Women writers bond over words

Four authors discuss their beginnings, the power of stories, and the importance of readers and reading, Yang Yang reports.

One of the most popular literary activities last month was a dialogue between four Asian women writers — Gong Ji-yeong from South Korea, Li Zishu from Malaysia, and Qiao Ye and Liao Jing from China. Organized by the Beijing October Arts and Literature Publishing House, the live broadcast online attracted more than 1.4 million viewers.

Over the course of two hours, they discussed matters such as how to start a writing career, the relationship between writing and reality, and the values writers convey in their work.

Qiao, who won China's top literary award in 2023, the Mao Dun Literary Prize, for her novel Bao Shui (Precious Water), says that she started writing and publishing essays when she was a teacher in a small village in Henan province.

"Loneliness and dissatisfaction with the status quo led me to seek an escape through writing. I was about 20. I wrote about personal feelings but I got unexpected letters from readers, strangers' responding from afar, which was amazing and warming," the 52-year-old recalls. Gradually, after years of writing and reading, Qiao turned to novels.

Li, the 53-year-old author of multiple award-winning novel Worldly Land, says that writers should be avid readers as children.

"As a child, I would read anything with words, and the most captivating worlds were always found within them," she says.

Before Li published anything, her Chinese teacher at middle school was her first reader. When she became a writer, she says she was always grateful to the teacher for allowing her to write whatever she liked. "Those joyful school days of writing essays gave me the courage to chase my literary dreams," she adds.

Recalling taking part in a national essay competition as a child and later gaining recognition in a university poetry contest, Gong, 61, says that her interest in words was strong at a young age.

"My literary journey began smoothly, but life soon became full of twists and turns. It was then I first asked myself who I am, what I want, and how I want to live. I realized that writing is my true calling," Gong says. She started her writing career with her novel Rising Dawn.