Literary Master 1983

Chapter 236 Wanxian and Macondo
After writing this novel, Guan Moye felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart.

His novel circulated widely in the training class, with everyone praising its quality. Yu Hua particularly liked it: "Teacher Guan, I heard you committed this crime with passion! To resist tyranny, you only slept three hours a day, almost collapsing from exhaustion, and finally finished this novel?"

That's an exaggeration!
Guan Moye said, "I still slept for five hours."

"How many days did it take you to finish writing it?"

"Five days."

Yu Hua's expression immediately changed: "Damn it, how come you write so fast and so well? I'm so jealous!"

The novel quickly reached Yu Qie, who took one look and exclaimed: "Damn, isn't this the first part of 'Gaomi Northeast Township'?"

If in the future, a game company could create a large-scale sandbox game, Gaomi Northeast Township could probably be made into a low-end mystery-level instance. Although this place is Guan Moye's hometown, he basically didn't write about the true, good, and beautiful aspects of his hometown.

The characters in this story rarely have extraordinary good fortune; they are mostly NPCs who are miserable beyond measure.

Although Yu Hua's novels are tragic, they still reveal a kind of hope: it's better to live a miserable life than to die. Guan Moye's novels, on the other hand, are very depressing, making it difficult for you to like the world he portrays.

But one cannot deny that it is a good novel. Otherwise, why would it have been adapted into a film and won Best Film at the Tokyo International Film Festival?
No matter how you look at it, Comrade Lao Guan is extremely talented.

Yu Qie called Guan Moye over and laid his cards on the table: "Your novel is good. Submit it to 'October' or 'People's Literature'."

This is the great Che!

Even if he's trying to frame you, as long as you're still his student, he'll make sure you get along well.

Guan Moye was very happy, thinking that Yu Qie had approved of him: "Is my novel really that good? I'll use it as my graduation work from the Academy of Literature."

"You're half right. From a critic's perspective, this novel is good; from my personal perspective, it's somewhat disappointing."

Guan Moye was puzzled: "What regrets do you have? To put it another way, Teacher Yu, why are you always targeting me?"

That's a long story.

why?
Because you always write it like this.

Yu Qie organized his thoughts: "I always felt that your novels were too bleak. I thought it was unnecessary to write them like that; it seemed purely to express a kind of evil, to show ugliness to others, making people feel that there was no point in living."

"Gaomi is your hometown, but I can't feel your love for it. People haven't quite grasped your style yet, but if you keep writing like this, criticism will come sooner or later."

“Márquez wrote a lot of scatological nonsense, but he actually deeply loved Colombia. I don’t know how it happened, but it seems like it got back to you in the wrong place, like you’re practicing the wrong techniques… Yu Hua admires Kawabata Yasunari in literature, but sometimes I feel that you are more influenced by this Japanese writer!”

Guan Moye was quite embarrassed by Yu Qie's comment: "Teacher Yu, will you never write a complete tragedy?"

"It's hard to say. I might write one or two experimental novels, but that's definitely not my usual style, and I'm worried you'll keep doing that."

Guan Moye was speechless: You guessed right.

The conversation broke up unhappily.

Guan Moye failed to realize his ambition to impress Yu Qie: it turned out that Yu Qie fundamentally disliked his writing style.

Yu Qie also failed halfway; the inertia of history is so powerful that Guan Moye's reforms were unsuccessful.

Should we explain this using theories about one's family of origin? Is it because Lao Guan experienced so much trauma in his childhood—being beaten and starving—that his writing as an adult shows no trace of love for his old hometown? Gaomi Northeast Township later became a fairly famous literary tourist destination, but people who come here often ask, "What places are suitable for children to visit?"

After all, how would you describe this place? Is this the place where "Little Black Boy" was ostracized and beaten? Is this sorghum field the place where the anti-Japanese hero Yu Zhan'ao took Jiu'er?
No matter how you try to guide this, it's all in vain. Is he after that dish of dumplings wrapped in vinegar?

Well, Yu Qie felt quite speechless.

In early May, the royalties from books such as *Happy Hunting* and *Children of Heaven* arrived in Japan. *Happy Hunting* has printed 600,000 copies in Japan this year, at 1,000 yen per book. With a 14% personal royalty rate and approximately 46% personal tax burden, plus another tax burden if transferred overseas… in total, the royalties for this one book alone have reached over two million yen. *Children of Heaven* has only printed 100,000 copies so far, with one-seventh of the royalties going to charity donations—less than 100,000 yen, not a large sum.

