The literary era since 1979

"indeed!"

Lin Huanzhang smiled and said, "I almost forgot about the Artificial Intelligence magazine edited by Fang."

Everyone agrees with this. As a children's science fiction novel, "Artificial Intelligence" has not only sold millions of copies worldwide, but the movie adapted by Hollywood has also grossed more than 2 million US dollars worldwide, not to mention being nominated for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.

“If I had to say there was something that was a little off, it would be that we were not shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.”

A look of regret appeared on Xie Wuzhang's face.

Fangyan smacked his lips. If the Hugo Award is the Nobel Prize in science fiction, then the Hans Christian Andersen Award is the Nobel Prize in children's literature. It was established in 1956 by the International Board on Books for Young People and named after the fairy tale master Hans Christian Andersen. It is awarded every two years and can be regarded as the highest honor in the field of children's literature. Of course, like the Nobel Prize in Literature, it can only be won once in a lifetime.

Once you get it, you have a lifelong honor.

Because it is mainly used to recognize the literary attainments and achievements of a children's literature writer throughout his or her lifetime, there is basically no precedent for awarding it to young writers. Moreover, it will not be awarded to writers who have transitioned from adult literature to children's literature unless their works are extremely outstanding.

This is also to maintain the purity of the Andersen Award and to recognize the "devotion" of children's literature writers to writing for children.

According to such requirements, it is understandable that Fangyan's "Artificial Intelligence" did not win the award, and was not even shortlisted for the Andersen Award.

Thinking of this, he waved his hand and said, "Although Artificial Intelligence can be classified as children's literature, it is essentially a science fiction novel. Whether in terms of content or purpose, it does not meet the selection criteria of the Hans Christian Andersen Award."

“What are the criteria for the selection of the Hans Christian Andersen Award?”

Hu Yinmeng, Pan Yaoming and others were very confused.

Lin Huanzhang explained that the criteria for the International Hans Christian Andersen Awards are very strict. The first priority is humanistic care, and it is important to tell children what happiness, wealth, war and hunger are. The second priority is to pay attention to the traumatic issues that children's hearts are most vulnerable to, such as social unrest and the misfortune of broken families. The other priority is to help children "discover things that cannot be discovered by other means"...

"Children's literature works that lack deep connotations will basically not be accepted by the judging panel."

Hong Xintao added.

Hu Yinmeng was very surprised. Just being shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Nobel Prize for children's literature, must be extremely difficult.

Xie Wuzhang stared at Fang Yan closely. "But I think with Mr. Fang's talent, if he focuses on writing children's literature, it won't be difficult for him to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award in the future."

As soon as these words were spoken, almost everyone present had no objection.

Only Fangyan raised his hand and said, "You all really think too highly of me. How can my achievements in the field of children's literature compare to yours?"

"Editor-in-Chief Fang is too modest."

Hong Xintao said that not to mention the content quality and influence of "Artificial Intelligence", the children's song program "Jade Plate" performed on the stage of this year's Spring Festival Gala is enough to prove how high the potential and level of dialects are in the field of children's literature!
"Yes, the children's song "Jade Plate" is a rare masterpiece in the past, present and future."

Members of the mainland children's literature delegation all nodded in agreement.

The more this happened, the more it aroused the interest of the Taiwan delegation, which had never heard of it before, and they couldn't wait to ask for a cappella singing in dialect.

"Then it's embarrassing."

Seeing that repeated refusals were fruitless, Fangyan cleared his throat and had to hum a few lines reluctantly.

"Jade plate, jade plate,
Why are you hanging on the roof?

Jade plate, jade plate,

Why do you give away silver light in vain?
Jade plate, jade plate,

Why do you sometimes show off and sometimes hide, sometimes get thin and sometimes get fat..."

There was a gleam in Hu Yinmeng's eyes. Even though she had long heard that her best friends, such as Lin Qingxia and Deng Liyun, were good at writing lyrics in dialect, and she had collected almost all the music tapes or records with lyrics in dialect, she was still surprised that children's songs could be written so well in dialect!

"It is said that Editor Fang is not only good at literature, but also good at writing lyrics. After hearing it today, it is indeed true!"

Xie Wuzhang said what everyone present wanted to say.

Fangyan smiled and said that the original purpose of writing this song was to use it as the theme song for the opening ceremony of last year's World Science Fiction Convention.

"Yes."

Pan Yaoming recalled, "It's a pity that you were not there at the time. The singing of those Yi children really made our blood boil."

Hong Xintao was yearning, "I wonder if I can have this kind of hearing pleasure when I go to the mainland this time?"

Fangyan replied that the song "Jade Plate" had been made into a tape and released and sold in the mainland.

Everyone was surprised and delighted, and they all declared they wanted to buy a cassette.

However, Hu Yinmeng cleverly realized that Fangyan was trying to change the subject and brought the topic back to where it had already gone off track.

"Children's songs, children's novels, and the children's movie "Baby Smart Stars", Mr. Fang's attainments in the field of children's literature are not as shallow as you say, right?"

"This……"

Fangyan was stunned for a moment. They saw the truth but didn’t say it out loud. They are still good friends!

However, not only Hu Yinmeng "destroyed her own stage", Hong Xintao also bluntly revealed that Fang Yan founded a children's book called "Fairy Tale World" in the mainland, which was deeply loved by children and young people, and the average monthly sales exceeded 100 million copies.

"I didn't expect Editor Fang to hide it so deeply!"

“I wonder if Editor-in-Chief Fang has created other children’s literature works besides Artificial Intelligence?”

"After arriving in the mainland, I will definitely buy some copies of "Fairy Tale World" and bring the magazine back to Taiwan for research and discussion."

"........."

Seeing that everyone was talking at once and bringing up Fangyan, Hu Yinmeng smiled secretly with her hands covering her mouth, a hint of cunning revealed between her brows.

"It's a pity that since the serialization of Fairy Tale World, I still haven't seen Editor-in-Chief Fang's works appear in the magazine."

Hong Xintao smiled and said, "I think if children can read your children's novel one day, they will be very happy."

Fangyan always felt that these words sounded particularly awkward, as if implying: Fang Wenhao, you don’t want the children to lose their happiness, do you?

"Editor-in-Chief Fang, please don't refuse again."

Everyone was eagerly looking forward to him writing another children's literature work like "Artificial Intelligence".

Hong Xintao also appeals to people's emotions and reason. Although children's literature is at the bottom of the literary contempt chain, and even has a lower status than science fiction literature, it is an indispensable literature, because children are the flowers of the motherland, and one of the "sweet springs" that water the flowers of the motherland is children's literature created specifically for children. Good children's literature works can not only light up the lamps in children's hearts, but also guide and influence their lives.

When Fang Yan heard this, his eyes gradually became firm. This was indeed a reason that he could not refuse! (End of this chapter)