Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 264: It's Hard to Find a Soulmate
The literary world was relatively slow to react to Zhang Chao's speech. Zhang Chao's previous style had left such a deep impression on people that everyone was afraid that he was fishing again.

There have always been writers who criticize their own works, but it can generally be divided into two situations: one is polite and self-deprecating remarks, such as "I don't write well" or "the best work is always the next one".

Another type is to have something to hope for. For example, Mr. Lu Xun mentioned many times that he hoped his articles would "decay quickly". He hoped that the "bad qualities" of the Chinese people reflected in his works would be eliminated as soon as possible, and future generations would no longer have to read or understand "Ah Q" and "Xianglin Sao".

But there are very few people like Zhang Chao, who, almost with the attitude of a bystander, coldly dissects the core and limitations of his own works and accurately points out the problems.

This attitude made most people who paid attention to him a little suspicious, even his teachers were no exception.

Most famous writers, no matter how modest they are in other aspects, are always confident in their own expressions. From the perspective of literary criticism, there is no perfect literary work in the world, and shortcomings and characteristics often go hand in hand.

Is Zhang Chao's speech a declaration of his creative transformation? No one knows.

After the "Zhang-Bai dispute", the literary criticism community has remained generally silent on Zhang Chao's works. There is almost no criticism, but there is also little praise.

Take "The Glory of Criminal Police" published by Zhang Chao last year. It should be said that its creative techniques and subject matter are major breakthroughs compared to Zhang Chao's previous works, but there are few discussions and evaluations of its literary value in China.

Zhang Chao was also helpless about this situation. His argument with Bai Ye started by chance, and the subsequent development was beyond his imagination. He was against the practice of literary criticism that strangled the entrance, not against literary criticism itself.

In fact, before the "Zhang Bai dispute", discussing Zhang Chao's works or evaluating the "Zhang Chao phenomenon" was considered a hot topic in the criticism circle. There were many articles with different attitudes, and there were many sharp words.

But Zhang Chao did not fight back, nor did he care. Creation and criticism are mirror images of each other, and both are indispensable parts of the literary ecological chain, but their positions need to be adjusted.

Since others don’t criticize me, I have to criticize myself - and by the way, point out the direction for others to criticize me!
It was an ordinary morning at the end of January 2007. It was almost 1 am, but Zhang Chao was still lying in bed. He had played Diablo 10 the night before, brushing Hell Old Mo until about 2 am, but nothing good came out of it, so he went to bed angrily.

So when he was woken up by his father, he was quite irritable: "I wrote a novel until 3 o'clock last night, let me sleep a little longer..."

This time Zhang Weiguo didn't indulge him. He pulled him up and stuffed a newspaper into his hand. He solemnly said, "This article is well written and has guiding significance for your writing. You must read it to the end!"

Zhang Chao then reluctantly sat on the bed and started reading the newspaper.

This was the last issue of China Reading Newspaper before the Chinese New Year, and Zhang Weiguo gave him the commentary page. Zhang Chao only read the large black text before he realized that the entire page was occupied by an article.

Zhang Chao finally came to his senses and started to take it seriously. You have to know that this newspaper is jointly sponsored by the Publishing Administration, Guangming Daily and the Publishing Association. It has extremely high standards and few authors can have their articles occupy a page.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a critic named "Shi'an" who responded to Zhang Chao's self-criticism with a long comment. The title of the article was -

"Using the "Long 90s" as a starting point to examine the intergenerational perspective of the "Post-80s" generation - Taking Zhang Chao's works as an example"

"The title is not simple!" Zhang Chao threw away the last bit of negligence in his heart. He took the newspaper, got out of bed, sat at the desk, and began to read it carefully.

This article first keenly points out that the worldview of the "post-80s" generation was formed in the 90s, and the 90s can be regarded as the era of most drastic changes and the most active thoughts in China's modernization history. Its influence even extends to this day, so it can be called the "long 90s."

[In the early 20s, the Cold War ended, the market economy was surging, and the clamor of "the end of history" was repeatedly stated by intellectuals. We loudly announced that a new historical stage had begun, and we were eager to "say goodbye to revolution" and embrace "humanistic spirit." ...]

Zhang Chao liked this opening very much. It seems that the author wants to observe the works of writers of a specific era from a relatively macro historical perspective, which means that the pattern of the article is not too narrow.

This is similar to the way Zhang Chao interprets literary works from the perspective of the times, environment, and culture of the people when reading them, rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae of the text.

Zhang Chao continued to read on -

【“Post-80s” is first and foremost a concept in literary history. It first surfaced due to the New Concept Writing Competition held by the New Sprout magazine in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. A group of young writers with “post-80s” as the main body emerged in the competition, represented by Han Han and Xiao Si. …】

【However, the emergence of Zhang Chao quickly defeated and replaced the previous idols of youth literature, and surpassed all other "post-80s" writers in a nearly sweeping manner. It may not be accurate to define "post-80s" with him; but there is no doubt that bypassing him will become empty talk. ……】

Seeing this, Zhang Chao frowned a little. He has always disliked the term "post-80s writers" and is also reluctant to include himself in the category of critics. Could it be that this "Shi'an" is anticlimactic and will also fall into the trap of other critics.

