The literary era since 1979

Chapter 240: We Can’t Let Teacher Fang Make the Same Mistake Again

Before 78, popular literature was almost extinct in mainland China, and most of it was even labeled as "banned books."

After the reform and opening up, popular literature, including martial arts novels, was lifted, but it still lacks legality.

This kind of work that satisfies the public's entertainment is equivalent to "pornographic novel", just like "Homesickness", which was labeled as a "pornographic song".

It is still regarded as an unorthodox practice that is not acceptable in the upper class.

As a result, the entire mainland reader market had a lot of demand, but once the martial arts novels of Jin Yong and Gu Long and the romance novels of Qiong Yao and Yi Shu were introduced, these popular literature from Hong Kong and Taiwan immediately filled the gap.

The once popular Hong Kong and Taiwan literature, coupled with the prejudice of the literary and publishing circles, has suppressed mainland popular literature since its revival in the early 80s to the present.

It is still a long way from revival.

Like the dialect that has taken a different approach, Under the Hawthorn Tree has provided a new idea for a group of writers of love literature, which is to use the shell of "pure literature" or "educated youth literature" to write popular love novels and go public through a backdoor listing.

Popular literature has quietly revived and secretly revived thanks to the efforts of young writers such as Fangyan, but it has also been targeted by a group of conservatives in the literary world, especially those who claim to be "pure literature" and "high-end literature", but they have never found the "evidence" of Fangyan's guilt.

Now, we've finally caught him in the act!

You can’t say that martial arts novels are also pure literature!
How could the winner of the first Mao Dun Literature Prize write a martial arts novel like "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong"?
Popular! Vulgar! Kitsch!

It is no different from the "Huashan Sect's eldest disciple" Linghu Chong joining the "Sun Moon Sect", degenerating himself and falling into the evil path, which is heartbreaking.

"Huacheng" was the base camp of the Guangdong Army. As soon as the latest issue of the journal was published, it was first questioned by writers, editors, and literary critics in eastern Guangdong, and the newspapers even criticized it in full pages.

Even in the literature section of Southern Daily, the editor personally wrote an article to persuade Fangyan not to continue rushing down the wrong path and to quickly return to being the Fangyan who wrote The Rise of the Qin Empire.

The sea of ​​literature is boundless, it is never too late to turn back!

Teacher Fang!

The editorial department of Huacheng, which was at the forefront of public pressure, immediately called Fangyan and explained the situation.

"Teacher Fan, how are the sales of the magazine now?"

"Thanks to you, 137 million copies have been distributed nationwide, and we are now urgently printing another 20 copies."

Fan Hansheng's tone was full of excitement, "This is the first time that the sales of Huacheng have exceeded 150 million copies."

Fangyan asked: "Do you have the confidence to reach 200 million copies?"

"Yes! Of course!"

When talking about sales, Fan Hansheng couldn't stop smiling.

In addition to the co-organized "Nanfeng", during the serialization of "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch", the sales of each issue exceeded 200 million copies. Since the founding of "Huacheng", there has never been a sales volume of more than 200 million copies.

Right now, "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" is an opportunity!

"That's it."

Fangyan said: "This shows that the people have a strong passion for reading and have been looking forward to more works like this to satisfy them." He then asked about the collection and statistical results of the reader questionnaire, whether there were more positive reviews or negative reviews.

Fan Hansheng said that more than 300 questionnaires have been collected:

“There are almost no negative reviews, only rave reviews!”

"Then we will follow our previous agreement and organize the comments and opinions from readers and publish them in newspapers such as South Wind and Special Zone Youth Daily."

There was laughter in dialect from the other end of the phone.

"Teacher Fang."

Fan Hansheng suggested: "You mentioned your views on 'martial arts novels' and 'the boundaries between popular literature, pure literature and serious literature' in the summer writing class. I think it's time to publish them. What do you think?"

Fang Yan asked, "Are you ready for the novels such as "Soul-Breaking Spear", "Sword-Forging" and "Heroine"?"

Fan Hansheng said that he had collected all the information through various methods. For example, "The Forging of the Sword" was included in Mr. Lu Xun's "New Stories".

With just one order, we can serialize it in "Nanfeng" and, in line with Fangyan's point of view, launch a fierce counterattack.

This is an opportunity for Lingnan literature to become famous nationwide!
This is an opportunity for popular literature to rise strongly!
If all succeeds, this will also be an opportunity for Huacheng to become a top literary magazine like October and Contemporary!

Teacher Fang, we really want to make progress!

…………

On the 8th day after the publication of "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong", the sales of "Huacheng" nationwide reached 151 million copies. At the same time, Mr. Lao She's "The Soul-Breaking Spear" was also published in newspapers and serialized.

For a time, it became a hot commodity in the market in eastern Guangdong.

On the one hand, because the dialect is well-known in eastern Guangdong and even in the whole country, readers come to buy the novel and find that the novel is indeed well-written.

Word of mouth spreads from one person to ten people, from ten to a hundred people, and everyone knows it.

On the one hand, the movie "Shaolin Temple" and popular literature magazines such as "Wulin" and "Legends of the Past and Present" introduced novels by Jin Yong and others, which sparked a long-lasting martial arts craze across the country.

Almost every stall owner on Gaodi Street holds a copy of the book, and all they talk about is Wong Fei Hung, with his "Shadowless Kick" and "Drunken Fist" mentioned every time they talk about him.

There are also tiger-crane double forms, darts...

