Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 475 Lin Chaoyang Lu Xun?
Yanyuan, which had been silent for more than a month, welcomed its busiest day of the winter vacation on the first day of the Lunar New Year. People were either paying New Year's greetings or on their way to do so.

When visiting someone to wish them a happy new year, it is inevitable to chat about family matters.

This year, Tao Yumo, the youngest daughter of the Tao family, has become a hot topic of discussion among the families living near Langrun Lake Apartment.

For many years, the Tao sisters have been regarded as the most beautiful girls in the Langrun Lake Apartment area. In addition, they were both admitted to the famous universities in Yanjing, so they have always been known as "other people's daughters" in the eyes of people in the Langrun Lake Apartment area.

Don’t think that the children of professors and lecturers at Yanda University are all college students. There are many younger generations around you whose families have never attended college.

Tao Yumo was beautiful before, but no one noticed any difference. But this time when she came back from Hong Kong, the impression was very different.

She's almost like the female star in "Popular Movies".

To be precise, she is more beautiful than those female stars. After all, the photos in magazines these days are all about orthodox aesthetics, not so fashionable, and even a bit rustic.

Tao Yumo's dress is more like that of the female stars in foreign movies, so exquisite.

On the first day of the new year, she followed her family to pay New Year's greetings. As she walked along the road, she attracted countless admiring glances from young men.

"Hey, you really can attract the wind!"

As soon as they met on the third day of the Lunar New Year, Du Feng teased Tao Yumo.

"What's it to you?" Tao Yumo rolled his eyes at him.

Tao Yucheng behind him said, "You are right. She is more than just a charmer. She is almost seducing the souls of those young men from Yan University."

The Tao family and the Du family hold a family gathering every year, and this year is no exception. They only see each other a few times a year, and when they do, they always feel particularly close.

Du Feng immediately came to Lin Chaoyang and said excitedly, "Brother-in-law, did you watch the Spring Festival Gala?"

Lin Chaoyang knew what Du Feng was going to say, "I saw it."

"Did you see that tall mixed-blood guy at the Spring Festival Gala? He's so handsome! We invited him to the store anniversary this year. I've asked someone to contact him."

This year's Spring Festival Gala just ended for two days, but the "tall mixed-race boy" mentioned by Du Feng has become popular all over China.

During the 1987 Spring Festival Gala, Fei Xiang ignited the star-chasing enthusiasm of young girls and wives all over China with his song "A Fire in Winter".

After chatting with Lin Chaoyang about Fei Xiang for a while, Du Feng mentioned the black windbreaker that Tao Yushu asked him to stock up in advance, and complimented his sister on her strategic planning.

This winter, the clothing city sold more than a thousand black windbreakers at a unit price of 69 yuan, which can be said to be the most fashionable item in Yanjing City in 1987.

"Come on, stop talking about these useless things."

Tao Yushu interrupted his flattery, and Du Feng started talking seriously about the clothing city again.

In less than two months, the clothing city will be open for a year. Except for the first two months when business was relatively slow, the business has been steadily increasing during the rest of the time.

Especially during the month of the Spring Festival, the daily turnover exceeded 20 yuan for many consecutive days, and the turnover in January alone exceeded 1 million yuan.

As of the last day of business after the Spring Festival, the Asia-Europe Clothing City's cumulative turnover reached more than 1640 million, with a gross profit of nearly 1200 million.

"If it weren't for the impact of the return and exchange policy, our gross profit margin could reach 70%." Du Feng said with a little regret.

The gross profit margin of the high-end clothing industry has always been very high, especially in the 70s, when it was ridiculously high. The % gross profit margin mentioned by Du Feng was a very conservative figure for the clothing industry in the s.

In comparison, the pricing policy and product quality of Asia-Europe Clothing City are already very conscientious.

"Without the reputation brought by the return and exchange policy, can we have such high sales? Don't put the cart before the horse." Tao Yushu reminded.

Du Feng smiled and said, "Sister, look at what you said, how can I not understand this truth?"

He also talked about net profit. After deducting many expenses such as taxes, rent, labor, water and electricity, cargo damage, loans, and interest, the clothing city's net profit last year was 810 million.

Du Feng discussed with Tao Yushu and wanted to distribute 400 million yuan in dividends, leaving 410 million yuan in the account to expand the business.

The clothing city made a lot of money in the first year of its opening, and his confidence grew. In addition to the envisioned project in Shijiazhuang, he also wanted to open one in Shanghai.

Moreover, the scale of this one in Shanghai is larger and more high-end than that in Yanjing. After all, from an economic perspective, Shanghai is not inferior to Yanjing, and Shanghai people are more willing to spend money on clothing and dressing.

