编者按：为了更好地进行中国文学海外传播工作，让中国作品在海外被发现（Discover）、被理解（Understand）、被传播（Express），中国文化译研网（CCTSS）邀请国内资深文学主编及文学评论家，精选出近两百部短中长篇小说，形成第一期《中国当代文学作品指南》（简称“指南”），从更具权威性、价值性的角度出发，更好地向世界展示中国当代文学精品，传播中国书香。

夏读书，日正长，打开书，喜洋洋。现将“指南”中的精品文学作品以一日一推的方式向读者呈现，让我们不负一夏好时光。

张抗抗丨《北极光》

推荐理由

张抗抗的《北极光》发表于《收获》1981年第3期。它塑造了一个单纯、善良、正直而富于理想和生活信念的当代女青年陆芩芩形象。小说又以陆芩芩的视点，塑造了傅云祥、费渊、曾储三个男性形象，他们分别代表陆芩芩人生道路上的三种选择。陆芩芩在庸俗、市侩的生活环境下有过短暂的妥协、痛苦和挣扎，历经不懈的努力，最终找到了生命中“质朴的光”。陆芩芩在寻找理想爱情与婚姻的过程中吗，对具有不同生活态度的男青年的选择，体现了新时期在社会变革的推动下青年一代对新的人生态度和生活目标的追求。这一形象的塑造承载了重建时代主流话语意识形态话语与性别话语的重任。它表达了20世纪80年代的新启蒙思想，预示了社会文化转型的开端；它展露了女性在对男性的选择上由被动等待到主动追求的心路历程，是女性自我意识开始觉醒的表现。作品一发表，就引起了论争。

Reviews

Northern Lights appeared in the third issue of Harvest in 1981. It describes Lu Qinqin, a simple-minded, kind, enterprising, and modern girl with integrity and faith in life. It depicts, from her perspective, three males, Fu Yunxiang, Fei Yuan, and Zeng Chu, who each represent an option open to Lu. The girl struggles for some time in an unexciting life fraught with compromises and agony. After many constant efforts, she finally finds the light in her life.

The choices Lu makes in her pursuit of love and marriage, from among young men of different outlooks and pursuits, reflects the outlook and new pursuits that young people go through while they are adjusting to the changing society, a society that is being rapidly commercialized. The image created here takes as its responsibility in restructuring the mainstream ideology and gender discourse. It signals the neo-enlightenment of the 1980s and heralds the beginning of the social-cultural transition. It reveals the inner conflicts of women who actively pick and choose their partners, which shows a sure sign of the awakening of female self-awareness. Consequently, the publication of Northern Lights received immediate critical attention.   

作家简介

Author Profile

张抗抗，原名张抗美，女，祖籍广东，1950年生于浙江省杭州市。1969年赴北大荒农场上山下乡8年，当过农工、砖厂工人、通讯员、报道员、创作员等。1977年考入黑龙江省艺术学校编剧专业，1979年调入黑龙江省作协从事专业文学创作。现任黑龙江省作家协会名誉主席、中国作家协会副主席、中国文字著作权保护协会副会长、国际笔会中国笔会中心副会长、全国政协委员。2009年被聘为国务院参事。

1972年开始发表作品。已发表小说、散文作品共500余万字，出版各类文学专集60余种。代表作有长篇小说《隐形伴侣》《赤彤丹朱》《情爱画廊》《作女》，短篇小说《夏》，中篇小说《北极光》《淡淡的晨雾》等。《夏》获全国优秀短篇小说奖、《淡淡的晨雾》获全国优秀中篇小说奖、《红罂粟》获首届《上海文学》奖、长篇小说《隐形伴侣》获黑龙江省文学大奖赛大奖、《赤彤丹朱》获东北文学奖长篇小说一等奖、《张抗抗散文自选集》获东北文学奖散文集一等奖、中篇小说《钟点人》获《东海》全国纯文学最高稿酬奖。张抗抗1995年获庄重文文学奖、1998年获中国首届女性文学创作奖。有多部作品被翻译成英、法、德、日、俄文，并在海外出版。

Zhang Kangkang (1950- ), originally called Zhang Kangmei, was born in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, in southeastern China. In 1969, she was sent to the Great Northern Wilderness along with thousands of other educated urban youths to be “re-educated” by the poor and lower-middle class peasants. She spent eight years there, working successively as a farmer, brick-maker, correspondent, as well as a writer. This was all before she got enrolled in the Department of Playwright in Heilongjiang Art School in 1977. Two years later, she was transferred to the China Writers Association of the province as a professional writer. Currently, she serves as the Honorary Chairperson of Heilongjiang Writers Association, Vice-chairperson of China Writers Association, Vice Director of China Written Works Copyright Society, Vice Director of the Chinese PEN Center under PEN International, and as a Member on the CPPCC. In 2009 she began to serve as a Consultant to the State Council.

