Literary Master 1978

Although Chen Huaikai was in charge, Tao Yushu was still uneasy and planned to go to Yunnan for a few days to put some pressure on Chen Kaige.

There are still five months left before the West Berlin Film Festival, so she is not worried at all if it is the directors from Xiangjiang.

But if you don't put some pressure on Chen Kaige and his fellow academics, they will really dare to hold you back for half a year.

Tao Yushu went to Xishuangbanna, and the children were mainly taken care of by Zhang Guiqin and Adi.

After adapting to the life of having a nanny at home, Zhang Guiqin no longer complained much. It was indeed a lot easier to have someone to share these things with.

Especially Dongdong is about to be four years old now, and she is as active as a monkey every day, which looks very tiring.

Another benefit of Adi's presence is that Lin Erchun now leaves early and comes home late. She is usually at home alone and has to go to the alley to find someone to talk to.

With Adi, Zhang Guiqin also has someone to talk to.

On this day, Lin Chaoyang was finishing his new novel. Li Tuo and Chen Jiangong came to the house and gathered several people living in the west courtyard, begging Lin Chaoyang to cook to satisfy everyone's cravings.

"You've been gone for two months, and all the oil and water in my brothers' stomachs has dried up."

Chen Jiangong said it pitifully. Those who didn't know it thought they wouldn't be able to eat without Lin Chaoyang.

During the meal, everyone chatted and mentioned some major events in the Yanjing literary world in the past few months.

After the news spread, the literary world was shocked.

In the past few months, whenever there is a gathering in the literary world, this matter will inevitably become the focus of discussion.

Li Tuo said with regret, "I knew I should have hugged Lao Wang's thigh more in the past two years. Why are you messing around with Lao Lin! If I had hugged Lao Wang's thigh tightly, I would be a department-level cadre now." ?”

"Stop! Stop!" Lin Chaoyang stopped the two of them from thinking.

Their imaginations are basically Jingye's nonsense, mostly joking and not serious at all.

Zhu Wei also talked about the current situation of "People's Literature". After Wang Meng left, "People's Literature" did not have another editor-in-chief. Instead, Liu Xinwu was transferred to the magazine as deputy editor-in-chief.

From being a popular writer to being the head of the country's number one literary magazine, everyone was filled with envy of Liu Xinwu.

Only Lin Chaoyang himself knew that Liu Xinwu, the deputy editor-in-chief, would not last more than a few months.

While chatting, Li Tuo suddenly became interested in when "The Truman Show" would be released in China.

"You have to ask China Film and Television about this. By the way, why do you care about this?"

"After all, it's a film that won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Isn't it enough to care about it?"

Chen Jiangong said with a smile: "He is not concerned about the movie, but he is concerned about the reaction of the domestic people after the movie is released."

"The Truman Show" caused quite a controversy in China after its publication last year, and it lasted for quite some time.

A few months ago, the movie "The Truman Show" was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival. When the news spread back to China, those who were controversial about the novel were immediately stunned.

Foreign monks can chant sutras, not only in Xiangjiang, but also in the mainland.

The film "The Truman Show" can win awards at internationally renowned film festivals. How high is this level? There is nothing to question.

During that time, the voices that originally opposed and criticized the novel were suppressed and were unable to resist.

But when it comes to quarrels, as long as one party doesn't admit defeat, it's basically impossible to win.

As time goes by, the influence of the awards on "The Truman Show" gradually weakens, and those objections and criticisms become active again.

This makes "Lin Chui" Li Tuo, who has always supported "The Truman Show", very unhappy. He now urgently needs the movie to be released to teach those who oppose it a lesson.

"These people are talking nonsense now because the movie has not been released in China. I just want to see what they will look like after the movie is released." Li Tuo said angrily.

"What kind of face can it be? Just shut up and pretend nothing happened. Have you forgotten when the news of winning the award just came back?

These people, as long as it doesn't conform to their aesthetics, they are absolutely evil. How do you expect these people to turn around and praise "The Truman Show"? "

Chen Jiangong and Li Tuo were having a great time chatting. Zhang Yimou, who was standing by the side, felt very excited listening to their chat. He couldn't help but ask Lin Chaoyang about some details of film shooting and exhibition participation.

