Literary Master 1978

Yanyuan, which had been silent for more than a month, ushered in the busiest day of the winter vacation on the first day of the Lunar New Year. People were either paying New Year greetings or on their way to pay New Year greetings.

When visiting someone’s home to pay New Year’s greetings, it’s inevitable to talk about homely matters.

This year, Tao Yumo, the youngest daughter of the Tao family, became a hot topic of discussion at homes near Langrun Lake Apartment.

For many years, the Tao sisters have been regarded as the most beautiful in the Langrun Lake Apartment area. In addition, they were both admitted to a prestigious school in Yanjing, so people in the Langrun Lake Apartment area have always said that they are " Someone else’s daughter.”

Don’t think that the professors and lecturers at Yanda must all be college students. There are many juniors in the families around you who have never gone to college.

In the past, Tao Yumo was beautiful, but no one felt that there was any difference. This time after returning from Xiangjiang, the perception was completely different.

She is almost like the female star in "Popular Cinema".

To be precise, she is more beautiful than those female celebrities. After all, the photos in magazines these days are all about orthodox aesthetics, not so fashionable, and can even be said to be a bit tacky.

Tao Yumo's dress is more like a female star in a foreign movie, which is called exquisite.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, she went with her family to pay New Year greetings. As she walked on the road, she attracted the admiring eyes of many young men.

"Hey, you can really attract the wind!"

When they met on the third day of the Lunar New Year, Du Feng teased Tao Yumo.

"Do you care?" Tao Yumo rolled his eyes at him.

Tao Yucheng, who was behind him, spoke up: "You're right, she's not only attracting attention, she's almost taken away the souls of those young men at Yan University."

The Tao family and the Du family hold family gatherings every year, and this year is no different. They rarely meet a few times a year, and they always feel particularly cordial.

Du Feng immediately approached Lin Chaoyang and said excitedly: "Brother-in-law, have you watched the Spring Festival Gala?"

Lin Chaoyang knew what Du Feng was going to say, "Look."

"Did you look at that tall mixed-race guy in the Spring Festival Gala? He's so handsome! We invited him to the store celebration this year, and I asked someone to contact him."

This year's Spring Festival Gala has just ended for two days, but Du Feng's "big tall mixed race" has already become popular throughout China.

On the Spring Festival Gala of 1987, Fei Xiang used "a fire in winter" to ignite the enthusiasm of young girls and young wives across China to pursue stars.

After chatting with Lin Chaoyang about Fei Xiang for a while, Du Feng mentioned the black windbreaker that Tao Yushu asked him to prepare in advance, and complimented his sister's strategizing.

This winter, the clothing city sold more than a thousand pieces of black windbreakers priced at 69 yuan each, making it the No. 1 fashion item in Yanjing City.

"Come on, don't say these useless things."

Tao Yushu interrupted his flattery, and Du Feng seriously talked about the clothing city.

In less than two months, it will be almost a year since the opening of the clothing city. Except for the first two months when business was relatively sluggish, business at other times has been steadily increasing.

Especially during the Spring Festival, the single-day turnover exceeded 200,000 yuan for many consecutive days. The turnover in January alone exceeded 3.3 million yuan.

As of the last day of business during the Spring Festival, the cumulative turnover of Asia-Europe Garment City reached more than 16.4 million yuan, with a gross profit of nearly 12 million yuan.

"If it weren't for the impact of the return and exchange policy, our gross profit margin would have reached 70%." Du Feng said with a little regret.

The gross profit margin of the high-end clothing industry has always been very high, especially in the 1990s. It was even more ridiculously high. The 70% gross profit margin mentioned by Du Feng was a very conservative figure for the clothing industry in the 1990s.

In contrast, Asia-Europe Garment City's pricing policy and product quality are already very conscientious.

"Without the reputation brought by the return and exchange policy, how could we have such a high turnover? Don't put the cart before the horse." Tao Yushu reminded.

Du Feng smiled and said: "Sister, look at what you said, can I still not understand this point?"

He also talked about net profit. After excluding taxes, rent, labor, water and electricity, cargo damage, loans, interest and many other expenses, the clothing city's net profit last year was also 8.1 million.

Du Feng discussed with Tao Yushu and wanted to distribute 4 million yuan in dividends and leave 4.1 million yuan in the account to expand operations.

The clothing city made a lot of money in the first year of its opening. His confidence grew. In addition to the envisioned project in Shijiazhuang, he also wanted to open one in Shanghai.

