ЛІНЬ ВАНЬЛІ. ВЕСІЛЬНИЙ СЕЗОН

Abstract

The formation of Chinese literature in Indonesia dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. Due to the political instability and anti-Chinese sentiment of the day, Indonesia’s cultural communication with China was limited to a few literary works that became available in Indonesia through some channels from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Thus, popular love novels and wuxia fiction became the basis of the literary works of Indonesian writers of Chinese origin. Chinese-Indonesian literature of the time was characterized by simplicity of plots and forms and was represented mostly by social issue prose. Since the 1990s, with the normalization of Chinese-Indonesian diplomatic relations and especially with the beginning of the new century, the cultural environment for the further development of Chinese-language literature has become more favorable. These included the teaching of Chinese in educational institutions, the opening of Chinese cultural and literary unions and clubs, and the emergence of numerous Chinese-language periodicals. Chinese-Indonesian literature has been developing, and the readership got acquainted with the writings of Huang Dongping (黄东平), A Wu (阿五), Lin Wanli (林万里), Yang Weizhen (严唯真), Bi Lin (碧玲) and many others. Chinese-language Indonesian literature (印尼华文文学) is characterized by several interesting features that reflect the creative combination of the two cultures. First, the literary language of Chinese-Indonesian works includes borrowings from Indonesian, English graphics, Cantonese and Fujian dialectisms, adherence to Chinese classical traditions, the use of wenyanisms, idioms, allusions, etc. Secondly, Chinese-language Indonesian literature has a strong social orientation. It reflects the political, economic, and cultural aspects of Indonesian society. These are the insurmountable gap between the rich and the poor, the historical confrontation between Indonesian society and imperialism/ colonialism, and the age-old hard work of the local population and Chinese emigrants. After all, Chinese-language Indonesian literature philosophically comprehends the thoughts, characters, moods, and ideals of locals and Chinese immigrants. Thus a unique style of this literature undoubtedly makes it an integral part of Overseas Chinese-language literature (海外华文文学) discourse, which is gaining worldwide representation. Lin Wanli (b. 1938) is an Indonesian writer of Chinese origin (Fuqing, Fujian). After Indonesian Bandung High School, he graduated from Beijing Pedagogical University with a degree in Chinese Philology. After returning to Indonesia and before the 30th September Movement, Lin Wanli published several short stories in the Hong Kong journal “Contemporary literature and art” (《当代文艺》), but was mostly interested in literary criticism and published critical reviews of Chinese-language literature under the pen name Lin Li (林立). He returned to belletristic writing only in the late 1980s, and published collections of short stories, “The Wedding Season” (《结婚季节》) and “I Owe It All to You” (《托你的福》). He also translated and researched the early works of Chinese writers in Indonesia and Malaysia. Within the literature of the Chinese diaspora, Lin Wanli’s writings are distinguished by their unique humorous style and the usage of irony in a masterful way to reveal all sorts of flaws or simply the everyday life of the Chinese-Indonesian community.