Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 546: Winning a Literature Award by Playing Mahjong
In the past, the mahjong nest was basically at Jia Pingwa's house, but the place was a bit narrow. After Fang Minghua moved into the exclusive courtyard inside Chaoyangmen, they moved here.

But I don't play very often, only once a week, usually on weekend night. I play for half the night so I can sleep more the next day and don't have to go to work.

Usually the mahjong quartet is Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa, Chen Zhongshi and Fang Minghua, but for the past six months, Chen Zhongshi has been hiding in his hometown of Bai Lu Yuan, revising his "Bai Lu Yuan" over and over again, and he has not entered the city, so they were replaced by Bai Miao.

Song Tangtang was reading a book in the living room, petting her kitten Douya in her arms, while her son Lele was carefully calculating addition and subtraction within 10. Her daughter was practicing piano in the piano room on the second floor, with her most loyal companion, Douya, a small shepherd dog, nestling next to her.

The tinkling sounds of the piano complement the clattering sounds of mahjong tiles coming from the mahjong room in the east wing, without interfering with each other.

Fang Minghua and his friends didn't play big games, just fifty cents or one yuan, and they played mainly for fun, wanting to relax after a busy week.

Drinking tea, smoking cigarettes and playing mahjong are one of the greatest pleasures in life.

The rules of mahjong in Qin Province are simple. There is no plum, orchid, bamboo or chrysanthemum, no missing doors, and you are only allowed to touch but not eat. A lot of it depends on luck, so you don't have to use your brain too much. Everyone can chat while playing.

"Hey, have you heard that this year's Nobel Prize has been announced?" The speaker was Bai Miao.

"Who will win the literature prize?" Jia Pingwa asked casually as he played out a bet of 80,000.

Everyone here is a writer or a scholar, so they are naturally very interested in this award.

"It seems to be a South African female writer named Nadine Gordimer." Bai Miao replied, "I read in the newspaper that the Swedish Royal Academy of Literature commented on her: Gordimer's literary works describe the relationship between individuals and society in a very complex environment in a straightforward way. They deeply examine the historical process and contribute to the progress of history."

“Have you heard of this female writer?”

"South Africa, so far away." Jia Pingwa shook his head and looked at Minghua again: "You are knowledgeable and know a lot. Have you heard of this person?"

"I know a little bit." Fang Minghua touched a card and said, "She is a white female writer. Her novels mainly describe the white and black societies in South Africa under the apartheid policy. They depict South Africa's political landscape and turbulent society, as well as the revolutionary movements after the awakening of whites and blacks."

"Representative works include "The People of July". I have seen that book in the United States. It tells the story of this period. There is no Chinese translation in our country yet, but once it wins the award, someone will definitely translate and publish it."

Everyone said "oh" after hearing this.

Jia Pingwa took a puff of his cigarette and continued, "You said she is a white writer, so she should be a beneficiary of South Africa's apartheid system, right? Why did she write such a novel?"

"Writers all have their own moral standards and conscience, so this is not surprising."

The four of them chatted while playing, and soon they talked about the Chinese writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Lu Yao, who had been silent just now, suddenly spoke:
"I heard that Shen Congwen, who has passed away, was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 87 and 88. In particular, he was at the top of the list of candidates in 88. It's a pity that Shen Congwen passed away, otherwise he would have been the first person in our country to win the Nobel Prize in Literature."

"Really? That's a shame."

"Who do you think will be the first in our country to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?"

"Needless to ask? It must be one of your three great writers." Bai Miao said with a smile.

"Okay, Bai Miao, stop flattering me." Jia Pingwa said, "Now that Minghua and Lu Yao have both won the Mao Dun Prize, I will be satisfied if I can also win the Mao Dun Prize."

You can get it, but you will have to wait more than ten years.

Fang Minghua smiled inwardly.

At this moment, Bai Miao suddenly said, "Three vice chairmen, I want to report something to you." Seeing Bai Miao's sudden serious look, the three of them were stunned. They even forgot about him and looked at him together with the mahjong in their hands.

"Bai Miao, what's the point of this?" Lu Yao said.

"We just talked about the Nobel Prize and the Mao Dun Literature Prize. I think our Qin Province Writers Association should establish a national literary award." Bai Miao expressed his thoughts:

"Look, the National Excellent Short and Medium Stories Award organized by the Writers Association has not been held since 89. Now, various places have held their own literary awards: Ding Ling Literature Award, Contemporary Literature Medium and Long Novel Award, Yalu River Work Award, etc."

"Yanhe is now a first-class literary magazine in China, and all the articles published are heavyweights. Why not hold a Yanhe Literature Award?"

"I had this idea at the beginning of the year, but I never had the chance to report it to the leaders of the Writers Association. Now that I have mentioned this, I will report it to you three in advance and listen to your opinions."

"Well, that's interesting. Tell me about your specific ideas." Lu Yao asked as he lit a cigarette.

"At first I wanted to host it in the name of Yanhe Magazine, but I felt that the power was a bit weak and the award was not important enough, so we decided to host it in the name of Qin Province Writers Association and Yanhe Magazine would be responsible for hosting it. It would be held every one or two years, mainly to reward outstanding short and medium-length novels, essays or essay collections, as well as poems and poetry collections. How do you think?"

"No, no," Jia Pingwa rejected it outright: "You are duplicating the Lu Xun Literature Award."

The Lu Xun Literary Award is also an important literary award sponsored by the China Writers Association. It aims to reward the creation of outstanding novellas, short stories, reportage, poetry, essays, literary theory and criticism, reward the translation of Chinese and foreign literary works, and promote the prosperity and development of China's literary cause.

It is a pity that although this award was established in 1986, due to various reasons, no winning work has been selected until now (1991).

Fang Minghua remembers that the first Lu Xun Literature Award was awarded in 1998.

But no matter what, the reputation has now spread.

When Bai Miao heard Jia Pingwa's rebuttal, he explained, "It's not exactly the same. I heard that the Lu Xun Literature Award is the same as the Mao Dun Prize, awarding several works of the same genre. Let's be more sophisticated and award only one work of the same genre, which will be more valuable."

"A smaller version of the Lu Xun Prize? Even less likely." Jia Pingwa objected.

"Then why don't we just inherit the original National Excellent Short Story Award and have it awarded by our Qin Province Writers Association!" Lu Yao came up with an idea.

"This is a good idea." Jia Pingwa agreed.

Bai Miao was a little reluctant.

Why do you discriminate against poetry and prose so much?
Let’s not talk about poetry for now. Just look at how popular the prose world was last year.

At this time, he suddenly noticed Fang Minghua who had been playing mahjong silently, and asked quickly: "Minghua, why don't you speak today? Tell me what you think and what you think."

"bump!"

Fang Minghua touched the pair of whiteboards in front of the door, and drew a fortune-making figure before saying, "Bai Miao, since you want to set up a literary award, I think you should do it on a big scale."

"Why bigger?"

"How about learning from Nobel and making something world-class?"

(End of this chapter)