Since 1972, Zhang has published novels and essays totaling over five million words, as well as over sixty collections of literary works. Her major works include The Invisible Companion, All the Hues of Red, Love Gallery, Authoress, Summer, Northern Lights, and The Pale Mists of Dawn. Many of her works are award-winning. Summer, for instance, won the National Award for Excellent Short Stories. The Pale Mists of Dawn won the National Award for Excellent Novellas. Red Poppy won the first ever Shanghai Literature Award. The Invisible Companion won top prize in Heilongjiang Literature competition. All the Hues of Red won the First Prize for Novels in Northeastern China. Furthermore, Zhang Kangkang’s Selected Works received a First-Class award for prose in Northeastern China. Hourly Employee won the highest royalties award for pure literature hosted by the magazine East China Sea. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that she also won the Zhuang Zhongwen Literature Prize in 1995 and, in 1998, won an award for the creation of women’s literature. Many of her works are translated and published in English, French, German, Japanese, and Russian.

中文概要

Synopsis

雪花飘飞下来散漫各地，从业余大学散课出来的陆芩芩乘电车去找他的未婚夫傅云祥。傅云祥是个三级木匠，六九届毕业，大耳朵高鼻梁，各方面条件都与陆芩芩十分般配。在傅云祥家里，傅云祥和朋友们的交谈都停留在实实在在的日常生活层面上。这让她觉得厌倦、烦恼。可未来的生活是什么样子的，她也不知道该如何回答。想起她的笔记本忘在了教室，她便起身去取。

教室玻璃上的冰琳花让芩芩觉得它们像北极光。小时候舅舅说谁要能看见北极光，谁就能得到幸福。下乡时她多次凝望天际，也未见到。谈到北极光，她觉得与傅云祥生疏了。当她去找笔记本时，发现还有一个人影，交谈之后，她认识了他日语系大学生费渊。几天后，他们约好在他宿舍见。

在宿舍里，芩芩翻看了费渊的相册，得知费渊的父亲曾是驻东欧大使，在文革中死去，他曾狂热地当过红卫兵，也曾上山下乡，这些经历让他脾气古怪愤世嫉俗，并认识了同是业大日语系的水暖工曾储。曾储与费渊不同，他关心政治社会，芩芩问费渊喜欢北极光吗，费渊把北极光归结为自然现象，并不在乎能否见到北极光，他不相信会有什么理想的圣光。

结婚的日子越来越近了,芩芩并不想结婚。在业大的校园里，她再次看到了曾储，无忧无虑、关心国家大事的曾储让她好奇，从同桌苏娜嘴里她知道了曾储因揭发厂领导进过监狱，这让她更为好奇。

结婚照不能再拖了，照结婚照的时候，她照着镜子，想到了北极光，便觉得生活不该这样，芩芩从照相馆里跑了出来。她跑到费渊那里，希望从他那里得到指导，可费渊不能给出答案。费渊爱生命，却不爱生活，他爱人生，更爱自己。离开了费渊，芩芩没有跟找她半个城的傅云祥走，也拒绝了曾储的相送。

快一星期了，傅云祥也没有什么动静。芩芩上课心不在焉。曾储没来上课，她问了苏娜才知道，原来那个领导为了报复他，把他打伤了。芩芩决定去看曾储。在曾储家里，她知道了曾储的人生经历。他尝过人世间冷遇，对生活依然热情。从他那里，芩芩对自己选择的人生道路更加坚定。

和傅云祥的事还是被双方家长知道了，半夜家里炸了锅，傅云祥的挽留让她彻底下定了决心离开他。第二天，天刚亮，芩芩去了曾储家。芩芩在曾储的房间里，发现了他曾写过的遗书。曾储告诉她，他也曾绝望过，以前的女友也离他而去过，可需要指责和憎恨的是十年动乱，是极左。芩芩打断了他，问他见过北极光吗？他说十年前也曾入迷过，但未见过。他相信北极光总会出现的。曾储邀请芩芩去外面走走。

