Why I Write
Thursday, 21 January 2010 11:01
Written by JFK Miller

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In 1946, George Orwell wrote an essay entitled Why I Write detailing the reasons why he put pen to paper. In this, our continuing Web series, we talk to China authors about their literary habits and reading preferences, and examine Orwell's question which lies at the heart of being an author – why they write

Jung Chang is the author of Wild Swans and Mao: The Unknown Story.

Why I write
Writing is the most exciting thing for me. It absorbs me completely, and calms me down like nothing else.

Do you write every day? If so, how many hours?
Almost everyday when I am at home in London, for as many hours as possible.

Worst source of distraction?
Traveling – but that’s pleasure.

Best source of inspiration?
Historical documents.

How often do get writers' block/doubt your own ability?
After Jon (Halliday) and I spent 12 years writing our biography of Mao, Mao: the Unknown Story, after I then translated it into Chinese, and finally finished the Notes in Chinese - when all this was over in late 2007, I felt somewhat lost. I did not think I could ever find another subject nearly as fascinating. Happily, I found Cixi, the Empress Dowager of China (1835-1908), who is riveting.

Contemporary writer in any medium who you never miss?
If you mean someone whose writing I look out for: the Shanghai blogger Han Han.

Favorite Chinese writer?
Aileen Chang.

Best book about China?
The Good Earth – certainly one of the best.

Favorite book?
Turgenev’s First Love is special to me. I read it in the Cultural Revolution in 1969 when I was exiled to the mountains of Ningnan, in south Sichuan. One of my brothers had bought the book, together with hundreds of other foreign and Chinese classics, on a black market in Chengdu, where books that had escaped the bonfires of the ‘revolution’ were sold. As a 17-year-old, I fell passionately in love with this novella, and learned many passages by heart.

Favorite writer?
The one I’ve just re-read who gave me indescribable pleasure is Vladimir Nabokov.

The book you should have read but haven't?
Ulysses.

You look back at the first thing you had published and think...
Wow, did I know all these things? (It was an essay to do with linguistics, which I studied for a Ph.D.)

Does writing change anything?
Yes, my life.

What are you working on now and when is it out?
I am working on a biography of the Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China for nearly half a century. I hope I can complete it by 2012.

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