Moderator: I don't need to introduce it, because Mr. Shi Kang just came to Sina to chat in June+10, 5438. Speaking of the drama Struggle, I think of the director Zhao Baogang. This time, Mr. Shi Kang brought a new book, Those Worthless Experiences. Perhaps different from Struggle, Struggle shows the topic of the post-80s generation in the form of novel, while this book expounds such a theme in the form of prose. I want to ask Mr. Shi Kang, what kind of group are the post-80s in your eyes?
Shi Kang: I think the post-80s generation is the same as all other young people, except that they are younger. They are in a rising life cycle, and I think there is no difference.
Moderator: In other words, after 70, after 60, you are younger.
Shi Kang: Yes, just young and inexperienced. One thing that seems to be different from other times is the characteristics endowed by the times. For example, people born two years or more will engage in revolution when they are young, that is, they will be extremely idealistic, romantic and realistic. His juvenile violence went directly to the army to fight with guns. Now, the post-80s are catching up with this era, not the era of war. Social contradictions are not so fierce, and their horizons are broader. So they go online, make friends, make money, or try to become wealth heroes. I think this is the characteristics given to them by the times, but from a young point of view, even young people in any era have the characteristics of young people, and only this is the same.
I want to redefine the word struggle.
Moderator: In Struggle, you take the post-80s generation as the protagonist. Many people say that the struggling characters have never really struggled, but you chose such a title, which is the name of such a work. How do you explain it?
Shi Kang: We should redefine struggle, that is, we should use an old word instead of a new one, but give it a new meaning. I think many post-80s people now understand the meaning of a word simply. For example, he understands struggle as entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship and struggle are not the same thing.
Moderator: How do you define it?
Shi Kang: I think it was also in the 1920s that the people joined the army and struggled to build a new China. Nowadays, it is also a struggle for young people to become white-collar workers in companies, start their own businesses or be hired by big companies. Everyone is at his own level, as long as he tries to do things well, I think such a person is called struggle.
Moderator: You have expanded this meaning. As long as you work hard, it can be summarized as this word.
Shi Kang: Yes, his goal is uncertain. I think modern young people especially like to simplify social values. For example, struggle means success, fame and fortune, that's all.
Moderator: More specific.
Shi Kang: Yes, you see, in the book Struggle, many struggles are inner struggles with different goals. In order to get a beautiful love, I think it is also called struggle. Even for young people, it is much more important than career and money. For example, like a southerner, he would say to settle down at home first. At this time, your career will be more solid and you will go up steadily. If you are always there to choose your life partner, and you are always in an emotional whirlpool, you will have no time and energy to do your career, so your career will lack that kind of sustainable development.
Moderator: Can you use a more emotional sentence to describe it? I have seen a lot of netizens discussing the struggle recently, using various metaphors to describe the struggle. For example, this sentence is well said. Struggle is like a carrot with a donkey's head. You think you're gonna eat it. Actually, people are fooling you. Only when you get out of the desert will you understand what it is like to struggle. They use this metaphor to describe struggle.
Shi Kang: I think everyone's understanding of struggle is too different. Struggle is like love, even math, science, religion and faith. Everyone has a different understanding, and it is impossible to reach an agreement. Because the word itself has an openness. I always give an example. From the appearance, the struggle course of Li Ka-shing's son is very different from that of a farmer or a small white owner. Or compared with the struggle of a scientist or a religious family, it is almost impossible for you to find his similarities. What we can find is that they are working hard, struggling and trying their best to achieve their goals.
The most specific difficulties that everyone faces are the most difficult to express.
Moderator: I have read your previous novels, Wandering and How Are You Heartbroken. Struggle is much more positive. Is this related to your own growth stage?
Shi Kang: I don't think so. I think "Wandering" series novels can be read by people, and it is also a very open text. For example, the novel "wobbly" shows people's negative emotions in the face of a huge world or universe. In fact, I think it is more active than struggle in essence. Because when people realize how small and insignificant their status is, they will make very long-term, arduous and huge efforts, not short-term and explosive success that everyone desires and dreams come true. He knows that life is very difficult. I think those books, such as Staggering, describe the very small, fragile and vulnerable position that people get along with in this society, especially when they are young, in the whole universe and even in the whole society. I think its original intention is a little negative, but I think it is because you know how bad your situation is that people will be motivated to work hard and strive for success.
Moderator: Then the character in the struggle may be more smooth. He's not that small.
Shi Kang: Yes, the struggle is about 1975 to 1985. The crowd is specific, a small group of people in big cities.
Moderator: It was smooth sailing.
