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Author Revealed

Xu Xiaobin

Xu Xiaobin

Xu Xiaobin, born in 1953 into an intellectual family in Beijing, is a member of the China's Writers Association. She spent nine years in the countryside and at a factory during the Cultural Revolution until 1978 when she entered the Chinese University... Read full bio

Author Revealed:
Q. What is your motto or maxim?
A. My motto is: Honesty doesn’t hang on the printed word, nor beauty on powder and paint.
Learn more about Xu Xiaobin
Xu Xiaobin Revealed
About Xu Xiaobin
  • What is your birthdate?:
    2/20
  • Previous occupations:
    teacher
  • Favorite job:
    Anything that requires creativity
  • High school and/or college:
    The Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, China
  • Name of your favorite composer or music artist?:
    The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius
  • Favorite movie:
    The French movie The Chorus (Les Choristes)
  • Favorite television show:
    A food show produced in Taiwan.
Revealing Questions
Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
A. Free/reserved; beautiful/regretful; loving/lonely; ingenuous/sensitive
Q. What is your motto or maxim?
A. My motto is: Honesty doesn’t hang on the printed word, nor beauty on powder and paint.
Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
A. China’s Book of Songs describes it as going hand in hand through life with the one you love.
Q. What’s your greatest fear?
A. To be misunderstood by friends.
Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
A. Melbourne, because I have never been there.
Q. With whom in history do you most identify?
A. Nicolaus Copernicus.
Q. Which living person do you most admire?
A. Sophia Loren
Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
A. Many years ago.
Q. What do you regret most?
A. Not having expressed my love for my father directly to him while he was still alive.
Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
A. I would love to have some talent in the field of operational research.
Q. What is your greatest achievement?
A. Being the first, and a Chinese, writer to be published in Simon & Schuster’s new world literature series, Atria International Imprint.
Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
A. Too readily placing trust in something or someone.
Q. What’s your best quality?
A. Honesty
Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
A. I would like to be a Cycas revolute, an earthy and unadorned plant, that can mysteriously “sleep” for a long time, but once awake, becomes full of life again.
Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
A. My liveliness
Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
A. Sun Wukong, a character in Journey to the West.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional villain?
A. Xue Pan, a character in Dream of the Red Chamber.
Q. If you could meet any historical character, who would it be and what would you say to him or her?
A. Soong May-ling, also known as Madame Chiang Kai-shek. I’d say to her: “You lived an admirable life.”
Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
A. Seeing the letters and magazines on my desk that I will never finish reading.
Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
A. painting.
Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
A. To become a brand name fashion designer.
Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
A. To be honest, courageous, and true to my words
Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
A. salmon
Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
A. Pavaroti’s “Tonight No-one Sleeps”; Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”; Whitney Huston’s “I Will Always Love You'; Mariah Carey’s “When You Believe”; The theme song of the Chinese TV series “Dream of the Red Chamber”
On Books and Writing
Q. Who are your favorite authors?
A. Jorge Luis Borges
Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
A. Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao Hsueh-chin The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima The Insulted and Injured by Dostoevsky Collection of Short Stories and Novellas by J. L. Borges The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino
Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
A. Dream of the Red Chamber
Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
A. Create, don’t copy
Q. What comment do you hear most often from your readers?
A. Profound. Graceful. Outstanding.
Q. How did you come to write Feathered Serpent?
A. It took me three years from conceiving the idea to finishing the writing. I poured my heart and soul into it. My health was ruined by the time the book was done. I wrote this book in a tiny, sparsely furnished room during the time I was dealing with the crisis of my divorce. Only when I buried myself in my writing did my suffering soul get a moment reprieve.