Another sum of money was much larger. During his two months in Japan, Yu Qie raised a total of over 100 million yen. This sum was tax-free and was equivalent to more than 10 million yen.

The huge sum of Japanese yen was converted into local currency the moment it entered the country. The foreign exchange management official specially came to greet Yu Qie: in order to ensure that he would have enough foreign exchange for future trips abroad, a portion of the quota had been reserved for him.

Don't be offended, during this period, individuals are generally not allowed to hold foreign exchange.

Foreign exchange is a sensitive issue; it immediately draws the attention of institutions to the fact that "you are a wealthy person." In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a chilling effect on those who had become rich first. Writers were not affected, but those were ordinary writers.

It's hard to say about people like Yu Qie who earn millions and could have tens or hundreds of millions in the future.

Yu Qie specifically consulted Ba Jin about this matter—he also receives huge royalties all over the world.

The exchange rate is a bug. In 1985, the average income of a Japanese person was equivalent to that of 48 mainland Chinese people. In the subsequent exchange rate fluctuations, because the mainland Chinese exchange rate decreased and the yen exchange rate increased, 48 became 184 within five years.

Therefore, in the most extreme cases, there is a saying that "working in Japan for one day" earns the same amount of money as working in China for a year.

So, writing novels in Japan is like having a shadow clone technique, meaning many Yu Qie are writing novels in China. Judging from the royalties, this is indeed true. Yu Qie's royalties last year were around 100,000 yuan, but this year they have skyrocketed to over a million yuan, and he is already finding it hard to bear the newfound wealth.

If this continues, he might end up eating liqueur-filled chocolates and using a solar-powered lighter.

As it turned out, Ba Jin's experience in hiding wealth couldn't be applied to Yu Qie. His solution was to donate all his wealth. He donated all the interview fees he received in Japan, and domestically, he consistently donated money and books. This year alone, he donated 15 yuan to the Beijing Literature Museum, and then instructed publishers to directly transfer the royalties paid to him that year to the museum's account.

This is a true "saint." Compared to him, Yu Qie, who only donated one-seventh of the royalties from one of his books, felt a little reluctant.

So, how did others transition? Ji Xianlin, the former head of the Literature Department at Yenching University, gave Yu a good idea.

"Yu Qie, you should collect more items and buy more houses."

This elderly professor, earning a monthly salary of 345 yuan plus a 100 yuan stipend, avoided attracting unwanted attention by collecting works by Qi Baishi and Su Shi. Yu Qie vaguely recalls that these paintings and calligraphy alone were valued at over 100 million yuan in 2005. Ji Xianlin's children took Yenching University to court to fight over the enormous inheritance.

What's the point of buying such a big house?

Is one house enough?
Yu Qie understood; he needed to save the money first and wait for an opportunity to convert it into these assets.

His teacher, Ma Shitu, also came to Yanjing this month, and Yu Qie got to know some people on TV through him. Old Ma's connections were incredible, which surprised Yu Qie. Old Ma also liked to write memoirs and biographies, so every high-ranking leader who was called by him had to remember his kindness.

So, how can Ma Shitu subdue Guan Moye, who is so stubborn that he won't listen to reason?
Ma Shitu said, "There are some people in this world who will never submit no matter what you do to them. You are not them, so you don't understand."

Old Marx said something similar to the opening line of "The Great Gatsby": "When you criticize someone, just remember that all the people in the world have had the advantages that you have."

Yu Qie said, "If I cannot convince others, what should I do?"

Ma Shitu said, "Conventional methods cannot sway some people unless their faith is shattered."

Guan Moye's faith was in writing novels, so Yu Qie wanted to write a similar novel. This novel was not only about his hometown, but also reflected the aspects of truth, goodness, and beauty—which touched Guan Moye and made him realize that his previous writing style was somewhat biased.

It must completely overshadow the article "The Swing in Baigou".

Yu Qie brought this question to the audition for the film "Children of Heaven".

Under the direction of Xie Jin, the film "Children of Heaven" has been quickly set up in Beijing and is about to be filmed in Kashgar. The background of "Children of Heaven" is a minority and border region, which brings a kind of humanistic concern to the novel that Yu Qie had never expected, because at that time, works often emphasized the characteristics of ethnic culture and rarely focused on the most basic human emotions.

When Xie Jin was preparing to film this novel, he discovered that Yu Qie's "Little Shoes" had not only become famous in mainland China, but also spread as far as Central Asia in the Soviet Union through word of mouth.

