“後來我總算學會了如何去愛 可是你早已遠去 消失在人海。” (Later I finally learned how to love, but you have long gone and disappeared into the crowd.)
Some people seem to be destined to meet each other, and sometimes for the same reason.《何以笙箫默》作家: 顾漫 (Silent Separation written by Gu Man) presents itself as the epitome of a romantic drama plotline. Looking into the year it was released, I’d like to think this was quite innovative from its genre with its unique dialectic narration in interspersing the modern timeline with their memories from their college moments, the plot twists that come from withholding certain information from the audiences, and the fact that it doesn’t shy away from trying to depict a more realistic, whilst over dramatised, story of love.
Zhao Mo Sheng is a university student with a sunny disposition, she's smart, and has a positive personality. In their university days, she fell in love at first sight with law student He Yi Chen. Through various incidents where Mo Sheng "stalked" Yi Chen on campus, Mo Sheng's cheerful personality charmed Yi Chen, and they slowly became college sweethearts. When Yi Chen's foster sister Yi Mei challenged Mo Sheng for Yi Chen's attention, Mo Sheng turned directly to Yi Chen for clarification but did not expect to receive a cold response from him. Mistaking that Yi Chen and Yi Mei are a couple, Mo Sheng departs sadly for overseas, following her father's arrangements to move to the United States for her studies. Seven years later, Mo Sheng - who is now a professional photographer - returns to China, and coincidentally bumps into Yi Chen at a supermarket. Since the seven years they broke up, many people stand in the way of these star-crossed lovers: foster-sister Yi Mei; Mo Sheng's marriage in the United States with her unrelentingly infatuated ex-husband Ying Hui; as well as the financial grudges between the couple's parents. All these situations continue to affect the two former lovers, but instead, these misunderstandings and challenges give them a better comprehension of the love they have missed over the past seven years.
于是在这个人群满满的偌大都市,我们以同样的心情固执地孤单着。(So in this big city, full of people, we are stubbornly alone, feeling the same way.)
Though I have been prejudiced by the fact that I’ve watched the film adaptation as well as the drama version of it as well, I think it’s safe to say that the novel gives you a better understanding of the story plot albeit it’s still not that much better. I can give props to the fact that this is absolutely has a more sober tone compared to all the other works of the author. The plotline itself has some gaps that are unfilled or it leaves some holes that can bother the reader from a lack of consistent logic. But if you’re gracious enough to overlook those parts, the novel has a mature tone to it that expresses a wider range of emotions. The pacing of the story is definitely not rushed and it serves to build up the characters over its years-long timeline.
世界上美丽的情诗有很多,但是最幸福的一定是这一句:执子之手,与子偕老。(There are many beautiful poems about love in the world, but among them the happiest one must be this sentence: holding your hand and ageing with you.)
The narration that put their current situation side by side with their flashbacks to their college days was a nice touch to make things more interesting and also it was great to see the contrast between the two circumstances. In the current time you see them trying to rediscover and reconnect with each other as well as all the difficulties that come with facing the past and accepting the pain in it. Then you see in an alternate timeline how they came to first meet each other; the innocence that comes with discovering your first love. You see them experiencing the wonders of that kind of love in your youth as compared to their meeting again that brought up all the resentment and repressed feelings that are being brought up again. It was a great addition to the plot in how it’s as if the two timelines are going the opposite way: one being from a moment of love to heartbreak and the other from the pain of the past leading to a release and realising their love for each other.
We see the characters progress from when they were college sweethearts until they are working adults be it in Shanghai or in the States. For the both of them it’s a process of rekindling their love but also about facing old ghosts from their pasts and trying to mend their broken hearts. I wanted to highlight He Yi Chen more, seeing as the events of the novel mostly transpire from his perspective and we get more of a grasp of things from his point of view. It should also be said that we witness all these different varied emotions and realisations that come to make the novel so much more colourful because of his narrative. He really takes the brunt of it I would say from his decision to wait it out for years on end, hoping to someday meet his first love again. He denied everything and tried to avoid the pain that comes in accepting all that’s happened, choosing to wait it out instead.
那份平靜是因為已經有所決定──決定了要等下去。
等待與時間無關,它是一種習慣,它自由生長,而我無力抵抗,
(That peace is because there has been a decision--decided to wait.
Waiting has nothing to do with time, it is a habit, it grows freely, and I cannot resist,)
It��s also quite saddening and even heart breaking the levels of self-destruction he put himself that are really subtle. The way his struggles were described was in ways of recalling but nonetheless the weight of the emotions from it are properly getting across to the reader. It’s definitely a release, when after everything, he is able to begin facing the past and accepting whatever it brought with it. It was a time that really hurt but it’s something that I really liked to see: the human habit of really trying to reconcile everything about ourselves and starting off that road to healing.
趙默笙,妳跑這麼慢,我當初是怎麼讓妳追上的?我從來沒有招惹妳,妳為什麼要來招惹我?既然招惹了,為什麼半途而廢?(Zhao Mosheng, you run so slowly, how did I let you catch up? I never provoke you, why did you come to provoke me? Since it's provoked, why give up halfway?)
The novel tries to tackle a lot of things through its pages and I’m quite sure some people would truly be enamoured by its story and characters. It’s a plot with a lot of hidden twists and turns sprinkled throughout along with characters that suffer and hurt in the same way we all do in reality. And though it may have some plot holes here and there, it speaks to something innately human in us: the want to heal, the need to be loved, and the grueling process of getting to a better place.
Overall the novel was maybe a good way to distract yourself. It’s entertaining and frustrating enough that it can somewhat mimic reality but it’s dramatised to the point that it takes its liberties with the situation. I have a lot of issues with it but maybe that also just has something to do with me not liking a lot of romantic plot lines for being too idealistic and exasperating. It was good enough for me but you won’t see me reading this for a second time.