Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 322 The Mao Dun Literature Newcomer Award is about to take the shape of Zhang Chao!

"What?" When Zhang Chao heard Wang Zhenxu, who was sitting opposite him, talking about the "tongue piercing demonstration" that took place in Shibuya a few days ago, he blurted out Japanese.

Wang Zhenxu habitually lowered his head and said, "That's it!" Then he took out a few photos from his pocket and handed them to Zhang Chao.

The photo shows a group of Japanese young people with strange clothes and weird hairstyles, all sticking out their tongues towards the camera. Each of them has at least one metal ring on their tongue, and some of the rings are inlaid with shiny ornaments.

Wang Zhenxu went on to explain: "The slogan that Kanehara Hitomi's fans shouted was 'Body narrative is the awakening of women's rights'; before I came here, I watched TV and saw Shintaro Ishihara criticize Detective Glory in the Sankei Shimbun for "polluting Japanese literature with violent narratives of Chinese criminal police."

Zhang Chao laughed and said, "He used 'China', not another word?"

Wang Zhenxu became uneasy upon hearing this, and after a long pause he said, "Sankei Shimbun is one of Japan's 'Big Six' newspapers, and generally does not allow highly controversial words to appear on its pages, so even if he said it, it still needs to be handled when it is published."

Zhang Chao continued to ask: "Do you also think that it is a 'controversial word'? What is the controversial point?"

Although the smile on Zhang Chao's face did not change, Wang Zhenxu always felt that there was an unfathomable shadow in his smile, and the back of his shirt in his suit was soaked.

During this visit to Yanjing, Wang Zhenxu's emotions experienced great ups and downs.

When his first paper, "Crime Police Glory," co-authored with his mentor Professor Yoshio Iizuka, was published in Shincho, he was very proud. As a literary researcher, being able to publish a paper in Shincho is a stepping stone to enter the mainstream of Japanese literary circles.

However, although the series of counterattack articles organized by Bungeishunju did not directly point the finger at "Crime Police Glory" itself, they put the accusation of "discriminating against local literature" on Shincho magazine and Wang Zhenxu and Iizuka Yoshio.

Afterwards, he was hit in the face by a crazy fan of Hitomi Kanehara at an event in Shibuya. Soon after, Japan's right-wing scholars, politicians, and critics also joined in, which caused a "storm in a teapot" in the Japanese literary world.

As a long-established literary magazine, Shincho naturally remained unmoved, but it quietly took the opportunity to sell more than 6 copies of the June issue; Professor Iizuka Yoshio was a senior scholar, and of course he would not be easily shaken.

Only Wang Zhenxu was caught in the middle and felt very uncomfortable. Although the article was signed by "Dongshan Zhangliang", he was an award-winning mystery writer, so his identity was quickly revealed.

After learning that he was the second generation of Chinese immigrants, he faced a lot of doubts and pressure both online and in real life.

When his mentor, Iizuka Yoshio, found out, he only said one thing to him: "Go to China, find Zhang Chao, and finish what you should do."

So Wang Zhenxu came to China with great worries.

Fortunately, it was already late June, and Zhang Chao had ended his short vacation and returned to Yanjing, so Wang Zhenxu did not have time to make the trip.

Seeing Wang Zhenxu's embarrassed look, Zhang Chao did not continue asking questions, but looked at the scenery outside the window.

The two of them were sitting in a teahouse located in a courtyard in Yanjing City. Outside the teahouse window, mottled shadows of locust trees floated, and the velvet flowers that the old Yanjing people called "June Snow" were falling on the blue brick floor.

Under the half-rolled bamboo curtains, the light from the sky stirred up by the red carp in the white porcelain fish tank flickered. When the breeze blew through the rattan teapot, it brought with it the bitter fragrance of pomegranate flowers that were about to bloom.

Zhang Chao tapped the purple clay pot with his fingers, producing two clear sounds that echoed with the occasional chirping of cicadas, like the sound of two bronze bells in a temple's Buddhist chants. He changed the subject and asked Wang Zhenxu, "Why do you think their reaction was so strong?"

Wang Zhenxu's eyes became unfocused, revealing a confused look. After a long while, he said, "Maybe it's because... maybe it's because the editor-in-chief of New Trend said something too provocative?"

Zhang Chao shook his head and said, "That's just a dispute over literary concepts. Wang Xiaobo once said, "All human suffering is essentially anger at one's own incompetence."

Now they are angry, what are they angry about?"

Wang Zhenxu fell silent after hearing this, thought seriously for a while, and finally just shook his head.

“The controversy lies in that,” Zhang Chao’s fingertips traced circles along the rim of the blue and white porcelain cup as the sound of cicadas drifted in from the depths of the alley, “when the Japanese accused my novels, and even the entire Chinese literature, of “violent narrative,” they were actually fearing that their own samurai swords, which they used to commit suicide by disembowelment, would become the pen that Captain Cheng used to record his life.