Du Feng believed that if the clothing store opened there, the business would be even better than that in Yanjing.

"You can arrange these things yourself. We are just investing." Tao Yushu said casually.

She then asked, "How are you going to spend all that money?"

Speaking of dividends, Du Feng's mouth opened involuntarily, "Are you worried that you can't spend the money? I plan to change to a Mercedes-Benz first. The Crown is good, but it's a bit low-end and not as prestigious as a German car."

When he just bought the car two years ago, he treated the Crown like a treasure. Now that he has become rich, Xiao Tiantian has become Mrs. Niu. The main theme of his life is "people's hearts can change easily". The word "showy" is no longer enough to describe Du Feng's current state.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Tao Yushu and Lin Chaoyang made work arrangements for the next period of time.

A few years ago, the organizing committee of the West Berlin Film Festival announced the list of shortlisted films for this year's festival. A total of 21 films from all over the world were shortlisted, and "The King of Children" was among them.

There are less than twenty days left before the opening of the film festival. Tao Yushu will first return to Hong Kong to arrange Lin's work for the new year, and then rush to West Berlin before the opening of the film festival.

This time she will personally lead the team to West Germany, which can also be regarded as a way to explore overseas markets for Lin's Pictures.

"Xiao Yu from China Film Group is a talented person. What do you think about me recruiting her to the company and having her be in charge of the film festival?" Tao Yushu suddenly asked Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang chuckled and said, "This is certainly a good thing."

If Lin Pictures wants to develop, film festivals are one of the options and they need talents in this area.

The day after Tao Yushu returned to Hong Kong, Lin Chaoyang received a letter from Kitamura Miyu from Japan.

"Crossing the Guandong" has been released in Japan for a whole year, and the novel has achieved good results on the shelves.

Sales in the first half of the year were 7.18 copies. In the second half of the year, as the novel's reputation continued to grow, sales further increased to 9.25 copies, and the cumulative sales reached 16.43 copies.

This number is considered a relatively good result even among the works of well-known Japanese pure literature writers, not to mention that Lin Chaoyang is a little-known foreign writer.

This is not quite true. In the year when Crossing the Guandong was published in Japan, Lin Chaoyang did gain some fame in the literary world and among pure literature readers.

Over the past few months, Hechu Shufang has been busy translating Lin Chaoyang's three novels: The Truman Show, The Ferryman, and Shutter Island.

The film adaptation of "The Truman Show" was released in Japan and eventually achieved a box office of 9.5 million yen.

Although this result is not the best among Chinese-language films released in Japan, considering that "The Truman Show" is, after all, an art film with a plot as the main focus, rather than those action films with a large audience, this result is already very good.

As the adapted movie is popular, Kawade Shobo will definitely publish "The Truman Show" first. This time, Kitamura Miyu specially sent a sample copy of the Japanese version of the novel to Lin Chaoyang.

According to Kawaide Shobo's plan, "The Truman Show" will be the first to go on sale in mid-February, followed by "The Ferryman" in early April and "Shutter Island" at the end of May.

With three works released in half a year, it can be seen that Hechu Shobo is still very optimistic about Lin Chaoyang.

In this royalty settlement, Lin Chaoyang received 2660 million yen.

Just last month, the Japanese yen officially broke through the 1 yen to 150 dollar mark, and Lin Chaoyang's royalties increased in value again, converting to as much as 18.37 US dollars.

In addition to these, Kitamura Miyu also enclosed several translated letters from readers in the letter to Lin Chaoyang, just like before, which provided considerable emotional value to the writer.

In addition, Kitamura Miyu also sent Lin Chaoyang a group photo this time. There were many people in the photo, but Lin Chaoyang only knew three of them, namely Kitamura Miyu, Kondo Naoko and Fujii Shozo.

The rest of the people were mostly dressed in suits, mostly middle-aged or older men with serious looks.

Kitamura Miyu introduced in the letter that the photo was taken around New Year's Day when Naoko Kondo held a New Year's Day salon for the "Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association".

Lin Chaoyang followed what was written in the letter and turned over the photo. He saw the name of the meeting and the date of the photo were written on the back, and the name of each participant was carefully marked for Lin Chaoyang to identify.

Waseda University Faculty of Letters Hirohei Ikeda, Meiji University Department of Drama Nakamura Naoki, Ritsumeikan University Faculty of Letters Kobayashi Kotaro...

When Tao Yumo went to Japan to sign a contract with Kawaide Shobo last year, Kondo Naoko proposed the idea of ​​establishing a literary research society and specially asked Lin Chaoyang to write a calligraphy.

