This Book Showed Me the True Face of Society 

– My Reflection on "Black & White" 

Wu Jianping , May 27, 2025

"Black & White" vividly reflects a century of history since the 1920s. This isn't to say that the characters and events described in the novel correspond one-to-one with real-life figures and occurrences. Instead, the author highly concentrates characters and events with similar attributes to form an artistic truth. For instance, if Zhang San's head is handsome and aesthetic, Li Si's waist is handsome and aesthetic, and Wang Wu's legs are handsome and aesthetic, the author concentrates their shared aesthetics onto a single character, creating the artistic truth of a typical figure. Another example: the novel's descriptions of Chu Yun Entertainment City and Phoenix Island bring to mind the real-life "Heaven on Earth" in a certain place, a certain city of sex, and even international "Lolita Island" resorts. Therefore, the people and events reflected by artistic truth are more concentrated, profound, typical, and universal than those in real life, better reflecting objective reality and thus resonating more deeply with people.

In my childhood, I encountered revolutionary soldiers like Wang Shengli and experienced similar events to those in the novel; in my youth, I encountered upstart bureaucrats like Du Wei and likewise experienced similar events to those in the novel.

Wang Shengli in the novel is from Huayuankou, Henan, born in 1926. Before him, his parents had seven children who unfortunately died young. His parents, in their forties, had him and named him "Sheng'er" (meaning "leftover child"). On June 12, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the destruction of the Huayuankou Dam to block the Japanese army's advance. Wang Shengli's parents perished in the flood, but he miraculously survived. At 12, Wang Shengli became an orphan, wandering, begging, and even serving as a bandit. Later, the great collective of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, led by Chairman Mao and the Communist Party, took him in and reformed him, making him a company commander of an heroic company. General Hong Hu, his unit commander, changed his name from Wang Sheng'er to Wang Shengli (meaning "victory").

After demobilization, after several ups and downs, Wang Shengli became the director of the Pizhen People's Commune Brick and Tile Factory. When he learned that Zong Tianyi was stealing equipment parts from the factory to sell for money, he didn't overly trouble Zong Tianyi. Because he usually cared about the lives of the masses, he knew that Zong Tianyi's father was missing, his mother was mentally unstable, and Zong Tianyi had