For an academic filmmaker like him, it is a dream to win an award at a top international film festival like the Cannes Film Festival.

Lin Chaoyang's focus is different from theirs. After the movie's awards have been won and the box office has been released, the rest of the things have little to do with him.

The only connection is that the influence of the movie can feed back into the original novel.

After winning the award, the original novel "The Truman Show" became popular not only in Hong Kong, but also in China.

After all, if you win a grand prize abroad at this time, you are definitely bringing glory to the country!

Not only literature lovers, but ordinary people also want to know what this novel is about and why it can win awards abroad.

At this time, the movie was not released in China for a long time, but it actually boosted the sales of the "The Truman Show" novel.

Since June, sales of "The Truman Show" have remained high in the mainland.

Unlike Xiangjiang, where the market is too small and sales suddenly explode and then start to slump, sales in the mainland have maintained a steady downward trend after a substantial increase.

The sales volume in May was only 130,000 copies, but it suddenly soared to 510,000 copies in June, 450,000 copies in July, and 390,000 copies in August... This sales decline can be said to be abnormally healthy.

Also because of this wave of strong rebound after winning the award, the sales volume of "The Truman Show" easily broke through the 3 million copy mark one year after its publication in the mainland, with a total cumulative sales volume of 3.2 million copies.

According to this trend, the sales volume is expected to exceed 5 million copies by the first half of next year.

Successful film and television adaptations often bring huge reader feedback to the original novel, and Lin Chaoyang has benefited from this more than once.

In addition to "The Truman Show" this year, the gold content of "The Chess Master" is also constantly increasing.

After the end of the first China-Japan Go Challenge, the sales of this novel did not decline all the way, but became more and more popular because of the opening of the second China-Japan Go Challenge.

The Go competition between China and Japan has prompted more and more people to become interested in Go, a chess sport that was originally unpopular.

Over the past year, the Chinese people's attention to and enthusiasm for learning Go have been rising.

In this craze, "The Go Master" has become a must-read for almost every Go enthusiast and follower.

As of the end of July this year, the cumulative sales of "The Go Master" have successfully exceeded 10 million copies, becoming another super bestseller in Lin Chaoyang's works with sales exceeding 10 million copies.

It took nearly five years for "The Go Master" to go from 0 to 10 million copies, but it must take less than five years to go from 10 million to 20 million copies.

Because in August, "The Go Master" sold another 380,000 copies.

A novel can still achieve such dazzling sales five years after its publication, which has broken the usual rules of the book market and is simply unreasonable, but the facts are here.

Seeing that "The Go Master" has launched an impact on the sales of 20 million copies with a faster and more fierce attitude, people can only sigh that Lin Chaoyang has stepped on dog shit luck.

He wrote a novel about Go, and it just happened to coincide with the wave of Go competition between China and Japan.

High sales also means a surge in income.

Although Lin Chaoyang only re-signed a royalty contract with Yanjing Publishing House the year before last, the sales explosion of "The Go Master" was more concentrated in the past two years.

This means that he still received most of the royalties calculated by sales.

So far, the royalties and royalties created by "The Go Master" for Lin Chaoyang have accumulated more than 2 million yuan.

In 1986, he earned more than 2 million yuan from the royalties of a single novel, which can be said to be the best in the Chinese literary world, and this record will continue to be broken.

When friends get together, they often mention Lin Chaoyang's income, which is difficult to avoid.

Chatting is inseparable from works, and talking about works will talk about sales, and naturally talk about income.

Lin Chaoyang is different from others. His works have always been popular, and he is the first writer in China who dares to ask the publisher for royalties.

In the past three years, the royalty payment system has not been widely popular in the domestic publishing industry.

The reason is very simple. The royalty payment is not something that any writer will agree to if he asks the publishing house for it.

Without fame, strength, or the best-selling of previous works, which writer would dare to ask the publishing house for such a request?

Moreover, the royalty payment system also has risks for writers.