By October, Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii jointly wrote a letter to Lin Chaoyang, formally informing him of the preparations for the "Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literary Research Association."

As an informal literary research organization, the Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literary Research Association does not have any strict membership criteria. Any scholar in Japan who is interested in Lin Chaoyang's works can participate.

All you need to do is submit a paper or review article about Lin Chaoyang's literary works to the research institute every year.

Since July, Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii have sent out proposals to many scholars studying Chinese literature in Japan. In more than two months, they have received more than 7 letters of membership.

This number was beyond their expectations and made them both very surprised.

After all, Lin Chaoyang is just a foreign writer, and a contemporary writer at that. It is not easy to get so many people to respond to him.

Among the more than 5 scholars who applied for membership, there were 9 professors, 7 associate professors and 24 lecturers. Including Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii, there were a total of people.

These scholars come from a wide range of universities, including the University of Tokyo, Waseda University, Nihon University, Ritsumeikan University...

The Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association is a loosely organized research institution with not many activities. It holds two meetings a year. The New Year's Day meeting is the first formal meeting held after the establishment of the research association. The next meeting will be held in July 2.

After each meeting, the Literary Research Association would publish a journal to introduce the meeting and publish members' research articles. This time, Kitamura Miyu also specially sent the journal to Lin Chaoyang.

The cover of the conference publication uses the cover of "Chuang Guandong" published in Japan. It is 16-page size and the printing quality is quite exquisite.

Lin Chaoyang noticed that the journal also had a special copyright page, and the editor-in-chief and proofreader were both Kitamura Miyu. She mentioned in the letter that she was an honorary member of the research institute.

The editing, printing and binding of the journal were all sponsored by Kawade Shobo.

Lin Chaoyang held the conference brochure and admired it for a while. Apart from some copyright information, he could not understand the rest.

There is no translated version of the conference journal, so I have to give it a bad review.

This is of course a joke. They are all doing voluntary work. It would be a waste of time and money to produce a translation just for Lin Chaoyang alone.

Anyway, it will be published not for the author to see.

A few days later, there was a writers' gathering in the west courtyard of Lin Chaoyang's house. Lin Chaoyang had to take care of the children and had no time to chat with them.

After noon, a few people had eaten and drunk their fill, so they took the initiative to come to Lin Chaoyang's yard to help him look after the children and chat with him. Some of them talked about the works published in "People's Literature" in January.

"Zhu Wei, your editorial department is very courageous to publish a novel like "Show Your Empty Tongue"."

Hearing his friend's teasing, Zhu Wei smiled and said, "You have to say that our editor-in-chief Liu is courageous. He was the one who decided to publish this novel."

"From what I hear you say, you still want to shirk responsibility?"

"Show Me Your Empty Tongue" is a collection of novels written by photographer Ma Jian, based on his own wandering experiences, reflecting the old CZ's persecution of women.

The novel describes in detail a large number of Chinese folk customs, scenery and religious rituals. The nearly realistic description makes the novel full of realism, but it also reveals to a large extent the darkness and cruelty of Chinese society before liberation.

Just half a month after the novel was published, it has already become a hot topic in the literary world.

There are two reasons for this. First, the novel’s content is curious and can easily arouse readers’ interest. Second, we are all writers and we know that the content of this work is very sensitive even today because it involves Mao Zedong’s and Communist Party’s policies.

"I heard that some people in the Literary Association seem to have some opinions." Li Tuo said.

"It shouldn't be a problem."

The status of "People's Literature" in the literary world is unquestionable. Even if the works published are somewhat controversial, it is normal and is unlikely to cause any major problems.

"Our editorial department did receive two letters from ethnic Z students studying at the Central University for Nationalities protesting against the novel."

Zhu Wei looked relaxed and did not take Li Tuo's words seriously. He also mentioned that some students had written letters of protest.

Looking at Zhu Wei's performance, Lin Chaoyang could only sigh that he was too young.

The issue of MZ and ZJ has gone beyond the scope of literature. Not to mention "People's Literature", even the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles cannot handle this matter.

The final result of this incident was that Liu Xinwu, the deputy editor-in-chief of People's Literature and the de facto top leader, was suspended and required to make a public self-criticism.

Not only that, the issue of "People's Literature" that published "Tongue Coating" was recalled and the book "Tongue Coating" became a "banned book" and no longer had the opportunity to be publicly published.

Everyone was talking enthusiastically about "The Tongue", but no one realized what kind of waves this novel would cause in the Chinese literary world in the following period of time.

While everyone was chatting animatedly, Zheng Wanlong was bored and flipping through a book by the bookshelf.

