Beyond mere words

"Sui Shi is a book about the struggle between the underlying legacies of the imperial system and the caveman spirit. With the former being a prevailing and negative force, the latter brings in hope," Xu says.

To Oe, all of his writings project hopes rising from despair.

Born in 1935 on Shikoku island, Oe began publishing stories in 1957 while still a student of French literature at Tokyo University.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".

His first son Hikari was born mentally impaired in 1963, which sent him into despair and inspired his 1964 book, A Personal Matter, about how he accepted the disabled child into his life.

Since then, Hikari has been a reoccurring subject in his writing.

A nuclear activist, Oe has frequently been involved in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

"He even created a formation for the demonstrators, having children and the elderly on the outside circle and the young, core people in the center. His enemies then found no way to break the parade," Xu says.

The 2011 Japan nuclear accident aggravated his anxiety.

"He has been deeply worried. Then he was in despair and thought of burning his drafts," Xu recalls.

Xu says Oe has the habit of checking on Hikari and tucking him under a blanket before he goes to bed every day.

"He suddenly realized that we have the future, because we have children to consider," Xu says. "And the efforts should be carried on."

The idea of writing for the future defines Oe's "last style of a writer".

"He showed me the box in which he stores the pages of his drafts. He writes 400 words on a page of paper, and uses glue, paper tips, and scissors to edit his draft," Xu says.

"He usually spends one hour in writing a page, and two hours more to polish it."