重音五问 I Five Questions with Liuyu Ivy Chen
“Five Questions with Friends”是我们新开设的灵魂拷问系列，在这里，我们将邀请我们认识的海外亚裔写作者们来讨（吐）论（槽）跨语言写作这个事情。这个名单越来越长啦，敬请期待，漏网之鱼也欢迎在后台和我们取得联系！这期我们请来了抠字大王不丢鱼为大家做分享~~
Accent: Why do you write in English?
Chen Liuyu: I’ve always thought what I’m looking for can be found elsewhere. English is my linguistic elsewhere.
A: What did you get from your MFA, anything good, awful, or meaningful?
C: My MFA program was a house in Greenwich Village, a dock on Manhattan Island where my paperwork was kept. In the house lived a couple, fiction and poetry––they rarely talked to each other. Fiction was the busy breadwinner, poetry the social butterfly. I was neither. As the only Chinese in the house, I felt like a perpetual guest. I exited the house and entered New York City, a jungle that intrigued the wild animal inside me. The stories I was looking for seemed to lie outside, happening without knowing or caring if anyone was watching.
I feel trapped in this American gaze: to be visible, you build a barrier to counter another barrier, each claiming itself to be the sole bearer of truth––in the end, you build more, higher barriers, breaking none. Literature, unlike politics, must break barriers, not function within them. As a new immigrant, it might be comforting to claim a place in the system where I feel I know who I am. But once the animal has left my ribcage, it cannot return. It has to survive in the wilderness.
A: What creative medium do you work in to take a break from your writing?
C: I dance to build physical strength. I cook to nourish my senses. I take a lot of long walks in the woods to gather wild words.
A: Tell us a book/movie/play/artwork… that you have recently enjoyed.
C: War and Peace. Although I was disappointed by Tolstoy’s biased idealization of married female characters, I find myself keep returning to the 1224 light-soaked pages (underlined and marked) for warmth and tenderness. Do you know Tolstoy is hilarious?
A: Share with us some gossip about your writing community.
C: Let’s talk over drinks.
Interviewee Bio
Liuyu Ivy Chen（不丢鱼） is a poet who writes nonfiction and translates fiction. Born and raised in the mountainous region of central Zhejiang, she migrated to the north and then overseas for education and experience. She writes bilingually and smuggles words across borders.
Find more about her at:
https://www.liuyuivychen.com
@LiuyuIvyChen on Instagram
WeChat 公号：不丢鱼日记
Liuyu Ivy Chen will participate in the poetry/calligraphy exhibition Wild Cranes at the Chinese American Museum in DC, opening on November 30, 2020. Stay tuned!
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