Victor-Levy Beaulieu: His Own China | Books | Arts | The sun

LThe idea of ​​writing a book on China has been sprouting in the author for many years. Victor-Levy Beaulieu was associated with this culture from an early age for many members of his family.

If he did not wish to take part in an evangelistic project that would recapture the full history of this civilization dating back many millennia, he wanted to explain the foundations of this society.

“I want to demonstrate what the basics of traditional China are called so that people can know where today’s China came from, how it came to be and why. [sa culture] It is very different from us, ”Victor-Levy Beaulieu explained over the phone.

My own China Hence the “aging” writer who is weakened by illness is related to the protagonist. Between the two puffs of opium, he recalled various family stories, surveying his childhood or philosophical memories of texts abandoned by great Chinese thinkers.

In addition to exemplifying the many authors whose literary universe was frequently populated, Victor-Levy Beaulieu, as we know it today, also highlighted the books, influential emperors, customs, and historical events that shaped China. From Confucius to Genghis Khan, women had to have short feet by the importance or tradition of numerology.

If he wants to allow these “fundamentals to better understand this powerful society”, that Victor-Levy Beaulieu is aware of the various contemporary issues associated with this country, are we talking about the situation of the Uyghurs or sensitive political politics? Weather. But according to him, it will be easier to solve them if we understand the origins of these situations.

“We have our eyes glued together [sur ces problèmes]. […] But on the other side of the coin, we never have it. It is not in the interest of the West to show us the beautiful sides of China. More and more, his interest is that the Chinese think only of the rotten and the Machiavellian. [profiter] Of the West, “he said.