Calendar of Events
Shan Sa and Diaspora Literature
Roundtable Discussion
Shan Sa, at 31, has written four novels. Her first three works, Porte de la Paix céleste (2000), Les quatre vies du saule (2001), and Le Miroir du Calligraphe (2002), were published in French and are not currently available in English translation. Her latest work, La Joueuse de go (2003), has received huge success both critically and popularly. It has since been translated into English as The Girl Who Played Go.
In this roundtable -- sponsored by the Department of French, the French Studies Program, and the Center for Chinese Studies, and in association with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in San Francisco -- Sa answered questions from the panel and audience members, amidst translations between French, English and Chinese.
Sa preferred to speak in French, even when addressed in her native tongue (she was born in Beijing, where she lived for seventeen years). Her reasons for this soon became clear; she beautifully evoked her discovery and analysis of France, as paralleled by her own literary coming of age. Having left China at seventeen with no knowledge of French culture or language, she spent her time trying to understand what it is to be French, what it is to find the truth of any culture -- or perhaps of all cultures.
"Moving to France was the beginning of a new life, a rebirth," Sa said, adding that the toil of learning a new language and adapting to a new culture gave her energy to learn and observe -- energy, ultimately, to write. Sa felt it a necessity to write in French because France was her new life, and she didn't wish to turn the pages back.
Learning French also allowed her to approach language in an entirely new way. She became acutely aware of the structure of language. In The Girl Who Played Go, Sa's use of structure is indeed one of the most striking aspects of the novel. The book itself is set up in small, concise, image-ridden chapters -- almost one hundred in all. The chapters switch back and forth between the first-person perspectives of the two main characters, mimicking the turns in a game of go itself.
"When I am writing a novel, I am constructing a palace," said Sa.
Sa spoke of the thoughts that led her to write this novel: she had a desire to explain war. After researching the Massacre of Nanjing, she contemplated the cruelty of the Japanese. She wanted to depict the two truths of war: that of the invader, and that of the resister. She wanted to write in the first person for the Japanese soldier as well as the Manchurian girl, because she also felt a connection, however dark, to the Japanese mentality of the time.
When a panelist asked about sexuality and gender in Go, Sa emphatically stated that these issues go to the heart of her novel. She confessed that she sees herself not only in her female heroine, but also in the soldier she characterizes. Even the Chinese character that defines Sa's name, thought "too male" for her as a child, was reclaimed when she moved back to France. She is fascinated by the idea of what it means to be a woman, or a man, and what happens when these two encounter one another.
Overall Sa's words were very well-stated -- even in the English she is only beginning to learn (unfortunately this editor does not know French and had to rely on a French interpreter for parts of this discussion) -- and told of a deeply philosophical and spiritual mind. Though the turnout for this event was disappointingly low, those who came were earnest and brought several questions with them. Those who read the book will understand why. Hopefully in the near future America will see more of her work discussed and translated.
-- Rachel Mullis, Editor, IES
Shan Sa was born in 1972 in Beijing. In 1990 she left China for France, where she studied in Paris and worked for two years with the painter Balthus. Her two previous novels were awarded the Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman and the Prix Cazes.
