Back to 80: My Literary Life

In the afternoon, Fang Minghua took a nap as usual. After getting up, he washed his face and prepared to go to the study to write. The phone rang. Fang Minghua answered it. A man with a strong Guanzhong accent came from the other side of the microphone.

"Minghua, this is Yimou. Have you received the letter from the Golden Rooster Award Jury?"

"I received it this morning. How come you received it too?"

"Yes, in addition to winning the Best Screenwriter Award, "Qiu Ju Goes to Court" also won six awards including Best Story, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Costume, and Best Recording."

"Congratulations, Yimou, you have another great harvest." Fang Minghua smiled.

"Isn't it because you wrote a good script? Minghua, do you have time in the evening? I want to celebrate and call all the main creative staff of the crew."

"Okay, what time? Where?"

"Six o'clock in the evening, it will be held at Xijing Restaurant."

"Okay, I'll be there on time."

At 5:30 in the afternoon, Fang Minghua changed his clothes and went out to take a taxi. Knowing that he would inevitably drink this time, it would be better not to drive.

Arriving at a private room on the second floor of Xijing Restaurant, Fang Minghua went in and saw that several people were already sitting there.

Gu Changwei, Zhou Xiaowen, He Ping, Lu Wei. Fang Minghua knew these people. They were all Wu Tianming's disciples and the backbone of Xiying Studio.

Of course, there were two or three people that she didn't know. One of them was a young girl with bright eyes and white teeth, and a beautiful face.

I've never seen her in real life, but I often see her in movies and calendars.

Gong Li.

As the heroine in "Qiu Ju Goes to Court", she won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress, so she can naturally come to this party.

When she was young, Gong Huang was really beautiful, with collagen all over her face.

Fang Minghua sighed in her heart.

Gong Li was very respectful when she saw Fang Minghua. She didn't call him by his pen name Minghua or Chairman Fang, but called him Teacher Fang all the time, which sounded very friendly.

Gong Li naturally didn't live in Xijing. She came to Xijing this time and heard her say that she was shooting an advertisement for the Yellow River Color TV Factory.

Sitting next to her was Zhang Yimou.

At this time, Zhang Yimou was smiling and in high spirits.

"Minghua, come here, sit down. Let me introduce you. I won't talk about Chang Wei and the others. You know. This is Hu Xiaofeng, my producer."

"Hello, Chairman Fang."

"Hello, Director Hu."

Both parties shook hands with a smile.

Hu Xiaofeng is also a celebrity in the film and television industry, especially Feng Xiaogang's "royal" producer. He is the producer of Feng Xiaogang's films such as "1942" and "Tangshan Earthquake".

However, Feng Xiaogang was still unknown at this time, but Hu Xiaofeng had already made his mark in the film and television industry.

"This is the sound engineer Li Lanhua, who won the Best Sound Recording Award"

"This is the costume designer Tong Huamiao, who won the Best Costume Award"

Zhang Yimou introduced them one by one, and Fang Minghua shook hands with them one by one.

After the introduction, Fang Minghua sat down next to Zhang Yimou, and suddenly found that someone was missing. He hurriedly asked: "Yimou, where is your Director Wu? Did he not come today because of something?"

Hearing Fang Minghua's words, the lively atmosphere of talking and laughing just now suddenly became quiet. After a while, Zhang Yimou said: "Director Wu, he is in the United States and can't come back, and he is no longer our director."

"What's going on?" Fang Minghua was shocked.

Zhang Yimou then told the specific reason.

Just this summer, in order to commend Xiying Studio, the superiors agreed to Xiying's proposal to arrange for the main creative staff to go abroad for inspection and study. Wu Tianming took the lead in going abroad for a month-long inspection.

"Everything was going well, but Director Wu accepted an interview with a reporter during the inspection. I don't know if the reporter dug a trap for him and said something he shouldn't have said. The superiors were furious and removed his director position and temporarily did not allow him to return to China."

Is that so!

Fang Minghua sighed deeply.

Before he came to this era, he saw on the Internet that Wu Tianming stayed in the United States for several years before returning to China. He didn't know the specific reason.

What a pity.

Fang Minghua felt sorry not only for Wu Tianmin, but also for the Xi'an Film Studio.

The Xi'an Film Studio, known as the "Oriental Hollywood" and "chicken farmer", has completed its most glorious journey and started to go downhill.

Although Zhang Yimou, Gu Changwei, and Zhou Xiaofeng are still active in the film industry and have created their own brilliant careers one after another, this has gradually become irrelevant to the Xi'an Film Studio. These fifth-generation filmmakers have left the Xi'an Film Studio for various reasons, and many have started their "North Drift" career.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.

A proud field in Qin Province is about to decline.

But now, these men are still talking and laughing. After all, they have each made a name for themselves in the film and television industry. Perhaps they don't need the fat director who once sheltered them from the wind and rain?

Thinking of this, Fang Minghua couldn't help but sigh again.

Throughout the banquet, Fang Minghua seemed a little uninterested. After drinking, she declined Zhang Yimou's invitation to go dancing in the ballroom, left the restaurant, took a taxi and went home directly.

The lights in the living room were on. It turned out that Song Tangtang had returned and was studying English books. Seeing Fang Minghua's mouth full of alcohol when she came back, she asked, "Is there another dinner party today?"

"Well, didn't "Qiu Ju Goes to Court" win an award? Zhang Yimou hosted a few friends for a meal to celebrate."

"I saw this news in the newspaper. He won several awards. This Zhang Yimou is really amazing. He won awards for everything he filmed." Song Tangtang praised, and then looked at Fang Minghua, "Why didn't you go dancing after drinking?"

"What's the event?" Fang Minghua sat down on the sofa and unbuttoned his T-shirt collar: "Wu Tianmin is stranded in the United States and can't come back."

"Ah, what's going on?"

Fang Minghua told the story again.

Song Tangtang also sighed deeply after hearing it, not knowing what to say.

She knew that her husband and Wu Tianmin had a good relationship, so she comforted him softly: "I guess it's just temporary, Director Wu will be back soon."

"Soon?" Fang Minghua smiled bitterly.

It seems that he came back in the mid-1990s, right?

And when he came back, Xiying Studio was no longer the same Xiying Studio, and Chinese films were no longer the same as when he was there.

But this is history, no one can change it.

Fang Minghua naturally couldn't let his wife's mood be affected by his own discomfort. He no longer wanted to talk about this topic but said, "How is the visa application going?"

"It's already been done. There are too many people going abroad this year." Song Tangtang said, "The day before yesterday, I went to the embassy to pick up the visa information, and I met a poet you know."

"Who?"

"Bei Dao."

"Bei Dao also went abroad," Fang Minghua sighed again.

"Well, those who go abroad will eventually come back. You don't have to sigh. This is their home and the root of their literature. It is a very terrible thing for a poet to give up direct closeness to his mother tongue." Song Tangtang advised.

"Tangtang, your insights are very profound!" Fang Minghua couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

Indeed.

Bei Dao, who was exiled to a foreign land, often felt the suspended state of his mother tongue.

He once wrote in his book "Hometown Accent": "When I speak Chinese in front of the mirror, I feel that my motherland is a hometown accent, so I am terrified by the alienation brought by being far away from my motherland."

"Okay, Minghua, let's not talk about this. My visa has been processed. In two days, I will take the children abroad to meet Lili with my second aunt. What do you want to say to her?" Song Tangtang said.