Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 312 The Uncrowned King
"I can't answer this question."

Mr. Ba Jin took a few seconds to say this, which disappointed everyone who had been expecting it. It was as if he hadn't said anything.

Seeing the crowd's reaction, the old comrade patiently explained: "It is only natural to make the award results public, but the award judging process is the collective wisdom of the judging committee, which involves many aspects and cannot be fully disclosed to everyone.

However, I would like to ask everyone to rest assured that our award process is fair and impartial, and there is absolutely no favoritism, fraud or abuse of power. I guarantee this with my personal integrity. "

After Mr. Ba Jin finished speaking, there was a brief silence for a few seconds. At this time, Liu Xinwu, who was sitting among the senior colleagues, suddenly continued Wang Meng's words and asked: "Recently, there are rumors that the work that the jury finally eliminated was Chao Yang's "Death of Van Gogh."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Chaoyang could clearly feel the atmosphere at the scene stagnate, and everyone's eyes were focused in several directions.

One is Liu Xinwu who made the shocking statement, one is Mr. Ba Jin who was the chairman of the jury, and the other is Lin Chaoyang, the person involved.

Lin Chaoyang ignored everyone's gaze and couldn't help but look at Liu Xinwu.

Don’t be fooled by Lao Liu’s honest appearance. He is really a great guy who can do great things quietly!

The old comrade's meaning is very clear. He doesn't allow you to ask, and he won't say anything even if you ask. Yet you still ask me about it. Aren't you just asking for trouble?

In the eyes of everyone, Liu Xinwu's question seemed to be a bit of a stand-up for Lin Chaoyang.

Those present are all industry leaders, and everyone can see clearly that of the two works submitted by Lin Chaoyang for the award, The Death of Van Gogh is clearly one level higher than The Chess Master in terms of artistic achievement. If The Chess Master can win an award, then why can't The Death of Van Gogh?

If one work had to be removed because there were too many winning works, it should not be "The Death of Van Gogh". This does not make sense in any way.

This has led to many people in the literary world now discussing that this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize is still politically oriented and not purely from a literary perspective.

Therefore, after Liu Xinwu asked this question, many people present were eager to watch the fun.

"As for this question...there is really no way to answer it." Mr. Ba Jin pondered for a long time, and finally adopted an evasive attitude.

The old man also knew that his attitude was inevitably a bit inhumane, so he said, "Since everyone is so concerned about the details of our award judging, why not ask Comrade Jingzhi to talk about some of our award judging principles."

With just one sentence, Mr. Ba Jin pushed He Jingzhi, a general who supported the auxiliary faction, to the forefront.

This move immediately aroused the inner praise of several Xichun faction comrades present. The trouble was caused by you, the biased faction, and now it is time for you to settle the matter.

Several bigwigs of the pro-Beijing faction secretly complained and were angry at Ba Jin's lack of ethics. It was obvious that everyone agreed with the award results, but when he was criticized, he only wanted to push his colleagues out to take the blame.

But Ba Jin did not promote He Jingzhi randomly. In addition to being a poet, He Jingzhi is also the acting minister of the Ministry of Culture, holding a high position of power.

Faced with questions from their peers, it would certainly be inappropriate for the jury to insist on not responding, as that would only make them appear guilty, but they couldn't say too much.

It is actually a good choice to let He Jingzhi come forward. His stance is biased, but at the same time he has an official identity. By having him explain the general ideas and operations of the award, it can not only calm everyone's doubts and grievances, but also minimize the impact of this matter.

He Jingzhi was not panicked when he was pushed to the front of the stage by Ba Jin.

“Everyone is very concerned about which work the jury finally eliminated. According to normal procedures, the jury is not in a position to disclose it.

As for whether it is "The Death of Van Gogh" as some people have guessed, we have no way to answer this as it is restricted by the rules.

But since everyone has asked, if we don't say anything, it seems that our awards are not fair and open enough.

Then I will talk about why "The Death of Van Gogh" was not selected. What do you think? "

In fact, what everyone wants to know is whether "The Death of Van Gogh" was the work that was finally eliminated. If it was, it can be said to be the biggest regret of this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Although He Jingzhi did not directly answer the question like Ba Jin, his meaning was very clear. It was equivalent to responding to everyone's thoughts in disguise. Everyone's attention was focused on him for a moment.

“From an artistic point of view, is The Death of Van Gogh good?

it is good!
I think everyone can see this, and we as judges cannot deny it. After being published for several years, both the evaluation of the literary world and the feedback from readers have proved that this is a good work that can stand the test of time.

During the award judging process, many of our reading class members and judges also expressed their love and recognition for this work.

But why didn't this work make it into the final list of winners?
The answer is actually very simple. I would like to ask everyone to consider a question:
If we now change the name of a foreigner to the one signed in "The Death of Van Gogh", would you consider it a Chinese literary work? "

The question raised by He Jingzhi was like a bomb, which stunned everyone present.

People with quick reactions immediately understood what he meant. "The Death of Van Gogh" tells the life story of the foreign artist Van Gogh. Both in terms of story background and creative style, it is an alternative in contemporary Chinese literature.

He Jingzhi paused for a moment and continued, "Although there is no set prerequisite for the Mao Dun Literature Prize, the default is that it must first be oriented towards contemporary Chinese literary works, with the emphasis on the word 'China'.

