Literary Master 1983

Chapter 253 "Infiltration"

In mid-August of 1985, on an ordinary day, news suddenly broke that several Japanese politicians, on a whim, visited a place they had not publicly visited for many years.

This event broke with past practices and had a significant impact on the whole of Asia at the time.

At that time, Japan was a model for Asia, the only developed country with a yellow population, exporting industry and technology to the whole of Asia; moreover, there were some signs that they seemed to be genuinely trying to reform and move forward.

After all, even on the mainland, the massive youth exchange activities haven't been over for very long. Those songs of friendship still seem to echo in our ears, but now they've become a strange irony. These photos bluntly show that nothing has changed.

Economic prosperity has not transformed this country into the ideal civilized nation; on the contrary, it seems to have doubled the ambitions of some.

That same day, Yu Qie saw a newspaper criticizing: "This behavior is extremely dangerous and is brewing a bad trend"; then, a more serious newspaper published a message, describing the scene as "hurting everyone's feelings".

This is quite a strong evaluation.

Suddenly, a storm was brewing. Many scholars and officials from China were traveling to Japan for research, and quite a few students were also going. For example, some students in Yu Qie's economics department chose to study at the University of Tokyo, but then unexpected problems arose, forcing them to repeat a year.

Officials who had previously praised the friendship between the two countries are now silent; one unfortunate official was dismissed from his post after making a mistake while on an inspection tour in Japan, mistaking the visit for an ordinary one.

Nie Weiping, who was learning Go in Japan, was also influenced by it.

He made an international call to Yu Qie: "Yu Qie, I can only win now, I can't afford to lose. If they dare to do something like this, they are my enemies."

"Shouldn't you always have this mindset? I made it clear to you when I was playing soccer in Japan. How could it possibly affect you?"

Nie Weiping complained, "I've been in Japan for so long and I've made some friends. But this incident has made me doubt myself. I don't know what's real and what's fake?"

"Why do you think so?"

“A survey was conducted in Japan, and the results showed that most people support their politicians doing this. What does this mean? Those Go players, referees, and even convenience store clerks you meet every day, even if you've known them your whole life and think they're true friends, as long as they take off their masks, deep down they will still try to deal with us Chinese if they get the chance. They simply can't stand to see us doing well.”

Nie Weiping said with distress, "I feel like I'm in a dead end. I'm living in an environment where I can't trust anyone. Now I don't even trust Wu Qingyuan—does he really want me to win? He's Japanese too."

Yu Qie laughed heartily. Then he told Nie Weiping, "Old Nie, you need to have some faith."

"What does this have to do with faith?"

“It’s related,” Yu Qie said. “In life, you will encounter many things. Whether you pray to gods and Buddhas, believe in science, or do something else, if you have a backbone and a methodology in your heart, you won’t be so internally conflicted when you encounter problems.”

“Yuqie, what you said makes sense, but I don’t understand! And I’m sad because I lost my Japanese friend, but I thought you would be even sadder. Because you have far more Japanese friends than I do. Actually, I called to comfort you…”

Yu Qie laughed and said, "I've seen it all before, I don't need your comfort!"

"How old are you? You've already seen it all..."

Nie Weiping complained.

Yu's motivational speeches didn't work. Unlike the image of a chess master that most people imagine, Nie Weiping is a rather abstract person, and he doesn't believe in motivational speeches.

How did Nie Weiping finally resolve his anxiety about trust?

Among the group visiting Japan were a group of rural girls from the Japanese countryside. Nie Weiping teased the Japanese girls every day, and they admired him as a Go master from China. This finally cheered him up and relieved his anxiety.

He told Yu Qie, "I'm going to say this now: no matter when, the Japanese still have their merits."

Yu Qie genuinely believed his own platitudes, and Ma Shitu also believed them. He showed the conversation to Ma Shitu, who gave it high praise:

"Be neither arrogant nor humble, be indomitable! You're right. As long as we do our job well, we will surely achieve victory. Others may be friends or enemies, but I will just focus on doing my best."

