Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 382 Unexpected Entry
The next few days were a bit "boring". Zhang Chao participated in the grand launch ceremony of "Homeland" held by Kadokawa Shoten as a routine. The event was held at Tsutaya Bookstore in Daikanyama, Shibuya District, Tokyo.

This Tsutaya bookstore is different from other branches. It consists of three buildings connected together, with Starbucks coffee, restaurants, camera equipment stores and other facilities. It is a bookstore that practices the "BOOK & CAFE" concept and is a landmark building in the neighborhood...

Of course, this had no appeal to Zhang Chao. After cooperating with Kadokawa Shoten to complete the launch ceremony, he conducted a signing session for about 3 hours, which made all the book fans who came to the scene go away satisfied.

The next day, Zhang Chao went to the Junkudo Bookstore in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, for a book signing event. However, this time, after only signing for more than an hour, Zhang Chao's fingers and wrists suddenly ached and he couldn't even hold the pen steadily, so he had to end the trip in a hurry.

Kadokawa Toshihiko was very nervous and immediately ordered his men to send Zhang Chao to the best hospital in Tokyo, the University of Tokyo Hospital, for treatment.

The doctor's diagnosis was simple: "Recently, too much writing has caused damage to the ligaments and joint capsules of the fingers and wrists. There is no special treatment. It is recommended that you rest well and you will recover."

Zhang Chao thought about it. He had recently held a number of autograph sessions in China, the United States, and Japan. This was indeed a heavy burden for a keyboard warrior like him.

But this also had its advantages. He took the opportunity to cancel subsequent activities, bought a ticket and slipped back to China, but he did not tell anyone which flight he took or whether he went back to Yanjing or Fuhai.

Although it has a dramatic ending, "Homeland" has made a stunning debut in the world's three major publishing markets. Not only was the astonishing number of first prints sold out in a very short time, the number of reprints also exceeded the publisher's expectations.

In Japan, Kadokawa Bookstore soon discovered that the 20 copies it had printed in advance were far from meeting readers' demand, so it reprinted a total of 3 copies three times in a row, barely enough to ensure that bookstores across the country would not be without a copy of "Homeland".

In this way, the sales volume of "Hometown" in Japan officially exceeded 100 million copies.

On November 2007, 11, Amazon, the world's largest Internet bookseller, announced the epoch-making e-book reader - the Kindle.

This digital product, priced at $399, sold out its first batch of 5 units in just five and a half hours. Some analysts believe that the reason why it was so popular was that its "first release work" included Zhang Chao's "Homeland".

If it weren't for this phenomenal novel, it would be hard to imagine that there would be any fool who would buy such an electronic product that is bulky, has a slow system, low resolution, a memory capacity of only 256m, and does not support WIFI.

It is said that Amazon persuaded Zhang Chao to release "Homeland" on Kindle, and the price offered was 80% of the royalties and a guarantee of 50 US dollars - this further confirmed the speculation that it was "Homeland" that made Kindle a best-seller.

At the same time, publishers from South Korea, Spain, France, Germany and other countries also extended olive branches. However, Zhang Chao pushed all these to Xu Ruiya, who is now the head of the translation and overseas promotion department of "Tide Culture", so she can worry about it.

The phenomenal sales volume has, of course, also triggered phenomenal discussions. The focus of everyone's attention is not only on how well "Homeland" is written, but also on why "Homeland" can sell so well.

After all, it is the 21st century, and "serious literature" or "pure literature" is declining worldwide, not just in China.

Even in Japan, the single market where "pure literature" is best developed, apart from Haruki Murakami, there are almost no other pure literature writers whose sales can be maintained above 20 copies for a long time.

For example, Ryu Murakami, who was once known as the "Double Murakami" together with Haruki Murakami, only has one book, "Almost Infinitely Transparent Blue", which created the miracle of selling 30 million copies in 350 years. The rest of his works combined are not as good as this one.

Japan is like this, and other countries are far worse than it.

There are 400 literary publications in France, the largest of which has a circulation of only 1500 copies; the United States does not even have pure literary magazines, and literary works are all published in comprehensive magazines. The New Yorker usually publishes two short stories and a few poems; Granta, the best-selling pure literary magazine in the UK, had a peak circulation of no more than 5 copies.

This phenomenon still makes people in the industry quite anxious.

