As Long as You Are Here, It Is a Golden Age

Hello, listeners. I'm Xingzhou, and this is my new podcast, Golden Age.

Why did I choose this name? First, because I love Wang Xiaobo and his novel The Golden Age. I remember once talking with a friend who studies comparative literature. I asked her why she chose literary studies, and who her favorite writer was. She said that Eileen Chang was the writer who laid her literary foundation. After thinking for a moment, I said that mine might be Lu Xun and Wang Xiaobo.

Rather than turn away from what has never been far from us, we might as well face it.

A friend told me a story a couple of days ago. Once, he accidentally ran a red light on his electric bike and was fined. The traffic police stopped him and showed him a surveillance screenshot. He noticed that the clothes he wore on the day he ran the red light were exactly the same as the ones he was wearing on the day he was fined. He said that at that moment he felt a kind of fear: if our lives are only repetition, day after day, then what is the meaning of living?

I joked with him: from today on, try to wear something different every day. Or even if you do not have that many clothes, try putting together a different look. At least when someone writes your memoir one day, your pages and colors will be thicker and richer than other people's. Of course, I am not encouraging everyone to consume more or buy more clothes and jewelry. What I mean is that people have to do something to step out of the clay mold that Nuwa used to make human beings. If an age allows you only blue and black, sewing a flower onto your cuff becomes your personal mark. If an age allows you only to move forward quickly and efficiently, then while moving you can consciously slow down for half a beat to think about where you want to go, and speed up when it is time to catch up. Then you have hold of your own fate, instead of being carried along by the tide. We may not be able to change the larger force or direction of an era's waves, but we can hold on to our own speed and direction.

Beyond my love for Xiaobo's innocent freedom and his absurd, darkly funny style, there is another reason: perhaps we have never really left an age full of absurdity and black humor. In the past, or in the era Xiaobo experienced not so long ago, people's choices may have been constrained, and human nature may have been reserved and repressed. Today, we seem to have richer material lives and more information, yet the noise that comes with them keeps growing. So many choices strip us of our sovereignty over time, space, and energy, while loneliness has not diminished. Each person is like an atom without a home planet, orbiting nameless concrete and steel without purpose, living a life that looks independent and free but is actually dull and repetitive. We seem to have waved goodbye to the loss of autonomy that came with boundaries constantly being breached in the collectivist era, yet we have also lost a kind of identity, lost the nearby, and lost the seemingly simple but perhaps sincere neighborly relationships in which someone could lend a hand whenever a small matter arose. I cannot help wondering: is this really a good society? Everyone uses more identity labels and more activities to search for a sense of belonging. But on what values is that belonging built? After being struck by the enormous changes happening around us every moment, will those values become firmer or collapse? Put another way: when we try to move away from the absurdity of collectivism, is the society of today - this beautiful, abundant, prosperous yet anxious and frantic age, an age of war and entertainment unto death - not absurd too?

Going one step further, what is an era? I will presumptuously offer my own definition: an era is the sum of a group of people moving within a period of time and a space. That definition already contains several variables: people, space, and movement. By habit, we think we cannot change time and can only change people, so we make people move desperately, adapt to systems, and adapt to the larger direction of the trend. But there is another very important variable: space.

Elon Musk's journey toward Mars is about changing space; going south to work in the market economy was also about changing space. Turn the clock back to that world-famous May a century ago: through education, writing, debate, and more, people also changed the mental space of the Chinese public, helping them realize that we cannot remain at the bottom of a well and must open our eyes to the world.

Seen this way, an era is the vector sum of choices made by people with ideals and passion, with fire in their hearts and light in their eyes, within a span of time and space.

Some may ask: those are matters for great figures. What do they have to do with you and me? For ordinary people, not being overturned by the waves of an era and being able to eat a hot meal is already quite good.

Wang Xiaobo also wrote in The Golden Age: “That day I was twenty-one, at the golden age of my life. I had many desires. I wanted to love, to eat, and to become in an instant a half-lit, half-shadowed cloud in the sky. Later I learned that life is a slow process of being hammered: day by day we grow old, and our desires disappear day by day, until we become like cattle that have been beaten by a hammer. But on my twenty-first birthday I did not foresee this. I felt I would remain vigorous forever, that nothing could hammer me down.”

At first glance, these words may seem like helplessness in the face of aging and the torrents of an era. But think about it: if Wang Xiaobo had truly yielded to that helplessness, he would not have begun to write, nor would he have written down that helplessness for later generations to reflect on. Being a real person, expressing that reality to the world, and insisting on truly existing: that was his way of swimming against fate and refusing to submit.

I have been asking myself: Wang Xiaobo did what he could do. What can I do? Beyond passively receiving information, can I create something of my own? My close friends have all reached the age of having children, and their children are arriving one after another. I wonder what our generation can leave for them.

That is why I want to make this podcast. Because I believe that no matter how the world changes, and no matter how small an individual may be, as long as you are here, it is a golden age.

So what will this podcast be about?

First, books. Since I was young, I have had a strong desire to express myself, and I especially love sharing good books I have read. I know many friends are busy with work and do not have time to read, or find reading difficult. That is all right: I can read to you and tell you about them.

Second, I will explore subjects that interest me: perhaps a social phenomenon, a problem, or a mainstream view. I want to talk with you about whether there may be other possibilities and ways forward behind these questions.

Finally, we may talk about enjoyable films, the instrument I am learning, or small things that happen in life. In the future, if the right occasion comes along, I would also like to invite friends as guests and explore life's many possibilities together.

All right, that is what I wanted to say to you before this podcast begins. If, after listening, you find me somewhat interesting, or if our ideas resonate even a little, please follow the show. We will take our time and talk more in the future.

Thank you for listening. Please believe this: as long as you are here, it is a golden age. See you next episode.