Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 175: Venomous Tongue Paul
The Christmas dinner hosted by the embassy was not luxurious, but the dining atmosphere was very good. Most of the guests did not know each other and could chat quietly while dining.

Sitting next to Lin Chaoyang was an elderly man with a Chinese appearance. He saw that Lin Chaoyang and his wife were behaving intimately and had smiles in their eyes.

After talking to him, Lin Chaoyang found out that the other party was actually Xiao Qian.

Xiao Qian has many identities, including writer, journalist and translator, and behind each of his identities there are remarkable achievements.

As early as the 1930s, he wrote the poetic novel "Valley of Dreams", an autobiographical love tragedy, which is praised as the most weighty and charming in modern Chinese literature. He is regarded by modern literature researchers as one of the representatives of Beijing School literature in the 1930s.

His work "Ledge Collection" was highly praised by Shen Congwen: "I think it is very good, and I can't say anything else."

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he wrote many influential reportage works such as "Observations" and "Ashes".

At the same time, he also made great achievements in translation. He translated the Chinese version of "Ulysses", an important work by James Joyce, one of the founders of postmodern literature and stream of consciousness literature.

Lin Chaoyang didn't know Xiao Qian, but Xiao Qian knew him.

"You have no impression of me, but I have an impression of you. I was sitting down there watching you receive the award for this year's National Excellent Short Story Award." Xiao Qian said with a smile.

"I have long heard of your great name!"

"I have heard of your name for a long time. 'The World's No.1 Restaurant' is very well written. The People's Art Theatre has another classic work."

Xiao Qian's words immediately reminded Lin Chaoyang of the premiere of "The World's Number One Restaurant" in May, when the other party had written an article praising "The World's Number One Restaurant".

"Thank you for your kindness."

Faced with the praise from his seniors, Lin Chaoyang had to be humble.

"Have you written a script recently?" Xiao Qian asked.

"I have written some, but they are not plays, they are movie scripts. One is an adaptation of my own The Horse Herder, which I gave to Director Xie Jin of Shanghai Film Studio. The other was written for Director Li Hanxiang of Hong Kong."

Xiao Qian sighed as he listened to his words, "Your work 'Lai Zi's Summer' was also published this year, right? A novel and two screenplays a year, you are a young man after all!"

"I wrote Lai Zi's Summer at the end of last year."

Xiao Qian nodded slightly, "When the movie is released, I will go to support you."

"Thank you for your support, but the movie is still a long way from being released."

Xiao Qian asked again: "Are you also going to participate in the international writing program?"

"International Writing Program?" Lin Chaoyang was slightly stunned, feeling that it sounded familiar. He remembered that they seemed to have talked about it when Li Tuo came to visit his home before.

He shook his head and said, "No, I didn't participate in that writing project. I came here at the invitation of a friend."

The "International Writing Project" mentioned by Xiao Qian is an activity initiated by Chinese-American writer Nie Hualing and her husband, the famous American poet Paul Englert.

Last year was the first year of the implementation of the international writing program. Xiao Qian was invited to become one of the first Chinese writers to participate in the event and conducted exchanges in the United States for more than four months.

Xiao Qian mistakenly thought that Lin Chaoyang was invited to attend the dinner at the embassy because he was participating in an international writing program.

"That's a good plan. Going abroad can broaden your horizons. If you have the chance, you should go out for a trip." Xiao Qian suggested.

Xiao Qian's suggestion was sincere, but it was not his turn to decide on the matter, and the two of them were just chatting.

The dinner did not last long, only an hour.

After that, everyone moved to the big restaurant, where the embassy also held a cocktail party.

Compared to a dinner party with only about twenty people, the cocktail party is much larger.

Today is Christmas. Yanjing Hotel is one of the few hotels in the entire city with a Christmas atmosphere, so many consulate officials and foreigners in Yanjing choose to spend the holiday here.

Therefore, the cocktail party after the banquet not only attended the guests hosted by the American Embassy, ​​but also foreigners from other countries.

In addition to these guests, a 14-member orchestra was arranged at the reception to play music, and a special area was set up in the center of the reception for the guests to dance.

As soon as the cocktail party started, many foreigners joined the dance floor.

Tao Yushu looked at the foreigners with colorful hair and speaking gibberish on the dance floor and sighed, "I have lived in Yanjing for so many years, but I have never seen so many foreigners. You said too few just now. I feel that more than half, all the foreigners in Yanjing should be here, almost catching up with the United Nations."

Lin Chaoyang took her hand and asked, "Shall we dance too?"

Tao Yushu immediately pulled his hand away, "I won't jump!"

"Why are you afraid of trying?"

Lin Chaoyang wanted to pull her, but she shrank back in fear.

She couldn't shake her head and make seductive gestures in public like those foreigners did.

On weekdays, their classmates at Yanshi University would also hold dances in private, but Tao Yushu had always declined to attend such events.

Seeing her resistance, Lin Chaoyang stopped arranging the dance and instead pulled her to the dessert table.

"Let's have some snacks then."

The only food at the cocktail party was dessert, but there were many kinds of desserts, including vanilla pudding, tiramisu, rum baba, donuts, apple pie, muffins...

When Chinese people still needed to use pastry tickets to buy dim sum at dim sum restaurants, the wide variety of dim sum on the dessert table was extremely luxurious.

Women have no resistance to desserts, and Tao Yushu inherited her love for sweets from her mother, making it even more difficult for her to resist.

The Western food at the dinner is only half full for the Chinese stomach, and the dim sum can just fill the emptiness in the stomach.

