Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 724 Silver Age
"We are all engaged in literature, and we have probably heard of the article titled "The Silver Age" by Russian scholar Nikolai Otsup published in the Russian magazine "Numbers" published in Paris in 1933."

Fang Minghua talked eloquently.

"He refers to the golden age of Russian literature that is different from the golden age of Russian literature created by literary giants such as Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov, with Blok, Bely, Gumilev, Represented by writers such as Akhmatova, their overall literary achievements were inferior to those of the Golden Age, so they were called the "Silver Age."

“Speaking of poetry, in my opinion, the poetry of the 20th century (especially the first half) is the most brilliant golden age in human history. It has broken through the boundaries of national race and language, and has gained an unprecedented international vision and corresponding international influence. It is in this sense that there is so-called international poetry.

“This golden age of poetry is undoubtedly related to the Industrial Revolution, the ‘Death of God’, revolution and autocracy, two world wars, Nazi concentration camps, the Great Purge, the atomic bomb, that is, the deepest darkness in human history.”

"Great poetry is like the fission of the spirit, releasing huge energy, and its rumbling echoes reach us through the mist of time. Perhaps it is precisely because of overconsumption that poetry has begun to decline worldwide since the end of World War II."

"The mediocrity of middle-class life is killing imagination; consumerism brings entertainment while destroying passion; and the compulsion of official discourse and brainwashing by mass media are complicit...

A famous physicist once said that the first half of the 20th century was also the Golden Age of physics, followed by the Silver Age.”

"Minghua, according to what you said, the development of poetry in our country is half a beat slower than that of the international community." Li Tuo said with a smile.

"Yes." Fang Minghua continued, "As we all know, in the first half of the 20th century, the Chinese people lived in turmoil, disasters, and wars. Most people couldn't even fill their stomachs, so how could they have the energy to write poetry? But despite this, in the 1920s and 1930s, a group of outstanding poets such as Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, and Bian Zhilin emerged in my country."

"After the founding of the People's Republic of China, we went through that special period. Literature, including poetry, was suppressed until the late 1970s, when poetry entered a period of rapid development. A large number of outstanding poets, represented by Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, and Shu Ting, created the glorious moment of modern Chinese poetry. Therefore, I call it the Golden Age of Chinese Poetry. Now that we have entered the 1990s, poetry is about to enter its Silver Age."

"During this period, with the development of society, the creative trends of poets were very different from those in the 1980s. There are mainly the following characteristics, which everyone has actually felt.

First: Poetry will contain more complex social experiences, and its anti-sublime and anti-ideal tendencies will be more obvious
Second: Poetry shrinks towards personal experience and becomes more personalized, life-oriented, and colloquial.
Third, the split in the poetry world, the struggle for the power of poetry as a symbol of capital discourse, and the debate on the division of the intellectual and folk writing camps.
In his 40-minute speech, Fang Minghua systematically summarized the overall situation of the development of domestic poetry from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s.

Everyone in the living room listened attentively, and many of them fell into deep thought while listening.

"In short, the phenomenon of 'everyone reads poetry, everyone is a poet' like in the 1980s in my country will never happen. Poetry will always be a niche literature, but what we need to do is for us poets to write excellent poems."

"That's all I have to say."

After Fang Minghua finished his speech, people in the living room began to whisper.

He felt a little dry in the mouth, so he picked up the coffee cup and took a sip, only to find that some of the coffee was a little cold.

Liu Junan, who had been sitting in the corner and listening to everyone's discussion quietly, stood up, took the coffee pot from the servant, walked over and asked, "Mr. Fang, do you need a new cup?"

"No, just add it, thank you."

Liu Junan picked up the coffee pot and filled Fang Minghua's cup with coffee, then stepped back and sat quietly on the sofa in the corner, continuing to listen to everyone's speeches.

"Minghua, is it true as you said that poetry has no future? Will the future be the Bronze Age or the Iron Age?!"

It was Zhai Yongming who spoke, and her tone was a little excited. Fang Minghua's answer was also very straightforward: "I haven't seen it yet."

"Then what's the point of us discussing poetry here?!"

"I think there is." Fang Minghua spoke slowly but firmly. "Gatherings like ours, the Rotterdam International Poetry Festival, and Today, which Bei Dao has been insisting on, are all about giving some warmth to those poets who are walking alone in the darkness, so that they can vaguely see a glimmer of hope."

"Clap, clap, clap" someone took the lead in applauding.

It turned out to be Beidao.

After Fang Minghua finished his speech, everyone began to have a heated discussion again. The salon ended at almost six o'clock. The owner of the villa, Liu Junan, prepared dinner for everyone and they left after eating.

While waiting for dinner, everyone started chatting again. Fang Minghua discovered that Bei Dao was taking out stacks of magazines from a large travel bag and distributing them to everyone. It turned out that he asked his friends to help promote the magazine "Today" which he edited. Li Tuo was also helping.

After the magazine Today, founded by Bei Dao, Mang Ke and others, was banned in the early 1990s, Bei Dao, Li Tuo and others re-published Today in Oslo, the capital of Norway, in the spring of .

Later, as Bei Dao, Li Tuo and others came to the United States, the editorial office also moved here and has remained there until now.

Leaving aside the limitations of history and the entanglements of politics and literature, from the perspective of literature and art alone, the poems published in Today undoubtedly represented a very high level of modern poetry at that time. Classic poems including Bei Dao's "Answer" and Shu Ting's "To the Oak" were all published on the front page of Today.

Bei Dao also gave Fang Minghua a copy.

"Teacher Bei Dao, I will be returning to China soon. You can take one copy with you. I guess if I have too many, they won't be able to get through customs. Otherwise, I can help you sell it." Fang Minghua said.

"It's okay. I'll give this book to you. Take your time reading it." Bei Dao smiled brightly.

Fang Minghua took it and flipped through it. It was a quarterly magazine, priced at US$2.6 per copy.

The magazine paper is very ordinary, it seems that the magazine company is short of funds.

Dinner was Hong Kong's famous pork chop rice. While eating, Fang Minghua asked Li Tuo in a low voice: "How are the sales of the magazine?"

"You just said that poetry has entered the Silver Age, and the next ones are Bronze and Iron. How many people do you think will still read this stuff? Otherwise, with Bei Dao's personality, would he be so shameless as to ask everyone to help promote it?"

"To tell you the truth, every time there is a similar literary salon, Bei Dao will definitely bring a bag of magazines and ask everyone to help sell them. Everyone is used to it." Li Tuo said finally.

"Oh."

Fang Minghua thought for a moment and said, "How about I donate 50 US dollars to the magazine?"

(End of this chapter)