Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Then Chairman Fang doesn't agree to our conditions. How about we change someone? Fang Minghua is not the only famous writer in the literary world." Xiao Liu came up with another idea.

"There are indeed many famous writers in the domestic literary world, but who is as famous as Fang Minghua? So popular? More importantly, his lectures are popular, easy to understand, and full of wit. Otherwise, we can go to the Chinese Department of Yan University and find a professor at random. Everyone is full of knowledge, but people don't like what they say. After all, they are not students of the Chinese Department but ordinary people!"

"This" Xiao Liu was speechless.

"What if, what if Chairman Fang doesn't agree to our conditions?" Xiao Liu raised another question.

"Then we will modify the conditions and no longer insist on owning the copyright of his book." Xie Ruguang sighed and said, "Of course, I will call the leaders of the station to report this matter."

Xiao Liu didn't say anything after hearing this, and was secretly puzzled.

"Lecture Room" has been broadcast for more than a year and has been broadcast for more than 60 episodes. This is the first time that the contract has to be modified for one person!

Besides, after the two left, Fang Minghua also returned to his home.

He didn't care about this matter. It would be better if the other party didn't agree to one less thing.

But he didn't expect that he would receive a call from Jie Ruguang shortly after he went to work the next morning. He agreed to his request and no longer required to own part of the publishing copyright in the contract.

"Chairman Fang, I'm in your unit now. Please come over to sign the contract." Jie Ruguang said with a smile on the other end of the phone.

This

"Okay then." Fang Minghua agreed.

He went to the Writers Association again. After meeting Jie Ruguang, the two parties signed the contract. Fang Minghua went home and started to prepare.

Since he agreed, he had to prepare well.

He traveled to this era, which happened to be the early 1980s: the beginning of the golden age of literature. In the blink of an eye, more than 20 years have passed.

In the past 20 years, domestic literature has developed rapidly, experienced one development stage after another, and burst out with unprecedented passion.

Scar literature, educated youth literature, root-seeking literature, avant-garde literature, new realist novels, as well as obscure poetry, university student poetry school, and third-generation poets.

I was fortunate to participate in it, and I also met a lot of influential figures in the literary world of this era: Wang Meng, Chen Zhongshi, Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, etc.

They either called each other brothers or friends, and some even called themselves teachers. There are too many things worth writing about.

And this era is about to end, and it is also worth recalling.

Let's start from the first time I came to this era and dealt with literature, using poetry to dissuade the young student of Xi'an Jiaotong University - now my brother-in-law Liu Jianjun.

"My entry into the literary world was a very accidental event. That year I was just 20 years old. As an educated youth who had just returned to the city after joining the team, I was a doorman at the Yanhe magazine."

"One day, I met a student who claimed to be from Xi'an Jiaotong University and wanted to meet our editor with a poem he wrote."

Fang Minghua narrated all the stories he had experienced related to literature.

The first time she wrote a novel "Hidden in the Dust", the first time she received royalties and invited Lu Yao and others to eat mutton soup, and participated in a contemporary poetry essay contest

In interesting little stories, Fang Minghua also wrote about the collision and change of various literary schools in the literary world.

This is how Fang Minghua spent this summer.

Daughter Fang Rui did not return to China. She called and said that she went to Los Angeles to visit Liu Yifei during the holiday. She stayed in Amber Mountain Manor for a few days. The two girls were still led by Liu Xiaoli, driving along California Highway 1, driving from the vast mountains and endless coastline, watching the romantic and healing orange sunset all the way.

She also sent a selfie of the two of them, pouting and stretching out the scissors hand, youthful and cute.

Son Fang Le joined the National Olympic Mathematics Training Team and represented the country to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad in Glasgow, England.

Under the pressure of his mother Song Tangtang, he sent a photo of him in Glasgow, doing questions, with test papers and materials piled on his desk.

Song Tangtang is very busy with company affairs and often leaves early and comes back late. Now, except for the nanny who does housework, Fang Minghua is the only one at home, so it is just right for her to write quietly.

Song Tangtang glanced at what Fang Minghua wrote.

"Minghua, I feel like you are writing an autobiography."

"Almost, an autobiography of my literary career," Fang Minghua said with a smile.

In early September, Fang Minghua sent the three speeches he had written to the CCTV "Lecture Room" program team for review in the form of an email. Soon in late September, Fang Minghua received a call from Jie Ruguang, asking him to go to the CCTV building in Yanjing for recording.

Fang Minghua naturally arrived as scheduled. He flew to Yanjing and stayed in a hotel on Fuxing Road.

In this era, the "Big Pants" had not been repaired yet, and the CCTV headquarters was still on the old site of Fuxing Road, next to CCTV No. 1 studio. This old building has a significant sense of historical age, and its iconic CCTV butterfly is very conspicuous.

After Fang Minghua settled down, he contacted Jie Ruguang and rushed to the CCTV building to enter the studio to record the program.

The whole recording process went smoothly, but it still took three full days to record three episodes.

After the work was completed, Jie Xueguang invited Fang Minghua to dinner, but he declined politely.

He was tired of drinking.

After leaving the CCTV building, Fang Minghua found a small restaurant nearby and ate a bowl of noodles with soybean sauce to fill his stomach, and then went back to the hotel where he was staying.

While eating noodles, his cell phone suddenly rang. He opened it and saw that it was Su Bin, the CEO of Shengshi Books, and picked it up.

After a few words of small talk, Su Bin came straight to the point: "Minghua, I heard that you are going to be on the "Lecture Room" column to talk about modern Chinese literature?"

Fang Minghua was surprised. Apart from a limited number of people, few people knew about this matter, and the program had just been recorded and had not yet started.

"How did you know? Did you hear it from my wife?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Haha, Mr. Song didn't say it. A friend of mine from CCTV listened to your lecture in the studio the day before yesterday and felt it was very interesting - I have never heard anyone talk about modern literature like this. Now he mentioned this matter when we were having dinner together, so I called to ask you."

"Are you in Yanjing?"

"Yes, I am in Yanjing now. How about coming to eat together?" Su Bin greeted enthusiastically.

"No, I just want to eat something and go back to the hotel to rest." Fang Minghua declined.

"Well, Minghua, I called you because I want you to edit the manuscript for publication. The idea of ​​twenty years of literature is quite good. I think it's time to summarize it."

"Yes. It's time to summarize it." Fang Minghua also replied, and agreed very readily.

"Okay, I'll go back and revise it."

"Okay. I'll wait for your news."