Moreover, this one in Shanghai is larger and more high-end than that in Yanjing. After all, from an economic perspective, Shanghai is not inferior to Yanjing, and people in Shanghai are more willing to spend money on dressing up.

Du Feng believes that if the clothing city opens there, the business will only be better than that in Yanjing.

"You can arrange these things yourself, we will invest." Tao Yushu said casually.

She asked again: "How do you plan to spend so much money all at once?"

Speaking of dividends, Du Feng couldn't help but grin. "Are you worried that you won't be able to spend it if you have money? I plan to change to a Mercedes-Benz first. The Crown is good, but the grade is a bit lower and not as good as the German cars."

When I first bought a car two years ago, I took the Crown as a treasure. Now that I have become prosperous, Xiao Tiantian has become Mrs. Niu. Her main theme is to "change the heart of an old friend easily". The word "shaobao" is no longer enough to summarize Du. Feng’s current state.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Tao Yushu and Lin Chaoyang have their work arrangements for the next period of time.

Years ago, the organizing committee of the West Berlin Film Festival announced the list of shortlisted films for this year's film festival. A total of 21 films from all over the world were shortlisted, and "The King of Children" was impressively on the list.

Now there are less than 20 days before the opening of the film festival. Tao Yushu will go back to Hong Kong to arrange Lin's work for the new year, and then rush to West Berlin before the opening of the film festival.

This time she will personally lead the team to West Germany, which can be regarded as a way for Lin's film industry to explore overseas.

"Xiao Yu from China Film is a talent. What do you think of me digging her to the company to be responsible for the film festival?" Tao Yushu suddenly asked Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang chuckled and said, "Of course it's a good thing."

Lin's film industry needs to develop, and the film festival is also a route, and talents in this area are needed.

The day after Tao Yushu returned to Hong Kong, Lin Chaoyang received a letter from Kitamura Miyu from Japan.

"Crossing Guandong" has been released in Japan for a whole year, and the novel has achieved good results.

The sales volume in the first half of the year was 71,800 copies. In the second half of the year, as the reputation of the novel continued to ferment, the sales volume further increased to 92,500 copies, and the cumulative sales volume reached 164,300 copies.

This number is considered a relatively good result even among the works of well-known pure literature writers in Japan, not to mention that Lin Chaoyang is a foreign writer with little fame.

That is not right. In the year when "Crossing Guandong" was released in Japan, Lin Chaoyang still gained some fame in the literary world and among pure literature readers.

For several months, "Kawade Shobo" has been intensively translating Lin Chaoyang's three novels "The Truman Show", "The Ferry" and "Shutter Island".

The movie adaptation of "The Truman Show" was released in Japan and finally achieved a box office of 950 million yen.

Although this result is not the top among the performances of Chinese-language films released in Japan, considering that "The Truman Show" is, after all, an art film with a plot as the main theme, rather than those action films with a large audience, it is already very good to achieve this result.

The adapted movie is popular, and Kawade Shobo must first publish "The Truman Show". This time, Kitamura Miyu specially sent Lin Chaoyang a sample book of the Japanese version of this novel.

According to Kawade Publishing's plan, "The Truman Show" will be the first to be released in mid-February, followed by "The Ferryman" in early April and "Shutter Island" at the end of May.

With three works released in half a year, it can be seen that Kawade Publishing is still very optimistic about Lin Chaoyang.

In this royalty settlement, Lin Chaoyang received 26.6 million yen.

Just last month, the yen officially broke through the 150 yen mark of 1 dollar to 150 yen, and the value of Lin Chaoyang's royalties increased again, which was converted into US dollars. 183,700.

In addition to these, Kitamura Miyu also enclosed several translated readers' letters in the letter to Lin Chaoyang, just like before, which provided emotional value to the writer.

In addition, Kitamura Miyu also sent Lin Chaoyang a group photo this time. There were many people on it, and Lin Chaoyang only knew three people, namely Kitamura Miyu, Kondo Naoko and Fujii Shozo.

Most of the others were wearing suits, mostly middle-aged and elderly men, with serious faces.

Kitamura Miyu introduced in the letter that the photo was a commemorative photo of the New Year's Day salon of the "Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association" held by Naoko Kondo around New Year's Day.

Lin Chaoyang turned over the photo according to what was written in the letter, and saw the name of the meeting and the date of the commemoration were written on the back, and the names of each participant were carefully marked for Lin Chaoyang to identify.

Waseda University Faculty of Literature Hirohei Ikeda, Meiji University Department of Drama Naoki Nakamura, Ritsumeikan University Faculty of Literature Kobayashi Kotaro...

