Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 490: Shining in Paris
The publication date of "Big Times" in Hong Kong was exactly two days different from that in mainland China, both in early October.

Over the past few years, Lin Chaoyang has gained a group of loyal readers in Hong Kong.

Although the scale of these readers cannot be compared with the audience of popular reading materials such as martial arts novels and comics, the number is also quite considerable.

Among them are not only ordinary citizens, but also a considerable number of Hong Kong's elites.

Before The Great Era came to the market, Ming Pao Publishing House had already been preheating the magazine in several of its own newspapers and periodicals for more than half a month.

As soon as the novel was released, many readers rushed into bookstores to buy the book, eager to have a sneak peek.

The story of "Big Times" mainly revolves around the stock market. Compared with Lin Chaoyang's previous novels, the plot is relatively popular, with revenge for the murder of one's father, love between two children, and the ups and downs of the stock market...

Even readers who are unfamiliar with the stock market and stocks can easily get into it and become addicted to it unknowingly, being moved by the characters' joys and sorrows and being concerned about the ups and downs of the story.

But everything has its pros and cons. The easy-to-understand plot has won the love and support of some readers, but it has also disappointed some readers.

This type of readers basically have some common characteristics, most of them come from elite backgrounds or have a high level of education.

My favorite works of Lin Chaoyang are "The Death of Van Gogh", "The Ferryman" and "The Truman Show".

They often prefer to listen to calls for help from far away, but turn a blind eye to suffering nearby.

They are not very interested in works like "Crossing the Guandong" and "Parasite".

Although "Big Times" is very popular, its themes and ideas are very localized and very close to the people.

For them, such works can be used for entertainment, but they cannot bring any spiritual pleasure or spiritual cleansing.

Therefore, a few days after The Greed of Man was released, the novel gradually formed two completely different reputations among readers in Hong Kong.

Corresponding to this is the love and praise from most readers. In the eyes of these readers, the profound insight into human nature displayed by Lin Chaoyang in "Big Times" is extremely rare in the Hong Kong literary world.

Many people both love and hate the villain Ding Hai in the novel. They hate his paranoia, selfishness, and ignorance, and love Lin Chaoyang's vivid portrayal of this character.

He is portrayed as a person who lives in his own world, has a set of absurd logic, and always believes that he is right.

Even if his actions bring great pain and disaster to others, it is still someone else's fault.

Ding Hai's existence is like a mirror. Such characters seem contradictory, but in fact they are everywhere in reality.

In addition to the in-depth portrayal of human nature, the profound criticism of social reality in "Big Times" is also unforgettable.

The wealth gap and class stratification depicted in the novel are only stronger than those in "Parasite". It may not make people feel as desperate as in "Parasite", but the injustices it reveals are more confusing.

The poor rushed into the stock market, a game of making money, with their hard-earned money, thinking they could realize their dream of getting rich overnight.

In fact, it has become nothing more than fat meat on the chopping block of the rich and the evil, who easily squeeze out the hard-earned money through fraud, manipulation and speculation without having to bear any legal consequences.

This cannot even be called a scam, but rather an organized and premeditated social robbery.

These tragic depictions in “The Greed of Man” are not only aimed at the unkindness of the rich, but also a criticism of the chaos in Hong Kong’s financial market.

The reason why those rich and evil people dare to be so rampant, able to call the shots, harm countless shareholders, and seize huge wealth is ultimately because of the connivance, shelter, and even collusion of corrupt officials.

Compared with the rich and the evil, those parasites dressed in hypocrisy are more disgusting.

The abominable thing about these people is that the evil they commit is great, but their purpose is often just to gain a little petty profit for themselves.

Of course, what the novel wants to express is not just a simple criticism of negative characters.

In Lin Chaoyang's writing, these people are nothing more than ants in the great era.

Faced with the uncertainty of fate, people are powerless to change anything.

Ding Hai thought he could change, but he jumped off a building; Long Chengbang thought he could change, but his old age was miserable; Fang Zhanbo thought he could change, but he lost the love of his life.

These characters have different but similar fates, which have given readers the strongest spiritual shock and naturally won their love.

The reading atmosphere in Hong Kong society is not very strong, especially when it comes to serious literary works. The sale, discussion and evaluation of The Greed of Man were initially limited to a small readership.

The Hang Seng Index plummeted on October 10, but readers were not aware of the problem.