Zhang Chao suppressed his hesitation and continued reading:

[We should note that in this process, Zhang Chao, as a lone wolf, confronted and reversed the media image of Chinese "post-80s" writers created by powerful media in China and the West, especially the American media. …]

【The reason why “post-80s” has become a specific generational term is closely related to a report in the Asian edition of Time magazine in early 2004. This report named Cun Shu, Han Han and others as “post-80s” and attached labels of rebellion and alternative, connecting them with the new wave of youth culture around the world and giving this group of writers a symbolic meaning, that is, contemporary Chinese people represented by “post-80s” are integrating into the Western world and Western culture. …】

[Just when this cultural label was about to be gradually accepted by the public, Zhang Chao suddenly appeared. Apart from his age and "specialization", he has no similar characteristics to Han Han and Xiao Si. He does not dye his hair, get tattoos, wear earrings, or criticize education and the system. He is mature and stable beyond his age when facing the media. Even most of the controversies surrounding him only appear in the field of literature...]

[Surprisingly, Zhang Chao's almost docile image has earned him a wider readership and more general recognition. We found that the "post-80s" do not necessarily like rebellion and alternative, but are more domesticated by the media. Once a better idol appears, they are not reluctant to devote their love. ...]

[Zhang Chao showed his awareness of resisting the image shaping of the Western mainstream media in the creation of "The Vanishing Lover" and the dispute with Mr. Fang and others. He did not have the polarized attitude towards the United States that was common among the previous generation of writers. Instead, he observed, examined, and even mocked the United States from an appropriate distance. …]

【While other post-80s writers were generally "globalized", Zhang Chao showed a kind of confidence that "if I don't go to the mountains, the mountains will go to me". Incredibly, he did it. Both American booksellers and the American left-wing cultural circles "flocked to" Zhang Chao. Because of Zhang Chao, China's "post-80s" can be called an independent "globalized" cultural label. ...】

This part of the evaluation is quite standard, mainly affirming the positive value of the different attitudes shown by Zhang Chao among the "post-80s" writers, especially his contribution to resisting the hegemony of American media discourse and maintaining independence.

But what surprised Zhang Chao the most was that the author did not "label" Zhang Chao, and seemed to really treat the "post-80s" as a generation or age concept. This made Zhang Chao feel a little more comfortable and he could continue reading -

[But we should also see that Zhang Chao's success is completely rooted in the market-oriented social environment. He is extremely good at using the media to serve himself, and much of his confidence comes from his amazing sales and royalties. To some extent, he is quite similar to Han Han and Xiao Si, who "called the wind and rain" before him. ...]

【This group of post-80s writers, who grew up based on "globalization" and "marketization", was born and grew up in social, cultural, living and even political conditions that are very different from all previous generations of writers. Therefore, their emergence truly marks a substantial "generational change" of contemporary Chinese writers. This "generational change" is not the kind of gradual replacement in the past, but has drawn a deep gap. ……】【Although Zhang Chao has repeatedly resisted the label of "post-80s", the fact is that no generation of writers will have such a fierce cut or even opposition with the previous generation of writers. We find it difficult to find any post-70s writers who have similar characteristics to the "post-80s" in their creative attitude, even for post-70s writers who became famous on the Internet such as "Li Xunhuan" and "Annie Baby". ……】

【The new national sentiment and political consciousness that have emerged with the rise of China are subtly updating the spirit of the times. ……】

Zhang Chao was completely surprised when he saw this. He found that after abandoning the habit of labeling "post-80s" writers, the author "Shi'an" actually extracted persuasive common elements from himself, Han Han, Xiao Si and others.

Zhang Chao had to admit that Shi An's analysis and judgment were accurate. Many of his actions were based on commercial success, and he was indeed similar to Han Han, who loved to speak out, or Xiao Si, who liked to cater to the media.

This insight made Zhang Chao really take this comment seriously.

[It can be said that the "post-80s" are the children of the 90s, and they can only be the children of the 90s in the future. Because the "post-80s" spent their teenage and youth in the "long 90s" and entered adulthood. This era shaped their basic emotional structure and historical memory. Only in this way, the "long 90s" constitutes the direct historical origin of the "post-80s". ...]

[The same is true of Zhang Chao's works. From "Young Babylon" to "Crime Police Glory", Zhang Chao repeatedly constructs and narrates his "90s" complex in his serious literary works. This also forms the common spiritual core of Zhang Chao's works: with anxious confusion, powerlessness to resist the trend, and entanglement in looking back on history...]