When Tao Yumo went to Japan to sign a contract with Kawade Shobo last year, Naoko Kondo proposed the idea of ​​establishing a literary research association and asked Lin Chaoyang to write a special inscription.

By October, Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii jointly wrote a letter to Lin Chaoyang, formally explaining to him the preparations for the "Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association".

As an informal literary research organization, the Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association does not have any strict membership standards. Any scholar in Japan who is interested in Lin Chaoyang's works can participate.

All you need to do is submit a paper or review article about Lin Chaoyang's literary works to the research association every year.

Since July, Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii have sent proposals to many Chinese literature researchers in Japan. In more than two months, they have received more than 20 letters of membership.

This number was beyond their expectations and made them very surprised.

After all, Lin Chaoyang is just a foreign writer, and a contemporary writer. It is not easy to get so many responses.

Among the more than 20 scholars who applied for membership, there are 5 professors, 9 associate professors and 7 lecturers. Including Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii, there are a total of 24 people.

These scholars come from a wider range of universities, including the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, Nihon University, Ritsumeikan University...

The Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association is a loosely organized research institution with few activities. It holds two meetings a year. The New Year's Day meeting is the first formal meeting held after the establishment of the research association. The next meeting will be held in July 1988.

After each meeting, the Literature Research Association would issue a journal to introduce the meeting and publish members' research articles. Kitamura Miyu even sent a journal to Lin Chaoyang this time.

The cover of the journal was the cover of "Chuang Guandong" published in Japan, with a 16-page size and very fine printing quality.

Lin Chaoyang noticed that the journal also had a dedicated copyright page. The editor and proofreader on it was Kitamura Mihiro. She mentioned in her letter that she was an honorary member of the research association.

The editing, printing, and binding of the journal were all sponsored by Kawaide Shobo.

Lin Chaoyang held the conference journal and admired it for a while. Except for some copyright information, he couldn't understand the rest.

There is no translation of the conference journal, so I have to give it a bad review.

Of course this is a joke, everyone works voluntarily, and it would be too laborious and costly to produce a translation for Lin Chaoyang alone.

Anyway, the conference journal is not issued for the author to read.

A few days later, there was a gathering of writers in the west courtyard of Lin Chaoyang's home. Lin Chaoyang had to take care of his children and had no time to chat with them.

After noon, a few people had enough to eat and drink, and took the initiative to come to Lin Chaoyang's hospital to help him take care of his children and chat with him. Some people talked about the works published in "People's Literature" in January.

"Zhu Wei, your editorial department is very brave, daring to publish a novel like "Show Your Tongue Is Empty"."

Hearing his friend's teasing, Zhu Wei smiled and said, "You have to say that our editor Liu is courageous. He was the one who decided to publish this novel."

"I hear what you mean, why do you still want to shirk responsibility?"

"Show Your Empty Tongue" is a collection of novels written by photographer Ma Jian based on his own wandering experience and reflecting the persecution of women in the old XZ.

The novel describes a large number of Japanese folk customs, landscapes and religious rituals in detail. The almost re-enactment description makes this novel full of reality, but it also reveals to a large extent the darkness and cruelty of Japanese society before liberation.

Within half a month of its release, the novel has already become a hotly debated topic in the literary world.

The reasons are nothing more than two points. First, the content of the novel is novel and can easily arouse readers' interest.

Second, everyone is engaged in writing, and they know that the content of this work is very sensitive even today, because it involves MZ policy and ZJ policy.

"I heard that someone at the Literary and Art Association seems to have some opinions." Li Tuo said.

"There should be no problem."

The status of "People's Literature" in the literary world is unquestionable. Even if the published works are somewhat controversial, it is normal and it is basically unlikely to cause any major problems.

"Our editorial department received two letters from Z students studying at the Minzu University of China, protesting against this novel."

Zhu Wei looked relaxed and did not take Li Tuo's words seriously. He also mentioned that some students wrote letters to protest.

Lin Chaoyang looked at Zhu Wei's performance and could only lament that he was too young.

When it comes to the issue of MZ and ZJ, it has gone beyond the scope of literature. Not to mention "People's Literature", even the National Association for Literary and Art cannot handle this matter.

The final result of this incident was that Liu Xinwu, the deputy editor-in-chief of "People's Literature" and the de facto leader, was suspended from his post and publicly reviewed.

Not only that, the current issue of "People's Literature" in which the book "Tongue Coating" was published was recalled and processed. The book "Tongue Coating" has since become a "banned book" and will no longer have the opportunity to be published publicly.

