严春芳系列人物素描（六）/香奈儿：以勇气重写命运的华裔作家精华热点

2025-10-12 07:20:06 5458阅读

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香奈儿：以勇气重写命运的华裔作家

《世界华人周刊》
创建于12小时前
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严春芳首届世界和平诗人（中国）

作者与香奈儿在云南碧色寨

作者与香奈儿、她母亲张慈女士在昆明

古老而神秘的碧色寨铁轨上，一位身着彝族服饰的姑娘正在拍照。银饰在阳光下闪烁，笑容比山茶花还要明媚。若不是事先知晓，谁都会以为这是个地道的彝族女儿。只是她高挑的身材，与本地姑娘的娇小略有不同。

她叫香奈儿·米勒，中文名张小夏，在我们这个团队里，大家都亲切地叫她“大米”。这个从美国来的华裔女孩，此行是陪着母亲——美国华人作家张慈回到云南故乡。她们不仅要一起参加文学大会，更要踏访母亲生长的地方，甚至跨越国境，去往越南沙巴寻找外公的足迹。

大巴车上，大米用不太流利的中文讲述着自己的故事。坐在我身旁的美国女作家轻声告诉我：“她比她母亲更有名。”我有些惊讶——她母亲张慈是美国海外文轩作家协会主席，在文坛地位崇高，而这个90后的女孩，何以青出于蓝？

“你记得2015年斯坦福大学那起性侵案吗？”美国女作家问我。我点头——那起案件当年轰动全美。她压低声音：“大米就是那个受害者。”

我的心突然被揪紧了。

一路上，我开始特别留意这个女孩。在红河观看歌舞表演时，她坐在我旁边，完全沉浸在精彩的演出中，不时鼓掌欢呼。当演员邀请观众共舞时，她第一个跑上台，跳起烟盒舞来灵动欢快，笑容纯净得像个孩子。在红河作家交流会上，她落落大方地自我介绍，赢得满堂掌声。

香奈儿与彝族演员一起表演烟盒舞

9月21日，我们从河口赴越南沙巴。此日，巧逢张慈女士父亲忌日。在沙巴的细雨中，大米细心搀扶着母亲，两人披着雨衣行走在湿滑的石板路上。张慈女士告诉我，父亲生于沙巴农村，少年时赴云南文山求学并于哀牢山区医院工作。后随女儿定居美国，2024年仙逝，长眠于硅谷-奥特·梅莎公墓，与乔布斯同陵。“所以，红河和沙巴都是我们的故乡。”张慈女士笑着说。

香奈儿与母亲张慈在越南沙巴寻根

后来大米告诉我，外公退休后去美国与她们同住，一直照顾她和妹妹。去年外公去世，她伤心了很久。后来她发给我一张与外公的合照，照片上老人确实是典型的北越男子面相，而偎依在旁的大米，笑容里满溢着爱与思念。

香奈儿与外公在美国

香奈儿与她的父母、妹妹在美国

我感于此写了一首诗《巴沙的雨》，记录张慈母女沙巴寻根之旅。后来在昆明一家餐厅环境非常好的地方，张慈女士在她女儿的陪伴下深情朗诵了我这首感人的诗。

张慈女士倾情朗诵作者的诗歌《沙巴的雨》

最让我动容的是在沙巴街头。一群衣衫褴褛的乞讨孩子围过来，大米立即从口袋里掏出美元，微笑着分发给每个孩子。当一个孩子拿到钱后，更多孩子涌来，她依然耐心地一张张分发，眼神里满是温柔与怜悯。那一刻，她身上闪耀着人性最本真的善良。

香奈儿在越南沙巴给孩子们分发美元

然而，就是这样美丽善良的女孩，却在23岁那年遭遇了命运的残酷一击。2015年，在斯坦福大学的一场聚会上，醉酒的她遭遇了性侵。犯罪嫌疑人布罗克·特纳——一名曾参加奥运会预选赛的游泳新星，用几分钟的暴行，彻底颠覆了她的人生。

