Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 545 Lu Yao went to Yanjing to receive the award

"Minghua, you really don't want to receive the award?"

In the small courtyard of Fang Minghua's house, Lu Yao and Fang Minghua were drinking tea and chatting.

The weather is nice today. It is a very pleasant thing to sit in the small courtyard and chat and drink tea. Since Fang Minghua moved to his own courtyard inside Chaoyangmen, Lu Yao has been the most frequent visitor.

As the vice chairman of the Writers Association, he did not have to work in the office. He often drove his Santana to Fang Minghua for tea and chat. He also said that if he had the chance, he would build a small yard for himself, grow some flowers and plants, and find peace and quiet in the hustle and bustle.

However, I have something serious to discuss with Fang Minghua today, which is to attend the Mao Dun Prize award ceremony to be held in Yenching at the end of the month.

According to regulations, if an award-winning novel has two authors, both can go on stage to receive the award and receive the Mao Dun Prize certificate. For example, another winning novel this year, "Urban Romance", was written by Sun Li and Yu Xiaohui. When interviewed by reporters, they said that they were very excited and would go to Yenching to receive the award in the future.

By the way: Sun Li and Yu Xiaohui are husband and wife.

But Fang Minghua made it clear that he would not go.

Seeing Lu Yao coming to ask about this in person, Fang Minghua smiled and said, "Brother Lu, most of this novel was written by you. You can fully represent this work. Anyway, I have already received it once, and I still have to rush the script."

Seeing Fang Minghua's firm attitude, Lu Yao could only shake his head and say nothing.

Fang Minghua's attitude is very clear.

As a writer, let’s leave all these highlights to Lu Yao.

He has been waiting for this day for a long time.

Three days later, Lu Yao carried his travel bag and boarded a train heading north. This time, he was no longer as poor as he had been in the past, where he did not even have the money for the trip and needed to borrow money to receive the award.

He was wearing a brand new suit and tie and had a smile on his face.

At noon on March 3, in the Great Hall of the People, amid warm applause, the winners of the 29rd Mao Dun Literature Prize all took the stage to receive their certificates, accept congratulations from everyone, and give their acceptance speeches.

CCTV broadcast the entire award ceremony live.

Fang Minghua was also watching in the living room at home.

At the award ceremony, Lu Yao gave his acceptance speech:

I am grateful to the judges for awarding this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize to me, my friend Minghua, and several other respected colleagues. For me personally, this honor is not peaceful. There are undoubtedly many friends who should have deserved this honor.

Winning an award does not mean that the work is completely successful. For writers, the fruits of their labor must not only be evaluated by contemporary eyes, but also be examined by historical eyes.

As a farmer's son, I am particularly concerned about China's situation and the fate of farmers. Needless to say, this is a concern with strong emotions. "Why do I always have tears in my eyes? Because I love the land deeply..." (Ai Qing)

Yes, these hundreds of millions of ordinary yet great people living on this earth have created our history and, to a large extent, have determined our real life and future direction. It is a shallow view to deliberately look for dirt and scabs on them.

Whether we are politicians or artists, only by not losing the feelings of ordinary workers can we grasp the mainstream of the historical process of social life and make the work we are engaged in have real value.

It is indeed very well written and Fang Minghua admires it very much.

The third Mao Dun Literature Prize ceremony concluded successfully, but its impact on the literary world has not ended.

Qin Province, located in the northwest, has had people win awards for two consecutive years, which makes people sigh at the profound literary heritage of this cultural province.

Two of the so-called "four horses" of Qin Province's literary world have already won awards. It is rumored that two more are now closing their doors to visitors and concentrating on their creations. Will they appear at the next Mao Dun Literature Award ceremony? Let's wait and see.

When Lu Yao returned with the Mao Dun Literature Prize, he was naturally welcomed by people from all walks of life in Qin Province, from provincial leaders to friends and colleagues, all of whom congratulated him.

Of course, treating guests is inevitable.

Due to his health condition, Lu Yao has now quit drinking, but there is still one person who cannot escape - Fang Minghua.

You are also one of the authors of "Ordinary World" and the winner of this year's Mao Dun Prize. Not only do you have to drink it, but you also have to replace Lu Yao's wine!
It was also during this period that Fang Minghua lived his life in a drunken stupor.

With this favorable trend, the 100 million copies of "Ordinary World" printed for the third time by Shengshi Book Publishing Company were quickly sold out, forcing Shu Bin to quickly organize manpower and contact the printing factory to work overtime to print another 50 copies!

Not only is it a strong demand from readers, but it is also a race against piracy!
"I still underestimated the magic of the Mao Dun Prize." Shu Bin sighed in his heart. If he had listened to Fang Minghua, he would have printed more.

The ratings of "Ordinary World" broadcasted by CCTV during prime time also soared. Except for "Editorial Story" broadcasted by Yanjing TV in Yanjing area, which could compete with it, "The Wheel, the Woman and the Well" which was currently popular in Northeast China and "The Outsider" broadcasted in Guangdong Province were unable to resist the offensive of this TV series.

In addition, relevant personnel from TV stations in Qin Province, Gan Province, Sichuan Province and other provinces have contacted Shengshi Film and Television Company to purchase the rights for the second round of broadcasting.

The employees of Shengshi Film and Television Company have been very busy recently, including General Manager Song Tangtang.

Song Tangtang was first busy preparing for the filming of the TV series "Yanjing People in New York". Since the director Wu Tianmin was still in the United States and could not come back, Song Tangtang, as the producer, had more things to worry about. Fortunately, with the help of Zhang Yimou and assistant director Yang Fengliang, they set up a filming team.

Another thing was the selection of the main actors. For the male lead Wang Qiming, Fang Minghua recommended Jiang Wen to the three of them.

Jiang Wen had played the leading role in "Red Sorghum" directed by Zhang Yimou, so she was quite familiar with Zhang Yimou. After getting to know him, she heard that the director was Wu Tianmin and she was very happy to star in this TV series.

As for the female lead, Wu Tianmin, who was far away in the United States, chose the Chinese actress Wu Junmei who immigrated to Los Angeles.

Vivian Wu played the role of the imperial concubine Erdet Wenxiu in Italian director Bertolucci's Oscar-winning film "The Last Emperor". She was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress at the 32nd Italian David Award and became the first Asian face to be nominated for the Best Supporting Actress at the Italian David Donatello Award (Italian Oscar Award).

At that time, she was studying in the Film Department of the University of California, Los Angeles, and met Wu Tianmin.

In addition to dealing with the crew, he was also busy arranging visas for the crew members to go abroad. He often took a few people to Yanjing and was very busy.

I also remember cooperating with China Film Co-production Corporation to invest in Zhang Yimou's new film "Raise the Red Lantern".

Finally, the two sides reached an agreement. The film budget was 560 million, all of which was invested by Shengshi Film and Television. The film co-production company would get 10% of the film's overseas distribution revenue!

Hastily!
Just because you can get a dragon emblem, you are going to take so much for nothing!

After Fang Minghua received the call from Song Tangtang, he couldn't help but curse a few words inwardly.

But there's nothing we can do about it, this is reality.

Be patient for another two years and wait for the reform of the national film distribution system.

While his wife is busy at work, Fang Minghua has a leisurely life. When spring comes, he takes his two children on a drive for an outing on weekends, tidies up the small yard and plants flowers, and visits his parents or father-in-law's home.

Today is Saturday, and Fang Minghua's house is very lively in the evening. Song Tangtang has returned from Yanjing and brought her two children home from her parents. The whole family is spending the weekend together, and a few other people have come to play mahjong.

(End of this chapter)