A sense of beauty and food for thought
“A work that, even if you exclude specific elements such as the era and environment in which it was produced, still gives people a sense of beauty and offers food for thought. Also it will often produce a different reaction when read at different ages or in different states of mind, and you will notice different details.” This is the view of a “classic” held by Yang Chia-hsien, who is an academic, writer, poet, essayist, and literary critic all rolled into one.
Currently an assistant professor in the Department of Chinese Literature at National Tsing Hua University, Yang notes that through various mechanisms—research, teaching, anthologies, examinations—academia produces a definite impact on the “classicization” of books, “and can even mold the whole terrain of the classics.” She quotes a remark by Haruki Murakami to the effect that “verification of unique creativity is a process that requires time.” Yang says that the classicization process includes both serendipitous and integral elements. “At the level of serendipity, a work may just happen to intersect with a change in the larger environment that causes certain aesthetics or certain values to be extended. In terms of the integral or essential, that’s connected to the quality of the work or the underlying ideas that it distills.”
However, Yang makes a special point of warning against potential “pseudo-classics.” “For example, a book’s writing style may conform to a particular fad, or perhaps it is the kind of work that gives scholars a lot of things to research and interpret. Works like these are more likely to get attention and this creates the illusion or appearance of a classic.”
The two works that Yang recommends are Dream of the Red Chamber, written by Cao Xueqin in the 18th century, and Feodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, first published in 1864.
Whether a book becomes a classic by serendipity or by integral qualities (or both), a classic always is a sort of revelation, something that foreshadows the succeeding era.
Independent artist Tsou Yung-shan, who lived for quite some time in Germany and has a lot of cross-cultural experience, has also long been active in the world of literary and art publishing. She has a solid foundation for her outlook on the classics and her perspectives on reading. (photo by Luke Huang)