However, after some discussion, the conclusion made most people despair: there is only one reason why "Homeland" is a best-seller, and that is that its author is Zhang Chao. No one can replicate his experience, and no one can withstand his pressure.

In Zhang Chao, we see the revival of a literary tradition—writers are not bystanders of social progress, but active participants.

If your work is far from the readers, then you must be close to them. Zhang Chao may not intend to be involved in these controversial whirlpools, but his active attitude towards the world has inadvertently made him a target of public criticism.

However, most writers, even if they still live in the mundane world after becoming famous, their spirits have already retreated into the ivory tower.

Therefore, the focus of the research returned to "Homeland" itself.

It is nothing new for "pure literature" to be presented in the form of science fiction or fantasy. The key is whether its core can impress readers - Zhang Chao has undoubtedly done so.

"Homesickness" is a very "universal" emotion, not only shared by Chinese people; it's just that the Chinese "homesickness" is more closely tied to their "homeland".

Although Zhang Chao's "Homeland" is based on the narrative history of Fuhai immigration, it breaks through the limitations of regional themes through its unique narrative structure and philosophical thinking, and accurately hits the spiritual pain points of readers in highly urbanized societies such as Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea.

In these places, the speed at which hometowns in the physical sense disappear is far faster than one can imagine. The villages of the ancestors of the younger generation in Tokyo, New York, and Seoul have long been replaced by skyscrapers. The "homesickness" in these areas has long gone beyond nostalgia in the spatial scope and evolved into anxiety about the loss of regional culture and an eternal questioning of identity.

Through science fiction settings and non-linear narratives, Zhang Chao sublimates "homesickness" from a regional emotion to the ultimate questioning of human spiritual migration, which is the core of triggering cross-cultural resonance.

When the East Germans after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the "Lost Generation" after the bursting of Japan's bubble economy, and the descendants of workers in the Rust Belt of the United States found resonance in the novel, what they truly empathized with was not the immigration history of the Fuhai people described by Zhang Chao, but the collective dilemma encountered by human beings in the process of migration.

A few years later, a Korean director named Shin Won-ho produced a TV series that became popular in Asia, Reply 1988. In an interview, he fondly recalled: "The reason for filming this TV series was actually planted when I watched Zhang Chao's Hometown..."

The most important evaluation came from Harold Bloom, a critic and literary theorist of the "Yale School". He commented on "Homeland" in this way: "I must admit that Zhang Chao's "Homeland" made me smell the breath of "Strong Poet" in the wasteland of contemporary literature. ...

This novel has completed a "revisionist misreading" of the immigrant literary tradition in an almost violent way, and has completely subverted Hong Kong Tin-ting's "The Chin" and Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club". ……

What is even more exciting is the novel's treatment of the relationship between technology and memory. Zhang Chao shows how to reveal "spiritual truth" through "rational collapse" - which makes those immigrant novels that indulge in the surface of "cultural conflict" look like children's graffiti. ...

"Homeland" proves that true literary masters are never afraid of tradition, because they know that all great writing is a carefully planned feast of patricide. I seem to see Zhang Chao standing in the shadows of Whitman, Conrad, and Nabokov and laughing..."

However, all these disturbances were blocked by Zhang Chao.

In order to avoid attention, he did not fly to Yanjing or Fuhai, but flew to Shenzhen, Guangdong.

This was his first time back here after 17 years. Shenzhen in 2007 was very different from Shenzhen in 2024. Many familiar buildings had not been completed, and many familiar streets did not look the same. Only Huaqiangbei was still so busy that it was suffocating. Zhang Chao did not stay here for long. He just bought a house in Futian and Nanshan based on his memory, and then bought an SUV and drove all the way back to Fuhai.

When he arrived in Fuhai, he did not tell his family, but went to "Sunshine Buckingham Palace" in a low-key manner to collect the keys of two houses, then went to the furniture store to buy the necessary pieces of furniture and settled down there.

He planned to use this period of time to write the novel he was conceiving.

Although he has never minded how quiet the environment is when he is creating, too much noise is never good, especially since "Homeland" caused such a big sensation. If he doesn't avoid it on purpose, he will inevitably have to participate in endless activities.

Zhang Chao has always disliked these empty words. Since the sales of "Homeland" are no longer a problem, it would be a bit too much to "sell melons like Wang Po" at this time.