A week after the Hang Seng Index plummeted, the media exclaimed that the stock market crash of 73 was happening again. Some readers who play the stock market themselves finally realized that the third stock market crash described in "The Big Times" seemed to coincide with the trend in reality.

This discovery immediately excited them.

The news spread from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred, and then it was noticed by newspaper reporters.

After some verification, I found that there are indeed some similarities.

The stock market has been on the nerves of almost every citizen in Hong Kong these days, and even the most obtuse reporter would realize that this is likely to be another hot news story.

In just two days, the "accurate predictions" in "The Greed of Man" appeared in newspapers of all sizes in Hong Kong.

Twenty or thirty newspapers reported the news in succession, and the articles were overwhelming, with the heat even higher than when Xu Guanwen criticized the Freedom Association more than ten days ago.

With the help of media reports, "The Greed of Man" finally came to the attention of Hong Kong citizens.

Influenced by the surge in the Hang Seng Index over the past year or so, the number of stock investors in Hong Kong now accounts for one-third of the total population.

If calculated on a household basis, the number of stock investors almost covers the entire city's population.

The stock market crash is in full swing right now, and investors are in dire straits. Suddenly the media revealed the "accurate predictions" of "Big Times", and investors immediately flocked to it.

They flocked to bookstores on the streets, wanting to buy a copy of "Big Times" to find out more.

Lin Chaoyang has many readers in Hong Kong, but the group of stock investors is even larger. The public attention brought by the news craze has even surpassed the stock investor group and has become a cultural phenomenon that has attracted the attention of the entire nation.

Going to the bookstore to buy "The Greed of Man" has become the most fashionable thing for Hong Kong citizens in recent days.

Citizens flocked to the bookstores, filling up all the major bookstores in Hong Kong. The stock of The Great Era lasted less than two days before being cleared out by enthusiastic citizens.

Dong Qiao was so happy these two days that he arranged for the printing factory to print more copies day and night.

But it takes time to reprint, ship and put the book on the shelves, so the bookstore shelves were still empty. Many citizens who heard the news could not buy "Big Times" and complained.

Such a situation, on the contrary, further boosted the media's enthusiasm for reporting on "The Big Times" and citizens' enthusiasm for discussing "The Big Times".

In less than a week, the words "Great Times" could be heard everywhere there were stock investors in Hong Kong.

Since the news wave appeared, the sales of "Big Times" have remained high for many consecutive days, and the enthusiasm of readers to buy it is difficult to match even the new work of Wong Yuk-long, the top comics star in Hong Kong.

Previously, works such as "Crossing the Guandong" and "The Truman Show" took one or two years to sell 10 copies, but now it took less than four days to achieve that goal, and sales are still skyrocketing.

15, 20, 30…

Such an exaggerated situation has never occurred since the publication of pure literary works in Hong Kong. It has attracted the attention of the Hong Kong literary community, and at the same time, it has made the community speechless with envy.

After the initial wave of news reports, media reporters began to contact Lin Chaoyang and try to interview him, but without exception they were unable to get through.

These reporters did not give up and ran to the entrance of Lin's Pictures and Jiahui Garden in Mid-Levels to ambush Lin Chaoyang.

As a result, they stayed there for two days. One morning, they chatted with Tao Yumo, who was yawning and about to go out to work, and only then did they get some bad news from her.

Lin Chaoyang went abroad two days ago!

This sudden news almost broke the hearts of the reporters who had been waiting for two days.

"You journalists are so uninformed!"

Tao Yumo's ridicule was like rubbing salt into the reporters' wounds, and their faces turned green.

But adhering to the professionalism of a reporter, someone still struggled to ask: "Ms. Tao, is Mr. Lin going abroad on business this time? Or is he on vacation?"

"Why take a vacation? Go and receive the award!" Tao Yumo said casually.

The reporters, who were originally discouraged, immediately brightened up their eyes when they heard her words. With their sense of smell from years of reporting news, they concluded that this award must be extraordinary.

Otherwise, who would go abroad to receive an award for no reason?
"Ms. Tao, is it convenient for you to ask Mr. Lin what award he is going to receive this time?"

"There's a French literary award called the Prix Renaudot. Do you know about it?"

Faced with Tao Yumo's question, the reporters remained silent.

If we answer "I don't know" at this time, wouldn't it seem like we are uneducated?
"I know, I know! It's a very famous award in France!" a reporter said.

Tao Yumo clapped his hands, with a proud smile on his face, and praised: "You journalists really know a lot. This is the second most prestigious literary award in France after the Goncourt Prize!"

