Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 521 The Dean of the Drama Academy Wants to Resign

At 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the auditorium, which can accommodate more than a thousand people, was packed, including students from the Chinese Department of Northwestern University and literature lovers from other departments.

Vice Principal Liu Jianjun and a group of teachers sat in the front row.

Fang Minghua has given many lectures here. Today, he stood on the podium and said to everyone: "Students, I used to talk about novels here. This time I will talk about another very important category of literature - cultural essays."

"You all have seen the content of my lectures posted in the courtyard. I added two more words in front of the prose: culture."

"Before I gave the lecture, some students told me that this word was unfamiliar and they seemed to have never heard of it before. This is normal because I made it up."

As soon as Fang Minghua said this, the audience burst into laughter.

"But what I want to emphasize here is that the writing techniques of cultural essays have been tried before. I wonder if you have heard of the two old gentlemen, Jin Kemu and Zhang Zhongxing?"

Only a few people raised their hands.

"Usually I like to ask girls to answer, but today I'll ask a boy." Fang Minghua smiled and pointed at a boy leaning against the window and said, "Student in the sixth row, by the window, please answer."

"Teacher Fang, Mr. Jin Kemu is engaged in translation and research on Indian culture, and Mr. Zhang Zhongxing is engaged in research on Chinese classical literature and the history of thought."

"That's a very good point. Did you know that both of them are also good at writing essays and have each written a collection of essays?"

"I don't know." The boy shook his head.

"Please sit down." Fang Minghua continued, "As the student just said, these two old gentlemen are famous scholars in our country. They all studied and worked in Yanda University. Together with Mr. Ji Xianlin, they are collectively known as the "Three Old Men of Yanda University". The prose collections written by the two of them, "Swallows Pecking Spring Mud" and "Fu Sun Trivia", are cultural prose. Students who are interested can go and have a look."
Fang Minghua was talking freely on the stage, while some people were discussing quietly below the stage.

Not a student but a teacher from the Chinese Department of Xi’an University.

"Have you heard of these two?"

"I've heard of it, but I didn't expect he actually wrote prose. I'll take a look when I have some free time."

"As expected, people say Fang Minghua is knowledgeable. He knows all about such unpopular works."

"At such a young age, he has become the editor-in-chief of Yanhe, and writers of the same age or even older than him admire him. How can they call him a teacher without reading his works twice? I won't say more. Let's hear what he has to say about this cultural essay."

On the stage, Fang Minghua continued his lecture.

“Cultural essays have the following characteristics:”

Cultural perspective in the selection of materials: Cultural essays focus on serious topics with a large cultural content, highlighting cultural meanings and cultural heritage; some topics even have spiritual intentions.

Profound thoughtfulness in content: Cultural essays should have a kind of cultural penetration in their ideological implications, be deeper and thicker than lyrical essays, and have an ultimate, rational, and philosophical color of speculation.

Cultural charm in artistic expression: It should not only have cultural character and cultural connotation, but also show the ups and downs, and the great changes in the life of an individual through the historical pulse of culture. More importantly, it should have a value stance of cultural criticism, integrating cultural narrative and cultural criticism.

A bit boring.

Some people in the audience listened with great interest, but others felt sleepy.

In the end, Fang Minghua also pointed out the problems that this kind of prose is prone to:
First, excessive sentimentality. If the whole article is too sentimental, it will weaken the solemnity and sadness that one wants to express;
2. Showing off knowledge. There is a lot of historical knowledge in cultural essays, but they must not be written as historical scientific examinations.

3. The focus is very big and the intention is very grand, but the key point to be expressed is seriously weakened. There is a lot of whitewashing and even falling into empty talk.

After speaking for more than two hours, I finished the whole speech and there was warm applause from the audience.

Next, as usual, is the time for questions.

A girl suddenly stood up and spoke loudly.

"Teacher Fang, I don't quite understand what you are saying." "Are you a Chinese department student?" Fang Minghua asked back.

"No, I'm studying geography. I came here because of your reputation."

My own fans.

"Studying geography? Very good. After I write such an essay and publish it, the latest issue of Yanhe published two essays I wrote, "Awakening Age" and "Eastern Columbus". You can go and have a look.

"Do you understand?" The two teachers whispered again.

"I understand it very well, but it is a bit difficult to write it down. It requires profound knowledge, strong professional knowledge in a certain area and very good writing skills, all of which are indispensable."

"But they said it has been written and published in Yanhe."

"I'll buy one and read it later."

Fang Minghua's lecture at Xi'an University was a huge success, and his lecture content was sorted out and published in the literary theory section of "Yanhe" magazine under the title "A Carefree Mind: Theory and Practice of Cultural Essay Writing".

Shencheng, Academy of Drama.

This is an institution of higher learning with a long history, which has provided the country with a large number of outstanding drama, film and television talents. The first president was the famous Gu Zhongyi, a famous Chinese drama theorist, educator, and playwright.

The current principal is Yu Qiuyu.

Yu Qiuyu was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province in 1946. In the early s, he was admitted to the Department of Drama and Literature of Shanghai Theatre Academy.

In 84, he won the first national drama theory book award with his "Draft History of Drama Theory". He became the youngest full professor of liberal arts in the country at that time; in the same year, he published the drama aesthetics book "Theatre Aesthetic Psychology".

He was appointed as the vice president and president of Shanghai Drama Academy, president of Shanghai Writing Society, consultant and planning advisor of Shanghai Municipal Committee, and was selected as one of the "Top Ten Higher Education Elites in Shanghai".

At the age of forty, you reach the peak of your life and enjoy unlimited glory.

But amid the flowers and applause, he always felt that something was missing.

Today he was in his office, and he was reading a magazine seriously.

A magazine published by Xijing Yanhe Magazine.

As for novels, he was not interested in any avant-garde novels or new realism novels, so he seldom read "Yanhe". It was only until he heard from a good friend that "Yanhe" had recently published several essays that were quite well written.

So he bought a book and flipped through it.

Sure enough, he saw "The Awakening Age", "Columbus of the East", "Night Rain in Bashan Mountain" and "From Dujiangyan to Wumenyan".

Suddenly I realized that essays can be written like this!

If you want to write, write in a grand manner!
It is no longer the case that works such as "Lychee Honey" and "Camellia Fu" often use objects to describe people, which are formulaic and false.

Wang Zengqi once said: Chinese prose was ruined by Yang Shuo and Liu Baiyu respectively. Although this is somewhat absolute, certain routines and patterns in the prose of these two people are indeed criticized.

Yu Qiuyu suddenly had a desire to travel everywhere, tour the beautiful rivers and mountains of the motherland, appreciate different scenery, and perhaps also be able to write such wonderful words.

So he thought about resigning.

Fang Minghua naturally had no idea what was happening thousands of miles away. He continued to concentrate on his creation according to his plan, but he received a letter from Yanjing.

They invited him to join the Chinese Prose Society and recommended him to be a director of the society.

(End of this chapter)