Literary Master 1983

Chapter 256 New Novel

"Yu Qie, a loud drum doesn't need a heavy hammer, and a fast horse doesn't need a whip."

"You're so well-liked and capable; you must do more things in the future. Do you remember what you said when you were at my house?"

Of course I remember!

At that time, he had just come down from the Laoshan front and was going to Ma Shitu's home to become his apprentice.

Ma Shitu asked him, "How did you become a literary giant?"

In Marx's era, there was only one theme—national salvation and survival. Everyone had the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, so writers who strived in this direction naturally became national heroes and literary giants.

At this time, everyone's thoughts were different: some were fighting, some were going into business, some were going abroad... To become a great writer and satisfy the themes of so many people was more difficult than in the past.

So Yu Qie replied, "Young people need me, and I will strive to make the people of the world need me too!"

He now repeated those words once again with great passion and fervor.

Old Ma nodded in satisfaction.

Looking back on what Yu Qie has done in the past two years, it is entirely in line with the lofty ambitions he set at the beginning.

“That’s enough, that’s enough!” Ma Shitu said.

The two parted ways here.

On the 25th, the Shanghai Film Studio held a celebration party. It was a very high-level event; the Shanghai Municipal Propaganda Department specially sent an entire team to discuss it, and the venue was the Jianghai Hall of the Municipal People's Political Consultative Conference.

Many of the main creators of "Children of Heaven" came to Shanghai, and I hadn't seen many of them for a while.

Xie Jin was very excited when he met Yu Qie: "Teacher Yu, do you know how much the movie grossed?"

"How much?"

"Twenty-seven million!"

"Is this a lot of box office revenue?"

"A lot, an incredible amount! Our film has only been out for a month and it's already grossed like this. It'll probably make fifty or sixty million a year—that's going to break the record set by 'Shaolin Temple'!"

So exaggerated?

Yu Qie was also startled. The movie "Shaolin Temple" had been on the market for many years, and its total box office had exceeded 100 million yuan, meaning that a quarter of the country's population had paid to see the film.

However, Xie Jin also said, "The ticket price for 'Shaolin Temple' is very cheap, only one cent, while ours is three cents a ticket, so we still got a good deal."

"That's still a record!"

There's a kind of ancient worship in the arts and culture circle, which emphasizes having a founding father who established a school of thought. They believe that this film, with Yu Qie as the screenwriter, will become an insurmountable barrier to suppress all future directors.

It's no exaggeration to say that novelists dominated Chinese cinema in the 1980s.

In the 85 Golden Rooster Awards for Best Film, five films were eligible. Apart from "Tan Sitong," which was a documentary, the other four were all based on novels, and all the screenplays were written by novelists. Moreover, the winning Best Film, "The Girl in Red," was based on "The Red Shirt Without Buttons" by Qu Tiening, an editor of "Huacheng" magazine.

Leading figures of the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, such as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, served as key members of the creative team for the film *Yellow Earth*, which was adapted from the novel *Echoes in the Deep Valley* by writer Ke Lan. Without literary figures, they would have faced a situation where they had no films to direct.

The head of the Film Bureau was novelist Chen Husheng, and the head of the cultural department overseeing the Film Bureau was still novelist Wang Meng. The Golden Rooster Awards, the Huabiao Awards… all were jointly organized by the China Film Association and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

During the filming process at a studio, novelists not only earn far more than actors and hold positions akin to partners in the studio, while actors are merely salaried employees. Novelists can not only "suggest" who should act in the film, but also "suggest" who should direct it.

It is precisely because novelists hold such a prominent position today that Yu Qie has absolute authority in the "Children of Heaven" film crew, and the inexperienced Jiang Wen became his subordinate almost without hesitation.

At the celebration party, Chen Lidao, then a leader of the Shanghai Municipal Propaganda Department, said: "Comrades! The success of this film is first and foremost thanks to the appearance of a good script, and then thanks to the efforts of director and artist Xie Jin. Without these two people, this film could not have been so popular!"

"We'd like to summarize our achievements to date, and also send the film to overseas film festivals. Currently, this Chinese film has been screened in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, Tehran, Iran, and other places. The film has been warmly received by judges and local people during its overseas screenings, which is truly encouraging and great news for us!"

No wonder the propaganda department came.

So this movie has already gone international.

A thunderous applause erupted from the audience, and Chen Li's face flushed with excitement. Xie Jin winked at Yu Qie and exclaimed, "You suggested I take it to an overseas exhibition, and I actually applied to participate!"

Yu asked, "And then?"

"And then, just like you said, it became a huge hit!"

Chen Li gestured for everyone to quiet down.

"Please let Yu Qie speak."

Yu Qie stepped onto the stage and said, "I just parted ways with my teacher a few days ago. He told me that works are written for the masses... Many people say that this is a correct but meaningless statement. I say it's because they haven't truly been welcomed by the masses!"

"How can people who have never experienced it understand our aspirations?"

"Once something has truly received recognition, there will be no more doubts. Why do we create? We create for the people!"

"—Great! Teacher Yu is absolutely right!"

