Perhaps East Asia and the Pacific need "evil girls". After the 2022 Japanese Akutagawa Prize was announced, many domestic public accounts gave heroic descriptions of the shortlist Ryomi Suzuki: She is beautiful enough to see through the cuteness and stupidity of men, and to sarca

Ryomi Suzuki Photo/Respondent provided

She directly devoted herself to the chaos of life and reality.

This article was first published in Southern People Weekly

article / Southern People Weekly Reporter Ouyang Shilei

Editor / Li Yimiao lishenmiao [email protected]

probably is the "evil girl" needed in East Asia and the Pacific. After the 2022 Japanese Akutagawa Prize was announced, many domestic public accounts gave heroic descriptions of the shortlist Ryomi Suzuki: she is beautiful enough to see through the cuteness and stupidity of men, and sarcastically sarcastic; she rebelled and provocative, had a good background but ran to shoot AVs and be a public relations lady, and then escaped without a single body; she was smart, an outstanding political and economic journalist at the Japanese newspaper and a sociological researcher who studied under a university student. She was shortlisted for this year's Akutagawa Prize in her debut work.

Suzuki is so extreme that it seems to be placed in all expectations: a woman with wisdom, beauty, and ability, and a woman who wanders around in all walks of life but can guarantee that she will not be hurt. Those homogeneous articles feel that "it finally got angry", but isn't the admiration for Suzuki in this context a kind of admiration for strength?

In the book "Start at the Extreme: A Brief Book of Feminism", facing the academic predecessor Ueno Chizuko , who is 35 years older than herself, Suzuki appears stubborn and fragile in communication. Everyone can get the touching empathy from her specific feelings of indifferent and as if she dissects herself as material. "Her rebellion, sarcasm, anger, powerlessness and disappointment, and her attitude towards the world to obey and deconstruct everything."

Suzuki is so common again. She is simply a contradictory collection of "East Asian women". In the correspondence, Suzuki always acts as if she is disappointed, is not hurt, and smiles, and even disguises her life as material from a sociological perspective. Isn’t it also what Chinese women have been gritting their teeth and perseveringly? Several male friends also expressed their grievances after finishing reading the book while discussing the issues in the book with me, "We are hopeless."

While preparing for the email interview, I was able to look back and observe what I created. During this period, when my friend and I were watching a movie, a male and female friend said, "You are too straight-up and aesthetic." I was angry at that time, and even a little sad and angry. This male-centered aesthetic system was originally a logic that I was unwilling to follow, and putting my likes and dislikes into this coordinate to judge it, I felt that I was deprived of me again. I like the state of female lawyers Alicia and Dania in the American drama " Proud Wife ". They enjoy everything they are as women, have their own resilience and ways to face the world. This is naturally different from male lawyer Will, but this is their trait. They don't have to dismember themselves for the sake of rebellion.

and even when I was on a business trip in Jiangxi in October, I suddenly talked about this and I was angry about it. Meng Yiyi, who was on a business trip, is also my good friend. She is also reading "Start at the Extreme". She asked me carefully, "Then why do you like cute things? You like cute things because of the influence of the anime characters you watched when you were a child. So, how did the character settings in the anime come from?"

When we received the email answer from Suzuki and Chinese translation, it was already November. This interview started with my curiosity about Suzuki and my examination of myself and the environment. By the time of final press time, a long cycle had passed. Editor Zhou Jianping and I were originally worried that the email interview would not work well, but we read Suzuki's reply to the end, and we couldn't help but sigh. We really didn't give in, Ms. Suzuki.

In the answer to each specific question, Suzuki emphasized and implemented the issue of "women's active choice". There were some questions. I originally hoped that she would take a step back and observe more comprehensively, but she still insisted and stubborn to the end. To be honest, although she chose to avoid some questions, I was still moved. I think she is very cute. She did not rush to remove herself, but used a free academic perspective to find the right position for her relationship with the system, but directly devoted herself to the chaos of life and reality.

"Are we too harsh on Suzuki?" I also reflected on myself with the editor during the writing process, and finally adjusted some words. If this is the life that Ms. Suzuki is determined to implement, the editor and I should also maintain consideration and respect. "The reason is very simple. This is your life because you like it."