Lolita Hu on TDM Talk Show: “Embrace the confusion of life”
Macau’s first literary festival kicked off this week and Lolita Hu was one of the many top notch writers invited to participate in ‘The Script Road’.
Originally from Taiwan, Hu writes about the meaning of modernity in the context of urban life and the constant struggle for identity living anonymously in the city.
Also the former editor for big-name men’s magazines such as Esquire, Playboy and Maxim, Lolita Hu was on the TDM Talk Show this week to talk about her life as a writer, her traveling experiences as a global citizen and her shifting identity as an Asian woman.
“I really enjoy the event just because, although I did live in Hong Kong before and I came to visit Macau several times before as a tourist, I never really had a chance to get in contact with the Portuguese community here,” said Hu on her first international literary festival.
Calling the Portuguese writers she met in Macau a ‘big underground world hiding under a casino world’, Hu said Taiwan and Portugal have a unique connection.
“Taiwan and Portugal in some way are both so-called ‘small countries’, under the shadow of bigger countries. So when we talk about the advantage or disadvantage of being a small country writer, we totally can relate.”
With this connection, Hu said she sometimes prefers Portuguese writers over others.
“For example as a smaller country, the good thing is we are curious about other cultures, we learn and try to adapt and observe other people. For big society writers, they tend to look to their own culture and own country, they don’t speak other languages and they don’t really look outside,” said Hu.
The ‘Asian Lolita’
Hu wasn’t born with the name Lolita. She took on the name when she graduated from the National Taiwan University and became the editor for Taiwan’s Esquire Magazine.
“I kind of challenged people and said ‘call me Lolita if you dare’,” said Hu.
As far as she’s concerned, being ‘Lolita’ has its perks.
“It’s interesting – how you react to the name shows more about you and not about me,” said Hu.
After taking the name, Hu went on to be the editor for Esquire, Playboy and Maxim in Taiwan.
Working as a female editor for a men’s magazine, Hu said, also has its perks.
“I always try to make those cover girls feel more comfortable. I will try to give more dignity to the girls. And one thing I will try to do is to use older models too – which is I guess something the male editor wouldn’t do. I am more like a spy hiding on the other side, I’ll observe the men’s ‘rules’, but (sometimes I can change the reality a little bit),” said the writer.
The traveler
Having worked and lived in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, New York and now in Japan, Hu is no doubt a ‘city girl’.
As torturous as city life can be, Hu wouldn’t trade it for anything else. She wrote it all in her first book ‘The Traveler’.
“In the era of so called globalization (… ) I want to write a book about that. Who I am, what I am doing – and when I am traveling around the world, what’s my relationship with the world like? ”
And that book was Hu’s quest to break out of the ‘Chinese identity’.
“I wrote that book, and then suddenly I tried to cross the border. For Chinese people, especially Chinese in China – they have to be Chinese, Chinese first (…) then I’m a woman, then I’m daughter.” Hu continued. “But in modern society, the priority is reversed. I have to be a human being, I have to be a woman, then I’m a Jazz fan, and then I’m a writer, and then I’m a daughter, and so on. Then I am (Chinese). I call it modernity. You are allowed to have individual identity first before you become this big collective one.”
When asked if she has found her own individual identity, Hu said not having one is the biggest blessing.
“Being confused, [not knowing] who you are, to have no clue, is a normal status for modern human beings. We should be confused, because there is so [much] information out there, there’s internet, there’s TV there’s everything – every day you see someone, there are so many strangers floating around you and you are strangers to other people. Every day is exhausting, but it’s also called freedom – because you have to navigate on your own.”
So for Hu, the way to deal with it all – is to embrace the confusion.
原文網址：http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/33430-Lolita-TDM-Talk-Show-Embrace-the-confusion-life.html
