Back to 80: My Literary Life

They went there in Fang Minghua's off-road vehicle.

In his own courtyard at Bai Luyuan, Chen Zhongshi entertained them warmly.

He took two bottles of Xifeng wine and asked his wife to catch a big rooster from his own courtyard and roast it.

Chen Zhongshi certainly had no objection to Shengshi Books publishing his book "Bai Luyuan" and paying royalties.

The publishing contract was signed on the spot, and Su Bin also promised to advance 5,000 yuan in royalties to solve Chen Zhongshi's current living difficulties.

It was not until the evening that Fang Minghua and his friends drove away from Bai Luyuan.

Chen Zhongshi sent them to the gate, watched the car disappear in the night, and lit a Bashan cigar. Suddenly, his wife who came out to see the guests off said lightly.

"Wife, you don't have to come back to raise chickens."

After that, he turned and went into the courtyard.

Su Bin took "Bai Luyuan" back to Haikou and immediately started the publication of the book, proofreading, typesetting, and editing.

Of course, more important is publicity and promotion.

To this end, Shengshi Books bought half a page in Guangming Daily to promote this book. Three months later, as the first book in the "Rag Tiger" series, it officially met with readers, and the first print run of 500,000 copies was quickly sold out.

Critics praised this as an epic masterpiece that reconstructed the national spirit in a profound sense. It gave the highest praise to nationalism after "Four Generations Under One Roof". The publication of "White Deer Plain" made national literature rise in a higher sense. "

Of course, the bold erotic descriptions in the book also caused a lot of controversy, which laid a hidden danger for the selection of the Mao Dun Literature Award three years later, and it was almost "shot down", but that's another story.

Just when Fang Minghua handed Chen Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain" to Shengshi Books for publication, a young writer far away in Yanjing also finished writing a novel.

In the early 1990s, Tuanjiehu in Yanjing was still a relatively remote place, surrounded by a large number of villages, where young painters from all over the country lived - because the famous Yanjing Academy of Painting was nearby.

Yu Hua also lived here.

There was no other reason, he was not interested in painting, but because the rent here was cheap.

In August last year (1991), he divorced Pan Yinchun, and married Chen Hong half a year later. He rented a room next door and settled down to write novels.

Soon, his second novel "To Live" came out in this simple room.

"Chen Hong, I will send the manuscript to Minghua tomorrow. He said he would help me check it. "Yu Hua said to his wife while smoking a cigarette.

"Don't worry, Teacher Fang will definitely like this book you wrote." Chen Hong said gently.

"If it is approved by Minghua and successfully published, it will be your contribution. You will get half of the military medal, no, more than half!" Yu Hua's tone was full of gratitude.

He didn't say this on purpose.

At the beginning, the creation of this novel did not go smoothly. After writing tens of thousands of words, he found that he could not write any more. It was not that his ideas were flowing like a spring, but that his ideas were not coherent.

But his wife's words woke him up.

"Since the third person is not good, why not try using the first person? "

In a flash, Yu Hua suddenly had an epiphany, so he overturned all the previous content and rewrote it.

The change of writing vision made him feel creative and the novel was successfully completed.

For this, he was full of gratitude to Chen Hong.

She is really his good wife and lucky star.

It was noon a week later that Fang Minghua received the manuscript sent by Yu Hua.

Of course he was very happy. Just when he was about to create the serious literary brand "Cloth Tiger", Yu Hua sent his representative work!

Make a cup of tea and sit comfortably on the recliner under the grape trellis, Fang Minghua looked at the manuscript carefully.

As he read, he fell into deep thought.

It was not because of the content of the novel - he had read this book before he came to this era.

What he was thinking about now was how to publish this book smoothly? Besides, it could make money.

You know, this book "To Live" and "Wasteland" were published at almost the same time, and they also experienced the same fate: published and then destroyed, becoming a banned book!

But "To Live" was lucky. Unlike "Wasteland" which was banned for 16 years, "To Live" was unbanned after only five years. After the unbanning, the award-winning novel was also Sales are booming.

In fact, the novel "To Live" was wronged. Although it was not a big deal when it was first published, it was not a big deal. The reason why it was banned was that the movie "To Live" adapted by Zhang Yimou was banned.

And before Fang Minghua came to this era, it was still not unbanned, and he also watched a pirated version online.

The movie "To Live" can be said to be Zhang Yimou's pinnacle work, and it has won many awards overseas.

The Cannes International Film Festival Jury Award, the American Society of Film Critics Best Foreign Language Film, the 52nd American Film Golden Globe Best Foreign Language Film, and Ge You also won the Cannes International Film Festival The title of Best Actor.

As for the reason why the movie was banned, Fang Minghua had read about it on the Internet before he came to this era.

First, the film production team secretly took the film abroad without approval from the relevant departments.

Second, some plots in the movie are still too sensitive.

Especially the first one, which is a taboo.

If not you, who should be banned?

Before Fang Minghua came to this era, he had carefully compared the differences between the novel and the movie. The movie deleted a lot of the original content. Compared with the cruel and indifferent world described by Yu Hua, the movie seems much warmer.

For example, the scenes where Fengxia was given to another family as a servant because the family was poor so that Youqing could study were deleted; Fengxia fought with villagers for a sweet potato during the famine; Fengxia couldn't help herself when she saw others getting married; Jiazhen got rickets; Jiazhen went to the city to ask her father for food; Jiazhen distributed food to the district chief, etc.

The characters and the plot are closely connected, and it is inevitable to delete the characters when deleting the plot. For example: Mr. Shen, Fengshui Master, PE teacher, etc. are no longer seen in the movie.

Of course, many plots were added: Erxi tied Professor Wang back to the hospital when Fengxia gave birth; Professor Wang choked to death while eating steamed buns; the conversation between Fugui and his wife and Erxi in front of Fengxia's grave and the plot about taking pictures of steamed buns were all added by the director.

These added plots enhance the contradictions and conflicts between the characters, highlight the character traits of the characters, and make the characters more full.

The overall tone of the movie is also heavy but not heavy, sad but not sad, unlike the novel - they all move towards one tragedy after another step by step.

Zhang Yimou will definitely make this novel into a movie. Some history will not change just because he traveled through time.

Of course, he doesn't want the movie to fail to pass the review after it is made and cannot meet the mainland audience.

Then just change the script, reduce those sensitive plots, and make it more vague.

Fang Minghua thought to himself.

Of course, I have to contact Zhang Yimou first.

Now Zhang Yimou is easy to find because he also has a pager.

Fang Minghua put down the manuscript, picked up the landline on the TV cabinet, dialed the 126 manual station, left a message for the pager, and received a call back from Zhang Yimou a few minutes later.

Fang Minghua got straight to the point: "Yimou, I'm Fang Minghua. I have a very good novel. Do you want to make it into a movie?"