面对司法不公与社会舆论的压力，这个看似柔弱的女孩展现出惊人的勇气。她将伤痛化为文字，写就《知晓我姓名》。这本书不仅震动了美国，推动了性侵立法改革，更为所有曾遭受伤痛的女孩发出了震撼人心的声音。该书获得美国国家书评人协会奖自传类大奖，入选《华盛顿邮报》《纽约书评》《时代》年度十大好书，香奈儿被巜时代周刊》评为影响美国未来的百人。

如今，年轻的香奈儿已经出版多部作品。她母亲张慈既骄傲又感慨：“现在我女儿有一堆书需要我翻译。”今年10月至12月，中国各地中小学的孩子们都将阅读刚刚出版的《吴木兰发现一切》。

香奈儿在大巴车上写发言稿

从碧色寨铁轨上笑容明媚的彝族姑娘，到沙巴雨中搀扶母亲的孝顺女儿，再到用文字改变美国的勇敢作家——香奈儿·米勒以她的美丽、善良和非凡勇气，向世界证明了：即使遭遇最不公的命运，一个人依然可以选择高贵地活着，并用自己的力量让世界变得更好。

作者简介

严春芳，大众诗人，世界和平诗人，散文作家。武汉理工大学、武昌理工学院、四川传媒学院、武汉传媒学院等多所大学客座教授、驻校作家，湖北大学校外兼职导师，山东工商学院美育教师。中国诗歌学会、中国散文学会、湖北省作家协会会员，山东省写作学会会员，《齐鲁晚报》签约作家。出版诗文集《为荷而来》、《太阳与大海》、《一起向未来》。

严春芳诗歌学校行已在武汉大学、武汉理工大学、华中师范大学、湖北大学、武汉体育学院、武汉东湖学院、武昌理工学院、武汉传媒学院、山东工商学院、四川传媒学院、武汉商贸职业学院、马来西亚拉曼大学、昆明北清实验学校等囯内外十多所高校、中小学以及北京、济南、武汉等地举办专场诗歌朗诵分享活动近二十场。

Chanel: The Chinese-American Writer Who Rewrote Her Destiny with Courage

By Yan Chunfang

First World Peace Poet (China)

On the ancient and mysterious tracks of Bise Village, a girl dressed in traditional Yi ethnic attire was taking photos. Her silver ornaments glinted in the sunlight, and her smile was brighter than camellias. Had I not known beforehand, I would have assumed she was a native Yi girl. Yet her tall stature set her slightly apart from the local women, who were often more petite.

Her name is Chanel Miller, though she goes by the Chinese name Zhang Xiaoxia. In our group, everyone affectionately calls her "Dami." This Chinese-American girl, who hails from the United States, was accompanying her mother—Chinese-American writer Zhang Ci—on a journey back to her mother’s hometown in Yunnan. They were not only attending a literary conference together but also retracing the paths where Zhang Ci had grown up. They even planned to cross the border into Sapa, Vietnam, to follow in the footsteps of Dami’s grandfather.

On the bus, Dami shared her story in somewhat halting Chinese. The American writer seated beside me whispered, "She’s even more famous than her mother." I was taken aback—her mother, Zhang Ci, is the chair of the Overseas Chinese Writers Association in the U.S., a highly respected figure in literary circles. How could this girl, born in the 1990s, have surpassed her mother’s acclaim?

"Do you remember the 2015 Stanford sexual assault case?" the American writer asked. I nodded—the case had sent shockwaves across the United States. She lowered her voice and said, "Dami was the victim."

My heart suddenly clenched.

From that moment on, I began paying special attention to this young woman. While watching a song and dance performance in Honghe, she sat beside me, completely immersed in the show, clapping and cheering with delight. When the performers invited the audience to dance, she was the first to rush onto the stage, moving with a lively grace as she danced the Yanhe dance, her smile as pure as a child’s. At the Honghe writers’ exchange, she introduced herself with poise and confidence, earning a round of applause from the audience.

On September 21, we traveled from Hekou to Sapa, Vietnam. Coincidentally, it was the anniversary of her grandfather’s passing. In the drizzling rain of Sapa, Dami carefully supported her mother as they walked along the slippery cobblestone paths. Zhang Ci told me that her father was born in a rural village in Sapa and had left as a teenager to study in Wenshan, Yunnan, where he later worked at a hospital in the Ailao Mountains. He eventually moved to the U.S. to live with her and passed away in 2024, resting in the Silicon Valley – Alta Mesa Cemetery, the same resting place as Steve Jobs. "So, both Honghe and Sapa are our hometowns," Zhang Ci said with a smile.

