Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 308 Winner of the First Mao Dun Literature Prize
Zhao Zhenkai asked Chen Kaige to speak in front of everyone. While he was proud and excited, he was also inevitably a little nervous and uneasy.

On the one hand, it was because he had always been a little unknown in the group and had never been in the spotlight; on the other hand, it was also because he lacked confidence in his own level.

Although he was passionate and eloquent when he stood up to refute Zhao Zhenkai just now, that was all "borrowed" talk. If he really let him speak himself, Chen Kaige immediately didn't know what to say.

Because he has hardly read any magical realism works, let alone knows much about Latin American literature.

Fortunately, after a few seconds of anxiety, Chen Kaige wisely thought of Lin Chaoyang.

At worst, I can just talk more about Uncle Lin’s remarks.

"This year's Nobel Prize in Literature has made the Chinese people pay attention to the literary genre of 'magical realism', but in fact, many people in the academic community had already noticed it several years ago.

In 1975, the internal publication of Renwen Press, "Foreign Literature Situation", devoted an issue to Latin American literature, introducing for the first time the Colombian new genre novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude". This was the earliest record of the appearance of Marquez's masterpiece "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in China.

At that time, the album did not have a high opinion of this novel, mainly because it was based on political struggle and believed that the realistic tendency in Latin American literary circles in the 1930s and 1940s was gradually declining during this period.

Some writers with progressive tendencies were corrupted and invaded by modern revisionism and the Western bourgeoisie, and began to gradually escape from reality, deviate from literary tradition, and magicalize and mythologize the content of their novels.

This view seemed biased at the time, but it also revealed the foundation of magical realism to some extent - realism..."

Chen Kaige felt a little nervous when he first gave his speech, because he was also afraid that someone like him would suddenly stand out in the crowd and end up in the same situation as Zhao Zhenkai.

After all, he really didn't understand much about what he was talking about. He just recalled what Uncle Lin had told him and recited it verbatim. He had no confidence!
But as he spoke, Chen Kaige discovered that everyone seemed to be listening very attentively and had no intention of finding fault at all.

Not only that, he also caught some admiring looks from the eyes of several female comrades, which immediately made him feel at ease and more confident, and even his voice became a little louder.

After speaking for more than twenty minutes, Chen Kaige felt that his reserves were about to be exhausted, so he decisively decided to quit while he was ahead.

“The above is my brief understanding of Latin American literature and magical realism. Thank you for listening!”

After saying these words, Chen Kaige sat down and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Tian Zhuangzhuang, who was standing by, looked at him with an incredible look in his eyes, "Kai Ge, great! I didn't expect that you have such a profound knowledge reserve now!"

The two of them grew up naked in the same courtyard as childhood friends. Chen Kaige didn't dare to show too much pride in front of Tian Zhuangzhuang.

He whispered, "I have also been studying with others recently and learned a lot."

Tian Zhuangzhuang nodded after listening to Chen Kaige's words. This was unexpected, but also reasonable.

He knew Chen Kaige too well. Although he had some literary experience and his writings were pretty good, it was almost impossible for him to speak nonstop for more than half an hour in front of so many people like he did today, and the content of his speech was all difficult and obscure things that no one was familiar with.

"Who did you learn this from? Let me go and listen to your lecture later. It's so advanced!" said Tian Zhuangzhuang.

"I'll take you there when I have time."

Chen Kaige said this, but in his heart he was thinking, Uncle Lin is my uncle, and he gives me lectures out of friendship. What does this have to do with you?
He made up his mind that he would never take Tian Zhuangzhuang to see Lin Chaoyang.

As the two were talking, there was thunderous applause all around, which made Chen Kaige feel very proud.

As the host of the meeting, Zhao Zhenkai stood up and summarized Chen Kaige's speech, praised him a few words, and finally asked everyone to ask questions actively and take this opportunity to have a good communication with Chen Kaige.

Hearing this, Chen Kaige suddenly felt nervous. He didn't think he could handle everyone's tricky questions.

When he was feeling uneasy, everyone looked at each other and found that no one seemed to want to ask any questions.

The reason is very simple. In previous discussion meetings, everyone would often ask questions enthusiastically and communicate with each other. Sometimes they would even argue until they were red in the face. This was mainly because everyone had sufficient understanding of the subject being discussed, or claimed to have sufficient understanding.

But what Chen Kaige just said was a bit too obscure for those enthusiasts present who were just starting to get acquainted with Latin American literature and magical realism works. Everyone wanted to ask questions, but didn't know where to start.

Seeing that everyone was sitting quietly, Chen Kaige breathed a sigh of relief, and then he felt relieved and happy that he had succeeded in showing off.

In a blink of an eye, the more than two-hour discussion was over. Everyone was still reluctant to leave, so they chatted with each other after the meeting. Some people talked about some hot topics recently.

"Hey, why hasn't there been any news about the Mao Dun Literature Prize? Didn't they organize a reading class at the beginning of the year? It's been more than a year, right?"

"It should be soon. I heard from my brother that the shortlist will be released in September."

"September is almost three months away. This is too slow."

"The judges are all seniors. They are busy with work and in poor health. Do you still expect them to get up quickly?"

"Isn't it a waste of time to invite these old guys to judge the awards? I think we should invite young people. I can finish reading not only a hundred novels, but even a thousand."

"Don't brag. With your skills, you still want to be a judge? You can't even get into Yenching Literature!"

……

The results of the first Mao Dun Literature Prize attracted attention not only from readers and literature lovers, but also from the literary community.

Mao Dun passed away in 1981. The Mao Dun Literature Prize, established according to his will, came into being and became the first authoritative literary award in the Chinese literary world to encourage the writing of novels.