It was also around this time that Ma Shitu finished writing his memoir about the "Flying Tigers." The section he had previously submitted to the magazine was only a portion of the memoir.

It turns out that Lao Ma didn't just spend all his time playing cards.

Historically, Ma Shitu wrote many articles in this memoir, which were later compiled into a book called "That Kind of Era, That Kind of Man". One part of the book details how he, an underground party member, met the American pilot.

The Flying Tigers were pilots recruited by the United States specifically to fight against the Japanese invaders in China. This group was essentially a group of "mercenaries" recruited at great expense by the country at the time, but they did indeed make many contributions.

Ma Shitu and the Flying Tigers didn't meet often, but each meeting was crucial. They became friends in the 1940s, met again after the opening up of China in the 1980s, and then again in the early 2000s.
So, Ma Shitu published his memoirs on the mainland; while the Flying Tigers and their members established the US-China Aviation Heritage Foundation and built the Flying Tigers Friendship School—specifically for American teenagers dedicated to US-China friendship to receive aviation training.

Ma Shitu went through one or even two complete cycles: from enemy to friend, and from friend back to enemy.

Ma Shitu spoke of these events with great emotion: "My life has been quite interesting. When I was young, I was no less academically gifted than you. I was admitted to the best university in the country at the time, Central University, on my first attempt. Then, at the call of the organization, I changed my major and was admitted to Sichuan University and Southwest Associated University. Sichuan University released its admission results early, and I quickly began studying there..."

"Then, the organization hoped that I could go undercover at the Southwest Associated University. So I dropped out of Sichuan University and went back to Southwest Associated University. It was in this place that I made friends with these American 'Flying Tigers,' who were American pilots who came to China to fight against the Japanese invaders."

“Initially, this friendship was intentional, but later I discovered they were also living, breathing people, and we developed a genuine friendship; then, due to political turmoil and national conflict, we became enemies; in recent years, we became friends again…”

At this point, Old Ma couldn't help but sigh, "Ah! I miss my underground party life."

He said, “I have never said which of your novels I like the most. My favorite is ‘The Way Out.’ Many of our older folks like your ‘The Way Out’ not only because you wrote a happy ending, but also because you subtly reveal a kind of sympathy for people who are proactive and enterprising… You subtly admire that kind of vitality. Actually, I’ll tell you quietly that I think so too.”

“We all have our own gradually formed values ​​and insurmountable minefields that no one can violate.”

Yu listened very attentively.

The Beijing Writers Association organized a seminar, which Yu Qie also attended. The seminar was held at the "Little Western Paradise" cinema—yes, the same place where the Yenching University students had previously gathered. Why hold a seminar?

Li Duo of Beijing Literature believes that in the future there may be a group of writers who are specifically responsible for creating works for film and television adaptations, because in the current writer compensation system, screenwriters are paid much more than novelists, and they can easily sell their work twice.

It was sold as a novel once, and as a screenplay once.

Therefore, it's necessary to look at current commercial films. This is also a requirement issued by the cultural department: films are one of the products that the cultural department should promote, but in this era, they perform far worse than novels.

The popularity of "Children of Heaven" is largely attributed to the excellence of the original work.

Many writers participated in the conference, including Yu Qie, Shi Tiesheng, Liu Zhenyun, Jia Pingtu who happened to be in Beijing on a business trip, and some military writers.

Since we're already at Xiaoxitian Cinema, we should naturally watch some excellent feature films. But what should we watch?
The movie voted for is the Japanese film "Manhunt," a classic commercial film.

Xiaoxitian Cinema was packed. But as soon as we entered and took our seats, a staff member said, "I'm sorry, everyone, we can't show Japanese films right now."

"Why? Is it because there are explicit scenes in it?" Jia Pingtu asked.

"No!" the staff member said. "We can't show Japanese films recently. Neither 'Manhunt' nor any other films can be shown now. You can show any film you want, just not Japanese films."

Oh, everyone suddenly realized.

At the time, the news was not clearly communicated in China. Many people did not know what a "divine toilet" was, and they were not clear about the seriousness of the matter.