Everyone was chatting enthusiastically about "Tongue Coating", but no one realized what kind of ripples this novel would cause in the Chinese literary world in the coming period.

While everyone was chatting lively, Zheng Wanlong had nothing to do, flipping through books next to the bookcase.

Lin Chaoyang's home has a room dedicated to collecting books and a study. There is also a small bookcase in the main room where he lives, which is specially used to store some of the books he reads every day.

"Huh?" Zheng Wanlong's eyes suddenly froze, and he took out the magazine he saw and held it in his hands.

The text printed on the cover of this book is: "Journal of Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literary Research Association", with the words "No. 1" underneath.

When he saw the text on the cover, he was very interested. He opened the inner pages and found that they were all in Japanese.

He seemed to have discovered a new world. He waved the magazine excitedly and asked Lin Chaoyang loudly: "What is this book about?"

Everyone who was chatting stopped when they heard his voice and looked over.

Zhang Chengzhi was closest to Zheng Wanlong. His eyes caught a glimpse of the words on the cover of the book, and he immediately became interested.

He went to Japan to study at Toyo Bunko two years ago and has a pretty good foundation in Japanese.

"Lin Chaoyang Japanese Literature Research Association?"

He walked over, grabbed the book, and read it in a low voice.

Zheng Wanlong said sarcastically: "You still need to pronounce these words? Who doesn't know them? After all, you have studied in Japan. You can't even read Japanese, right?"

"I'm just going to study."

Zhang Chengzhi replied without arguing with him. At this moment, his interest was completely attracted by the magazine in front of him, and he had no intention of quarreling with Zheng Wanlong.

He opened the magazine, his eyes fell on the copyright page, and his eyes lit up immediately. Then he turned back and saw this paragraph.

“...Literature is a beacon of the human soul and an important window for us to see into the world and understand life.

We believe that the power of literature is infinite. Through the study of Mr. Lin Chaoyang’s literary works, we can better understand human nature and appreciate life, and improve the literary literacy and aesthetic level of the Japanese people.

We gathered here to establish the Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association, aiming to conduct in-depth research on Mr. Lin Chaoyang’s literary works and let more Japanese people appreciate his literary charm..."

Although he was already prepared when he saw the cover of the magazine, Zhang Chengzhi still received a huge shock after mentally translating the founding words at the beginning of the magazine.

He then turned a few pages.

"The Aesthetic Implications of \u003cCrossing Guandong\u003e" "\u003cCrossing Guandong\u003e: History You Can Almost Touch" "The Pinnacle of Dahe Literature - \u003cCrossing Guandong\u003e" "The Victory of the Crowd - Talking about \u003cThe Truman Show\u003e"...

The titles of the articles passed by him quickly, and he didn't even have time to read the contents carefully.

"Old Zhang, don't just read, talk!" Zheng Wanlong saw that Zhang Chengzhi was just flipping through the book without saying anything, and couldn't help but urged him anxiously.

At this time, Zhang Chengzhi raised his head and looked at him, "What?"

Zheng Wanlong pointed at the magazine in his hand, "What else can it be, this magazine!"

Zhang Chengzhi said sarcastically: "Can't you understand it?"

A boomerang hit Zhang Chengzhi right in the middle of his eyebrows, but Zheng Wanlong didn't have time to talk to Zhang Chengzhi. He was more eager to know the contents of the magazine than before.

"Is this really a journal? Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literary Research Society?"

Zhang Chengzhi stopped joking and nodded, "It is a journal."

"Is it really a journal? Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literary Research Society?"

He seemed to be asking a nonsense question, but in fact the first question was to Zhang Chengzhi, and the second question was to Lin Chaoyang.

At this moment, his eyes were full of doubt, puzzlement, and disbelief, as if he was squatting on the street and saw a brother driving a Land Rover.

"Chaoyang, what's going on?"

Let alone him, everyone present wanted to ask: What's going on?

I came to your house to be a guest, how come there is a "Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literary Research Society"?

"That one was founded by several Japanese scholars some time ago. It is an informal organization that occasionally holds meetings and publishes journals."

After Lin Chaoyang confirmed this, everyone felt a sense of oppression.

A literary research society named after a writer, and it was founded in a foreign country?

Everyone was shocked and speechless at this moment.

"You are so awesome!"

Li Tuo was the first to recover from the shock. It was difficult for him to express his inner emotions in words, so he finally chose a swear word.

"It's more than awesome, it's groundbreaking! There is a literary research association for Chinese writers in Japan, Chaoyang is still a scorpion, right?" Zheng Wanlong said excitedly.

