Back to 80: My Literary Life

The first World Chinese Literature Award finally came to an end, and all five awards were announced. Qin Province TV broadcast the entire award ceremony live, and CCTV and many other TV stations also reported the news. People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao, and Taiwan's United Daily News also reported on it.

Even the New York Times in the United States reported on the ceremony, and also focused on Butler's winning novel "Fragrance of Strange Mountains".

The unprecedented success of the award is of course related to spending a lot of money.

The bonuses for the winning works, the subsidies for the judges and reading class members, as well as the board and lodging for the meeting, travel expenses, etc., the preliminary calculation shows that the total cost is as high as 980,000! One-third of the entire foundation funds were used!

But Fang Minghua didn't care.

After the ceremony, Fang Minghua's work was not over. Many judges and authors came to Xijing for the first time, so naturally they had to organize everyone to visit everywhere.

Museums, Terracotta Warriors, Huaqing Pool, and the lousy Big Wild Goose Pagoda climbed again.

Afterwards, Fang Minghua specially invited Shi Tiesheng and his wife, Yu Hua, Haizi and Xichuan to visit her courtyard. Song Tangtang personally cooked for them, and of course the two girls Li Hongying and Wang Zi were also there. They were busy until the end of April.

The sign of the World Chinese Literature Award Jury Office hanging in the backyard of the Writers Association was taken down, and the temporary seconded staff returned to their original positions.

Li Hongying was also leaving. She said that her visa to the UK had been approved and she would go to the UK in a while.

Wang Zi stayed.

The girl said Xijing was nice and she liked this city.

Later, Fang Minghua learned that the girl was in love with a local young man.

The young man was a student who stayed at Northwest University, worked as a counselor at the school, and also liked literature.

Seeing that the girl was willing to stay in Xijing, Fang Minghua simply recruited her as a full-time staff member of the World Chinese Literature Foundation.

The Jury Office was temporarily abolished, but the foundation continued to exist.

Wang Zi was of course very happy.

It would be great to have a place to get paid, and now the foundation has almost nothing to do, so I can write something.

I have read so many literary works in the past year, and I have been eager to try.

Fang Minghua naturally does not need to worry about these.

Today is the May Day holiday. Yesterday, I took my family of four to the zoo for most of the day, and went to my sister's house to visit my parents in the evening.

Today, Song Tangtang took the two children to Zhao Hongjun's house to play, and Wang Xia entertained them at home.

Zhao Hongjun is not in Xijing now, but has gone to Haikou, so Fang Minghua does not need to go there again, and stays at home alone.

In early May, Xijing was sunny and the breeze was just right.

Fang Minghua took a recliner and lay under the grape trellis. On the small table next to him was his favorite Longjing tea.

He closed his eyes slightly, drinking tea while listening to a song playing on the Shanshui speakers in the living room.

Take a fishing fire

Let it warm my eyes

Leave a true love

Let it stay by the Maple Bridge

Mao Ning's "The Sound of the Waves Remains the Same".

Although Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music was fierce in the early 1990s, mainland musicians were still able to withstand the pressure and wrote many good songs.

This song "The Sound of the Waves Remains" is one of them. It was just released this year (1992) and immediately became popular all over the country. In the end, it was almost everywhere.

Suddenly, the German Shepherd Xiao Dou Miao, who was curled up at Fang Minghua's feet, suddenly turned his head and looked at the gate of the yard vigilantly. Then he stood up and barked at the closed gate twice.

Fang Minghua opened his eyes slightly.

There was someone at the door.

Xiao Dou Miao had very sharp ears. He usually ignored the pedestrians passing by outside the yard, but as long as someone stayed at the gate, he would immediately bark and warn the other party.

Sure enough, Fang Minghua heard the doorbell.

He had to stand up and walked to the gate of the yard and opened the door.

Oh my God.

Not one or two, but a group of people!

Fang Minghua actually knew the leader.

Stephen Chow!

"Mr. Fang, I'm sorry to bother you." Stephen Chow said in his poor Mandarin.

"It's okay, please come in." Fang Minghua greeted him, turned around and walked inside, and patted the dog head of Xiao Dou Miao, who was grinning at Stephen Chow, and Xiao Dou Miao immediately became docile.

Of course, not all of these people came in, and they still stood outside the door, and only three people came in.

Fang Minghua had met Stephen Chow's assistant Tin Kai Man when she went to Hong Kong last year, but Fang Minghua didn't know the other middle-aged man with small eyes.

Fang Minghua invited the three people into the living room, turned off the stereo, and poured tea for them. Stephen Chow pointed at the middle-aged man and introduced him to Fang Minghua: "This is Mr. Liu Zhenwei, the Hong Kong director. I asked him to be the director of "A Chinese Odyssey."

Liu Zhenwei?

It's true that Jiao is inseparable from Meng.

"Hello, Mr. Liu." Fang Minghua stretched out her right hand.

After shaking hands, the two sat down and chatted: "Mr. Zhou, Mr. Liu, when did you arrive in Xijing?"

"Yesterday, I came to Xijing for the filming of the movie "A Chinese Odyssey." Stephen Chow said.

Fang Minghua was not surprised by this.

Didn't he come to Xiying Studio?

Of course, he didn't say it, Fang Minghua pretended not to know, and just asked with concern:

"Mr. Zhou, how is the filming going?"

"I encountered some difficulties, Mr. Fang. I came to Xijing this time to find Xiying Studio to co-produce this movie, but I encountered some problems. The leaders of Xiying Studio rejected my proposal."

Xiying Studio refused? !

Fang Minghua was a little surprised.

Tin Kai-man next to him told the story.

It turned out that the Xi'an Film Studio has been in full swing in China in recent years, and its reputation has spread to Hong Kong, so Stephen Chow naturally wanted to cooperate with them.

After the Chinese New Year this year, Stephen Chow specially sent his agent to Xijing to discuss co-production with the leaders of the Xi'an Film Studio.

Stephen Chow is now very popular in Hong Kong, so the Xi'an Film Studio is of course willing to cooperate, but when they saw the script, they were shocked.

What kind of mess is this?

It completely subverts the original work.

It is the same type as the "Wukong Biography" written by Fang Minghua.

Then he asked the script author: Minghua.

It is indeed so!

There is a threshold for novels, which is excusable, but making a movie is for ordinary people. Who will watch it if you make it?

Even if you are Stephen Chow, it won't work!

So he politely refused.

Stephen Chow certainly did not give up, and contacted other mainland production studios, but they were rejected without exception.

The reason for cooperating with you, Stephen Chow, is for the box office, not for making art films.

This thing?

What does it count for? !

Stephen Chow was somewhat helpless.

It was not that he had to co-produce with the mainland film studios, but because in this era, if you did not co-produce a film, you could not enter the mainland film market and play it in the cinema!

Of course, all kinds of pirated videotapes and discs were not counted.

So he thought of Fang Minghua.

Fang Minghua was a famous screenwriter, and he lived in Xijing, so he must know the leaders of Xiying Studio.

Stephen Chow had originally planned to visit Fang Minghua a long time ago, but he heard that the other party was busy with the literary award, so he came to Xijing in person after everything was over.

"Mr. Fang, I know that you have a great influence not only in the mainland literary world, but also in the mainland film and television world, so I'll leave this matter to you." Liu Zhenwei finally interrupted.

"Mr. Liu, you are too kind," Fang Minghua said modestly.

He was a little surprised, why did Xiying Studio refuse this time?