[This complex has both shaped him and constrained him. In a recent speech, Zhang Chao clearly expressed his doubts about his own creative state and past works. This doubt came precisely from his reflection and hesitation on the "long 90s" that shaped his spiritual world, and also showed his lack of life experience and confusion about the cornerstone of his creation. …]

Zhang Chao nodded. The criticism about "Shi'an" was not a simple repetition of his speech content, but a new elaboration.

Although his self-reflection tried his best to detach himself and examine himself from an objective perspective, there were still certain limitations compared to the truly objective perspective of "Shi'an".

This is the significance of literary criticism. It can discover the deeper spiritual world that the writer cannot observe through introspection. Even if it contains speculative elements, it is also an important reference coordinate for the writer.

Zhang Chao had completely "trusted" this critic by this point, and read the rest of the article in one go -

[The post-80s generation can no longer trace back to the 80s as empirically as their parents did, nor can they intuitively use the historical variations of revolution and enlightenment, reform and conservatism, left and right that have continued to stir since the 80s as the dominant clue to understanding the post-80s generation themselves and the era they live in. …]

【The post-80s generation did not experience the 80s in person, and there is a historical gap between them; the more important reason may be that the "long 90s" dominated by globalization and marketization is the basic situation of their lives. …】

[History is broken in the "post-80s": on the one hand, the economy is developing rapidly, and everything is also developing, rising and emerging rapidly; on the other hand, more and more things are shrinking, sinking and losing, such as the hometown where they grew up, childhood memories and old social relationships, which are rapidly changing beyond recognition. ...]

[Zhang Chao is a lone traveler standing on the cliff of history, looking back and forth hesitantly, because he has gone further than all other "post-80s" writers, so now he is the only one standing here. ...]

[He may eventually need to create a new way to connect two eras and two centuries. Only by creating such a new way can the "post-80s" properly position themselves in the generational change that has already begun and in the new historical drama that has already begun. …]

[But if not, we should also believe that those who come after us will also complete this historical mission, understand the current and future era conditions from the historical position of the "post-80s" themselves, and assume historical responsibilities subjectively.]

……

Hearty!

Zhang Chao slammed the newspaper on the table with a loud bang, and then cheered, "Good! Good! Well written!"

This scared his father Zhang Weiguo, who thought Zhang Chao was booing him, and immediately said, "It's well written. It's New Year's Day, don't vent your anger on him!" It's no wonder that Zhang Weiguo misunderstood, as Zhang Chao's reputation in this regard is too bad.

Zhang Chao looked at his father helplessly, then said, "What I said is good, it really is good. - Besides, am I such a vindictive person?"

Zhang Weiguo was relieved and discussed with Zhang Chao: "This 'Shi'an' must also be a young man! Maybe even your age!"

Zhang Chao asked: "How do you know?"

Zhang Weiguo said: "His interpretation of the post-80s generation is obviously subjective, that is, he writes about the post-80s generation from the perspective of the post-80s generation. There are many traces of this in the article...

Besides, even old-timers can’t write critical articles with this kind of perspective and vision.”

Zhang Chao nodded, agreeing with his father's judgment - although the old comrade has been away from literature for many years, his foundation is undoubtedly still there - and said: "His judgment on the problems of the 'post-80s', including me, hits the nail on the head.

The rapid development of society reflects the ubiquitous loss of our generation. In fact, I often understand my own history and position in this kind of social change where development and loss are intertwined. "

Zhang Weiguo agreed: "The writers of our generation are more likely to seek literary answers from the 'past', the 'countryside', and 'history'. The writers of your generation should not be trapped by the 'long 90s'. ..."

This was the first time Zhang Chao discussed literature with his father, combining his experiences from two lifetimes. In his previous life, he was too naive, and by the time he matured, he had seldom returned home, and the gap between him and his father had grown thicker.

In this life, I finally waited for this opportunity.

When Zhang Chao's mother saw this, she did not ask the father and son to have breakfast. Instead, she quietly brought steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and soy milk to Zhang Chao's room, letting them eat and chat...

After talking with his father, Zhang Chao couldn't wait to call the editorial department of China Reading Newspaper and inquired about the identity of this "Shi'an" - he turned out to be a sophomore Chinese major in his early 20s, even two years younger than Zhang Chao.

Upon hearing this news, Zhang Weiguo also sighed: "The world really is yours!"

Zhang Chao thought about it and felt that he had to respond, so he wrote an article specifically to echo "Shi'an's" criticism. He also hoped that this kind of literary criticism with a lofty perspective and broad vision could gradually become mainstream.

At the same time that Zhang Chao was writing this article, the education community strongly disagreed with his remarks. An article titled "Quality-oriented education must not be desecrated, Zhang Chao should not be an 'accomplice' of the examination-oriented education" was also published in the special edition of "Education Newsletter"!

(End of this chapter)