SPECIAL SECTION Han Shaogong (b.1953) is one of contemporary China's most critically acclaimed novelists, celebrated for his linguistically sophisticated and inventive novels and essays of modern China. More biographical information is included in Julia Lovell's essay {page 25). LadiesandGentlemen, Itisa great honor for metobeherereceivingencouragement from thejurors ontheselectioncommittee andaccepting thesecondNewman PrizeforChineseLiterature. I certainly knowthatthereare manyotherwriters who arejustas qualified as I amfor thisexceptional honor. Thefact that this prizehasfallen onme, unexpectedly, shouldnotbe seenas affirming mypersonal achievements, butas representing theattention to,and thesupportof,Chinese literature ingeneral from thesponsor andorganizer ofthis prize, aswellasfrom reader friends allovertheworld. Thank youallvery much! I regret that I canonly express mygratitude in Chinese, although I wishI couldsomeday express myself andmakefriends freely inother languages, suchas French, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and so on. Thisis ofcourse an impossible taskforme to achieve.There aremorethanfivethousand languages inthis world;anylanguagegeniusis doomedtofeel frustrated whenconfronted withsucha formidablenumber . As a matter offact, noneofus can even acquirea fullcommand ofourmother tongue. It is said thatEnglish has nearly 500,000 lexical items, whichare also increasing by a few thousand newwordseachyear. TheKangxi Dictionary oftheChinese language contains 47,000 Chinese characters, which canbecombined into countless wordsofinfinite variety. Evenifwe study ata collegefortheduration ofourlives, orevenfor theduration ofourlivesmultiplied bythree, wecanstill only learn a very small portionofourmother tongue. Moreimportantly, inthiscomplicated and enriched living practice ofmankind, every languageispublicandnonpublic atthesametime, so that manydailywordsproduce a great deal ofambiguity in specific contexts. A childand an adultcannot havethesameunderstanding ofthewordmarry, as theylackcommonlife experience. Similarly, is itpossibleforpeople livinginboththefrigid and tropical zonesto havethesameunderstanding ofthewordsun ? Or is it possibleforpeoplewho live in one placeallthetime andpeoplewhomovearound quitefrequently toaccessthesameconnotation ofthewordhometown ? The reality ofcurrent globalization is suchthatthericharemaking enormous fortunes acrossnational boundaries, whereas thepoorareworking hardtomakea livingwithinnationalboundaries. Whilethe richin theworldarerichalmostin thesame way,thepooroftheworldareall poorindifferent ways.So then, whatarethoselifestories beneath theso-called"globalization"? Can we arrive ata unified definition for alltheplurality andvariety of"globalizations" withthehelpof a dictionary? Overa decadeago,itwas in a smallvillagein southern ChinathatI becamepuzzled byquestions likethis, thusobtaining theinitial driving forceforwriting A Dictionary ofMaqiao ."Maqiao" literally means"horse-bridge" inChinese, andisthenameofthevillage inthe novel.Language isa doortolife. The"Maqiao" 22 1 World Literature Today behind this doorisofindefinite depth. Weneed tocarefully approachthissubject. Today,millionsof "Maqiaos,"whichcomprise theStory ofChina, posethese issues, resulting inendless controversy. All theexisting theories appear tobe inadequate to describe thisgigantic but nameless reality, ortodiagnosetheinconceivably distressing predicament and abounding vitality oflinguistic indeterminacy. Undersuch circumstances, shouldwe try todenythisreality , orshouldwebemore mindful ofthelimitations ofourlanguage anditsvarious products? Thissmallbookofmine, a prizewinner, is ofcourse nota real"dictionary," although many clerks inbookstores havemistakenly placedit in thereference bookssection, and haveeven thought that"Horse-Bridge" is a namebrand that isanintentional parallel toandrival of"OxFord ."Thisbookis buta fiction and,forthat matter, doesnotpromise anyeternal and universal interpretation ofanyauthoritative nature. Norisitintended tobe a faketheoretical book, history book,or reference book.As muchas other literary works, itsprotection ofthescenes, details,variations, individuality, uniqueness, andvagueness inlife isperhaps only toreiterate theright tobe skeptical, and toopenreaders' narrow viewstofacts and truths tothefullest extent possible. Inthissense, literature alwayshasa suspiciousface .Inother words, literature alwaysrecreates publiclifeina nonpublic way,leading tonewintegration through newdisintegration, andpointing tonewclarity withnewperplexity . Thisprocess will, perhaps, never cometoan end.Thatis alsooneofthereasons whywhen weheartime andtime againtheprediction that literature willperish, we don'tneedtoworry toomuch aboutthat. February 18,2011 Translation from the Chinese ByNingYu& Jonathan Stalling u < □c cr o to X CL Han Shaogong with Ruth and Haittft Newman. Ning YuisProfessor of Chinese atthe University of Oklahoma, with a joint appointment in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures &Linguistics and the School of International &Area Studies. His many publications focus onembodied cognition and how itismanifested fn language. / ;■ jK Jonathan Stalling ^Assistant Professor ofEnglish atthe University of / '4 Oklahoma, specializing in trans-Pacific poetics; co-founder and ajH^tor of Chinese Literature Toddy, anew journal and book series; and