不远的江面上，疾驶着一行鼓满的船。他们朝着冰帆跑去，芩芩突然站住了说她盼望春天。曾储说他也盼望春天，但距真正的春天到来还有一条泥泞漫长的道路要走，不过他相信他们会走过去的。远处马车满载的货包上覆盖着一层新雪，在阳光下闪耀着质朴的光。

Snow drifted silently and coated everything. After school at the Spare-time University, Lu Qinqin took a tram to go see her fiancé Fu Yunxiang. Fu, a third-class carpenter, 1969 high school graduate, with big ears and high nose, was a good enough match for Lu. At home all Fu and his friends were talking about was nothing more than everyday life, which bored and annoyed Lu. What would her future be like? This she did not know. One evening, however, after realizing that she had left her notebook in the classroom, she was forced to go back to fetch it.

To Qinqin the frost on the classroom windows looked very much like the northern lights. During her childhood her uncle used to tell her that whomever laid eyes on the northern lights would get happiness in return. When she was working in the countryside, she would hopefully gaze out into the distant skies looking for said lights, but never saw any. When talking about northern lights, she felt more clearly how she was different from her fiancé Fu Yunxiang.

When she arrived at the classroom, she found someone else there. After some casual talk, she learned that he was a student from the Japanese Department named Fei Yuan. They agreed to meet again in his dorm a few days later.

Going through Fei’s photo album, Qinqin learned that his father used to be an Ambassador in East Europe and had died during the Cultural Revolution. Fei had once been a fervent Red Guard himself and, like many others, had worked in the countryside as an educated urban youth. However, all these experiences gave him a bad temper, which resulted in him growing bitterly cynical. He soon found a friend in Zeng Chu, a plumber who was also learning Japanese in his Department. Unlike Fei, Zeng had a passion for politics. Qinqin had asked Fei whether he liked the northern lights, but Fei simply dismissed them as a natural phenomenon, and did not care whether he would ever see them or not. He had no trust in any perfect holy lights.

The wedding date was fast approaching, but Qinqin was not quite ready. On her university campus she once again saw Zeng Chu, who cared for nothing other than national- and international events. Somehow, however, Zeng aroused the curiosity and attention of Qinqin. She had become even more curious after she learned from her desk-mate Su Na that Zeng had once been jailed for reporting one of his superiors in his factory.

Lu Qinqin could no longer postpone taking the photos for her wedding album. While she examined herself in mirror in the photo studio, she again thought of northern lights, and instantly decided that she was tired of her life as it was. She fled and raced to Fei Yuan. She was hoping to get his counsel, but he was unsympathetic, and offered no advice whatsoever. Fei treasured life in general, although not the mundane life he was living every day. He loved life, but he cared for himself more than anyone else. Bidding goodbye to Fei, Qinqin refused to follow Fu, who had searched half the town for her. Moreover, she also declined the escort that Zeng Chu offered.

One week passed without any news from Fu. In class, Qinqin found her mind constantly wandering. Zeng Chu did not show up. Later on, she learned from Su that Zeng had been assaulted and injured by his former leader, who was determined to avenge himself. Because of this Qinqin decided to go and see Zeng.

In the hospital, she learned a lot more about Zeng’s past. The harshness and coldness of the world he had experienced had not killed or brought down his optimism. Zeng’s outlook reassured Qinqin of her resolution on how to lead the rest of her life.

The tension between Qinqin and her fiance eventually reached their respective parents and a storm broke out at midnight. Fu’s attempts to retain her made her all the more determined to leave him forever. When day broke the next morning, she went to see Zeng at his house. She came across a will he had once composed. He confided that he had once despaired when his former girlfriend deserted him. However, he said, it was the ten-year turmoil during the Cultural Revolution and the Ultra-Left Wing that were to blame. Qinqin interrupted him and asked him if he had ever seen the northern lights. Zeng admitted that he had once been obsessed with them too, but had never had the luck in seeing any. He was hopeful that he could see them someday. Later, he invited Qinqin to join him for a walk outside.  

Not far on the river sailed a line of bulging cargo ships. The two darted towards the sails in the icy wind, but Qinqin stopped shortly and observed. She was looking forward to the thaw of spring. Zeng said he shared her wish, however, he cautioned, they had a long muddy journey ahead of them before they could have the real spring. It would surely come, though. The sacks loaded on the carts far ahead were covered with some fresh snow, which glistened plainly in the sun.