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My Millennium

Wang Shuo was considered China’s most popular novelist 20 years ago. His works, such as Don’t Call Me Human (千万别把Γ当人)  and Playing for Thrills (玩的就是心跳), often explored the dark side of human society. In addition to a best selling author, he was also considered a rebel or even a counter-cultural icon at that time. Wang Shuo has not published a novel for a long time. So his new book, My Millennium, has caused a stir in the publishing world, along with its extensive promotion and publicity.

“This is a unique work with codes in philosophical thought,” says one sentence, in English, underneath the title My Millennium. The book is a collection of his recent years’ work, including two movie scripts, two interpretations of Buddhist sutras, one philosophical thought on materialism, and one interview about Chinese movies. In the preface of the book, Wang portrays himself with his trademark troublesome language: “Everyone is good to me and welcomes me back. I had thought the society wouldn’t need me any more.”

One of the scripts in the book, Dreams May Come (梦想Õ’进现实), was adapted to a movie last year. The movie, which has only two roles, recorded a long conversation between a confused actress and a confused movie director, trying to discover the meaning of art and life together. According to Wang Shuo, the name Dreams May Come was from a painting of Edward Hopper, a famous American artist whose paintings had shown ultimate loneliness and emptiness of human beings in an urban setting.

Although Wang Shou was very proud of his breakthrough in the new book, My Millennium has not yet to receive the critical acclaim from his readers that had been expected.