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Mr. Yu is concerned that his critics are no more independent thinkers than their counterparts in the Cultural Revolution, which ran from 1966 to 1976 -- while Mr. Yu was growing up. In those days, China turned into a totalitarian madhouse focused on the personality cult of leader Mao Zedong. Now, over the past three decades, China has embraced capitalism with the same level of fervor. 'China has these huge bubbles,' he says. 'The Cultural Revolution was the world's biggest revolutionary bubble and now we have the world's biggest capitalist bubble.'
余华担心，这些年轻人和文革时的那些年轻人一样，也缺少独立思考的能力。余华正是成长在1966年至1976年的文革时期。那时候，中国的极权统治登峰造极，对毛泽东大搞个人崇拜。而在过去的这三十年里，中国以同样的热情拥抱了资本主义。余华说，中国有这些巨大的泡沫，文化大革命是世界上最大的革命泡沫，而现在我们有世界上最大的资本主义泡沫。
The problem with writing about today's China, he says, is that change is so rapid it's almost impossible to do it justice. 'China's changes are like hundreds of years of European history compressed together,' he says 'The Cultural Revolution was like our dark ages. Now we're in the 21st century, just like the West. From one era to the other, it's almost too fast.'
他说，描写当代中国的困难在于，中国的变化太快了，人们难以做出公正的评判。中国的变化就好像是把欧洲几百年的历史浓缩到了一起，文化大革命就像是我们的黑暗时代。现在我们和西方一样进入了21世纪。我们从一个时代跳到了另一个时代，变化太快了。
Western critics have been surprised that 'Brothers' was not banned. But Mr. Yu notes that pointing out the country's impoverished countryside or corruption are themes that the state-run press harps on daily. Mr. Yu thinks that some of the West's surprise at the topics in 'Brothers' is because so much of contemporary Chinese fiction sold in the West is written by exiles. That's led to an assumption that current-day topics are out of bounds.
西方的批评家一直对《兄弟》未遭禁感到惊讶。余华表示，指出中国农村的贫困和腐败问题也是官方媒体每天喋喋不休的话题。余华认为，一些西方人之所以对《兄弟》一书的主题感到奇怪，是因为在西方，很多关于当代中国的小说都是流亡海外的作家创作的。这就促使人们认为当代的主题都是不可触碰的禁区。
Whether this is true or not, it is remarkable how much Chinese living abroad have shaped Westerners' perceptions of China. Indeed, almost all Chinese authors who are famous in the West also live in the West, among them: Gao Xingjian (2000 Nobel Prize for Literature), Ha Jin (1999 National Book Award), Ma Jian, Li Yiyun and Dai Sijie. Most deal with China in the 1960s, '70s or '80s.
不论这是不是事实，居住在海外的中国人都在十分明显地影响着西方人对中国的看法。事实上，几乎所有在西方知名的中国作家都生活在西方，其中包括：高行健（2000年诺贝尔文学奖得主）、哈金（1999年美国国家图书奖得主）、马建、李翊云和戴思杰。他们中的大多数描写的都是60、70或80年代的中国。
'I think it's hard for them to write about China nowadays,' Mr. Yu says carefully. He doesn't believe in bashing exiled writers for pandering to Western tastes -- an accusation that some have made about him as well. But he does feel almost left alone; only the author Mo Yan has a serious body of work published in the West. 'Western critics don't realize something: The most critical authors are in China, not overseas. Look, there's me, there's Mo Yan -- we criticize a lot. Anyone can criticize the Cultural Revolution nowadays. We criticize the current society.'
余华小心翼翼地说，我想，让这些作家描写当代中国有些困难。余华不想抨击流亡作家，说他们是在迎合西方趣味──有些人已经对他做出了这样的指责。但是，他的确觉得自己是只身一人。除他以外，只有作家莫言在西方出版过严肃作品。余华说，西方批评家没有意识到：最具批判眼光的作家在中国，不在海外。他说，你瞧，有我，还有莫言──我们经常批评。现在任何人都可以批评文化大革命。而我们批评当代社会。
Since Mr. Yu wrote his book, China's economy has joined the rest of the world in slowing down dramatically. That might make 'Brothers' seem like a description of a past era -- the go-go years of the early 21st century. But in other ways, China's slowdown has brought to the surface issues that Mr. Yu dealt with in 'Brothers,' such as corruption and rootlessness.
自从余华的这部小说问世以后，中国的经济增长就和其他国家一样急剧放缓。这可能会让《兄弟》看起来像是在描述一个过去的时代──21世纪初的那个奔腾年代。但是从另外的角度看，中国经济的放缓让余华在《兄弟》中描写的问题浮出了水面，比如腐败和无所寄托的状态。
But what bothers Mr. Yu more about these obvious problems is a lack of trust in society. The book trade itself is good example of this, he says. 'It's really hard for a young author to break in because there are few reputable critics. It's corrupt. People pay critics to write all sorts of nonsense.' He says reviewers charge 3,000 to 5,000 yuan for a review. The accusation is impossible to prove but it is true that China has a weak scene of literary criticism. He contrasts the situation to a western publication like France's Le Monde. He says that newspaper gave him a two-page spread, resulting in a huge spike in sales -- because French people could trust the newspaper's judgment, not as infallible but as an honest effort at reviewing a book.
然而，在这些凸显的问题中，最让余华感到困扰的是社会缺乏信任。他说，图书贸易本身就是一个很好的例子。因为几乎没有知名的文学批评家，所以年轻作家想要跻身文学圈非常困难。这就是腐败。人们花钱雇批评家写出各种毫无价值的东西。他说，批评家写一篇评论要收3,000至5,000元不等。余华的这种评论不可能得到证实，但中国的文学批评的确尽显颓象。他将这种情形和西方的出版物，比如法国的《世界报》(Le Monde)来做比较。他说，《世界报》用两个版面的篇幅为他做宣传，结果图书销量大幅增加──因为法国民众可以相信报纸上的判断，不是因为它一贯正确，而是因为它诚实地评论了这本书。
This is why, he says, literature in China is so troubled. Young talented writers have a hard time finding readers and there is almost no serious criticism to help guide readers and writers. At the heart of the issue is a dysfunctional civil society -- which takes Mr. Yu back to his favorite topic of society as a patient. 'What China lacks is public trust,' he says. 'It's what is missing the most in China right now.'
他说，这就是为什么文学在中国会面临如此多的问题。有才华的年轻作家难以找到读者，而中国几乎没有严肃的文学批评去引导读者和作家。问题的症结是一个功能紊乱的市民社会──这再次把余华带回到他喜爱的命题：一个疾病缠身的社会。他说，中国缺乏的是公众信任，这是中国当下最缺失的东西。