Most readers and literature lovers pay attention to this award out of a desire to watch the fun, but for some people in the literary world, this award is actually related to their own interests.

Writers can win awards, editors can receive commendations, and publishing houses can receive honors. We are all in the same boat.

The award process lasted for more than a year, and not only readers and literature lovers were anxiously waiting, but also writers who had the potential to win, novel editors, and publishers were eagerly waiting. Finally, on December 1982, 12, the People's Daily published a report on the list of winners of the first Mao Dun Literature Award without any warning.

On the day the report came out, the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles also informed the literary and art associations of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government of the award results.

In just one day, the Chinese literary world was in turmoil and excitement.

"Xu Mao and His Daughters" (Zhou Keqin), "The East" (Wei Wei), "General's Chant" (Mo Yingfeng), "Li Zicheng" (Yao Xueying), "The Chess Master" (Lin Chaoyang), "Furong Town" (Gu Hua), and "Spring in Winter" (Li Guowen).

After more than a year of evaluation, the first Mao Dun Literature Prize finally selected seven winning works.

If there are eight works on the shortlist as rumored, then the winning rate is terrifying.

While everyone is marveling at the winning works and writers, they are also curious about who is the unlucky one who lost.
"Oh, I am dying of laughter. Zhang Manling is such a mean mouth. When the awards were announced, she didn't care about others but only cared about who the unlucky loser was. What a girl!"

Shen Jinmei is the deputy editor-in-chief of "Tianjin Literature". Last month, "Xingang" magazine was just restructured into "Tianjin Literature", which is in line with the trend of local literary association publications being changed to "such and such literature".

She was originally the head of "Xingang" and a veteran member of the Tianjin Literary Association. After the publication was restructured, she became the deputy editor-in-chief.

"Tianjin Literature" and the Literary Association share an office, and the people in the editorial department and the Literary Association are familiar with each other. Shen Jinmei just went to the Literary Association's office and came back and said with a smile.

Listening to her joke, laughter broke out in the editorial office.

Jiang Zilong, now the editor-in-chief of Tianjin Literature, asked, "Shouldn't she be most concerned about Lin Chaoyang?"

Ever since Zhang Manling and Wu Ziren teamed up to write that article that was unfavorable to Yanying Studio, everyone in the Tianjin Federation of Literary and Art Circles knew about it. Her relationship with Lin Chaoyang was so good that she was willing to be his pawn.

Some people also spread some unpleasant rumors in private, but these rumors could not be made public and could only spread in dark corners.

"Lin Chaoyang has won the award, what's there to care about? He's only in his twenties and he won the Mao Dun Literature Prize, he's too young!" Shen Jinmei said with emotion.

Hearing this, Jiang Zilong couldn't help but recall his experience studying at the Institute of Literature two years ago, "Yes! He taught us a class that year."

Shen Jinmei teased: "What do you think of this 'little teacher'?"

Jiang Zilong thought for a moment and said seriously, "His theoretical knowledge is very solid, much better than that of us amateur writers. And you can tell that he is really talented. I didn't realize some things until I was in my thirties, but he was only in his early twenties at that time, and he could already explain it clearly."

Shen Jinmei's original intention was to tease him, but when she saw Jiang Zilong's attitude was so formal, she gave up the joking idea.

"Then do you think that The Chess Master deserves the award?"

Hearing her question, Jiang Zilong asked back: "What do you mean by well-deserved? In terms of the quality of the works, all the works that won awards this year are good. But if you look at them through a magnifying glass, who doesn't have flaws?"

"I remember that when The Chess Master was published last year, it was criticized for being 'populist', right?

If only the first volume of Yao Xueying's "Li Zicheng" was available, the award might have been more convincing.

We were classmates in Gu Hua's "Furong Town", and that simple binary opposition design is too crude...

In the final analysis, the awards are judged on strengths, not weaknesses. We should look at the excellence of a work, not just its minor flaws.”

Jiang Zilong's words drew applause from several colleagues around him. Shen Jinmei joked, "As expected of Editor-in-Chief Jiang, you have a great vision!"

Jiang Zilong waved his hand modestly, "What kind of situation is this? But if you want to talk about the problems of this year's awards, it is not without..."

Hearing him say this, several other colleagues looked at him curiously.

"From the results of this year's awards, it seems that they are still somewhat ideologically oriented and have not gotten rid of the influence of politics."

After listening to Jiang Zilong's words, the others thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"What the editor said is right. Didn't everyone say that Lin Chaoyang's "Death of Van Gogh" was also submitted? In fact, I think the artistic level of "Death of Van Gogh" is much higher than that of "The Chess Master".

Comparing the two, the advantage of The Chess Master is clearly in terms of ideology.”

"The Chess Master isn't bad, it's just that The Death of Vincent Van Gogh is so amazing. It's a bit far-fetched for Spring in Winter to win the award, it would be better to give it to The Death of Vincent Van Gogh."

"How can one person take up two places? It would be better to replace "The Chess Master" with "The Death of Van Gogh". This way it will be more convincing."

Everyone was discussing the topic enthusiastically.

After all, this is the first novel award in the country and also the first award ceremony. We are all part of the literary community, so we were naturally excited when the results came out.

Jiang Zilong looked at everyone's performance and Lin Chaoyang's face came to his mind unconsciously.

So young!

Jiang Zilong was one of the earliest writers to become famous, and he also founded "Reform Literature", an important genre in contemporary Chinese literature.

Unfortunately, compared with Lin Chaoyang, he is not as good as before.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to win the Mao Dun Literature Prize in my lifetime!

(End of this chapter)