About the Author
作者简介
Jia Pingwa is a Chinese novelist and short story writer. His novels include Shang State, White Night, I Am a Farmer, and Shaanxi Opera, which won the Mao Dun Literature Prize.
贾平凹，中国著名小说家，其长篇小说代表作包括《商州》、《白夜》、《我是农民》及茅盾文学奖获奖作品《秦腔》等。
Howard Goldblatt is an award-winning translator of numerous works of contemporary Chinese literature, including seven novels by Mo Yan, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
葛浩文，著名汉学家，因成功翻译了包括诺贝尔文学奖得主莫言的七部长篇小说在内的大量当代中国文学作品而获奖无数。
小说简介
When originally published in 1993, Ruined City (Fei Du) was promptly banned by China’s State Publishing Administration, ostensibly for its explicit sexual content. Since then, award-winning author Jia Pingwa’s vivid portrayal of contemporary China’s social and economic transformation has become a classic, viewed by critics and scholars of Chinese literature as one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. Howard Goldblatt’s deft translation now gives English-speaking readers their first chance to enjoy this masterpiece of social satire by one of China’s most provocative writers.
长篇小说《废都》在1993年出版后不久就被中国新闻出版署以所谓明显涉性为由列为禁书。然而，从被禁之时起，著名作家贾平凹在该书中对于当代中国在社会和经济转型方面的生动叙写成了一种文学意义上的经典，《废都》也便在中国文学的评论家和研究者们的眼中成了20世纪中国最重要的长篇小说之一。此番通过汉学专家葛浩文地道传神的翻译，英语国家的读者终于可以有机会一睹这部出自中国最具争议作家之一的贾平凹之手的充满社会讽刺意味的经典小说。
While eroticism, exoticism, and esoteric minutiae—the “pornography” that earned the opprobrium of Chinese officials—pervade Ruined City, this tale of a famous contemporary writer’s sexual and legal imbroglios is an incisive portrait of politics and culture in a rapidly changing China. In a narrative that ranges from political allegory to parody, Jia Pingwa tracks his antihero Zhuang Zhidie through progressively more involved and inevitably disappointing sexual liaisons. Set in a modern metropolis rife with power politics, corruption, and capitalist schemes, the novel evokes an unrequited romantic longing for China’s premodern, rural past, even as unfolding events caution against the trap of nostalgia. Amid comedy and chaos, the author subtly injects his concerns about the place of intellectual seriousness, censorship, and artistic integrity in the changing conditions of Chinese society.
《废都》之所以在西方备受关注，固然是由于小说文本中大胆直接的性爱描写及多姿多彩的异国风情，更是与小说问世后即被冠以“夹杂色情描写”之名而被禁止出版等鲜为人知的细节不无关系。全书通过讲述一位当代著名作家身陷情与法的各种纠葛之中，精辟地描绘了正在政治及文化领域经历飞速变革的中国的现实样貌。贾平凹通过政治隐喻及反讽的叙事手法，讲述着小说主人公、作家庄之蝶在与不同的女性的性爱关系中欲罢不能的同时却迷失自我的绝望状态。故事的语境被设定在由计划经济向商品经济转型中的古都西京，即便作者在故事推进过程中尽量避免让叙事陷入到怀旧的泥淖之中，但是整个一部《废都》唤起的依旧是对于中国社会进入现代化之前的生态，即过去的乡土田园的强烈向往。在故事里诙谐而失序的意象中，贾平凹也隐晦地将自己对于正在经历变革的中国社会当中如何维护文艺创作的严肃性、文艺作品的审查及忠诚于艺术创作等问题的关注投注到了小说的字里行间。
Rich with detailed description and vivid imagery, Ruined City transports readers into a world abounding with the absurdities and harshness of modern life.
洋洋一部《废都》，以精细的叙事和生动的隐喻，引领着读者进入到一个充斥着现代生活的残酷与荒诞的文学天域。
（英文来自亚马逊官网，中文翻译魏晏龙）
英文版《废都》翻译策划：木南 王俊
翻译支持：西安建筑科技大学贾平凹文学艺术馆
