Back to 80: My Literary Life

But fortunately, Fang Minghua called Su Tong, Wang Anyi and Mo Yan in succession, and they all happily accepted the invitation.

Then he called Wang Shuo.

On the other end of the phone, Wang Shuo smiled and said that he was now an idle person, available at any time.

Wang Shuo returned to China last fall and stayed in the United States for only half a year.

After returning to China, he became quiet and no longer quarreled with those literati in the newspapers like before. At the beginning of this year, Shengshi Books published his book "Wang Shuo's Selected Works", which included classic works such as "Floating Out of the Sea", "Half Sea Water, Half Flame", "Die After Having a Good Time", and "I Am Your Father".

After publication, the sales were not bad, about 300,000 copies, and Wang Shuo also received a considerable amount of royalties, so he was naturally happy.

The last call was to Jia Pingwa.

According to the regulations, one-third of the members of the reading class judges of the World Chinese Literature Award are randomly replaced every year. This year, Fang Minghua and Jia Pingwa were replaced, so there was time.

He picked up the landline and dialed Jia Pingwa's mobile phone directly.

Soon the call was connected, and the microphone transmitted Jia Pingwa's Shangluo dialect that was not Shangluo dialect, nor Xijing dialect that was not Xijing dialect.

"Who is it?"

"I, Minghua, Jia brother, treat me." Fang Minghua said as soon as he opened his mouth.

"I have treated you before, who told you to go to the United States and not come back."

"That won't work, you have to treat me separately."

It turned out that in June this year, Jia Pingwa received an invitation letter from France. His novel "Wasteland" won the French Femina Literature Award, and he was invited to attend the award ceremony in Paris, France in August.

The Femina Award is also a famous French literary award, and Jia Pingwa is the first Chinese to win this award.

The Femina Award has a special feature, its judging committee is composed of all women!

But it is not the so-called "female fist". According to the selection results in 2017, the vast majority of awards were awarded to male authors.

Jia Pingwa was proud of winning this award, which has a certain influence internationally. Several friends have won the Mao Dun Award in China, which made him feel very embarrassed. He wrote the most but won the least.

Now that Fang Minghua had come back and asked him to treat him, he was quite generous: "Okay, let's talk about a time, and we'll have another meal together!"

"Then this weekend"

Fang Minghua certainly didn't call to ask Jia Pingwa to treat him. The two of them laughed for a while before telling him about inviting him to be a judge of my online competition.

"Oh, I just got rid of the judgeship of the World Chinese Language Award, and now I'm asked to be a judge of online literature. Let me first state that I don't know much about online literature."

"It's nothing special, just like any other literary competition." Fang Minghua explained.

"Okay, then, should I read online literature online?" Jia Pingwa asked another question.

"Yes, I'll send the manuscript to your mailbox in the form of an email, and you can read it slowly on your computer."

"Haha, fortunately I bought a computer to get online, otherwise I wouldn't even be qualified to be a judge. Okay, that's it."

The domestic literary world was very lively in 1998.

At the beginning of the year, the first Lu Xun Literature Award ceremony was held in Yenching, and more than 70 different types of literary works won awards.

Then in April, the long-awaited fourth Mao Dun Literature Prize was finally settled. Five novels including "White Deer Plain" won this honor. It has been seven years since the third Mao Dun Prize.

In early June, the call for papers for the fourth World Chinese Literature Award was officially launched. What is shocking is that the prize money for the winning novels will be increased from the original 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, which is the highest prize money in the country!

At the same time, another literary award has quietly appeared in the public eye.

"The First Online Original Literature Competition under the Banyan Tree!"

The competition includes the Best Novelist Award and the Best Novelist, with first, second and third prizes respectively, with prizes of 10,000 yuan, 5,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan. In addition, you can also be invited to participate in the award ceremony held in Shanghai, with all accommodation and transportation included.

As the organizer, the Banyan Tree Website not only published the call for papers on the main site, as well as literature websites such as Shuimu Tsinghua and Xici Hutong, but also placed call for papers on emerging portals such as Sohu and NetEase!

This immediately aroused the interest of the first generation of netizens in China, and many literature lovers were eager to try.

E Sheng, Xiangfan, a middle school.

Shang Ailan is a Chinese teacher in this middle school. She is in her early thirties this year. Like other Chinese teachers, she teaches diligently, likes to read literary books, and occasionally writes something herself, but has never published it publicly.

But she also has a hobby, surfing the Internet.

Since the school purchased a batch of computers last year, two of which can access the Internet, this has become her hobby, and she often uses her spare time to surf the Internet.

Browsing various websites and forums, she saw another world.

Of course, her favorite is the literary website, Under the Banyan Tree, Xici Hutong, and Jin Yong Inn. The one she likes to visit the most is Under the Banyan Tree.

This is known as the largest literary website in China. Unlike other websites, the novels published are all original, including novels, essays, and poems. And the literary quality is better than other websites.

After reading so many works, she also had an impulse to submit her works until she saw the call for papers for the online original literature competition published on the website.

Or, just submit your article?

I usually write a few things anyway, so I can pick one and send it over?

With the idea, Shang Ailan immediately took action and carefully selected a short story from her usual articles, named "Small Restaurant in the Age of Sexy".

The name of the novel is very eye-catching, but the content is indeed quite dull. The male protagonist "Mouse", the female protagonist "Female Colleague" and "Colleague's Colleague", three vague characters hurriedly chat, surf the Internet, and even have a one-night stand.

It brings together all the hot topics related to the Internet in this era.

Well, that's it.

This afternoon, she didn't have classes, so Shang Ailan secretly ran to the computer room of the school, changed into slippers, typed this novel into a Word document, and then sent it out according to the address published on the website.

Although it was only about 5,000 words, her lack of typing skills also consumed her entire afternoon.

She sighed and habitually looked at her watch.

Oh, it's half past five, my daughter has already finished school, so I hurried to pick her up.

Writing this thing by myself is a small matter, but delaying picking up my daughter is a big deal!

My daughter is nine years old this year and is in the third grade of elementary school. In addition to picking up my daughter and tutoring her homework, Shang Ailan has another very important job: guiding her daughter to write articles.

Not essays, but novels!

Last summer, my daughter wrote several essays. She is planning to compile a collection of essays and is looking for a publisher to publish it.

She is proud to have such a smart and talented daughter.

She gave her daughter a nice name, Jiang Fangzhou.