If the sales of the works are not good, the income they get may not be as much as the remuneration for a thousand words. In fact, this is also the biggest headache for many writers.

Despite the literary boom in the 1980s, most writers who are not famous did not sell much more after the publication of their works than in later generations.

Speaking of this, we have to mention that Li Tuo and Feng Jicai edited a collection of short stories for Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House that year.

Claiming to "summarize the most representative short stories in recent years", they did so and edited them very carefully.

Unfortunately, the collection of novels sold less than 20,000 copies in one year after its publication.

This is certainly not a loss, but the publishing house did not make much money either, and it was basically a state of making a fuss.

The reason for this situation is that, in addition to the fact that these works themselves have already had a high degree of exposure and popularity, many readers have already read them, and it is difficult to arouse the desire to buy novel collections, the fundamental reason is that the development of domestic literary products has deviated since the new era.

When it comes to the literature of the 1980s, what do many readers and literature lovers of this period think of?

"People's Literature", "Harvest", "October", "Contemporary", "Yenching Literature"...

The names of these well-known literary magazines must flash through people's minds, because the literary boom in the 1980s was largely supported by these literary magazines.

The reasons are not complicated. The disaster brought to the Chinese literary world by the torrent of humanity is profound. During that period, China's literary creation fell into stagnation and even regression.

The writers' group is in a period of transition, the quality of literary works is worrying, there is a shortage of printing paper, and the policy direction is unclear... The problems faced by the Chinese literary world in the mid-to-late 1970s are complex.

But at this time, the carrier that can perfectly deal with these thorny problems-literary magazines have emerged.

Backed by a large publishing house, there is no need to worry about the risks of printing paper and policies. It was well-known throughout the country before the flood of humanity, and it has a reputation that attracts many contributors. Its outstanding editing ability can efficiently screen and cultivate potential authors.

The rise of literary magazines seems to be a matter of course, but while the rise of these magazines has given rise to a literary boom, it has also limited the dissemination of works to a certain extent.

Because most literary works in the 1980s would be published in literary magazines before publication, this would certainly increase the popularity and influence of the works and writers, but it would also weaken readers' desire to buy the works after publication.

You should know that the price of publications in this era is not cheap relative to people's wages, and it can even be said to be expensive.

Since you can see the new works of most excellent and well-known writers in literary magazines, there is no need to spend money to buy the published ones, unless you like the works so much that you may spend more money.

Therefore, we will see an interesting phenomenon in the literary world in the 1980s.

Many well-known literary magazines have sales of hundreds of thousands or millions of copies per issue, but when the works published in them are published independently, it is often difficult to reach this level.

You can say that readers may buy the magazine for its fame, but the problem is that the fame and sales of the magazine are also brought by the works.

And this phenomenon is not an isolated case, but a common phenomenon.

Lin Chaoyang is one of the few writers who can break this phenomenon. A few years ago, he had a name "Lin Baiwan" that has been circulating among major domestic literary magazines.

The so-called "million" does not refer to the royalties. Lin Chaoyang did not get the royalties of the million level at that time, but it means that if a magazine can publish his new work, the sales of the current issue can easily exceed one million copies.

At first, some people did not believe this fact, but as more and more magazines cooperated with Lin Chaoyang, this fact was constantly verified.

In particular, the publication of "Crossing the Guandong" in "Huacheng" in 1983 and "Crossing the Guandong" in 1984 can be said to have brought a huge shock to major Chinese literary magazines.

Among them, "Crossing the Guandong" has a single issue of more than 3 million copies, setting a mythical sales record in the Chinese literary magazine industry, and also led to an overall increase in the sales and influence of "Huacheng" magazine.

That year, the status of Huacheng among readers was comparable to that of People's Literature and Harvest.

Unfortunately, after Crossing Guandong, Lin Chaoyang decided not to release his works in magazines for the first time.

The strong development momentum of Huacheng was not maintained, and the sales volume has been falling in the past two years.

Fortunately, no matter how much it falls, it is much better than before Lin Chaoyang's works were published.

During the National Day holiday, Tao Yushu just returned to Yanjing from Yunnan, and heard the news that The Truman Show was confirmed to be released in China.