The reporters were immediately surprised. How could he be so famous?
Fortunately I didn’t say I didn’t know, otherwise I would have been embarrassed.

While feeling fortunate, they immediately put aside the issue of face and asked about the specific details of Tao Yumo and Lin Chaoyang's winning the award.

"No, no, I have to go to work."

Tao Yumo said a few words to the reporters, suddenly looked at his watch, and left in a hurry despite the reporters' attempts to stop him.

Once she left, the source of information was gone. The reporters stared blankly for a while and then went their separate ways to think of solutions.

"Big Times" is extremely popular now, and the author Lin Chaoyang is the focus of the whole city. Any news about him can enjoy headline treatment.

What's more, from what Tao Yumo said, the award he won this time seemed to be quite unusual, so they had to investigate it carefully.

Meanwhile in France, Paris.

Paris in early November already looked like early winter.

The weather was gloomy and it looked like it was going to snow, which added a bit of chill. Lin Chaoyang stood at the window and admired the street view of Paris for a few minutes.

He landed in Paris yesterday afternoon. Clement Metayer met him at the airport on behalf of Gallimard Publishing House and put him up at the Lenox Hotel on Rue de l'Université de Paris.

Although it is called a hotel, the Lenox Hotel is not small in scale. It not only provides accommodation, but also has a restaurant and a bar.

According to Clement Metayer, the area where the Lenox Hotel is located is the Latin Quarter.

For more than a hundred years, this place has been called the "literary quarter" by Parisians, and countless writers, poets and cultural scholars have lived here.

“The Rulian from the Rulian Award also lived here.”

This is the only connection between the Latin Quarter and Lin Chaoyang that Clement Metayer could find. Stanislas Julien is a famous French sinologist.

On the first night in Paris, Lin Chaoyang didn’t sleep very well. He got up and sat by the window to relax for a while.

After washing and getting dressed, he went downstairs to have breakfast.

The hotel's breakfast was very simple, with only five items: milk, coffee, baguette, croissant and jam.

The baguette was as hard as a rock, so Lin Chaoyang decisively chose the croissant.

But he avoided the baguette, but he couldn't avoid the coffee, which is more bitter than a working man's life.

After a difficult breakfast, Lin Chaoyang sat in the hotel lobby waiting for someone. He was unfamiliar with Paris and needed a guide.

"It's a nice day today, it's snowing." He waited for a while, and Clement Metayer arrived.

"Lin, it looks like you slept well last night?"

“Not bad, it would be better if the breakfast could be richer.”

After chatting for a while, Clement Metayer said, "There are still more than two hours before the awards ceremony. How about going for a drink?"

Lin Chaoyang: ???

Is this how you French people feel about relaxation?
"It would be a waste not to have a drink in weather like this."

Seeing Lin Chaoyang's unhappy expression, Clement Metayer could only mutter something and retract his idea.

"Since you don't want a drink, let's go. It's snowing outside and there might be traffic."

When we left the hotel, snowflakes were falling from the sky.

Lin Chaoyang was suddenly transported from warm Hong Kong to Paris in early winter. Although he was wearing a down jacket, he still shrugged his shoulders and got into Clement Metayer's Chevrolet, feeling a little uncomfortable.

Clement Metayer was right, there was indeed some traffic on the way to Tuong's restaurant.

The Touon restaurant is located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. Clermont Metayer's Chevrolet finally made it to the street corner of the restaurant, but then it could not move any further.

"There are too many cars on this street today. Let's walk there."

Clement Metayer found a place to park the car and led Lin Chaoyang to the entrance of Tuong Restaurant. The French-style restaurant was decorated with a new look today.

France is a major literary country in Europe, with hundreds of literary awards being judged and presented every year.

Starting from August every year, there are endless literary awards in Paris.

November is the peak month because several heavyweight literary awards in France are awarded at this time, so it is also called the "Literature Awards Month."

Today is the first Tuesday in November, and it is also the day when the Goncourt Prize and the Renaudot Prize are awarded simultaneously.

Not only that, the two awards were even presented at the same restaurant and announced together.

The main purpose of establishing the Renaudot Prize was to make up for the missed prize of the Goncourt Prize, which can be regarded as a disguised form of riding on the popularity of the award.

But they were very successful in getting it to this point. After half a century, it has become one of the most influential literary awards in France, second only to the Prix Goncourt.

When Clement Metayer and Lin Chaoyang arrived at the restaurant, it was already crowded.