A writer's creative impulse is very precious. If a work is brewing for too long, it may not become a masterpiece when it is written. The reason is that only precise technical considerations are left, but the passion for expression is gone.

The latter is more appealing to readers than the former.

What's more, the novel Zhang Chao is going to write now is fundamentally different from his previous ones. It is a real attempt to incorporate his own "experiences" about the future into his creation.

The "foresight" here must be meticulous and appropriately "distorted". The grasp of the scale is comparable to a surgeon performing a difficult operation. A mistake of one millimeter may cause the patient to die on the spot in the operating room.

Moreover, this difficulty will gradually increase as the novel progresses.

If we follow the plan and start writing from 2008 to 2024, a total of 17 novels will be written. It is estimated that by the 9th or 10th novel, they will deviate to a large extent from people's existing cognition.

It might seem ridiculous to use a mobile phone to meet almost all daily needs such as food, clothing, housing and transportation.

This is the irony of human imagination - people can accept that gorillas rule the earth instead of humans, that aliens look like frogs in a pond, and can even use 1 planetary engines to push the earth out of the solar system, but they cannot accept that their daily lives deviate from the familiar orbit, even just a little bit.

Therefore, it is very important for Zhang Chao to choose which world famous short story to use as his opening.

In this novel, he wants to show that 2008 is not only a time node, but also a lifestyle and even a node of transformation in people's spiritual qualities.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chao's heart was filled with excitement. He turned on his computer, created a new document, and prepared to start writing.

Who knew that a sharp pain came from his wrist - his tendonitis had come back...

……

Time passed unknowingly and it was March 2008.

The sensation caused by "Homeland" was last year, and now it has long since calmed down. Only occasionally someone will mention it and sigh: "It turns out that it's not serious literature that is bad, it's people who are bad..."

There is very little information about Zhang Chao. He only wrote an inaugural article when "Youth·Non-Fiction" was first published in January 2008. Apart from that, no other writings have been leaked.

Occasionally, people saw him appearing in Fu Hai or Yan Jing, but he was mostly partying with friends, or dealing with some matters at "Tide Culture" that required his presence.

Everyone generally believed that Zhang Chao was taking a rest.

Since becoming famous in early 2004, he has been running non-stop for four years, publishing two novels almost every year. This speed is astonishing not only in the circle of serious literature, but also in popular literature.

"It's so boring!" In the editorial office of Harvest magazine, Liu Pengtao, an editor who had just joined the company, was feeling drowsy because of the radiator.

He is the initial review editor responsible for receiving manuscripts in the public submission mailbox. He had already finished reading the backlog of manuscripts in the morning. He could not bear to finish reading almost 90% of them and rejected them at a glance without even needing to reply.

Among the remaining 10%, more than half are barely readable, but the general level is only good enough to be published in magazines such as "Reader" and "Zhiyin", which is still quite far from "Harvest".

The remaining small half are of a level that may have a chance to be published in "Harvest", but he has no right to decide. Instead, he has to forward the works to different senior editors based on the nature of the works and let them decide the fate of the manuscripts.

But generally speaking, they will be rejected, but the better manuscripts will be sent back to the authors after some comments.

Most senior editors usually ask famous authors they are familiar with to write articles directly. These authors have no worries about not being able to publish their articles and will never send their articles to public submission mailboxes.

Unlike the 80s, in one issue of Harvest, “familiar people’s articles” almost took up all the space. It is difficult for real “newcomers” to become famous in this way.

Only some stupid young, middle-aged and elderly literary people are still trying to grasp this slim hope.

A "ding" sound pulled Liu Pengtao back to reality from his drowsiness. He moved the mouse impatiently and turned on the computer screen - sure enough, there was a new email.

Liu Pengtao opened it as usual and first looked at the sender's email address, "zhangchao".

The author is Zhang Chao? I haven't heard of him. No doubt he must be a newcomer.

Then he clicked on the word attachment in the email and started his work...

Five minutes later, other people in the editorial office heard a strange cry from Xiao Liu who was sitting at the door, and they all leaned out and looked towards that corner.

The young man got up in a panic and ran to the editor-in-chief's office. He knocked on the door twice very impolitely and walked in without permission. He said to the editor-in-chief Cheng Yongxin who was talking to a great writer inside:
"Editor-in-Chief Cheng, you'd better take a look at this manuscript!"

(End of this chapter)