However, when Tao Yushu took the snacks, she carefully observed her surroundings and took only as much as others had taken.

In comparison, Lin Chaoyang was much more unrestrained and ate several pieces of snacks in big mouthfuls.

He didn't like desserts or pastries, but since you have to have tickets to buy pastries these days, he didn't eat them for a long time. Plus, there were so many beautiful desserts on display, so he wanted to indulge himself occasionally. "Pay attention to your image," Tao Yushu reminded him.

"Thin-skinned people get nothing, but thick-skinned people get plenty. Don't you know this?"

Lin Chaoyang said this without any worries, stuffed another piece of dessert into his mouth, and then stopped contentedly and wiped his hands.

Although Tao Yushu always said that Lin Chaoyang was shameless, in an occasion like today, she felt a real sense of relaxation from Lin Chaoyang, which was a trait and confidence that was difficult for her to possess.

The dessert for the cocktail party was provided by the Yanjing Hotel, but the flavor was based on American tastes and was too sweet to be cloying. After eating a few pieces, Tao Yushu felt so sick of it that he didn't want to eat any more.

She looked at the dessert table piled high with desserts and regretted that she had such a small appetite.

There are so many desserts, it would be nice to take them home.

While she was feeling regretful, Lin Chaoyang noticed that there was a foreigner in front of the dessert table who was also eating voraciously. The foreigner seemed to have noticed Lin Chaoyang as well.

"Hi!"

"hello!"

“Lin Chaoyang!”

"Paul Theroux!"

"writer!"

"writer!"

After introducing himself in code, Paul Theroux said, "The desserts here are good."

"Yes."

“It’s rare to find desserts in China that are as cloyingly sweet as those in the United States.”

Lin Chaoyang felt a little uncomfortable listening to Paul Theroux's words. He belittled two countries in one sentence. My friend, you are a talented person!
"Have you just arrived in China?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

"Yeah, I've only been here a little over a month. Man, you speak pretty good English."

Paul Theroux has been in China for more than a month. Apart from the official translators he has met, Lin Chaoyang's spoken English is the most fluent he has ever heard.

"You Orientals look so young! Did you learn English in college?"

In the eyes of Westerners, it is difficult to tell the age of Oriental people because their appearance is so deceptive.

Just now, Lin Chaoyang introduced himself as a writer. Paul Theroux thought he was the same as the Chinese people he had seen, just looking young, but actually he might be in his forties.

"That's it."

As the two were chatting, Shanlun Woodcock came over and greeted them.

"It seems like you already know each other."

Paul Solu and Lin Chaoyang looked at each other and said, "Yes."

"But you probably don't know what the other person's works are." Shanlon Woodcock smiled and kept it a secret.

The two looked at her, waiting for her introduction. Shanlon Woodcock said, "Come to think of it, both of your works are ones I've seen in the past six months."

She told Paul Theroux: "Lin wrote a very good stream-of-consciousness novel, which is available in English in China's official foreign literature magazine, Chinese Literature."

Paul Theroux recalled the magazines he had read when he was bored on the train. For foreigners traveling to China at this time, it was difficult for them to see foreign-language books in China except for the foreign books they brought with them.

"Chinese Literature" is one of the few reading materials that has no reading threshold, so this official magazine does have a lot of readers among the foreign community in China.

Paul Theroux was bored while riding on the train, so he bought a copy of Chinese Literature.

"I see, it's 'Laizi's Summer', right?"

Shanlon Woodcock smiled and said, "Yes, it seems you have seen it."

"Yes, I have read it. I read it on the train. The novel is really well written, with a particularly oriental romantic feel!"

"Thank you." Lin Chaoyang said.

Shanlon Woodcock introduced the works of Paul Theroux. "Paul Theroux is a travel writer. His work "The Great Train Bazaar" is very famous in the United States. This is his first visit to China."

Listening to Shanlun Woodcock's introduction, Lin Chaoyang suddenly realized that it was no wonder that he felt Paul Theroux's name sounded familiar just now. It turned out that he was the author of "Train Bazaar".

"The Grand Bazaar" is considered Paul Theroux's representative work. Since its publication in 1975, it has been hailed as a classic of travel literature by more and more readers.

Of course, this book has not been introduced into China, and Lin Chaoyang's understanding of Paul Theroux and his works comes from the memories of later generations.

Lin Chaoyang recalled what the old man had just said, belittling the behavior of China and the United States. If it were him, it would not be difficult to understand.

Because this guy's style has always been like this, sarcastic, mean, and picky.

When he travelled around England, he said that "the whole of England is like a witch riding a pig";
On the Orient Express, he said, "The Orient Express is worse than the meanest Madras train. On the latter, at least you can get vegetables and rice with your dirty meal coupons";
He said that "Mumbai is noisy and chaotic, with the arrogance of a poor metropolis";
Later in life, this guy also wrote a travelogue of his time in China, which also contained some sarcastic comments.

However, this brother's venomous tongue knows no boundaries between countries, cities, or races. He emphasizes the equality of all beings. As long as the brother is in a bad mood, he will diss someone.

But it is precisely this sharp tongue that makes Paul Theroux's works stand out from the monotonous travel literature and form his own unique style.

Of course, it is impossible for any literary work to impress readers solely through sarcastic words.

In addition to being sarcastic, Paul Theroux's writing is also humorous, calm and delicate, so much so that many years later he was revered by many as the godfather of modern travel literature.

After Shanlon Woodcock introduced him, Lin Chaoyang formally shook hands with Paul Theroux and they were considered to be acquainted.

(End of this chapter)