Merchants who came to buy goods became curious when they saw the stall owners doing this, and they either borrowed a copy or tried every possible way to get one.

"Hey, how is Mr. Fang's writing?"

Ye Jing was flipping through the Southern Daily.

"I think he's much more awesome than Jin Yong and the others!"

Wang Shuo said this while watching "Flower City".

Ye Jing found it interesting and asked, "What's so great about it?"

"Jin Yong's novels are long-winded. They don't explain things clearly if they can be explained in one sentence. It's nothing more than karma..." "When two people meet, they fight, but neither of them can defeat the other. When someone dies, someone falls from the sky to block the way. It goes on and on, endlessly, and it's boring to watch!"

"And his internal strength is so ridiculous, just like Yan Zhendong in the movie. No matter how high his martial arts skills are, he can be knocked down with one shot. It's so vulgar!"

Wang Shuo listed eight major charges, spitting everywhere.

(PS: In real life, Wang Shuo also criticized Jin Yong in this way)
"But the newspaper said that Mr. Fang's novels are also vulgar."

Ye Jing unfolded the newspaper.

It is flooded with criticisms and doubts about Fang Yan's works and ideas. There are also a few who admit that "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" is well written, but they do not like this kind of historical martial arts novel.

The word "vulgar" appears frequently between the lines.

"That's normal. If I were them, I would curse them too."

Wang Shuo curled his lips, "Teacher Fang has started something new. Those who write martial arts novels, romance novels, in short, anyone who writes popular novels can all sit at the table and eat. And they can even sit at the same table with them."

Ye Jing suddenly realized: "I understand, it seems that such an ordinary person can mix with them, you think it's a loss of face, right?"

"No!"

Wang Shuo said, "Some people just want to stand out. If they don't curse a few times, they will appear to be uncultured and uneducated. If they curse a few more times, they might be able to step on Teacher Fang and make a name for themselves."

Ye Jing smacked his lips. This was the literary world of the 80s.

"Are there only curse words in the newspaper?"

Wang Shuo asked.

"How is that possible? There are also people who praise it, and there are quite a few of them."

Ye Jing handed over the "Yangcheng Evening News" and "Nanfeng".

In addition to the brief discussion and insights on dialects, there are also writers from eastern Guangdong such as Chen Guokai and Kong Jiesheng, who use "Lingnan literature", "Cantonese novels" and "regional culture" to express their solidarity and support.

These people are all students of the "Huacheng" summer novel writing class, and are all the "New Literature Guangdong Army" that has been reorganized by General Fang.

Loyal! Sincerity!
The new army and the old army each have their own opinions.

Amidst such controversy, "The Grandmaster Wong Fei Hung" has attracted widespread discussion and attention from readers. In the feedback questionnaires, the positive reviews far outnumbered the negative reviews, and the positive review rate remained high.

The result was that the more harshly some writers, editors and literary critics cursed in newspapers, the higher the sales of Huacheng became.

The same is true in Tianjin.

"Today there are another eight pages criticizing dialects."

Feng Jicai handed the Tianjin Daily to Jiang Zilong.

"Only eight."

Jiang Zilong smiled and said, "You haven't seen it. When Yan Zi published "The Fission of the Great Qin", there were 16 or 17 pages criticizing him every day. This is nothing."

Feng Jicai sighed, "Zilong, I originally thought you were very courageous and the 'Zhao Zilong' of the literary world. I didn't expect Fangyan to be even bolder than you and make a big fuss every time he speaks."

"He is so brave, he is so bold!"

Jiang Zilong said helplessly: "But I still don't understand why he wants to get involved in the messy waters of popular literature. He just won the Mao Dun Literature Prize. Why not just write "Da Qin 2" in a down-to-earth manner?"

"I don't think so."

"How to say?"

"I think popular literature is not the goal of dialects at all. What he really wants to promote is Lingnan literature, which is to root literature in national and regional culture," Feng Jicai said bluntly.

"What you said makes sense..."

Jiang Zilong thought for a while, "Lingnan's martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, lion dance, architecture, these folk customs have been well integrated into "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" by Yanzi."

Feng Jicai nodded and said, "Dialects are mainly used to promote regional folk culture, and promoting popular literature is just a byproduct."

Jiang Zilong readily agreed, and the two of them started by discussing Lingnan literature and extended their discussion to regional literature.

"I think Fangyan's novel is very inspiring to the literary world, especially to writers in Tianjin."

“How come you see?”

"Think about it. Think about it carefully."

Feng Jicai directly mentioned "Southern Fists and Northern Legs".

Like eastern Guangdong and Fujian, Tianjin and northern Hebei are also very martial. In modern times, they have been important centers of martial arts in the north, with many martial arts schools and national martial arts halls, filled with many masters and stars.

Li Cunyi, Han Muxia, Huo Yuanjia, Zhang Zhankui...

Even the man who wrote "Heroines" was a martial arts master.

Since the dialect can be used to write "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" which is based on Lingnan martial arts, why can't the Tianjin writers write their own regional literature based on Tianjin martial arts?
"Well, it's not like I haven't thought about it."

Jiang Zilong said, "But I am too busy to do anything else. To restore the reform literature, I must first pay back the manuscript I owe to Contemporary."

"Zilong, can you do me a favor?"

"You said I could help, and I will definitely help."

"I plan to go to Yanjing and talk to Fangyan in person."

Feng Jicai hopes that Jiang Zilong can introduce him to Fangyan.

Meet Teacher Fang!

(End of this chapter)