Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 600 Yu Hua sent me "To Live" again

We went there in Fang Minghua's off-road vehicle.

Chen Zhongshi warmly entertained them in his own courtyard in Bailuyuan.

He took two bottles of Xifeng wine and asked his wife to catch a big rooster from their yard and roast it.

Chen Zhongshi certainly had no objection to Shengshi Books publishing his book "White Deer Plain" and paying royalties.

The publishing contract was signed on the spot, and Su Bin also promised to advance 5000 yuan in royalties to solve Chen Zhongshi's current life difficulties.

It was not until the evening that Fang Minghua and his companions drove away from Bailuyuan.

Chen Zhongshi sent them to the gate, watched the car disappear into the night, lit up a Bashan cigar, and suddenly said something to his wife who had come out to see the guests off.

"Wife, you don't have to come back to raise chickens."

After saying that, he turned and walked into the courtyard.

Su Bin took Bai Lu Yuan back to Haikou and immediately started the publishing work of the book, including proofreading, typesetting and editing.
Of course, what is more important is publicity and promotion.

To this end, Shengshi Books bought half a page in Guangming Daily to promote this book. Three months later, as the first book in the "Rag Tiger" series, it was officially introduced to readers, and the first print run of 50 copies was quickly sold out.

Critics praised this as an epic masterpiece that reconstructed the national spirit in a profound sense. It gave the highest praise to nationalism after "Four Generations Under One Roof". The publication of "White Deer Plain" made national literature rise in a higher sense. "

Of course, the bold erotic descriptions in the book also caused quite a bit of controversy, which laid hidden dangers for the selection of the Mao Dun Literature Prize three years later, and it was almost "shot down", but that's a story for another time.

Just when Fang Minghua handed Chen Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain" to Shengshi Books for publication, a young writer far away in Yanjing also finished writing a novel.

In the early 1990s, Tuanjie Lake in Yanjing was still a relatively remote place, surrounded by a large number of villages, where young painters from all over the country lived - because the famous Yanjing Academy of Painting was nearby.

Yu Hua also lives here.

There was no other reason, he was not interested in painting, but because the rent here was cheap.

In August last year (1991), he divorced Pan Yinchun and married Chen Hong half a year later. He then rented a room nearby and settled down to write novels.

Soon, his second novel, "To Live", was published in this simple room.

"Chen Hong, I will send the manuscript to Minghua tomorrow. He said he would help me check it." Yu Hua said to his wife while smoking.

"Don't worry, Teacher Fang will definitely like the book you wrote." Chen Hong said gently.

"If it is approved by Minghua and published successfully, it will be your contribution and you will get half of the medal of honor. No, more than half!" Yu Hua's tone was filled with gratitude.

He didn't mean to say that.

At the beginning, the creation of this novel did not start smoothly. After writing tens of thousands of words, he found that he could not continue. It was not that his ideas were flowing like a spring, but that his ideas were not flowing.

But his wife's words woke him up.

"Since the third person is not good, why not try the first person?"

In a flash, Yu Hua suddenly had an epiphany, so he overturned all the previous content and rewrote it.
Changing his writing perspective suddenly gave him a surge of inspiration, and he completed the novel successfully.

For this, he is very grateful to Chen Hong.

She is such a good wife and my lucky star.

It was noon a week later that Fang Minghua received the manuscript sent by Yu Hua.

Of course he was very happy. Just when he was about to create the serious literary brand "Bu Lao Hu", Yu Hua sent him his representative work! Fang Minghua made a cup of tea and sat comfortably on the recliner under the grape trellis, looking at the manuscript carefully.

As he watched, he fell into deep thought.

It wasn't because of the content of the novel - he had read this book before he came to this era.

What he is thinking about now is how to publish this book smoothly and make money.

You know, this book "To Live" and "Wasted City" were published at almost the same time, and experienced the same fate: published and then destroyed, becoming banned books!

But "To Live" is lucky that unlike "Wasted City" which was banned for 16 years, "To Live" was unbanned after only five years. After the unbanning, the sales of the novel became hot along with the award-winning movie.

In fact, the novel "To Live" was wrongly accused. Although it was not a big deal when it was first published, it was banned because the movie "To Live" adapted by Zhang Yimou was banned.

Moreover, before Fang Minghua came to this era, it had not been lifted, and he also watched pirated copies online.

The movie "To Live" can be said to be Zhang Yimou's masterpiece, and has won numerous awards overseas.

It won the Cannes International Film Festival Jury Prize, the Best Foreign Language Film from the National Society of Film Critics, and the Best Foreign Language Film at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards. Ge You also won the title of Best Actor at the Cannes International Film Festival.

As for the reason why the movie was banned, Fang Minghua, who had not lived through that era, had also seen news about it on the Internet.

First, the film production team took the film abroad for the competition without approval from the relevant departments.

Second, some plots in the movie are still too sensitive.

Especially the first one is a big taboo.

If I don’t ban you, who else should I ban?
Before coming to this era, Fang Minghua seriously compared the differences between the novel and the movie. The movie deleted a lot of content from the original work. Compared with the cruel and indifferent world described by Yu Hua, the movie seems much warmer.

For example, the scenes in which Fengxia was given to another family as a servant so that Youqing could go to school because the family was poor were deleted; Fengxia fought with the villagers for a sweet potato during the famine; Fengxia couldn't help herself when she saw others getting married; Jiazhen suffered from rickets; Jiazhen went to the city to ask her father for food; Jiazhen distributed the food to the district chief, etc.

The characters and the plot are closely connected, and deleting the plot will inevitably lead to deleting the characters. For example, Mr. Shen, Mr. Feng Shui, and the physical education teacher are no longer seen in the movie.

Of course, many plots were added: Erxi tied Professor Wang back to the hospital when Fengxia gave birth; Professor Wang choked to death while eating steamed buns; the conversation between Fugui and his wife and Erxi in front of Fengxia's grave and the plot about taking pictures of steamed buns were all added by the director.

These added plots intensify the conflicts between characters, highlight their personality traits, and make the characters' images more full.

The overall tone of the film is heavy but not depressing, sad but not mournful, unlike the novel - which moves step by step towards one tragedy after another.

Zhang Yimou will definitely make this novel into a movie. Some history will not change just because he traveled through time.

Of course, we don’t want the film to fail to pass censorship after it’s finished and be unable to meet mainland audiences.

Then just revise the script, reduce the sensitive plots, and blur the details.

Fang Minghua thought to himself.

Of course, we need to contact Zhang Yimou first.

It is easy to find Zhang Yimou now because he also has a pager.

Fang Minghua put down the manuscript, picked up the landline on the TV cabinet, dialed the 126 service station, left a message for the pager girl, and a few minutes later received a call back from Zhang Yimou.

Fang Minghua got straight to the point: "Yimou, I'm Fang Minghua. I have a very good novel. Do you want to make it into a movie?"

(End of this chapter)