INVITATION - MERCREDI 19 AVRIL @ 18H00
Bonjour à toutes et à tous,
Dans le cadre de l'exposition D.Rad, nous serons honorés de votre présence lors d'une signature de livre par auteur
Hall Gardner
le mercredi 19 avril de 18h00-20h00 à l'Espace Canopy, 19 rue Pajol, 75018
Year of the Earth Serpent Changing Colors
Publié par Edition Noema est distribué par Columbia University Press, ce livre est une oeuvre de fiction historique et littéraire.
L'histoire est basée sur les expériences de Hall Gardner en Chine en 1988-1989 et représente plus de 30 ans de réflexion sur les événements qui ont conduit à la répression brutale du 4 juin 1989 sur la place Tiananmen. Le roman explore les différences de perspectives culturelles, de compréhension des droits de l'homme, d'opinions religieuses et de relations interpersonnelles qui ont eu un impact profond sur les relations Est-Ouest, tout en décrivant des individus qui se sont engagés dans la lutte risquée pour la démocratie et la liberté en Chine.
La genèse du roman | En savoir plus sur l'auteur, Hall Gardner | Un poème par Hall Gardner
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Plus d'informations sur le livre ainsi que des commentaires se trouve ci-dessous en anglais.
A work of historical and literary fiction, the story is based upon Gardner’s experiences in China in 1988-89 and represents over 30 years of reflection upon the events led to the brutal June 4th 1989 repression on Tiananmen Square. The novel explores differences in cultural outlook, understanding of human rights, religious views and interpersonal relations that profoundly impact East-West relations, while depicting individuals who engaged in the risky struggle for democracy and freedom in China.
In essence, it seeks to describe the social and political “changing colors” that were taking place in societies throughout the world at the presumed end of the Cold War as seen through the eyes of American, German, Russian and African expats living in China at that time when the Soviet Union ostensibly began to democratize, and before China opted for a nationwide crackdown on the pro-democratic movement and the US deluded itself into believing that it was at the "End of History."
On the ideological level, the book critiques both Maoism and the American neo-con and neo-liberal forms of democracy, while warning against a US-China "clash of civilizations." From a literary framework, novel develops themes from classic American, European and Chinese literature, from Miguel Cervantes, Victor Hugo, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, Stendhal, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, John Dos Passos, Thomas Wolfe, Franz Kafka, Mo Li, Cao Xueqin, Mao Dun, and many others... while concurrently seeking to find new meaning in Chinese fables, such as Tale of the White Serpent.
The synopsis:
The whole Communist world is in the middle of a democratic revolution. Hall Gardner’s novel depicts the protests taking place prior to the June 1989 Tiananmen Square repression—a subject still taboo in China.
Hired to teach English, Mylex H. Galvin records his experience in his “Anti-Marco Polo” journal after he meets expats from around the world, while trying to come to grips with the Chinese language, history, and politics.
Galvin becomes disillusioned with the poverty and environmental destruction that he finds in China; his barefoot doctor heroes are not capable of treating AIDS; Chinese and African students clash in Nanjing—with no sense of international solidarity.
As the democracy movement heats up, he is torn between the love of Tao Baiqing, a Daoist, and Mo Li, a student of English Lit, and unwittingly betrays the ties between the journalist, Hayford, and the democracy activist, Chia Pao-yu—accused of leaking “top secrets” to Hayford.
As Galvin studies China’s relations with the Western world since Marco Polo, with emphasis on the “hundred years of humiliation,” he becomes haunted by nightmares of a “clash of civilizations” and warns against a coming Apocalyptic Color War between the Balding Eagle and the Chinese Dragon — as the latter transmogrifies from Red into shades of Red-Brown-Black
Commentaries:
"Hall Gardner's Year of the Earth Serpent Changing Colors is an engrossing and inventive contribution to what might be called the literature of human understanding. One of the book's messages, that, "individuals and governments rarely think about the fact that the very manner and means in which one seeks to change the world—and the very colors that one chooses— could actually make things turn for the worse" is needed, in this, an age of great power rivalry, now more than ever."
—James W. Carden, Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy.
“Hall Gardner’s wonderful Year of the Earth Serpent Changing Colors offers an extraordinary illustration of the dynamics of humiliation and delivers a lesson the world would needs to learn. Research shows that humiliation is the most intense human emotion — it leads to the mobilization of more processing power and a greater consumption of mental resources than any other emotion. Victims of humiliation never forget. Humiliators, on the other hand, are often oblivious of their deeds or they justify them (even while being silently consumed by their own deeds from inside). Therefore, humiliators are often shocked when confronted with the consequences of their deeds, be it revenge coming their way or attempts of peace making.”
—Evelin Lindner, Dr. med., Dr. psychol., founding president of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies and co-founder of the World Dignity University initiative
“Hall Gardner has given us a timely and compelling narrative of two civilizations as the world witnesses rising Chinese power. A magnificent achievement."
—Matthew Fraser, Author of Weapons of Mass Distraction: Soft Power and American Empire
"How much do we know about China? Year of the Earth Serpent
Changing Colors is filled with the history, politics, religion and
culture of this nation… A big country demands
a big book. There is much to till in Gardner's first novel."
—E. Ethelbert Miller
Writer and literary activist
Host of On The Margin (WPFW 89.3 FM)
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