Zhang Chengzhi corrected: "No. Mr. Lu Xun is very famous in Japan, and he also has a research association."

It would have been better if he didn't correct it, but this correction made everyone gasp.

Lin Chaoyang = Lu Xun?

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand, "Don't make a fuss, listen to me and tell you what's going on."

Everyone came over immediately, and Lin Chaoyang told the story of Kondo Naoko again.

He added: "She and Fujii just like my works more, and it just so happens that they have some influence in the field of Chinese contemporary literature research in Japan, which led to the establishment of such a literary research association."

Everyone originally thought that there would be some twists and turns in this matter, but after listening for a long time, they found that Lin Chaoyang was just talking about how two Japanese scholars liked his works, how they worked hard to publish his works in Japan out of love for the ancient ways, and how they enthusiastically prepared a literary research association named after him.

Everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang with dissatisfaction, it's not over yet, right?

The naked envy and jealousy swept over Lin Chaoyang again and again, and after a long time, everyone's mentality finally calmed down a lot.

"If Chaoyang's story spreads, it will probably become the hottest news in the domestic literary world immediately." Li Tuo said.

Zhu Wei smiled and joked: "This can be regarded as winning glory for the country, right? Contemporary writers should have this one."

Literary research associations named after writers like this are loosely organized private institutions, which are not great organizations.

But it can't be said that this is specially established by foreign scholars for their Chinese writers!

What does this show?

It shows that Lin Chaoyang and his works are popular in Japan, and that Lin Chaoyang and his works are recognized by many experts in the Japanese literary world, at least in the field of literary research.

Isn't this popularity and recognition the influence that many writers pursue? And it is also overseas influence!

You must know that in today's Chinese literary world, except for a few rare writers among the older generation, the overseas influence of other writers is almost zero.

It is precisely because of this that Lin Chaoyang's awesomeness is even more prominent. Isn't this a kind of glory for the country!

Everyone was full of amazement discussing the affairs of the Literary Research Association, and they were extremely excited. They surrounded Lin Chaoyang and kept digging out various inside information about the Literary Research Association.

By the way, I also learned more about the publication and sales of Lin Chaoyang's works in Japan.

The cumulative sales of "Crossing Guandong" in Japan have sold 160,000 copies. This number is not small even in China, let alone Japan, whose population is only one-tenth of China.

In the next few months, "The Truman Show", "The Ferryman" and "Shutter Island" will be published one after another.

Everyone was dazzled by the news. If Lin Chaoyang hadn't told them before, no one would have known that he was so popular in Japan now.

No wonder some scholars would set up a literary research society specifically for him.

After learning about it, everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang again, and for some reason they suddenly felt a sense of strangeness.

Is this still the Lin Chaoyang they know? Why does he feel so glowing?

"If things continue like this, there may be an American Literature Research Society, a British Literature Research Society, and a French Research Society in the future." Li Tuo said jokingly.

Everyone laughed when they heard this. Zhu Wei said, "Chaoyang, if a literary research association is established in China, I will be the first to apply to be the president."

"Why should you be the president? If anyone should be the president, I should be the one. I am most familiar with Chaoyang's works." Li Tuo said hurriedly.

"I am familiar with it too. I just wrote a review article for "Parasite" and published it in "Literary Review". Have you written it?"

Zhu Wei's question choked Li Tuo. "I haven't had time to write "Parasite". I have written "The Truman Show". Before that, there was..."

"Don't talk about before, talk about now."

The two quarreled endlessly, of course, in a joking manner, and the others watched the excitement.

Lin Chaoyang's manuscript of "Parasite" was handed over to Li Shifei in early October, and the publication time was set in early January, less than ten days earlier than Hong Kong.

Due to the consistent trust in the quality and reputation of Lin Chaoyang's works, Huacheng Publishing House set the first print run of the novel at 500,000 copies.

As a result, on the day the novel was released, Xinhua Bookstores in major cities across the country were packed with readers who came to buy books.

In just over a week, the first print of 500,000 copies was sold out by enthusiastic readers.

This situation was completely within the expectations of Huacheng Publishing House. Before the bookstore's inventory was completely cleared out, the publisher's additional prints of books had been sent to bookstores everywhere.

"Parasite" has been on the market for a month, and the cumulative sales have exceeded one million copies.

During this period of time, readers' comments are becoming more and more, and they are all rave reviews.

Compared with the mixed reviews of the previous book "The Truman Show" at the beginning, "Parasite" can be said to have overwhelmingly good reviews.

Not only the reader group, but also the comments of the critics and even the literary community are the same.