saint, and a arhat. "

—— Along the Monsoon in 219

? Now, to some extent, he has found the answer: for these abstract philosophical questions, he chose to respond through concrete travel and documentary.

"deep down, I always feel that I have the blood of nomads-not grassland nomads, but contemporary nomads. Such people are always moving, from one part of the world to another, lacking a sense of belonging, and home is just the place to stay now. For them, traveling is not to go anywhere, just to travel. The most important thing is to move. "

—— The Lost Satellite —— A Journey into Central Asia in 22