Lin Chaoyang's home has a room dedicated to storing books, as well as a study. There is also a small bookcase in the main room where he lives, which is used to store some of the books he reads on a daily basis.

"Huh?" Zheng Wanlong's eyes suddenly froze, and he took out the magazine he was reading and held it in his hand.

The words printed on the cover of this book are: "Journal of Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association", and "No. 1" below.

When he saw the words on the cover, he became very interested. He turned the pages and found that they were all in Japanese.

He seemed to have discovered a new world. He waved the magazine excitedly and asked Lin Chaoyang loudly, "What's the matter with this book?"

When everyone who was chatting heard his voice, they stopped and looked over.

Zhang Chengzhi was closest to Zheng Wanlong. When he caught a glimpse of the words on the cover of the book, he immediately became interested.

He went to Toyo Bunko in Japan for further studies two years ago and has a pretty good foundation in Japanese.

"Lin Chaoyang Japanese Literature Research Society?"

He walked over, snatched the book, and read it in a low voice.

Zheng Wanlong said sarcastically: "Do you need to read these words? Everyone knows them. After all, you studied in Japan. You can't even understand Japanese, right?"

“I’m just going there for further studies.”

Zhang Chengzhi replied but didn't argue with him. At the moment, his interest was completely attracted by the magazine in front of him and he had no intention of arguing with Zheng Wanlong.

He opened the magazine and his eyes fell on the copyright page, which immediately lit up. Then he continued to flip to the back and saw the following text.

“…Literature is a beacon of the human soul and an important window for us to see the world and understand life.

We believe that the power of literature is infinite. Through the study of Mr. Lin Chaoyang's literary works, we can better understand human nature, comprehend life, and improve the literary literacy and aesthetic level of the Japanese people.

We have gathered here to establish the Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association, which aims to conduct in-depth research on Mr. Lin Chaoyang's literary works and allow more Japanese people to appreciate his literary charm..."

Although he was mentally prepared when he saw the cover of the magazine, Zhang Chengzhi was still greatly shocked after translating the opening words of the magazine in his mind.

He then flipped a few pages back.

"The Aesthetic Implications of "Crossing Guandong"", "Crossing Guandong: A History You Can Almost Touch", "The Pinnacle of Dahe Literature - "Crossing Guandong", "The Victory of the Mob - Talking about "The Truman Show"...

The titles of the articles flashed quickly before his eyes, and he didn't even have time to read the content below carefully.

"Old Zhang, don't just look, say something!" Seeing that Zhang Chengzhi was just flipping through the book without saying anything, Zheng Wanlong couldn't help but urge him anxiously.

At this time, Zhang Chengzhi raised his head and looked at him, "What did you say?"

Zheng Wanlong pointed at the magazine in his hand and said, "What else could it be? This magazine!"

Zhang Chengzhi said sarcastically: "Can't you understand it?"

A boomerang hit him right in the middle of his eyebrows, but Zheng Wanlong had no time to talk to Zhang Chengzhi. He was more eager to know the contents of the magazine than before.

"Is this really the journal? The Lin Chaoyang (Japanese) Literature Research Society?"

Zhang Chengzhi stopped joking and nodded, "It's the journal."

"Is it really a journal? Lin Chaoyang (Japanese) Literature Research Association?"

He seemed to be asking a nonsense question, but in fact the first sentence was directed at Zhang Chengzhi, and the second sentence was directed at Lin Chaoyang.

At this moment, his eyes were full of confusion, puzzlement, and disbelief, as if he was squatting on the side of the street and saw his brother driving a Land Rover.

"Chaoyang, what's going on?"

Not to mention him, everyone present wanted to ask: What is going on?
I was just visiting your home, so how come a “Lin Chaoyang (Japan) Literature Research Association” suddenly appeared?
"Well, it was founded by several Japanese scholars some time ago. It's an informal organization that occasionally holds meetings and publishes journals."

After hearing the confirmation from Lin Chaoyang, everyone felt a surge of pressure coming towards them.

A literary research society named after a writer, or one established in a foreign country?

Everyone was shocked and speechless at this moment.

"You're so awesome!"

Li Tuo was the first to recover from his shock. He found it difficult to express his inner emotions in words and finally chose to use a swear word.

"It's more than just awesome, it's groundbreaking! There is a Chinese writers' literary research association in Japan, Chaoyang is the scorpion poop - it's the only one, right?" Zheng Wanlong said excitedly.

Zhang Chengzhi corrected him: "That's not right. Mr. Lu Xun is very famous in Japan and he also has a research group."