There, Yu Qie was hailed as "China's Gorky." He was not only skilled in martial arts and could also fire an AK-47, but he was also a social activist.

Xie Jin said, "Yu Qie, I used to think it was a pity to make this movie, but now I realize that I was short-sighted. I should apologize to you."

"In order to select actors as soon as possible, we first held a public audition at Tianshan Film Studio. Unexpectedly, the enthusiasm for the application was very high! We couldn't select any of them because they all wanted to act in this film. So we made a bold decision to use all new actors and all actors from Xinjiang Province. We not only want to show this film in China, but we also want to take it to international exhibitions and strive to send it to other countries for screening!"

Yu Qie gave a thumbs up: Isn't this like the child shrinking back into the womb? "Children of Heaven" was originally a foreign film in the original timeline.

Therefore, the actor auditions were held in Beijing. While called an audition, it was really just a matter of selecting a young couple to play the parents from a list of about ten people, as there weren't many qualified actors.

Most of them came from a group called the "Xinjiang Provincial Performance Class".

In 1981, to develop film and television production in border regions and cultivate talent, the renowned Beijing Film Academy established this Xinjiang Class, selecting ten students—six boys and four girls. The class teacher was Li Huiying, a former actress from Changchun Film Studio, who had appeared in films such as "The Invisible Front" and "Zhao Yiman."

Li Huiying also served as the homeroom teacher of the handsome young actor Tang Guoqiang. Now, she pours all her energy into these ten actors. On the day playwright Yu Qie came, Li Huiying told her students:

"Whether you two can succeed depends mainly on Director Xie Jin... right? If you think that way, you're wrong."

The students all looked up at her in astonishment.

Who was director Xie Jin?

Is there anyone more capable than Director Xie?

Li Huiying said, "The real decision-maker in this film is the writer Yu Qie. Although he doesn't talk much, once he speaks, his words must be carried out. Even Director Xie can't do anything about him."

The students immediately changed their minds and began to study Yu Qie's novels diligently, hoping to be able to say a few words during the interview.

However, when the audition officially began, Yu Qie, sitting next to Xie Jin, asked questions completely unrelated to acting. Looking at these actors who came from the frontier and would return there after graduation, he said:
“I have a question about home and distant places. After you came to the capital and saw its prosperity, do you still think about going back one day? Do you still want to go back? Sometimes we are caught in this dilemma: emotionally we like our little place, maybe we don’t like it, but reason compels us to leave it.”

"But the Chinese believe in returning to one's roots, which seems contradictory."

"If you were faced with this choice, and given the opportunity to choose, what would you choose?"

Yu Qie said, "There is no right or wrong, I just want to hear the truth."

The students each had their own ideas, but they were all clever enough to guess what Yu Qie wanted to hear. Perhaps this kind of question seemed a bit "excessive" in the 1980s. In any case, everyone's answer was the same: "We all want to go home. Home is our favorite place."

Is that right?

These words immediately connected Yu Qie with Guan Moye's novels. "Gaomi Northeast Township" is like Shen Congwen's "Xiangxi", Lu Xun's "Luzhen", Faulkner's "Yoknapatawpha", and Márquez's "Macondo"... mysterious and unpredictable, wild and unrestrained, it is by no means a complete praise.

In this sense, Guan Moye also possessed a very valuable quality: even if he faced criticism, he would still speak the truth as he believed it. This person never changed from beginning to end.

Yu Qie's attitude towards his hometown was also complicated. Wanxian was poor and remote at the time, with countless hidden reefs under the turbulent river. If one was not careful, the boat would be destroyed and people would die. Later, Wanxian "disappeared" as a massive migration of millions of people formed a new city, while the original place was submerged under the river blocked by the dam.

Yu Qie's home is also disappearing at a countdown speed. Gaomi Northeast Township is a place fabricated by Guan Moye, but Yu Qie's hometown will really become the place in the photo in the future. Just as Yu Qie once waved the article "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and shouted: "We are both the people who wrote the prophecy and the people in the story. We are writing our own ending."

Wanxian is the real Macondo town that Yuqie lived in. Thinking about this, Yuqie's feelings were very complicated.

After the auditions, Xie Jin asked him who impressed him the most, and Yu Qie could only remember the most beautiful actress: Guzilinuer.

“Choose her,” Yu Qie said. “They’re all the same anyway.”

(End of this chapter)