I just find it strange, and a little regrettable:

"If we can't watch Japanese films, let's watch something else."

The crowd began voting again. The Xiaoxitian Cinema had a considerable number of feature film reels, listed on a roster. Because Shi Tiesheng was a great film enthusiast and had seen a vast number of films, the crowd elected him to choose the movies.

He took the roster, looked it over, and shook his head, saying, "No, none of these will do!"

"Why not?" Li Duo asked.

Shi Tiesheng looked at Yu Qie and said, “I recently watched Yu Qie’s new film. As you all know, the film is about my kind of illness, but putting that connection aside, the film is also very good. I think it’s even better than ‘Manhunt’. As for the films on the roster—‘Zorro’, ‘Waves of the Danube’, ‘Brave Mikhail’… they are too far removed from us and are not as good as ‘Children of Heaven’.”

“We can’t learn anything from this. Instead of looking at these things, we should ask Yu Qie how he writes novels. I crave novels that are both commercially viable and incredibly profound.”

"What do you all say, is it good or not!"

it is good!
The crowd immediately started to cheer!

Yu Qie had no choice but to go on stage and repeat how he wrote the novel. This novel was a commissioned work; in a sense, without the charitable act, this novel would not exist.

People were also curious about Yu Qie's experience in Japan: "You raised several million in Japan, which shows that there are many people in Japan who support us; but now we've suddenly fallen into this mess, and we can't even watch movies anymore. What exactly happened? Will you be able to go to Japan again in the future?"

Yu Qie said, "The publisher I'm working with is Iwanami Publishing, a local Japanese bookseller that specializes in publishing works by overseas authors, similar to Shanghai Translation Publishing House in China. They are very experienced in handling this, and ultimately, the audience for my novels isn't the general Japanese book lovers. This matter won't have a significant impact on me."

Li Duo said, "What if things escalate to the point where it's a matter of life and death?"

Things obviously didn't develop to that point, but Yu Qie still answered the question: "Although novels have no borders, writers do."

------

Because of this incident, cultural exchanges between the two countries came to a standstill for the entire second half of the year. The bustling atmosphere of last year was gone forever. Large delegations stayed in Japan until August, and according to the plan, they were supposed to continue their inspections for a while longer—then they suddenly changed course and returned home.

So why was Lao Nie praised to such an extent in history?

There is a preceding factor involved.

Opposition also erupted in other countries, including South Korea, Malaysia, and North Korea, all issuing statements of criticism. Japan was also affected; Yu Qie's "New Reality Trilogy," originally scheduled for publication in Tokyo in September, has now been delayed until November.

Around the same time last year, Yu Qie's novel "Hunting Fun" was published in Japan.

Toru Midorikawa of Iwanami Publishers explained the matter: "After Japan's defeat in the war, the Complete Works of Lu Xun became even more sought after! Once the storm has passed, your work will definitely sell even better!"

"A true literary master is one who can transcend the river of time and still possess vitality."

Regardless of what nonsense this Japanese bookseller is spouting, Yuqie's revenue this year has had to be delayed in terms of delivery.

This made him think: Could we explore markets in other countries?

Having won the Akutagawa Prize in Japan, I've already reached the pinnacle, while there are so many other awards to win in other countries. People like Yu Hua and Guan Moye will be racking up awards in Italy and France in the future. Why couldn't I have planned ahead ten years in advance?
He remained calm.

On the other hand, Lin Bingnan, who specializes in water conservancy, was somewhat distraught: this matter had also affected some Japanese experts assisting China. They had previously trusted each other, but now a rift had formed, and it seemed unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

“You initially said there were traps in loans, and I thought it was a 50% possibility, but now I think it's 80% or 90%.”

He reminisced with Yu Qie about his past experiences studying in Japan, then concluded: "I never expected things to change so quickly." In reality, rather than seeing this as a crisis of trust, or the end of an era, it's more accurate to say that such a beautiful time never truly existed in the first place.

(End of this chapter)