Shi Kang: I don't think it was smooth sailing. Smooth sailing is when an outsider looks at a person, such as Li Ka-shing or Clinton. I think they are smooth sailing: they hardly have to do anything. Just like two young Kennedys, you look smooth from the outside, but when you really get to know this person, you will find that he has experienced many difficulties that ordinary people can't imagine, and that kind of difficulty is very personal. For example, you can apply this example to the characters in Struggle. If he carefully observes the struggle, he can see all kinds of mental and career setbacks that people face, and how he overcomes them bit by bit.
In fact, I think the most specific difficulties that individuals face are the most difficult to express. For example, Einstein, you know that he invented the theory of relativity, but you just know that he overcame these problems. For example, the question raised by his predecessors is very insurmountable to others. He overcame the past, but you just talk about it, but you don't know how difficult it is, and you don't know how much strength a person and a genius need to gather to get over that obstacle. This ordinary person, first of all, he doesn't understand this problem; Second, he has not experienced the same efforts as Einstein, so what he said is wrong. You won't know about him until you find out that you and Einstein are geniuses at the same level. Many people say that those who are struggling are not struggling. I think those people are gossips. They left a message on their blog saying that you should write about us white-collar workers. I said that if you really write about you, no one will read it. If I write about you in detail, I will definitely write about why you are in such a miserable situation now. For example, your grades in primary school are not good. Why don't you study hard? You are the first to know what super effort is (laughs). You don't know what it means to sleep six hours a day to finish a job perfectly. I'll write it down. The more I write, you will find that the more I want to truly express a person, such as a boring person, he will become a loser.
Moderator: Then I won't embarrass you (laughs). Your book has five chapters. The first chapter is love, which consists of ten chapters. I think you sometimes equate love with desire, that is, when you feel that you can't get love, you may think it is desire, so you have to overcome it.
Shi Kang: No, I think I separated love from desire from the beginning. I have a book called Together, which has spent many chapters on the difference between love and desire. I think love is the sublimation of desire, and love is a kind of. From a metaphysical point of view, I think love is a feeling of a life in the world-and this feeling expressed in the form of love is actually a strategy. Facing this world, human beings have two choices. He can hate the world or love it. Hating the world makes people feel uncomfortable, which is a bad strategy, because hating the world can't make you happy, can't make you happy, and can't solve the problem, so you might as well just love the world, which is a better strategy. Finally, if love is spread to such a vast universe, mountains and rivers, trees and stars, people, animals, all these things, love will be too vast, so people often put it in very specific things, which may be a very delicate object, a person, a brother, a friend, a sister, a lover and a life partner. No matter where this love falls, when this metaphysical feeling falls on a very specific thing, people will show some similarities, that is, when you fall in love with something, that is to say, I fall in love with something. When you have love, you will inevitably show a characteristic, that is, a love will make you forget me, that is, you will suddenly lose yourself, and everything will be transferred to the object of your emotional bet, and your heart will change with him.
On the contrary, another person is the opposite. When his performance is inconsistent with your fantasy of betting on your lover, sometimes your estimation and prediction will be wrong, and the lover you are in love with will have different ideas than you expected. At this time, you will often rely on others and say how bad they are. In fact, it is your own miscalculation, because your love is not so focused, not so clear and comprehensive. You are just too closed-minded. Your imaginary love has given your lover a lot of that kind of thing.
Moderator: What you told us is how to judge whether you are really in love?
Shi Kang: What I want to tell you is my personal feelings, that is, what is love, what is desire, how burning desire is, and love can make people feel all kinds of strange feelings.
Moderator: Some netizens said in your message that love is not controlled by reason after all.
Shi Kang: I think people with high quality-in my understanding, they are rational people, not people who are not out of rational control. I think 99.9% of people are out of rational control, because he doesn't know that life is a kind of control, that is, a kind of self-control. He is accustomed to carelessness. He has not received that kind of self-control training and lacks concentration and self-control ability, so the love I said has nothing to do with him. His love is what he wants to do, which is called irrationality. Irrationality is what people show, and in my understanding, it is the animal side. Animals are completely irrational. They eat whenever they want and sleep whenever they want, but you don't know that the survival rate of animals is lower than that of people.
The perfect love is sharing.
Compere: What is the perfect love in your mind?
Shi Kang: I think it should be rational.
Moderator: That is to say, two people will not occupy each other and have their own space, so they will be independent and powerful enough.