With two heavyweight literary awards being presented at the same time, today's Tuon restaurant can be said to be the most watched restaurant in all of Paris.

At this time, many Parisians gathered in front of the Tuon restaurant, most of whom were literature lovers.

Knowing that the Prix Goncourt and Prix Renaudot would be awarded today, I came here specially to see the excitement and add to the festive atmosphere.

In addition to these onlookers, there were also reporters from major Paris newspapers inside and outside the Tuon restaurant.

And previous award-winning writers who were invited to attend, as well as editors, critics and jury members from major well-known publishing houses.

Before Lin Chaoyang entered the restaurant, he saw several yellow-skinned, black-haired faces at the door.

"Comrade Chaoyang!"

After Secretary Zhou's introduction, Zou Dai stepped forward and shook Lin Chaoyang's hand enthusiastically.

China and France established diplomatic relations in the 60s, and France is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Zou Daishi was the envoy to France and held the rank of Vice Minister, but when he saw the smile on Lin Chaoyang's face, it was as if he had seen his leader arrive.

Of course, there was a reason why he was so happy.

Lin Chaoyang's winning of the Renaudot Literature Prize may seem like a personal matter, but in fact it is a testimony to the cultural exchange between China and France, and Zou Daishi also contributed a lot to this award.

The Renaudot Prize has two rounds of selection. The embassy had already received the news as early as September when Lin Chaoyang was shortlisted.

This is not because the embassy is well-informed, but because information is not transmitted smoothly these days.

The Renaudot Prize jury must first contact the French cultural department, and then contact the Chinese Writers Association through the Chinese Embassy in France before they can contact the author Lin Chaoyang.

More than a week ago, the results of the second round of the Renaudot Literature Prize were announced. After Lin Chaoyang was confirmed as the winner, the French Consulate in Guangzhou gave the green light and obtained a visa to France for Lin Chaoyang.

Yesterday, Secretary Zhou from the embassy went to the airport to pick him up. The embassy had originally planned to arrange for Lin Chaoyang's food and lodging in Paris, but Gallimard Publishing House had already made the arrangements, so Lin Chaoyang did not go with them.

"This is reporter Nie from the New H Agency. He came all the way from England after learning that you, Comrade Chaoyang, had won this honor."

Secretary Zhou then introduced Lin Chaoyang to the square-faced middle-aged man wearing glasses.

Zou Daishi asked a few questions about food and lodging, and then asked with a smile how Lin Chaoyang felt now.

"I have won many awards in China, but this is my first time winning an award abroad. I am very happy." Lin Chaoyang replied with a smile.

After chatting for a while, Zou Daishi and others surrounded Lin Chaoyang and walked into Tuang Restaurant.

As soon as they came in, they felt the eyes of many guests in the restaurant looking at them.

The winner of the Renaudot Prize will not be announced in the media in advance, but the winner will be notified in advance, so once the award results are announced, it will no longer be a secret in the French literary world.

As we all know, the winner of this year's Renaudot Literature Prize is a Chinese writer.

Therefore, when Lin Chaoyang and others appeared, the reporters, guests and judges in the restaurant all knew that one of today's protagonists had arrived.

In the history of the Renaudot Prize, there have been cases where the award was given to foreigners, but according to the original trajectory it should have been more than ten years later.

A group of French people watched Lin Chaoyang and others enter the restaurant with salute, and wondered who the winner would be.

It was not until Clement Metayer introduced Lin Chaoyang to Christian Giudicelli, one of the judges of the Renaudot Literary Prize, that everyone realized the truth.

The author of "The Truman Show" is actually such a young writer!

In the eyes of Europeans and Americans, Asians tend to look younger, and Lin Chaoyang is indeed young, so many people present had a look of disbelief in their eyes.

In their imagination, a satirical novel with a strong absurd color like "The Truman Show" should come from an old writer who is over 50 years old but still stubborn and refuses to succumb to the world.

No one would have thought that the writer who created him was actually a college student.

Amid the astonished gazes of the crowd, Lin Chaoyang shook hands and greeted the judges of the Renaudot Prize one by one, and also said hello to the judges of the Goncourt Prize.

The judges of the Goncourt Prize have a high-sounding title - Academician.

The "Goncourt" in the Prix Goncourt refers to Jules de Goncourt, who, along with his brother Edmond de Goncourt, was a French naturalist novelist.