It was released in most of the world, but the domestic screening was late. The most dissatisfied people about this matter were not Lin Chaoyang and his wife, but those loyal fans of Lin Chaoyang.

The one who sent this news was Wang Meng. Since becoming the Minister of Culture, Comrade Wang has been busy with all kinds of affairs.

It was not easy to have a few days of rest during the National Day, and he specially ran to Lin Chaoyang's house to visit, calling it a visit, but actually asking for credit.

According to him, the reason why the introduction of "The Truman Show" in China was so slow was that it was stuck in the review.

A comrade in charge of review at the Film Bureau believed that this work, like "1984", had political implications.

"I was chatting with Comrade Daming the other day, and I accidentally talked about this matter and learned that your movie was stuck at the Film Bureau.

After all, it won a big award abroad and brought glory to the country. It would be a pity if it could not be screened in China.

These people are just messing around!

Then I learned about the situation from Comrade Fang Yu, and it was not a big problem.

"1984" can now be bought in bookstores, and the novel of "The Truman Show" is also on sale. Why can't the movie be released?

Thanks to Comrade Daming for saying it now. If it was a little later, I might not be qualified to manage this matter."

The "Daming" mentioned by Wang Meng is Ding Daming, the general manager of China Film Corporation, and "Fang Yu" is Shi Fangyu, the director of the Film Bureau.

And there is a reason why he said "I would not be qualified to manage it if it was a little later".

Before this year, the Film Bureau was under the Ministry of Culture. In January this year, the Film Bureau was merged into the Ministry of Radio and Television.

However, the merger of the Film Bureau and the Ministry of Radio and Television is not thorough at this stage, and the distribution-related work is still under the management of the Ministry of Culture.

This is why Ding Daming reported to Wang Meng.

After listening to Wang Meng's talk about "The Truman Show", Lin Chaoyang thanked him and asked jokingly: "You are such a big leader, you came to our house, you don't come just to show yourself off, right?"

If you just want to take credit, no one will come to someone else's house and take the initiative to talk about this.

Wang Meng's eyes narrowed with a smile, looking cunning.

"I heard that you and Yu Shu opened a film company in Hong Kong, and you are one of the producers of "The Truman Show."

Lin Chaoyang asked: "Isn't the film business not under your control? Why are you still concerned about it?"

"It's not me who is worried, it's Comrade Fang Yu who is worried. He didn't know about you and your wife before, and it was through "The Truman Show" that he learned that you are now making movies."

Wang Meng's words not only explained the purpose of his visit, but also explained to Shi Fangyu, proving that he did not know about "The Truman Show" being stuck before.

Lin Chaoyang didn't feel much about this. Later "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was not released in China.

"What's wrong? How can the leader use us?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

"I don't know the details. If you don't have any ideas, I'll ask him to come over tomorrow and you can meet and chat."

It turned out that Wang Meng came here to stand in front of him. Shi Fangyu, a department-level cadre, wanted to make a special trip to meet and chat with Lin Chaoyang. He could roughly guess what they were going to talk about.

The next day, Lin Chaoyang met Shi Fangyu. This was not the first time the two met. They had met before during the review of "Wreaths Under the Mountain".

Shi Fangyu was very warm when he met Lin Chaoyang. He first mentioned the omissions in the introduction of "The Truman Show", expressed his apology to Lin Chaoyang, and then mentioned the production of this movie.

Lin Chaoyang introduced him to some aspects of film investment and production. Shi Fangyu said with emotion: "I really didn't expect that "The Truman Show" was originally a work from our mainland, but it was actually made by a film company in Hong Kong. Movie."

At this point, Shi Fangyu's purpose of coming has become clear.

"Speaking of it, we didn't do our job well! Not only "The Truman Show", I've been paying attention in the past two days and found out that you have now cooperated with our studio on a movie?"

"Yes, I just collaborated with West Film Studio on a film, directed by Chen Kaige, adapted from Cheng's "The King of Children"."

Shi Fangyu nodded. In fact, he understood the situation.

"Then this movie...is going to the film festival?"

