What would you like to achieve with the earthquake stories?

At the most immediate level, I write to bring the lives of earthquake survivors back into public view—and into contemporary popular culture. These are stories that have often been simplified, muted, or distorted, shaped to serve propaganda or packaged as one-dimensional “inspirational” narratives. I want to dismantle those frames. I want to return the icons to being human again: complicated, contradictory, tender, flawed, alive.

But my reasons go beyond storytelling.

I write because I believe literature can create tangible change. I want to make the world a little fairer, a little more livable, and a little more colourful for people whose lives were permanently altered by the Wenchuan Earthquake. My long-term goal is to build a multi-purpose, interactive arts center for student survivors—not a traditional memorial, not a sombre museum of catastrophe, but a living, breathing space designed for joy, connection, and renewal.

In our shared imagination, the space looks like this:The first floor is a café—warm light, good coffee, simple food, and a large wall of Polaroids where visitors can leave behind moments of happiness. The second floor is an open, playful space centred around an arcade, echoing the internet cafés of early-2000s China—places where teenagers once went not to escape life, but to feel it. Around it are flexible exhibition areas for workshops, art therapy sessions, board games, survivor talks, and contemporary art events. The third floor is slower and softer: snooker tables, sofas, and room for long conversations, group activities, and quiet companionship.

The center will host multiple exhibitions and programs each year, featuring both local and international artists, as well as experimental projects developed with community and mental health partners. While rooted in the history of the Wenchuan Earthquake, it will focus on living history—on how a generation continues to grow, adapt, and imagine forward.

All proceeds from my books will be directed toward building this arts center in Chengdu, close to where the earthquake occurred. Beyond being a sustainable cultural enterprise, its core mission is to provide long-term employment, professional development, and mental health support for earthquake survivors with disabilities.

Ultimately, these stories are not about preserving tragedy. They are about building futures—ones where survival is not the end of the narrative, but the beginning of something expansive, creative, and shared.