Back to 80: My Literary Life

"Now, I would like to invite Fang Minghua, vice chairman of the Qin Provincial Writers Association and editor-in-chief of Yanhe magazine, to take the stage to speak."

As the host of the meeting called the roll call, Fang Minghua, wearing a suit, walked up to the podium with the manuscript.

Today, Fang Minghua was wearing a black Goldlion suit, a white shirt and a red tie, looking energetic.

Before leaving, Song Tangtang specially took Fang Minghua to the Tangcheng Building in Xijing to buy it. How could he not wear something more solemn for such an important occasion?

It looks good, and the price is not cheap.

688 yuan per set.

Fang Minghua also didn't forget to tear off the labels on his cuffs, unlike people in this era who don't tear off the labels on decent suits for fear that others won't know it's a famous brand.

The title of Fang Minghua's speech was also the title of his speech at the Huashan Conference not long ago, "Ideological Trends and Spiritual Techniques—A Preliminary Study of New Realistic Novels."

Of course, time is limited, so the content is much more concise and profound.

The people sitting in the audience are all big figures in the literary world, so just grab some useful information.

"What the new realistic novels achieve is a double deviation, which not only deviates from traditional realism, but also deviates from "avant-garde" and "modern" avant-garde novels. It is a continuation of the realism of the 1920s and 1930s. Generally speaking, It still belongs to the broad category of realist literature, but it is undoubtedly more open and inclusive than traditional realism.”

"The popular writing of new realistic novels has a far-reaching influence, but if you are not careful, the triviality and mediocrity of some works will wear away the breadth and depth of thought. This is something that should be paid attention to in the creation of new realistic novels."

"We advocate new realistic novels, and we do not exclude avant-garde novels, which almost go hand in hand with variant "modernist" novels to show their respective brilliance. Practice has once again proved that as long as the creative methods are not used dogmatically and imitated mechanically, they are all effective They are vital, they are the two wheels that push forward Chinese novels.”

Fang Minghua used very popular words to explain the characteristics of new realistic novels, writing techniques and issues that should be paid attention to, and also explained its relationship with avant-garde novels.

Finally received warm applause.

Especially the several literary bigwigs sitting in the front row. They are all masters of realistic writing. They feel depressed by the avant-garde writing that has become popular in the literary world in recent years.

Now someone finally says they want to return to realistic writing. How can they be unhappy?

It’s really thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi.

Although the realism we are talking about now is not the traditional realist writing they advocate.

The young man in front of me seems to be standing at the forefront of the changing tide of writing.

After the academic seminar in the morning, the last item in the afternoon was the election of four additional council members.

The host of the meeting briefly introduced the four candidates, including resumes and main works, and then entered the voting session.

When the results were tallied, all four young and middle-aged writers received more than half of the votes and were co-opted as directors of the fourth Writers Association Council.

Fang Minghua became the youngest director in history.

After the meeting, there was an interview with reporters. Fang Minghua was very experienced in dealing with reporters.

The answer was spotless.

"This is not only an honor, but also a responsibility. I will do my best to make due contributions to the prosperity of our country's literary career."

"Advocating new realistic novels does not mean denying avant-garde novels. I also said in my speech in the morning that these are equivalent to two wheels for the advancement of Chinese literature, and both are indispensable."

The two-day Fourth Council Meeting of the Fourth Writers Association ended successfully. On the morning of the next day, representatives returned to each province one after another.

Fang Minghua was not in a hurry to go back, he still wanted to visit Song Tangtang's grandparents.

He still lives in the small courtyard behind the General Political Courtyard. My grandfather is almost eighty years old, but he seems to be in good spirits.

Of course the grandson-in-law was welcome when he arrived, and the three of them sat in the small courtyard chatting.

Grandpa said: "Xiaohua, I was watching the TV news this morning and saw your speech on the stage. You were very energetic in a suit."

"Tangtang chose the suit for me."

The grandfather laughed after hearing this: "My granddaughter is very discerning! The son-in-law she is looking for is becoming more and more promising."

Are you more discerning in choosing clothes, or are you more discerning in finding a son-in-law?

Fang Minghua had no choice but to say humbly: "Actually, I am not the only one to speak. In addition to me, there are three other lesbians newly elected as directors of the Writers Association."

"Then why did the TV news give you a close-up of your speech? You know China's politics." Fang Minghua could only laugh at his grandfather's rather humorous tone and did not defend himself.

At noon, he had lunch at his grandfather's house. He did not plan to return to Xijing today. He also wanted to meet someone - Shi Tiiesheng.

Every time he comes to Yanjing, he has to visit it, and this time is no exception.

After leaving the General Political Courtyard, Fang Minghua bought three kilograms of apples from a nearby fruit stall, and then took the bus straight to Yonghegong Street.

When Fang Minghua arrived at the small courtyard where Shi Tiesheng lived, his wife Chen Ximi was not at home, and Shi Tiesheng was alone.

Shi Tiesheng was very happy to see Fang Minghua arrive.

"I saw your article "Ideological Trends and Spiritual Techniques - A Preliminary Study of New Realistic Novels" published in a literary newspaper some time ago. It was really well written. Many of the explanations made me enlightened."

Shi Tiesheng said this not as a compliment. In terms of novel style, Shi Tiesheng also created works that fall into the category of realistic writing.

However, Fang Minghua didn't want to talk about literature with him today, but was concerned about his health.

"Tie Sheng, how is your health now?"

When Fang Minghua asked this question, Shi Tiiesheng smiled even more: "I went to the hospital for a review some time ago. The doctor found that my disease has reached the clinical cure standard. I basically feel nothing now."

Clinical cure does not mean complete treatment, but means that the disease will not progress further and there will be no clinical symptoms.

Fang Minghua also understood this. After hearing the advice, he said: "That's good, but you should also pay attention to it and listen to the doctor."

"Don't worry, I will pay attention. I still want to live a few more years and write something."

Fang Minghua also laughed.

"Hey, Tie Sheng, I heard that you wrote a script for a movie called "Dream Season"" Fang Minghua asked, remembering something.

"Yes, it was the leader of a children's film studio who came to me and asked me to write a movie about students. I have never written a script before. It's just a joke." Shi Tiiesheng was very modest.

"Are you kidding? I heard that the response was very good after it was released." Fang Minghua said.

"That's mainly because the director shot it well."

Fang Minghua had never heard of it before he came to this era, but he watched it in Xijing some time ago. It is a youth film about middle school students. After looking at the cast list on the screen, he realized that the screenwriter was Shi Tiiesheng.

The two were sitting in the narrow house, chatting incessantly. Suddenly Shi Tiesheng said: "Minghua, have you heard of Shen Congwen? He passed away a few days ago."