This sentence is the focus of Shi Fangyu's visit today.

As an official, who doesn’t need political achievements? Film bureau officials are no exception.

Over the years, the Film Bureau has frequently supported domestic films to go abroad to participate in foreign film festivals. Why?

In addition to the pitiful output of political and cultural influence, the more it produces results.

When a film wins awards overseas, it is an achievement for filmmakers, and it is naturally a political achievement for officials in the film field.

So when Shi Fangyu heard that the introduction of "The Truman Show" was actually blocked by his subordinates, you can imagine his anger.

A novel written by a mainland writer that was not filmed in the mainland and won an award as a foreign film has already made him, the director of the Film Bureau, very embarrassed.

Now that the introduction is still stuck, it is simply the opposite of Tiangang!

When you are a civil servant, you have to talk about politics, but you can't just talk about politics.

"The Truman Show" was a hit at the Cannes Film Festival. Even if there are some minor problems, they are still flaws. In the final analysis, it is bringing glory to the country.

"Yes, I want to see if I can participate in next year's West Berlin Film Festival."

Shi Fangyu asked: "Why not attend the Cannes Film Festival?"

After he finished speaking, he was afraid that Lin Chaoyang would misunderstand, so he explained: "I just think you have gained something at the Cannes Film Festival after all."

Lin Chaoyang said: "The story style of "The King of Children" is more suitable for the West Berlin Film Festival."

Lin Chaoyang's words were very simple. Officials are all smart people. How could Shi Fangyu not understand what he meant?

What a prize!

"Are you sure?" Shi Fangyu asked expectantly.

"It's hard to say for sure. But Kego's level is good, so he should have no problem being shortlisted. For film festivals, anyone who is shortlisted has a chance to win the award."

In Lin Chaoyang's memory, Harden, the current artistic director of the West Berlin Film Festival, admired "The King of Children" very much, but there was certainly no need for him to say such a thing.

Seeing Lin Chaoyang's confident expression, Shi Fangyu couldn't help but trust Chen Kaige a little more when he thought of the brilliant results achieved by "The Truman Show" at the Cannes Film Festival.

"Then when you sign up for the movie, do you want to..."

"Kids King" is a co-production, and all producers are eligible to sign up for the competition.

But Lam Pictures is the leading party. If they sign up from Xiangjiang in the name of the company, even if the film wins an award, it will have little to do with the film bureau.

Lin Chaoyang knew the purpose of Shi Fangyu's visit today, so he thought it was okay to just be a favor.

"I'm afraid the film bureau will have to worry about participating in the film festival."

Shi Fangyu smiled broadly when he heard this, "It should, it should. An excellent film like "The King of Children" should be famous overseas for our country."

"Then I'll cause trouble for you!" Lin Chaoyang said politely.

"Well, "The King of Children" is a domestic film, isn't this what we should do.

It just so happened that there was a young man from China Film Academy who had studied in the Democratic Republic of Germany and had a good relationship with the West Berlin Film Festival. "

After talking about "The King of Children" signing up for the exhibition, Shi Fangyu was in a good mood, and casually chatted with Lin Chaoyang about the situation of the Hong Kong Film Market.

He listened to Lin Chaoyang talk for a long time and said with emotion: "The development of the film industry in Xiangjiang is indeed much better than that in the mainland. You have a lot to do with this film company!"

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand, "How can it be so easy!"

Shi Fangyu looked puzzled when he heard this. He had clearly said that the situation was going well just now, so why did he say that it was not going well now?

As our cooperation with domestic countries gradually deepens, these conflicts will become inevitable in the future. "

Crying children are fed by milk. Although the film bureau may not be able to help, it doesn't hurt to let the leaders know about the situation.

Perhaps feeling that his response was not very kind, Shi Fangyu said: "I will communicate with Yindu. You are both in Hong Kong, so you can take care of each other."

Lin Chaoyang also knew that the help he could provide with Shi Fangyu's status was actually very limited. He smiled and thanked Shi Fangyu.

Two days later, Lin Chaoyang's new work was finished, and he called Li Shifei as soon as possible.