Back to 80: My Literary Life

After more than ten years of operation, the World Chinese Literature Award has become very mature and has become one of the three major domestic literary awards together with the Mao Dun Award and the Lu Xun Award.

Preparatory activities for the Sixth Chinese Literature Award began last year. The reading class’s preliminary evaluation meeting ended in January this year. According to the plan, the jury will hold a meeting in early May for final evaluation, and the award results of this session will be announced immediately.

However, the sudden epidemic disrupted the plan, forcing the final evaluation and awards to be postponed. The epidemic has just ended, and we are preparing to hold a jury meeting immediately.

Fang Minghua rarely participates in this literary award that he personally created, but he will give the award in the end to support Bai Miao's work.

This year’s Chinese Language Awards will be presented on July 18, and will be held in Changsha. The final judging meeting of the jury is being held in Changsha in the past few days, and it has been very popular in the media and on the Internet.

The current Organizing Committee Office, as the permanent operating agency of the Chinese Literature Award, is no longer a temporary team put together by Fang Minghua. It has more than 40 formal employees and consists of the General Office, the Press Secretariat, the External Relations Office, and the Information Technology Office. , Logistics Department and several other internal agencies.

The office location was also moved from the original Writers Association building to the building where the Shengshi Group headquarters was located at the Duanlumen intersection. The Chinese Literature Award Foundation was also moved there at the same time.

Bai Miao also serves as the director of the organizing committee office, and the deputy director is Wang Zi.

This morning, Fang Minghua specially drove to the organizing committee building. Accompanied by Wang Zi, he visited various offices with great interest.

Wang Zi has also turned 30 this year. Wearing a white shirt with short sleeves and a gray skirt, with a work badge hanging around his neck, he looks smart and capable.

Fang Minghua has known Wang Zi for more than ten years. Wang Zi was still an underage girl and a tenant of the courtyard house that Fang Minghua bought. She liked literature and received guidance from Fang Minghua.

Later, he went to Gan Province to teach for a year and a half, and finally stayed in Xijing to become a staff member of the organizing committee office.

Fast forward more than ten years, Wang Zi has become a mother, and as a full-time deputy director responsible for office work, she appears to be shrewd and capable.

The office building has been renovated and is full of modern atmosphere. There are relatively few people working today, making it seem a bit deserted.

Wang Zi introduced: "Teacher Fang, most of the staff followed Director Bai to Changsha to prepare for the award ceremony. I am responsible for the daily affairs at home."

Fang Minghua nodded.

Wang Zi's current focus is to be responsible for the daily operations of the organizing committee office, and occasionally publish novels and essays.

The world has lost a female writer named Mianmian, but has gained a white-collar elite who loves literature.

"Teacher Fang, this is our network center, responsible for unit network operations. We have also established our own website to release news about the Chinese Literature Award in a timely manner."

Fang Minghua went in and took a look. There were six computers inside, and two young people were looking at the computers attentively.

"Is there no problem with funding security?" Fang Minghua asked again.

"No problem, the funds for the entire unit's operations can be guaranteed." Wang Zi said with a smile: "Teacher Fang, to tell you the truth, my salary is higher than my husband's salary, and he is envious of me."

Wang Zi’s husband is a lecturer in the Chinese Department of Northwest University. They got married six years ago and now have a lovely son.

Fang Minghua smiled slightly after hearing this.

As the chairman of the Chinese Literature Award Foundation, he allocates ample funds to the organizing committee office every year. In addition to issuing bonuses, most of them are used for the daily operations of the unit, including personnel salaries.

Fang Minghua is not stingy with staff salaries. Like Wang Zi, his monthly salary is 5,000 yuan, which is far more than the remuneration of senior white-collar workers in some companies in Xijing, and does not include bonuses and overtime pay.

In Fang Minghua's words, we are not short of money. We will give you high salaries so that you can work hard and stop worrying about daily necessities.

After walking around the organizing committee office on the second floor, Fang Minghua went up to the third floor. Part of it was still the office of the organizing committee, and the other half was the office of the Chinese Literature Foundation.

The Chinese Foundation has very few staff, with only six full-time staff, who mainly manage the foundation's assets - except for the courtyard house in Yanjing, which is a fixed asset of the foundation and has now been rented out. The rest is in cash in the bank, about 80 million yuan.

In Fang Minghua's words, our foundation does not require donations from anyone or any organization, and unlike the Nobel Prize Foundation, the assets managed need to be maintained and appreciated, and must be invested in stocks, funds, bonds and even real estate.

You can just keep it in the bank and earn interest. If it is not enough in the future, I will replenish it from my personal assets.

However, this year, under the strong suggestion of the foundation’s full-time director Liu Wenxing, a master’s degree student in finance who graduated from the Central University of Finance and Economics, the foundation began to invest in some steady investments in treasury bonds, accounting for about one-fifth of the total funds.

Now Liu Wenxing is chatting with him in the office.

Liu Wenxing is in his early thirties, wearing glasses and a gentle man. He took out a piece of information from his office drawer and handed it to Fang Minghua.

"Chairman Fang, here is your foundation's financial report and investment status for the first half of the year. Take a look."

Fang Minghua took it and took a look at it, then put it in his briefcase.

"Okay, I'll go back and take a look."

In fact, he doesn't want to look at it at all. He doesn't like to use his brain on financial matters and leaves them all to his wife. Anyway, the foundation's accounts are very simple.

"Chairman Fang, I feel that our country's real estate industry will surely develop rapidly in the future. I suggest buying some real estate in Yanjing and Shencheng, which will definitely increase the value of the foundation's property, so there is no need to transfer funds from your personal assets."

What else can you do if you don't transfer the money?

I can't spend it all.

But seeing Liu Wenxing's eager eyes, he probably felt bored staying in the foundation with a high salary. As a top student graduated from a prestigious university, he always wanted to do something.

"Okay then." Fang Minghua agreed.

In the next ten years, domestic real estate can be said to be the most profitable industry.

"However, the funds invested in real estate cannot exceed one-third of the total funds, and sufficient cash flow must be guaranteed." Fang Minghua emphasized at the end.

Liu Wenxing was immediately excited after hearing this: "Okay, I plan to recruit 4-5 investment and financial professionals to set up an investment office to be responsible for the foundation's investment projects."

Fang Minghua nodded: "Okay."

After a long circle around the organizing committee building, Fang Minghua drove home.

On July 16, Fang Minghua flew to Changsha to attend this year's World Chinese Language Awards ceremony.