It would have been fine if he hadn't corrected it, but after he did, everyone gasped.

Lin Chaoyang = Lu Xun?

Lin Chaoyang waved his hand and said, "Don't make a fuss. Let me tell you what's going on."

Everyone came over immediately, and Lin Chaoyang told them the story of Kondo Naoko.

She also said: "She and Fujii just like my works, and they happen to have some influence in the field of Chinese contemporary literature research in Japan, which led to the establishment of such a literary research association."

Everyone originally thought that there would be some twist in this matter, but after listening for a long time, they found out that Lin Chaoyang was just talking about how two Japanese scholars liked his works, how they loved his works and worked hard to publish his works in Japan out of their kindness, and how they enthusiastically prepared a literary research society named after him.

Everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang with dissatisfaction. It’s not over yet, right?
Looks of naked envy and jealousy swept over Lin Chaoyang again and again. After a long while, everyone's mentality finally calmed down a lot.

“If this incident in Chaoyang were to spread, it would probably immediately become the hottest news in the domestic literary world,” said Li Tuo.

Zhu Wei smiled and joked: "This can be considered as bringing glory to the country, right? This is the only thing a contemporary writer should do."

Literary research societies named after writers like this are loosely organized non-governmental organizations and are not very impressive.

But it cannot be denied that this was specially established by foreign scholars for their Chinese writers!

This shows what?
This shows that Lin Chaoyang and his works are popular in Japan, and that Lin Chaoyang and his works are recognized by the Japanese literary community, at least by many experts in the field of literary research.

Isn’t this kind of popularity and recognition what many writers are looking for? And it’s overseas influence!
You should know that in today's Chinese literary world, except for a few rare writers among the older generation, the overseas influence of other writers is almost zero.

It is precisely because of this that the awesomeness of Lin Chaoyang's action is highlighted. Isn't this a way to bring glory to the country?

Everyone was discussing the affairs of the Literature Research Society in amazement. They were extremely excited and surrounded Lin Chaoyang to dig up all kinds of inside information about the Literature Research Society.

By the way, I also learned more about the publication and sales of Lin Chaoyang's works in Japan.

The cumulative sales of "Crossing the Guandong" in Japan have reached 16 copies, which is a high number even in China, let alone Japan, whose population is only one-tenth of China's.

In the next few months, "The Truman Show", "The Ferryman" and "Shutter Island" will be published one after another.

Everyone was dazzled by the news. If Lin Chaoyang hadn't told everyone before, no one would have known that he was so popular in Japan now.

No wonder some scholars would set up a literary research society specifically for him.

After getting to know each other, everyone looked at Lin Chaoyang again and suddenly felt a sense of strangeness for some reason.

Is this still the Lin Chaoyang they knew? Why does he seem to be glowing?

"If things continue to develop in this way, there may be American Literature Research Society, British Literature Research Society, and French Literature Research Society in the future," Li Tuo said jokingly.

Everyone laughed when they heard this. Zhu Wei said, "Chaoyang, if a literature research association is established in China, I will be the first to apply to be the president."

"Why should you be the president? If anyone should be the president, it should be me. I am most familiar with Chaoyang's works." Li Tuo said hurriedly.

"I'm familiar with it too. I just wrote a review article for Parasite and published it in Literary Review. Have you written one?"

Zhu Wei's question choked Li Tuo, "I haven't had time to write Parasite yet, but I have written The Truman Show, and before that, there was..."

"Don't talk about before, talk about it now."

The two of them were arguing endlessly, of course, just jokingly, and the others were enjoying the fun.

Lin Chaoyang handed the manuscript of "Parasite" to Li Shifei in early October, and the publication date was scheduled for early January, just less than ten days earlier than Hong Kong.

Out of consistent confidence in the quality and reputation of Lin Chaoyang's works, Huacheng Publishing House set the first print run of the novel at 50 copies.

As a result, on the day the novel was put on the shelves, Xinhua Bookstores in major cities across the country were crowded with readers who came to buy books.

In just over a week, the first print run of 50 copies was sold out by enthusiastic readers.

This situation was completely within the expectations of Huacheng Publishing House. Before the bookstores' inventory was completely cleared out, the publisher's reprinted books had already been sent to bookstores across the country.

It has been one month since "Parasite" was released, and its cumulative sales have exceeded one million copies.

Over this period of time, there have been more and more reviews from readers, and they have been rave reviews.

Compared to the mixed reviews at the beginning of the previous book "The Truman Show", the opening of "Parasite" can be said to be overwhelmingly positive.

This is true not only for the readers, but also for the critics and even the literary community.

(End of this chapter)