When I read James Joyces' "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", I felt that an entire novel could be written in dialogue, to the point where it makes you feel that fiction actually should be written this way. At that time I had a strong desire to, and since then I've written this way whenever I have the opportunity. When I had written more than 10,000 characters of "Xu Sanguan Selling his Blood", I realized I could write this way myself. The conditions were ripe for it.

Zhang: I always thought that in writing "Xu Sanguan Selling his Blood" your impetus was a response to not wanting to part with a detail from "To Live"-- the scene where You Qing dies giving blood to the county magistrate's wife. Maybe you thought that this was an exceedingly metaphorical and productive point, whereas through this he could become something very large. At that time, according to Chinese people and Chinese society, giving blood and fate were both very important.

Yu: Exactly. This is something I'm unwilling to talk about. When I wrote of You Qing's death then, I was shaking. That was something that actually happened in Jiangxi province. I wrote it so long ago, but all these years I've known that if something very special happened it would unfold again in the future. There's one other thing... I once saw someone in Wangfujing with tears streaming down their face. This became the chapter where Xu Sanguan can't sell his blood. In this kind of place, seeing an adult cry shamelessly is hugely tragic. My wife and I saw it at the same time and we discussed this, and came up with blood sale. I grew up in a hospital and know much about buying blood. But after writing about You Qing dying in the transfusion it felt as if this was the first time, taking and selling blood.

Zhang: Why didn't you write a novel in the ten years after "Xu Sanguan Selling His Blood"? Was it because, as people suggested, that you had used up your literary talent? Or was it because it was difficult to surpass these literary boundaries?

Yu: It's not that complex. You can put it like this: I have more than one or two unfinished novels because I can only write if I'm inspired. When I finished writing "Xu San Selling His Blood", after writing tens of thousands of characters, Wang Hui wanted me to write an essay for "Study". After writing a longer piece there is not that much urgency. After someone has success, there are two situations that may spur them on: one is the voice of praise, where everyone tells you you're good and you just go on writing; the second is that everyone opposes you but you don't mind them and continue anyway, with no reaction whatsoever. As for using up one's literary talents, I've never felt this way. I'm now over 40 years old, but I still won't say that even when I'm 80 years old.

An Intellectual?