Can Xue, China’s leading proponent of experimental fiction, is going to America. She has been once before, in 1991, or 1992 (she’s not sure), to ‘pretty’ Iowa for a writer’s conference. Now she’s going to promote her latest book, Five Spice Street, the story of a certain Madame X, a seductive figure who is the subject of all sorts of conversations and perceptions in one neighbourhood. One reviewer called it more of a mirrorbox than a novel.
 

Cerebral Can Xue commands a disjointed striking prose, with jostling images engendering different realities. Consider these lines: “The dreams are drawn out, with an extremely long white thread fluttering behind each one of them just like a kite. But what is the matter with the ostrich? Ever since my father’s death, my intestines have started to twist and turn.” The story The Little Gold Ox, from which the quote is taken almost at random, has no other mention of an ostrich.

Why did you choose the name Can Xue (Dirty Snow)?
Everyone asks me that. It’s a combination of purity and messiness. The snow melting off the mountain peaks, the runoff, etc. It was a sudden inspiration.

Where did you grow up?
Hunan. My dad was editor in chief of the Hunan Daily, until it was discovered that he was the biggest rightist in the entire province. I was three or four at the time, and we became really poor. I mean, everyone was poor, but we were the poorest of the poor. So poor that we almost starved to death. We had no food and no games, and we couldn’t find either of them. All we could have were spiritual things.

Where does your love of books come from?
My Dad. I only had schooling for about five years, because schooling at that time was a pretty miserable experience. My Dad encouraged me to read philosophy, and if I didn’t understand something he would explain it to me. He was always with books. He followed his demands, his will. The Cultural Revolution did not treat him terribly well.

What is the state of experimental fiction in China?
Lamentable. In 2005, I joined with a few proponents of experimental fiction, people no one’s heard of, like Liang Xiaowu, Xue Yiwei, to start a magazine. It didn’t work. We couldn’t decide on a title. There’s also this guy Zhang Xiaobo, he co-authored the 1996 book China Can Say No. I don’t agree with his politics, but he’s many faceted – he was one of the most talented experimental fiction writers, but he doesn’t write experimental fiction any more.

How come you live so deep in the suburbs?
I have rheumatism, and the air is better out here. I go running through my courtyard.

You worked as a tailor for many years. Is there any similarity between tailoring and writing?
No, but I liked tailoring. My husband was a tailor as well, we used to work together. He would cut, I would sew. I really liked interacting with people in the tailor shop. It was very simple and pure, interacting with my workers and my apprentices. One of my least favourite things is interacting with people in an unnatural fashion, like in an office.
 

What is experimental fiction?
Taking yourself as the experiment. It’s not starting with an outline, it’s an entire system of writing. It eschews surface-level material and realism for paying attention to the inside life, the performance of the soul.
 

Five Spice Street is published by Yale University Press.