A Q&A with Author Lin Zhe Beijing-based author Lin Zhe has written 14 novels and three TV series. Time Out Beijing caught up with Lin Zhe and published the following interview. Although Old Town is mostly set in the old town of Fuzhou, the action partly takes place in the States. What literary influences helped create it? The contents of Old Town is very Chinese, but the style – a less constrained style – is very Western. I like the French writer Marguerite Duras: she also uses freedom with time and space. When I write I feel that I am breaking away from the real world and stepping into a place which is much more free. In the novel the older characters of the family live by simple values of Christian faith and Chinese tradition; by contrast your narrator represents a chaotic and lost generation who focus only on themselves. How important is faith in the novel? The different generations in the book are strung together by faith, and today’s China has a great hunger and thirst for faith. Faith answers questions everyone needs to face: why we are living in this world, the meaning of life, where I am from and where shall I go. Many people feel depressed because they have no answers to these problems. I’m not saying that one faith is right. I just want to let people know that we need to take care of our spiritual life, especially in a time of great materialism – like today. You’re currently producing a Chinese TV series based on Old Town. What are the differences between writing a novel and writing a script? Scripts have many technical requirements: for me, it’s more of a job, more of a routine. But with novels there are almost no limitations. I simply follow my feelings and let them lead me. Interview by Cecilia Wu and Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore for Time Out Beijing.