The selected works should highlight national characteristics and regional colors, depict the style of the times and reflect social issues.

If we look at it purely from the perspective of a novel, "The Death of Van Gogh" is certainly an excellent work, but if we want to select an excellent work with the above characteristics, such a work is obviously not our choice.

I hope my answer will satisfy everyone." After He Jingzhi finished speaking, everyone present was still digesting the meaning of his words.

However, Lin Chaoyang exclaimed in his heart, "Fuck!" The old comrade had such a tricky angle!

To be honest, although two of his works were nominated, Lin Chaoyang was not greedy enough to want both to win, because it made no difference to him which one won, he would win anyway.

But relatively speaking, "The Death of Van Gogh" is indeed stronger than "The Chess Master" in terms of hard power, so he also understands some voices from the outside world.

It is well known to everyone that political stance plays a major decisive factor in the current award results.

When Liu Xinwu asked that question in public, he felt a little worried for the judges present. If this kind of thing were brought to the table, it would definitely cause a stir in the literary world.

After all, there have been many precedents over the years, and the most sensitive thing in the literary world now is the involvement of politics in literary creation.

But Lin Chaoyang never expected that He Jingzhi would find such a tricky angle to deny "The Death of Van Gogh".

In his opinion, this reason is so impeccable because it completely ignores the traditional judging criteria of literary awards and narrates from a higher and more grand perspective. It is undoubtedly a dimensionality reduction attack on the current doubts.

Even the author Lin Chaoyang felt this way, not to mention the others present.

After hearing He Jingzhi's answer, everyone was speechless. Even if they felt sorry for "The Death of Van Gogh" in their hearts, no one could say that there was a problem with it not winning the award given such a reason.

However, although He Jingzhi's answer did not directly answer Liu Xinwu's question, everyone can also hear from the side that "The Death of Van Gogh" is indeed qualified to win the award.

Otherwise, the judges wouldn't have bothered to give such a reason.

Therefore, He Jingzhi’s answer is actually not important, because everyone has already tacitly accepted the level of "The Death of Van Gogh". It is an "uncrowned king" that has not won any awards.

After the symposium, the Writers Association arranged a banquet for the award-winning writers.

During the dinner, Gu Hua mentioned the tradition of hosting a dinner party at Lin Chaoyang's home after the annual National Excellent Short Story Award.

After three years of spreading, this tradition of entertaining guests has gradually become well-known in the Chinese literary world and has been shrouded in a veil of mystery.

Zhang Guangnian smiled and urged, "Chaoyang, you can't be partial. The Mao Dun Literature Prize is also a national award. You won it again. You can't abandon the tradition of treating us!"

Everyone followed suit, and Lin Chaoyang laughed heartily, "Of course I can treat you, it just depends on when you are free."

Zhang Guangnian said very positively, "There are several media interviews tomorrow, why not schedule it for the day after tomorrow, and then I will bring everyone to visit you."

Lin Chaoyang glanced at him deeply. The old comrade was quite enthusiastic about eating for free.

The day after the award ceremony, well-known domestic media such as Wenyi Bao, Guangming Daily, China Youth Daily and Wenhui Daily reported the grand award ceremony of the Mao Dun Literature Prize. More than 600 guests from the national cultural circles gathered together to witness the first award ceremony of China's first novel award.

As early as after the list of winners of this year's Mao Dun Literature Prize was announced, local news media had already reported on it, but the scale was far from comparable to today's reports.

Such large-scale coverage is not only due to the dedicated contacts and communications of the Writers Association, but also due to the influence of the award itself.

Since its inception, the Mao Dun Literature Prize has demonstrated its unique influence on the Chinese literary world. As time goes by, this influence will continue to grow. Even if it encounters various doubts in the future, its status in China's contemporary literary world is already difficult to surpass.

Similarly, such status and influence have also made many works and writers successful.

Seven award-winning works and seven award-winning writers are not unpopular in today's literary world and among readers.

But because of the popularity of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, these works and the names of the writers spread rapidly in a short period of time, and suddenly became known to everyone in the country, and their fame spread across the country.

Another day, Lin Chaoyang agreed to treat everyone to a dinner, and he arranged the venue to be in Mianhua Hutong.

Tao Yushu is pregnant now, so it is inevitable that there will be some noise when inviting people to dinner. Lin Chaoyang doesn't want to affect her, but she insists on following Lin Chaoyang to help.

At around nine o'clock in the morning, guests arrived one after another carrying gifts. In addition to several other award-winning writers, there was also Zhang Guangnian, the leader of the Literary Association.

Lin Chaoyang was busy in the kitchen and everyone offered to help, so he asked Tao Yushu to go and rest aside.

Zhang Guangnian came up to Lin Chaoyang and talked about asking him to join the Literary Association.

Zhang Guangnian had mentioned this to him two years ago, but Lin Chaoyang had never been interested in joining an official organization, so he did not agree.

This time, Zhang Guangnian brought up the old story again, saying that he had even won the Mao Dun Literature Prize and was already a leading figure in Chinese literary circles, and he could not continue to live like an idler.

While the two were arguing, Tao Yushu, who was sitting next to them, suddenly frowned with a painful expression.

"Ouch!"

(End of this chapter)