Back to 80: My Literary Life

After eating with Emily, the two drove around the neighborhood for a while. Of course, they took photos, and they also took photos with the help of others.

Although the town was small, it had complete facilities and a small church. Fang Minghua followed Emily in and quietly watched her praying devoutly to an old priest, not understanding what the girl was whispering.

This reminds Fang Minghua of the chapel in Hokkaido where he confessed in "If You Are the One 2" starring Ge You and Shu Qi.

At 5 p.m., the two drove back to Iowa City.

In the car, Emily was humming as she drove, and turned to look at Fang Minghua, who was somewhat silent: "Minghua, did you have fun today?"

"Not bad." Fang Minghua turned around and said with a smile: "Especially the covered bridge and the story told by the restaurant owner are very interesting."

"What, you want to write it into a novel?" the girl said jokingly.

Unexpectedly, Fang Minghua took the lead.

"Yes."

"But I think the story is very ordinary. There is nothing worth writing about." The girl was a little confused.

"Very interesting." Fang Minghua replied, and then said:

"It took me a while to get to know you, it took me a while to fall in love with you, and it took me a lifetime to forget you. This is the true meaning of the story."

This is a sentence from "The Bridge's Lost Dreams".

Emily's hand holding the steering wheel suddenly trembled, and the car swayed.

Fang Minghua returned to his hotel in Iowa City and began writing this novel.

The plot of the novel "The Bridge of Lost Dreams" is not complicated, and the love story in the book is not new if viewed solely from Francesca's perspective.

A young woman with a romantic temperament was married to a remote town. Her husband was kind but uninformed, and her life was calm and boring. Due to some chance, her latent passion was aroused, and her dream as a girl came true.

This is similar to Flaubert's "Madame Bovary", Singletary Lewis's "The Street", etc.

But from the perspective of the male protagonist Robert, there is something unique about it. It is a kind of passion that gets rid of all secular concepts and returns to the original nature of human beings, pure and pure, even with primitive wildness.

It only happens once in heaven and on earth, just like two particles colliding in the universe. If we miss it, we will never see each other again for billions of years.

A long married life, firewood, rice, oil, salt, and human fireworks will wear away the initial infatuation and impulse of love.

What's more, there are still many people who have never experienced love at all and get married hastily due to age and social pressure. What would you do if there was someone in your life that you could feel like "for thousands of years"?

Middle age is a burden-bearing stage in life where “there are old people and young people at the top”, and “romance” is too far away from middle age.

The novel is popular because it tells a dream of a middle-aged man. After waking up from the dream, he still has to step into the fireworks.

Before Fang Minghua came to this era, he was also a middle-aged man.

The novel is not too long, only about 80,000 words. Fang Minghua has read the novel and watched the movie, so it was effortless to write it.

The two of them were lying in front of their desks again, writing furiously during the day and night.

That night, the article "Half of a Man is a Woman" written by Zhang Xianliang was finally completed, and he seemed very relaxed.

He looked at Fang Minghua, who was still writing a book, and joked, "Minghua, you went out with that Emily girl two days ago. Did you get inspiration? Do you have thousands of words in your heart that need to be expressed?"

"Don't tell me, it's true." Fang Minghua put down his pen and joked: "I just listened to a story told by a local restaurant owner while eating."

Fang Minghua once again told the story told by the restaurant owner.

"I find it interesting."

Zhang Xianliang thought for a while after listening to it: "This story is a bit ordinary, but if you modify it a little, it will become interesting."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Fang Minghua suddenly became interested. He wanted to know how Zhang Xianliang wrote this novel.

"It's very simple. The heroine is a widow and she is changed into having an affair during marriage. The story of one-night stand is a hot topic in writing no matter which country it is. Once the golden wind and jade dew meet, they will defeat countless people in the world. Isn't that what our ancients said? "

"Well, that makes sense." Fang Minghua smiled and said, "I'm going to write it that way too."

"But one-night stands are against secular morality, even in developed countries like the United States. It depends on how you write it." Zhang Xianliang continued.

"This subject matter is a bit sensitive. Once it is written, everyone will rush to circulate it. If it is not written well, you will be scolded." Zhang Xian lit up a cigarette and said slowly.

"Brother Zhang, are you referring to the article "Half of a Man is a Woman" you wrote?" Fang Minghua said.

Zhang Xianliang was stunned for a moment, then immediately burst out laughing: "You're right, some people will definitely criticize this book I wrote, but I'm used to it. Didn't people also criticize the article "Greening Tree" I wrote earlier?"

indeed so.

Zhang Xianliang's novels are full of androcentrism, and there are a lot of sexual descriptions in the novel. This "Half of a Man is a Woman" is comparable to Jia Pingwa's "The Wasted City", but there is no eye-catching character in it. XXX words are omitted here. .

For this, he was severely criticized by many people, including some female writers.

The most powerful among them is Wang Anyi, who once wrote a novella called "Uncle's Story". A lot of the content in it is actually a satire on men like Zhang Xianliang. Of course, this was in the 1990s.

This is related to Zhang Xianliang's own experience. Many of his novel materials come from his twenty years of labor camp experience.

Hearing Zhang Xianliang's self-deprecating reply, Fang Minghua laughed and said: "Brother Zhang, I'm not as courageous as you. This is what I think:

"If we give love to the encounter, desire to the love, climax to the desire, poetry to the climax, melancholy to the parting, longing for the distance, tenderness to the husband, maternal love to the child, and sincere memorial to the death, Give grand memories of the past and heartfelt understanding of the love of our ancestors."

"Ha, your summary is very insightful, but I feel that when you write it this way, this novel lacks criticality and social depth." Zhang Xianliang replied.

Fang Minghua smiled and said nothing.

The novels of his generation always have to reflect social criticism. In fact, "The Bridge of Lost Dreams" is just a warm bestseller.

I don’t plan to win Mao Dun or the Nobel Prize.

OK that's it.

It took half a month to publish this nearly 80,000-word novel. This is the second work Fang Minghua has written since coming to the United States. If you include the script and novel "Inception", it should be the third.

That's enough.

Of course, this Chinese manuscript has to be translated into English, and he has no plans to publish it in China.

We still have to rely on Professor Nie Hualing, including "Inception" which has been adapted into a novel version

The last time he translated "Inception", Fang Minghua paid the other party US$2,000.

This time Professor Nie said nothing and agreed immediately.

OK, the task is completed, and more than half of the study tour time in the United States has passed. The next step is to visit various places in the United States as planned.