When Chinese writers began to dissect the tumor of the times, the controllers of the Japanese literary world did not even dare to cut open the wounds of society. They only dared to let a few girls carve their skin with knives and spikes, thinking that this was the voice of the times.

Wang Zhenxu's pupils suddenly contracted. Zhang Chao's words seemed to have touched some wound in his memory, causing his heart to suddenly contract.

Zhang Chao didn't want to discuss this issue any further. He asked, "Professor Iizuka Rong asked you to come here. Could it be that he just wanted you to relay these things?"

Wang Zhenxu came back to his senses, bowed his head deeply again and apologized, saying, "Do you know about the 'China-Japan Writers Exchange'?"

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Isn't this a common thing? It seems like they visit each other every few years."

Wang Zhenxu said: "Yes. But in the past, the exchanges were mainly for both sides to invite some famous writers to visit. The organizer on the Chinese side was the Writers Association, and on the Japanese side, the "Japan-China Cultural Exchange Association", "Japan-China Friendship Association", "Japan Writers Club" and other organizations took turns to hold the event. "

Zhang Chao asked in confusion: "Isn't this good?"

Wang Zhenxu leaned forward slightly and said, "What the professor means is that since China entered the new millennium, the literary atmosphere has changed greatly, especially with the emergence of outstanding young writers like you.

In previous years, young writers have always been absent from the visiting activities, especially those under the age of 30. Therefore, the professor wants to promote exchanges between young writers from China and Japan.

I was specially asked to come to China to seek your advice on this matter. "

Zhang Chao was even more surprised and asked, "This... This is not my turn to organize, right? Isn't this the job of the Writers Association? Shouldn't Professor Iizuka contact Chairman Tie Ning of the Writers Association directly?"

Wang Zhenxu said quickly: "It is because I want to avoid the Chinese Writers Association and those old institutions in Japan that the professor asked me to contact you."

Seeing that Zhang Chao still didn’t understand, Wang Zhenxu continued to explain: “First of all, according to the professor’s understanding, Chinese writers under the age of 30 with a certain influence, like you, Han Han, Xiao Si and others, are not members of the Writers Association.

Therefore, doing this through the Writers Association is not legitimate and may even be boycotted - as far as I know, people like Han Han really hate these official organizations. "

Zhang Chao: "..." It seems to be true. Most young writers of their generation have no urgent desire to join the Writers Association.

Firstly, the Writers Association can hardly provide them with any market-oriented resources. At best, they can hold a seminar on their works, get a newspaper article, or publish a piece of tofu. For example, Zhang Chao had at least hundreds of invitations to participate in seminars quietly lying in his mailbox, but he was too lazy to reply to them, let alone participate.

Secondly, the problem of overstaffing in writers' associations across the country is serious, and the quality of personnel is also uneven. Once you join, it is easy to get into some inexplicable social relationships.

So even though Tie Ning, Liu Heng and others hinted at it several times, Zhang Chao pretended not to see it.

However, Zhang Chao was still able to grasp something from Wang Zhenxu's words: "You also want to invite Han Han and Xiao Si? And you want me to take the lead in doing this?"

Wang Zhenxu nodded and said, "This is the second point the professor mentioned - you are the most prestigious and influential young writer in mainland China. If this thing is to be accomplished, your participation is indispensable.

If someone else takes the lead in this exchange activity but you don't participate, it will be almost worthless. So it's better for you to take the lead. Even if you are the only one visiting Japan for the exchange, it won't be too much of a failure. "

Zhang Chao: "..." After a while, he said: "Professor, have you ever asked about my relationship with Han Han, Xiao Si and others?"

Wang Zhenxu showed a puzzled look - no wonder he didn't know, the "grudges" between Zhang Chao, Han Han and Xiao Si were all things that happened in the early days of Zhang Chao's rise, and had long been overwhelmed by a series of disturbances that followed and relegated to the back of the search page.

Zhang Chao sighed and said, "If I don't take the lead in this matter, then Han Han, Xiao Si and others may also participate. If I take the lead, then I..."

Zhang Chao was too embarrassed to say the rest of the sentence - "Then I can't just take the executives and contracted writers of "Tide Culture" with me, right?"

Speaking of which, Zhang Chao really didn't know what Han Han and Xiao Si had been doing in the past one or two years. Han Han was probably still racing? Xiao Si was probably still publishing his "Most" series of magazines?
Even if he had no grudges against Han Han and Xiao Si, he would not agree to Iizuka Rong's request.

This kind of leading thing may seem impressive, but it is actually a lot of trouble. It is not a tour group, it involves foreign affairs, and if you are not careful, you will get into trouble.