Later, Dami told me that her grandfather had retired and moved to the U.S. to live with them, taking care of her throughout her childhood. When he passed away last year, she was grief-stricken for a long time. She shared a photo of herself with her grandfather—a man with typical Northern Vietnamese features—and in the picture, Dami leaned against him, her smile filled with love and longing.

Touched by their story, I wrote a poem titled "The Rain of Sapa," capturing the mother and daughter’s journey to retrace their roots. Later, in a beautifully decorated restaurant in Kunming, Zhang Ci recited my moving poem, accompanied by her daughter.

What moved me most, however, was a moment on the streets of Sapa. A group of ragged, impoverished children approached us, begging. Without hesitation, Dami pulled U.S. dollars from her pocket and gently distributed them to each child, one by one. As more children gathered, she continued patiently, her eyes filled with tenderness and compassion. In that moment, she radiated the purest form of human kindness.

Yet, this kind and beautiful girl had once faced a cruel twist of fate. At the age of 23, in 2015, she was sexually assaulted at a Stanford University party while unconscious from alcohol. The perpetrator, Brock Turner—a rising swimmer who had once competed in Olympic trials—shattered her life in just a few minutes of violence.

Confronted with judicial injustice and societal scrutiny, this seemingly fragile young woman displayed extraordinary courage. She channeled her pain into words, writing Know My Name. The book not only shook the United States and spurred reforms in sexual assault legislation but also gave a powerful voice to countless survivors. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography and was named one of the top ten books of the year by The Washington Post, The New York Review of Books, and Time. Chanel herself was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People shaping America’s future.

Today, the young Chanel has published multiple works. Her mother, Zhang Ci, remarked with pride and emotion, "Now, my daughter has a stack of books waiting for me to translate." From October to December this year, schoolchildren across China will read her newly published Magnolia Wu Discovers Everything.

From the smiling Yi girl on the tracks of Bise Village, to the devoted daughter supporting her mother in the rain of Sapa, to the courageous writer whose words changed America—Chanel Miller has proven to the world with her beauty, kindness, and extraordinary courage that even in the face of life’s gravest injustices, one can still choose to live with dignity and use their strength to make the world a better place.

Author Profile

Yan Chunfang is a popular poet, World Peace Poet, and prose writer. He serves as a guest professor and writer-in-residence at multiple universities, including Wuhan University of Technology, Wuchang University of Technology, Sichuan University of Media and Communications, and Wuhan University of Media and Communications. He also acts as an off-campus mentor for Hubei University and an aesthetic education instructor at Shandong Technology and Business University.

He is a member of prestigious literary organizations such as the Chinese Poetry Society, the Chinese Prose Society, the Hubei Writers Association, and the Shandong Writing Society, in addition to being a contracted writer for Qilu Evening News.

Yan Chunfang has published several collections of poetry and prose, including Coming for the Lotus, The Sun and the Sea, and Together for a Shared Future.

His "Poetry Campus Tour" has gained significant traction, with nearly 20 dedicated poetry recitation and sharing events held at over ten domestic and international institutions. These include universities such as Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Central China Normal University, Hubei University, Wuhan Sports University, Wuchang University of Technology, Shandong Technology and Business University, Sichuan University of Media and Communications, and Wuhan Business University, as well as schools like the Kuala Lumpur UTAR in Malaysia and Kunming Beiqing Experimental School. Events have also taken place in cities like Beijing, Jinan, and Wuhan.

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严春芳系列人物素描（六）/香奈儿：以勇气重写命运的华裔作家 精华热点

香奈儿：以勇气重写命运的华裔作家《世界华人周刊》创建于12小时前阅读 269

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严春芳系列人物素描（六）/香奈儿：以勇气重写命运的华裔作家精华热点

香奈儿：以勇气重写命运的华裔作家

《世界华人周刊》
创建于12小时前
阅读 269