Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Oh, Sister An Yi, please don't say that. It makes me feel ashamed." Yu Hua said quickly: "Back then, when you went to the Writers Association's workshop to study, I was still working as a dentist in the health center. You asked me unattainable."

Fang Minghua laughed after hearing this: "Why are you two arguing? Sister An Yi, why do you envy Yu Hua? I heard that you are writing a novel now? Maybe it will be as popular as Yu Hua's "Alive" in the future."

"Who knows, the literary environment now is not like that of the 1980s. You see, there are so many novels published every year. How many popular novels are there like your "The Piano" and Yu Hua's "Alive"?

Wang Anyi is right.

There were far more published novels in the 1990s than in the 1980s. Objectively speaking, this group of writers born in the 1950s and 1960s had accumulated personal experience through the influence of the golden age of literature in the 1980s and their attempts at writing short stories and novellas. Rich writing experience.

In the 1990s, many people turned to writing novels. Unfortunately, the social environment changed and literature began to lose popularity. The phenomenon of people queuing up to buy books like crazy in the 1980s has gradually faded away.

There are only a handful of novels that are really popular, such as "White Deer Plain", "Abandoned City", "Alive" and other literary works that ordinary readers can recognize, and most of them are shelved after being published.

But the book Wang Anyi is writing is different.

That is "Song of Everlasting Sorrow" which will win the Mao Dun Literature Award!

Now seeing Wang Anyi sighing, Fang Minghua smiled and said in a joking tone:

"Sister An Yi, if this novel you wrote becomes popular after it is published and wins the Mao Dun Award or something, Yu Hua and I will come to Shanghai to find you. You want to treat me!"

"Okay, as you said, I will take you two to climb the Oriental Pearl Tower!"

The Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai was just built this year and it immediately became a new sight in Shanghai. Many tourists came here because of it. Wang Anyi had never climbed it before, so it was very novel.

What she didn't expect was that she would vomit after climbing so many times, just like Fang Minghua climbing the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

The meeting was held in the hotel conference room the next morning. Fang Minghua looked around at the participants. There were only about thirty people, and the scale seemed a bit shabby.

In addition to Yu Hua and Wang Anyi, there were also already famous writers such as Jiang Zilong and Zhang Jie. He didn't know the others, but he had heard the names of several writers.

Writers such as He Shen, Guan Renshan and Lu Tianming are not very famous now.

In fact, there are not many writers focusing on current social reality issues these days, either new realistic novels like Chi Li and Liu Heng, or new historical novels such as Chen Zhongshi and Liu Zhenyun.

Of course, there is another alternative in the literary world - Wang Shuo's ruffian literature.

There is also Wang Xiaobo.

However, the discussion was still very lively, and there was no podium in the venue. Everyone gathered around a round table to express their opinions.

Zhao Benfu, the host of this seminar, pointed out: "After entering the 1990s, society has undergone profound changes. Migrant workers have moved into cities, state-owned enterprises have been reformed, and workers have been laid off. The process of economic reform, political system reform, and the problems they face are closely related to Conflicts and corruption in every corner of society are all worthy of our attention as writers. We must have a sense of worry and awareness of the times to write works that truly reflect reality.

As Zhao Benfu spoke, Fang Minghua listened carefully. He now knew what Zhao Benfu was referring to.

Before coming to this era, Fang Minghua studied "Contemporary History of Chinese Literature" in college and knew that in the mid-to-late 1990s, there was another popular type of literary work in the literary world: neorealist novels.

These works have a common feature: they shift their focus to the daily lives of ordinary workers, farmers, urban residents and other grassroots society. They use the confusion and problems caused by the rapid stratification of economic development and social structure as the main narrative clues, and have strong realism. The trend had an impact on the literary world at that time.

Later, people called this phenomenon the "realistic novel shock wave."

Representative works include the talk song "Big Factory", "Workshop", "The World's Barren Years", He Shen, "Director of the Petition Office", Guan Renshan, "Heavy Snow No Homeland", "Returning Home in September", Zhou Meisen's "Absolute Power", Lu Tianming, "Heaven is Above" Wait, of course these haven’t come out yet.

And now, we are on the eve of this "shock wave". And "The Piano of Steel" written by Fang Minghua is undoubtedly the morning star on the eve of dawn.

As a pioneer of such works, Jiang Zilong, then chairman of the Tianjin Writers Association, spoke first and talked about the creation process of the novel "The Taking of Director Qiao" that he wrote ten years ago.

Zhang Jie also spoke impromptu, talking about her work "Heavy Wings" that won the top prize, and specifically pointed out:

"Both Jiang Zilong's "The Taking of Director Qiao" and "Heavy Wings" written by me describe things in the early stages of reform. However, after more than ten years of development, the complexity of society, the sharpness of contradictions and the challenges faced by These problems and dilemmas are unparalleled in the early stage of reform, and this will naturally be reflected in literary works. Comrade Minghua's "The Piano of Steel" is very good at this point. "

After Zhang Jie finished speaking, Zhao Benfu looked at Fang Minghua sitting opposite: "Minghua, since Zhang Jie mentioned the book you wrote, would you like to say a few words first?"

"Okay, I'll just say a few words."

Like other comrades, Fang Minghua first talked about the background of the novel, and talked about the series of serious problems faced by enterprises and workers during the more than ten days when he and his father went to the Northeast for funerals.

"I thought at the time that we as writers have the responsibility and obligation to write it, just like what editor Zhao just said, we have a sense of urgency, and this is also the spiritual tradition of the May Fourth issue novels that focus on reality and the bottom class."

"The novels "Director Qiao's Take-Off", "Rising Star", "Heavy Wings" and "The Ordinary World" all point to people's lives today."

"We can call this type of novels neorealism novels or new reality novels." Fang Minghua said.

New reality novel!

This is a new term heard by the participating writers.

"I think Minghua's name is right!" The one who interrupted was Jiang Zilong, who was taking notes carefully with a pen. Hearing this, he raised his head and interrupted Fang Minghua's speech:

"Realism has always been the focus of writers' creations, but it is undeniable that it has been neglected in the past decade or so. Various literary genres such as scar literature, root-seeking literature, avant-garde literature, and postmodernism literature have emerged in endlessly. Writers often focus on Focusing on the past or even abroad, but neglecting the present, it is time to pay attention to the land under your feet! "

"What Chairman Chiang said makes sense. Reality must not be lost."

"Writers should not just indulge in personal thoughts, but should also pay attention to reality!"

Everyone started talking about it.

Most of the people here are authors of realist works. In recent years, realist works are not very popular in the literary world. What is popular are modernist and even postmodernist works, typically represented by avant-garde literature.

"The world has suffered from pioneerism for a long time." Jiang Zilong's speech expressed everyone's aspirations.

At this time, someone else stood up and said: "Chairman Fang, I remember that around 1987, you proposed the term New Realistic Novels based on the novels written by Chi Li, Liu Heng and others in the social and literary circles at that time. Now you have proposed New Realistic Novels. , what’s the difference between the two?”

The speaker was a middle-aged man named He Shen, who was also the author of the novel "Director of the Petition Office". One of the Troika of Hebei Province in the 1990s.