Chen Ruilin began to publish her novels, essays and poetry when she was only 13 years old. In 1977, a 15-year-old Chen took the college entrance examination and was admitted to the Department of Chinese at Northwest University in Shaanxi province. Not yet reaching her 20th birthday, she had already become a lecturer teaching contemporary literature at Shaanxi Normal University, after finishing postgraduate studies.

In 1992, while waiting for her PhD interview, Chen learnt that her husband obtained the visa to study in the US. Standing at such a crossroads, she decided to choose family over career development after serious consideration. The original path Chen was pursuing had to be rewritten the moment she left China, but her intelligence and literary sensibility helped open another window for her. Now, her accomplishments have been widely recognized, and she is regarded as a “major critic on contemporary overseas Chinese literature”, and a “pioneer of overseas Chinese literature”.

Chen Zhongshi, a top contemporary Chinese author, once remarked, “Chen Ruilin loves every inch of land she has walked over, but above all, she loves people more!” Jia Pingwa, another renowned writer, said Chen’s writing is a mirror of her: “Her works remind people of literary styles of the Han and Tang dynasties, rich and majestic.”

Chen is both a prose writer and a literary critic, both an active participant in overseas Chinese literature and a promoter and a chaperone for overseas Chinese writers.

After arriving at the US, Chen Ruilin restarted her literary pursuit first as a prose writer. Her prose and essays (especially those published in the latter stages), according to some scholars, are radiant with real-life romance as well as thoughtful contemplation on time and history. Indeed, her literary criticisms have injected color and emotion into theories that are invariably cold and rigid.

Eileen Chang (1920-1995) believed that good works “portray life’s successes based on the stability of life”. Chen’s works are considered as such, and the subtle balance between “success” and “stability” derives first and foremost from her self-confidence in life. Some female writers get overly sensitive to criticisms of their works, but Chen is quite the opposite. She is always full of smiles and magnanimous; wherever she goes, laughter follows. Such a cheerful and upbeat personality can be easily discerned in her writings, which, apart from childhood upbringing and the influence of circumstances during early adult years, has much to do with Chen’s experience of accompanying her husband to pursue further studies in the US and striving to gain a foothold there. Hers was more than an individual experience; it was a microcosm of tens of thousands of Chinese immigrating to the US, Europe, Australia and other Western countries in the 1990s. More importantly, Chen set a good example for those who have chosen to live in a different country, and who have to adapt to a new language, a new culture and a new life.

A photo of Chen Ruilin, taken at her home in Houston, US

In the US, she wrote for a number of newspapers, worked as a journalist, owned a newspaper, operated a bookstore, edited a literary magazine ... she basically did everything literary. She also organized various literary competitions and, on every possible occasion, appealed for overseas Chinese to continue “inheriting” Chinese writing. She also served as a liaison between Chinese and American cultures; in 1999, the mayor of Houston named her an honorary citizen and a Goodwill Ambassador. In 1998, her first collection of essays, Traveling to the End of the World: My Days in the United States was published, in which she portrayed vividly all sorts of overseas Chinese — a doctor, a writer, a businessman, a sculptor, an actor, a sportsman. In another book, Things about to Be Forgotten, a memoir Chen penned both in memory of her mother and for herself, she talked of her experiences when she first set foot in the US. In one episode, she wrote:

Houston didn’t believe in tears, but I needed money. I needed a job. I saw a city that wouldn’t speak my language, and worse, I couldn’t find my way back. Under the tall building in the downtown area, the last bus had already left, and it was getting dark and raining heavily. I dared not go to the nearest building for shelter, and only some tramps pointed at me, whispering to each other under the eaves. I finally found the phone booth, heard my cousin’s voice, and waited for her to drive here and pick me up. I would have to stand in the rain for at least an hour. I began to cry, anyway, there was no need to wipe tears, the moment the earth also seemed to stop spinning, lonely I seemed to stand at the gate of hell.

As the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) once said, “What will pass will be nice.” Looking back, Chen Ruilin sees her journey in the US as one that is “both tough and exciting, both painful and happy”.

Thanks to her firsthand knowledge and understanding of the loneliness and difficulties facing overseas Chinese authors, Chen began her career as a literary critic in 1999. Since then, she has been focusing on the literary works of new Chinese immigrants with unique perspectives. The China Press, a leading Chinese language newspaper catering to the Chinese American community in the US, specially opened a new column for Chen to look at new Chinese immigrant writers. In 2005, her co-edited book Selected Stories of North American Chinese Writers was published in China and the US, the first such collection of the new generation of North American Chinese authors. In 2006, her book Essays on North American Chinese Literature, regarded as a pioneering work in the study of new Chinese immigrant literature in North America, was published.

Chen Ruilin in the US

Chen finds that history has given her a “duty” not only to review Chinese works and promote Chinese writers, but also to “guide” the way. For overseas Chinese writers, there is no unified theoretical direction. Therefore, she proposed the idea of “innovation and regeneration”: The dynamic should be transformed to transcend the racial limitations of the “Chinatown culture”, but also to face the impact of Western culture with a healthy and open mind, and rebuild the cultural identity of the Chinese community, often regarded as being on the fringe of the mainstream society.

Today, already in her fifties, Chen Ruilin is still working hard to create a distinctive identity for overseas Chinese literature. Her sensitivity, her insight, her enthusiastic support for young writers and her selfless dedication have all contributed immensely to this endeavor.

Editor:Huang Yan