Seeing that Zhang Chao was unwilling to give in, Wang Zhenxu said, "Previous exchange activities were often superficial. Most of them were to invite writers from the other side to travel there, drink sake, and soak in hot springs. The content of the exchanges was also relatively, well, 'superficial'.

In the final analysis, under the framework of the old institutions, everyone has formed a tacit understanding and always follows the established model to implement procedures. If we say that 50 years ago, or even 30 years ago, when the two countries could not exchange information and personnel freely, such exchanges were meaningful in enhancing understanding.

People can travel freely between China and Japan, both sides have hundreds of thousands of permanent personnel in each other's country, and the Internet is so developed, but it seems a bit inadequate to still use the old communication model.

Professor Iizuka has participated in many such activities and feels deeply that the traditional mechanism of writers' exchanges can no longer carry out its previous mission. Instead, it has formed a new prejudice because of mutual politeness and flattery.

Professor Iizuka believes that the old writers are old and have many concerns, so it is better to let young writers break this deadlock - especially young writers like you! "

These words made Zhang Chao change his opinion of this "Chinese writer" who was a few years older than him.

As a scholar who has long been committed to literary exchanges between China and Japan, Iizuka has a strong sense of historical responsibility and mission. If he had not come into contact with Zhang Chao, he might not have had the idea of ​​promoting exchanges between young writers from China and Japan - but who told him to meet Zhang Chao?
The ideas that had been pent up in my mind for a long time suddenly burst out thanks to Zhang Chao's influence.

Wang Zhenxu said sincerely: “The reason why I talked about the disturbance caused by “Crime Police Glory” in Japan before telling this story is that I wanted to say that the literary circles of China and Japan have too little understanding of each other - of course, you may not be included.

Young people are the most enthusiastic and the most honest, and communication between young people is "effective communication". We also sincerely hope that young Japanese writers can, like me, personally come into contact with outstanding peers like you, Zhang Chaojun!"

Zhang Chao picked up the teacup and twirled it gently between his fingertips. After a while, he said, "Thank you, Professor Iizuka, for your kindness. But he may know a lot about literature, but not much about China...

I can only say that I will facilitate this, but I will not be the leader. If it works, I will definitely participate in it; if it doesn't, don't be too disappointed - this is a difficult thing in itself.

Do you think that apart from a few old-school left-wing writers, there are still a few cultural elites in Japan who have a favorable impression of China?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhenxu was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond. He could only lower his head and say "please".

Zhang Chao looked out the window again. It was already past 2 p.m. and the chirping of cicadas became more frequent, weaving a golden foil-like sound network among the locust leaves. The diamond-shaped light spots filtered by the bamboo curtain had begun to climb onto the tea table, leaving winding amber light marks on the ice-cracked teacups.

Zhang Chao stood up and said, "Okay, I have to go to work. I guess those old guys are going to start screaming."

Seeing Wang Zhenxu's curious look, Zhang Chao explained, "They are the old writers you just mentioned who are 'old and cautious'!"

Wang Zhenxu was startled and was about to say something when Zhang Chao said, "Don't worry, I'm not that talkative. - Well, you can go back to Japan and wait for news. By the way, give Professor Iizuka my best wishes."

Wang Zhenxu also stood up and bowed deeply: "Hi!"

The two of them then walked out of the courtyard, one in front and one behind, one heading south and the other heading north, one heading to the Writers Association and the other to the hotel.

The courtyard is only a 10-minute walk from the Writers Association on Dongtucheng Road in Chaoyang District, but the weather in the early summer afternoon was quite hot. By the time Zhang Chao walked into the conference room, his back was already wet.

A large projector was hung in the conference room, connected to a computer that was constantly displaying various data. Li Wandong, the IT director of "Tide Culture", was constantly explaining the various meanings behind these data.

In the past, this type of selection was mostly based on the submission of candidates by local writers' associations and publishing houses, which was highly subjective. After the introduction of "technical sponsorship" this time, we began to make full use of Internet data to verify the objectivity of the shortlist.

This was a first for the literary award, so everyone listened with great interest.

As soon as the old writer Jiang Zilong saw him, he said, "Where have you been? Why are you back now? I just had some data, but Xiao Li couldn't explain it clearly. I think you should explain it."

Zhang Chao said, "I was just talking to someone and forgot the time. Oh, I have a new idea! Would you like to hear it?"

As soon as the words fell, the veins on everyone's forehead began to throb.

Zhang Chao has been working in the organizing committee of the "Mao Dun Newcomer Literature Award" for half a month, and he has a new idea almost every day or two. What's more, it makes so much sense that people should at least consider it carefully.

He is not participating in the selection, but this award is almost in his shape!

(End of this chapter)