Shi Kang: There is this aspect. I think love depends on people's ability, and the consequences of love are pleasure and enlightenment. Happiness means that everyone can share their wealth, their services to each other, or their talents, their looks and voices, and their kindness, which means sharing those qualities. He also has some inspirations. When two people have knowledge, they can share it together, such as two people with very high IQ. For example, Russell and his lover can share a newly discovered mathematical proof, and they will be very happy.
Moderator: But others can't share it. Only these two people can share.
Shi Kang: That's right. Because it contains both the high wisdom of two people and their emotions, I think it is an ideal love when mixed together. And the kind of two people we are talking about together, growing old together and living a small life, I think the essence is to maximize interests. In fact, it is composed of two people with lower ability or less luck. Cooperation can make their lives better: if they are separated, they may be more unhappy, but they will be slightly better together. The couples in the TV series "Golden Wedding" belong to that kind. ...
Moderator: Does it not belong to the category of love?
Shi Kang: In my understanding, it is a very twisted life. This is my personal opinion. You can have an objective view. I think many people are happy to live that life. You see, those two people don't know anything about sharing knowledge at all, but they are together every day (laughs).
Moderator: You ask too many questions (laughs)!
Shi Kang: Yes, the people who quarrel and fight are those who have worked hard under very miserable living conditions. We say they deserve sympathy and understanding, but I don't think that's the so-called human dream. One should have higher requirements.
Only struggle can solve the emptiness of life.
Moderator: You also wrote one in your book. You said that you are particularly disgusted with young people talking about boredom, emptiness and loneliness. Nowadays, many people often have psychological depression and often have such an emotion. Do you think there is any particularly good way to solve it? From your own personal experience.
Shi Kang: I think only hard work and diligence can solve it. If laziness leads to boredom and emptiness, I think it is the boredom and emptiness of animals, which shows that such a life is a life that is very easy to fail in the competition of life. I think this kind of life is a life of living or fighting in the shadow of life, which will lead to depression, unhappiness and lack of vitality. Personally, I don't advocate this lifestyle.
Moderator: I think sometimes he may not be lazy or other reasons. He probably just can't find his target. Sometimes he thinks about the ultimate meaning of life, and he may not understand it all at once.
Shi Kang: I think this kind of thinking is positive. What you said, if he found a kind of boredom and emptiness because of his hard work, happened to meet my novel Wandering. If he is metaphysical emptiness, it means that this person is actively thinking. I believe he will figure it out sooner or later, and then he will have stronger motivation for the life behind him and will promote his life.
Moderator: What do you think is your ultimate goal in life?
Shi Kang: I don't believe there is an ultimate goal in life. There is no such thing as an ultimate goal.
Compere: So grasp the present life?
Shi Kang: No, I think life goals are particularly funny. When you achieve a goal, that goal will give you several sub-goals, which is upward struggle. I think it is actually open, and the richer the people, the better, I think.
Moderator: You have been emphasizing the word struggle. Do you think that life itself should be hard, so there should be no special complaints?
Shi Kang: Yes, I think life is very bitter. If we don't admit the hard side of life, we will complain, but if we admit it, I think it will be a pleasure.
Moderator: But sometimes inertia is a kind of nature and may be difficult to overcome. Don't you have such inertia at all?
Shi Kang: Of course, but I think it is a pleasure to overcome that inertia. For example, if you can't get up in the morning, you can get up slowly. I used to sleep 10 hours every day, but now it is reduced to 8 hours. All this is interesting and will cheer people up.
Moderator: Do you have any specific methods to overcome inertia? Completely by will?
Shi Kang: I think it is basically self-demand, that is, what kind of person I regard myself as. If you regard yourself as a rational person with willpower, I think it can be overcome, but if you indulge yourself, there is no hope. If you always feel that everything you do is right and reasonable, there is nothing to say.
Anyone can talk about happiness.
Moderator: I have also read a sentence in your book. You said that happiness is an afterthought and a summary of emotions. People's happiness is conflicting, and society can only be snobbish and let the winners get happiness. Do you think only successful people are qualified to talk about happiness?
Shi Kang: I think anyone can talk about happiness, because happiness is an objective reality that has been realized for some people and a dream for some people. I find it difficult to distinguish the essence of life. You said that philosophical life, from a metaphysical point of view, is difficult to tell whether it is real or illusory, so I think everyone's happiness is correct in a sense. I think it is unfair or discriminatory to say that only some people are qualified to talk about happiness. Many people are not qualified to talk about abstract happiness, but they are qualified on specific issues. For example, if we talk about a math problem, if a person who has no elementary math education talks about advanced math or further math problems, then this person is not qualified to talk about it, because he doesn't understand and doesn't respect the math experience of his predecessors, so he talks nonsense.