Back to 80: My Literary Life

Time passed quickly, and it was already the spring of 2007. Fang Minghua was a little busy this spring.

Not long after the Spring Festival, the art museum officially opened to the public. A grand opening ceremony was held for this purpose. Provincial and municipal leaders and cultural celebrities were invited. The paintings and calligraphy that had been dormant in the Palace Museum and in Fang Minghua’s home for decades were finally brought to the public. Meet a broad audience.

Thousands of works by calligraphers and painters of the Republic of China such as Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, and Li Kuchan suddenly appeared in public view, shocking both at home and abroad.

Xiangjiang's "Ta Kung Pao" commented: "The emergence of the Xijing Art Museum made the auction of works by painters of the Republic of China held at Christie's last year seem like a joke. How many people competed for a painting of shrimps by Qi Baishi, flowers and birds by Zhang Daqian, and eagles by Li Kuchan. It’s like cabbage everywhere.”

It is said that after the opening of the Xijing Art Museum, the market prices of Hong Kong and Taiwan painters' works dropped immediately. I don't know how many Hong Kong and Taiwan calligraphy and painting collectors gritted their teeth and cursed Fang Minghua for not understanding the rules of the game.

But Fang Minghua didn't care about this.

These paintings of his are not for sale, whether it is one yuan or one million, what does it have to do with him?

Then came the third "Under the Banyan Tree" original online literature competition, held at the Qin Provincial Grand Theater. Rao Xueman's "Little Demon's Golden Castle", Jiangnan's "The Boy Here", Xiao Shui's poem "Engraved on the Wall" "Wo Yi Xiang" and other awards.

Fang Minghua attended the ceremony as an award guest.

Immediately following is the 8th World Chinese Literature Award Ceremony, this time held in Xiamen, Jia Pingwa's "Qin Opera", Chi Zijian's "All the Nights in the World" and Singaporean writer You Jin's "The Sun Will Not Go Back" and other works won the best works in various genres this year.

Fang Minghua still attended the ceremony as the awarding guest.

After the ceremony, Fang Minghua did not rush back to Xijing. Instead, he and Jia Pingwa spent two days shopping in Xiamen.

The two of them walked on the beach in Baicheng.

Not far away is the blue sea and sky, and the sea breeze blows through, making it look particularly cool.

"Minghua, have you been to Xiamen?" Jia Pingwa asked with a cigarette in her mouth.

"I've been here before. It was 1985. I was invited to Fuzhou to attend the third Golden Rooster Award Ceremony. Later, two students from the Gulang Literary Society of Xiamen University invited me to go to Xiamen University and held a literature lecture. I stopped by Xiamen Shopping for two days." Fang Minghua replied.

"85 years? That was 20 years ago."

"Yeah. Time flies so fast, 20 years have passed." Fang Minghua looked at the sea not far away, where several young men and women were playing in the water.

At the beginning, not long after I came to this era, I was in my prime, but now I am almost over fifty.

"Hey, Minghua, I remember you haven't written anything in the past few years?" Jia Pingwa said suddenly.

Fang Minghua smiled awkwardly.

Indeed, except for writing a few scripts, Fang Minghua has not written any real literary works in the past four or five years. The last time he wrote was the semi-autobiographical "My Twenty Years of Literature".

In fact, apart from Fang Minghua, Lu Yao and Chen Zhongshi also rarely published works, and occasionally only wrote short stories.

Later, someone asked Chen Zhongshi: "Why didn't he write any more novels after writing "White Deer Plain"?"

As a result, Chen Zhongshi retorted: "You know how to hammer!"

Jia Pingwa, on the other hand, writes a novel in less than two years on average, with prose and essays in between, maintaining strong creative energy.

Is it time for me to write something?

After returning from Xiamen, Fang Minghua pondered this matter.

Today, he stood on the rooftop of the third floor of the villa, looking at the scenery in the distance.

Last summer, he said goodbye to Nanfang Lane, where he had lived for more than ten years, and moved to this villa area called Qujiang Mansion.

The villa has its own courtyard, a small garden at the front and back, three floors above ground, and a basement. Although the overall environment is not as good as the manor in the United States, it is much better than the environment around Nanfang Lane.

Standing on the rooftop today, you can see the tourists in Qujiang not far away, walking happily. This is the scenery every day.

But today, he saw a disharmonious figure inside, an old woman with a stooped figure, rummaging around in a trash can.

Soon two men who looked like security guards came over and yelled at the old woman. The old woman quickly left with her snakeskin bag.

Fang Minghua vaguely remembers that in the early 1980s, this place was a dry depression, surrounded by fields full of wheat, and a small hill to the south. At that time, there were many scavengers digging garbage here in exchange for money to make a living. No one cared about it at that time.

Fang Minghua suddenly remembered that Jia Zhangke once said something like this in one of his movies: Times are moving forward, and we cannot ignore those who have been hit just because the entire country is running forward. "

Otherwise, let’s write stories about little people who try to run with the times, catch up, or fall.

But it cannot and should not be ignored and forgotten.

Fang Minghua quickly conceived the idea in his mind.

Let’s start from the early 1980s, which is also the most familiar era.

It is about two very ordinary families, their interactions, the innocent friendship between childhood sweethearts and two children, a boy and a girl. However, as they grow up, they have to face the separation of life.

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The setting is set in the textile city of Xijing, where thousands of textile workers live. From the glory of the 1980s to the layoffs and unemployment in the 1990s, one is doing small business locally, and the other goes south to make a living. Two families and two children each experience happiness and hardship, recording this era.

Telling the life stories of them and the various grassroots people around them from the 1980s to the first spring of the new century.

For a whole afternoon, Fang Minghua stood on the platform looking at the scenery outside, sorting out the story lines of the characters in his mind.

After the whole outline was clear, he suddenly found that the story was a bit like Jia Zhangke's "Mountains May Depart" and a bit like Wang Xiaoshuai's "Long Time, No Love".

"Brother Fang, it's time for dinner."

The voice of the nanny in the yard woke him up, and he agreed and walked down the roof to the restaurant on the first floor.

"Where is your sister Song?" Fang Minghua asked casually.

"Sister Song just called me and said, don't wait for her when you eat, she will probably be back later." The nanny said.

Fang Minghua couldn't help shaking his head.

He is almost fifty years old, but he is still working so hard.

After dinner, Fang Minghua took his dog Xiao Dou Miao and walked around Qujiang Lake as usual, then returned to the villa, went up to his study on the second floor, turned on the computer, and prepared to write.

After making a cup of tea and thinking for a while, he opened a word document and wrote four words on a blank page: "A Generation of Romantic People".

Fang Minghua certainly didn't know that 20 years later, Jia Zhangke made a movie called "A Generation of Romantic People", but he thought the word was very appropriate.

Struggle, pain, confusion, glory, gloom. These various words belong to the new generation of the 1980s.

It can be described as "romantic".

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