Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Minghua!"

Xichuan also saw Fang Minghua and greeted him.

"Xichuan, long time no see. Are you coming to Xijing on a business trip?" Fang Minghua asked with a smile.

"Yes, I went to Xijing Academy of Fine Arts to do some errands. I want to come and visit you after I finish my errands. I just went to your Writers Association and said you weren't here, so I came to look for you at home." Nishikawa said.

"It's okay. I usually don't go to work. Let's go to my house to chat." Fang Minghua greeted warmly.

Xi Chuan followed Fang Minghua to his house, and they drank tea and chatted in the living room.

"Xichuan, you quit being a reporter and go to teach at the Central Academy of Fine Arts?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Yes, reporters are too tired, and my personality is not suitable for running outside. CAFA is short of English teachers. I studied English at Yan University, so I went over. Anyway, my wife also teaches there. "Xikawa explained.

Nishikawa’s daughter-in-law is Jiang Jie. After graduating from Central Academy of Fine Arts, she stayed at the school to teach and is a sculptor.

"Now, Haizi and I have both returned to school. I teach English and he continues to teach his aesthetics." Nishikawa finally said.

In 1992, Haizi completed three years of treatment at the Yanjing No. 3 Welfare Institute and was finally discharged from the hospital to start an ordinary life.

Last year, he was invited by Capital Normal University to take classes, not on literature and poetry, but on his specialty - aesthetics.

After Haizi graduated from Yan University, he was directly assigned to teach aesthetics in the Philosophy Teaching and Research Section of China University of Political Science and Law, which is also his old profession.

"How is Haizi's health now?" This is the question that Fang Minghua is most concerned about.

"It's okay. I haven't had another attack since I was discharged from the hospital, and the dosage of medicine is gradually reduced. I heard the doctor said that if I continue like this, I can stop taking the medicine in half a year." Nishikawa replied.

"That's great!"

Fang Minghua was very happy to hear this. It would be best for Haizi to return to a normal life.

"Oh, by the way, Haizi got married during the Chinese New Year last year."

"You're married? Why didn't you tell me? I'm going to have a wedding drink too." Fang Minghua was very surprised.

"Didn't you go abroad? I didn't know until I called your work." Nishikawa said:

"That girl is from Yanjing and is a nurse in a hospital. At first she liked Haizi's poems, but later she thought he was a good person. The two fell in love for a while and then got married."

"This is a big happy event." Fang Minghua was very happy: "No, I will go to Yanjing that day to find them to drink the wedding wine!"

"Welcome, welcome, he lives near Shichahai now. The girl's parents have a courtyard house, and she is the only daughter, so she lives there after she gets married.

Damn it!

Marrying a girl and getting a courtyard house is a winner in life.

However, Haizi won the Best Poetry Collection Award at the First World Chinese Literature Award. His poems sold well in the community and earned a lot of royalties.

You can't buy a courtyard house, but you can still buy a house in Yanjing like Yu Hua did.

"But, Haizi rarely writes poetry now. Apart from teaching, he usually writes about poetry theory." At the end of the sentence, Nishikawa sighed.

This is the side effect of medicine.

Killed the talent of a talented poet.

Fang Minghua didn't feel much regret: "It's not bad to write poetry theory. Even if he doesn't write poetry now, the things he published before are enough to prove that he is an excellent poet!"

This is true.

Nishikawa nodded.

Suddenly he looked at Fang Minghua and said, "Minghua, are you going to come out?"

"Come out of the mountain?"

Fang Minghua was confused by Xichuan's words.

"I'm not one of those masters in martial arts novels who wash their hands in a golden basin and retire to the world. Why am I here?"

"I'm talking about poetry. I hope you can pay attention to the poetry world just like you did when you were the deputy editor-in-chief of poetry in "Yanhe" twelve years ago." Nishikawa said.

oh.

That was in 1984. After Fang Minghua served as the deputy editor of "Yanhe", he published a special issue of "College Poetry Issue", which published excellent poems by a large number of young poets including Haizi, Zhang Zao, etc., which had a great response in the poetry world. .

Later, every issue of "Yanhe" would publish some excellent poems, basically written by budding young poets.

More importantly, he took a clear-cut stand against spoken poetry at that time, and had a public debate with Shang Zhongmin, one of the representatives of the "Third Generation Poetry Movement" at the time, at Northwest University. After that, he published several articles on poetry, systematically elaborating on it. His own ideas of modern poetry have a great influence on the poetry world.

However, after being promoted to the editor-in-chief of "Yanhe", he focused more on avant-garde novels. In addition to his own writing, he also wrote some theoretical articles on avant-garde literature. He gradually fell silent in the poetry world and rarely Seeing his traces, Nishikawa said this again.

"Minghua, you have also seen that the debate in the poetry world is fierce now. The "folk writing" promoted by Yu Jian, Han Dong and others is diametrically opposed to the "intellectual writing" stance that Haizi, Tang Xiaodu, Chen Dongdong and others insist on. ”

Nishikawa continued: "I think it is actually a continuation of the debate between the third-generation poetry movement in the mid-1980s and the hazy poets such as Bei Dao and Shu Ting at that time."

Fang Minghua nodded.

Nishikawa does have a point.

The backbone of the "folk writing" movement is the original "Third Generation Poetry Movement" activists, Yu Jian, Han Dong, and Xu Jiang. They always insist on colloquial writing. Only the large number of poets from Sichuan Province such as Shang Zhongmin, Hu Dong and Wan Xia are missing.

On the "intellectual writing" side, Xichuan, Haizi, and Chen Dongdong inherited more of the poetic ideas of the hazy poets headed by Bei Dao and Shu Ting.

but

It is now the mid-1990s, and poetry has begun to lose the rich, nutritious soil it had in the 1980s.

Fang Minghua did not answer the question directly, but said: "Xichuan, before I went to the United States and returned to China, I was invited to participate in a poetry salon in San Francisco. The attendees were all post-Chinese poets and writers living in the United States, such as Bei Dao and Yang Lian, Duoduo, Huang Xiang, Zhai Yongming, Ouyang Jianghe. There are also writers Zha Jianying, Yan Geling, editor Li Tuo, etc. "

Xi Chuan couldn't help but widen his eyes when Fang Minghua slowly said the names of these people.

These were once all-powerful figures in the domestic poetry circle, and some of them were still his idols.

"The problem we discussed at that time was that foreign poetry is still popular, but domestic poetry is declining day by day. What is the problem?"

Fang Minghua recalled that everyone spoke at that time, and Xi Chuan listened carefully.

These poets who have gone abroad but are always paying attention to the trends in the domestic poetry scene, their speeches are indeed sharp.

This may be the reason why the bystander knows clearly, but the authorities are obsessed with it.

"Minghua, did you speak? What did you say?" Xichuan asked.