Jules de Goncourt died in 1870. His brother Edmond de Goncourt was heartbroken and made a will. In order to commemorate his brother, he used his inheritance as a fund to establish the Académie Goncourt, which is the Goncourt Prize Selection Committee.

This is the origin of the so-called "academician".

It is worth mentioning that the first batch of academicians of the Académie Goncourt were all good friends of the Goncourt brothers, including Flaubert, Zola, Daudet and others.

Nowadays, any one of them would be a figure that young literary people would worship.

Compared with the Goncourt Prize, which was born with a silver spoon in its mouth, the Renaudot Prize seems more grassroots.

The early members of the jury were all journalists and critics, because the creation of the Renaudot Prize itself was because a group of journalists and critics were bored waiting for the Goncourt Prize, so they set up their own award.

Since its inception, it has maintained a jury of 10 members, and it has not changed over the years.

There are still journalists on the jury, but writers and critics are the mainstream, and most of the writers are winners of the Renaudot Literary Prize in the early years.

For example, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, a French writer in his fifties, won the Renaudot Prize in the 1960s for his debut novel, "The Proceedings".

Later in 2008, he also won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

It suddenly started snowing and the whole of Paris was shrouded in a dark sky, but the atmosphere in Tuon's restaurant was relaxed and cheerful.

Winners of both the Prix Goncourt and the Prix Renaudot have already been selected.

Today's process is to announce the award winners and have a meal at Tuong Restaurant.

While Lin Chaoyang was greeting the judges, another protagonist of the day, Tahar Ben Jelloun, also appeared.

He won this year's Goncourt Prize for his work "Sacred Night".

To be precise, it should be the Goncourt Prize for novels.

The Académie Goncourt also selects works such as the Goncourt Newcomer Prize and the Goncourt Novella Prize every year, but they are not awarded together with the Goncourt Prize, but are instead held in September each year.

Tahar Ben Jelloun is a Moroccan who is over 40 years old and has a big beard. Standing next to him, Lin Chaoyang looks even younger.

The judges of the Renaudot Prize were quite proud to see this situation, because one of the principles of the Renaudot Prize is to reward young writers.

Time passed by unknowingly, and the atmosphere in Tuong Restaurant did not become serious because of the upcoming awards ceremony. It was still so casual, and even the judges had already taken their seats waiting to eat.

Accompanied by a crisp bell, it was not the award ceremony, but the waiter was ready to serve the food.

The menu for the Goncourt Prize lunch is fixed every year, with an appetizer of caviar, lobster and foie gras, a hot dish of roasted wild venison, followed by a variety of cheeses, and desserts of mille-feuille ice cream, coffee, chocolate and cookies, as well as expensive table wine.

Logically speaking, such a meal would cost several hundred francs per person, even with a rough estimate.

But when the jury had their fill of food and drink, the restaurant handed over the bill, which showed only two francs.

The prices of the meals were inexplicable, and the wine prices were equally outrageous, with wine being one franc per bottle and champagne being one and a half francs.

This is certainly not because prices have suddenly depreciated hundreds of times, but because the Tuon restaurant has always maintained the same meal prices as during the first Goncourt Prize in 1903, which have not changed to this day.

After lunch, the judges of the Goncourt Prize announced the winning writers and works after a symbolic discussion.

Tahar Ben Jelloun stood up from the table and took the symbolic 50 franc prize from the chairman of the jury, Edmond Charles Roux.

In the early years, the prize money of the Goncourt Prize was not so pitiful, it was 5000 francs.

However, for the winners of the Prix Goncourt, there is actually not much difference between 50 francs and 5000 francs.

The benefits that the Goncourt Prize brings to them far exceed the benefits of the prize money.

After the Goncourt Prize is awarded, the Renaudot Prize will be awarded.

Unlike the Goncourt Prize, where the academicians have to have a meal and a formalistic discussion after the award ceremony, the winner of the Renaudot Prize is directly announced by the first-ranked awardee, Christian Giudicelli.

“It is an amazing and thought-provoking classic with extraordinary artistic charm and profound ideological connotation.

Bold, innovative and fascinating, it profoundly explores the themes of freedom, truth and courage with seemingly absurd settings, deeply touching the hearts of every reader.

It made the gradually declining absurd literature shine again in the sky of Paris, it is - "The Truman Show"!
Let us congratulate Lin Chaoyang from China!"

Christian Giudicelli's award speech was generous and powerful, full of inspiring power, which made the listeners feel excited.

(End of this chapter)