The cast and crew applauded. Then, Xie Jin went up to speak. He talked about how, at the premiere of "Garland Under the Mountain," the young actor Tang Guoqiang and others were so busy meeting with fans that they were late for a visit to frontline soldiers, which made Xie Jin furious.

Xie Jin announced loudly, "Our film will also premiere on the front lines, and its release date is August 1st!"

"Troops from Laoshan, Zheyinshan, Fakalinshan... watched this movie in the tents set up on the front lines. Will the Vietnamese be able to see it? We should throw the film over there, and then they can hold up the white cloth of surrender as a projection screen."

Xie Jin's witty remark made everyone laugh.

Gulznur, an actress from Xinjiang Province, said, "I also have to thank Teacher Yu. Without this movie, I would definitely have gone back to Tianshan Film Studio. How could I have come to Shanghai?"

In her speech, Gong Xue also said, "This has become my most satisfying and most well-known film."

The later renowned director Jiang Wen was downstairs, eager to say a few words. Unfortunately, his role in the film was unimportant, so he could only speak after the actors came down.

"Let me talk, let me say a few words!" Jiang Wen said.

Xie Jin asked, "What do you want to talk about? Jiang Wen?"

“We’re all on the same side, so I won’t stand on ceremony. I mainly want to express my deepest admiration for Brother Yu, which is as boundless as a surging river. I heard that some black marketeers in Wanxian have started a reading club called Yixin Club! I think I should join this organization and replace these people.”

“This Yixin Association shouldn’t be made up of businessmen who only know how to make money, but rather of artistic young people with ideals and aspirations. What do you think, Professor Yu?” “—No way!” Yu Qie rolled his eyes.

Gong Xue said, "I feel like it's all a dream now. When I wake up, I will have missed out on such a masterpiece."

“You won’t miss it!” Jiang Wen said. “It’s very simple. From now on, you can do what Director Xie did and keep pestering Teacher Yu. I reckon that unless there’s no other way, you’ll definitely have other opportunities to act.”

"Why would you need to use such tactics?" Guliznur asked curiously.

Yu Qie has written some works about foreign countries—maybe she'll have the opportunity to do so in the future.

Jiang Wen explained, “Our relationship with Mr. Yu is like this: before the film was made, the novel was already well-known throughout the country; during the filming, the novel continued to be famous; after the filming, his next novel will definitely achieve good results—that’s the situation before, during, and after the filming.”

"So the key to the honor lies not in the film, but in Teacher Yu."

Gong Xue's beautiful eyebrows are all twisted together: So that's how Director Xie got the adaptation rights back then.

She seemed a little thoughtful.

What exactly does "persuasion and pleading" mean?
In Shanghai, the citizens certainly have a great passion for watching movies, and novelists often dabble in film criticism. Even after the celebration party, a literary magazine like *Harvest* published an analysis of the film—signed by Li Xiaolin.

She is Xiao Duanduan's mother, and also Ba Jin's daughter.

In his article, Li Xiaolin wrote: "The collaboration between Yu Qie and Xie Jin was like a passionate love affair: Yu Qie wrote a great and simple story, which contained many ingenious ideas; Xie Jin was equally skillful in his simplicity, but the scenes that moved us also had his unique technique."

"The reason we found the scene of Ali's small feet soaking in the goldfish pond particularly stunning is because Xie Jin changed the frame rate here. The average film has 30 frames per second, but Xie Jin used 60 frames per second here."

"Therefore, although the movement itself did not slow down, we suddenly had a feeling of 'slow motion.' In our senses, everything slowed down, and we were forced to remember this moment, which was consistent with our emotional intuition."

The analysis is quite professional.

Li Xiaolin is quite capable—oh! This editor of Harvest magazine, Li Xiaolin, seems to have graduated from Shanghai Opera?
Yu Qie remembered.

Ba Jin's daughter, Li Xiaolin, was originally a top student at a performing arts school.

Mr. Ba was also a movie lover, and because of his poor eyesight, he liked to wear sunglasses while watching movies. There's a "Sunglasses King" in Hong Kong, and in Shanghai, this one would be called "Sunglasses Ba." Under his influence, his whole family is probably movie buffs.

Shooting at 60 frames per second was Xie Jin's forte; he may not have formally studied it, but he figured it out on his own. Jiang Wen was also present when this scene was filmed, and she wondered, "Director Xie, why did you shoot it this way?"

Xie Jin was good at directing, but not at directing, so he could only say, "Jiang Wen, don't worry about it, just film it like this."

Then, once the film came out, I showed it to Jiang Wen: "Is this how it is?"

Jiang Wen was deeply impressed after watching it: "I've learned it."

This technique has become Jiang Wen's signature move. She uses it when filming character monologues, close-ups, and scenes with emotional impact.

Yu Qie, having come to Shanghai, naturally wanted to visit Ba Jin. He had previously promised to write a novel for *Harvest* magazine, but it hadn't been published yet, and Li Xiaolin hadn't urged him to. This time, he was determined to get it published in *Harvest*.

------

No. 113 Wukang Road.

Yu Qie knocked on the green tin gate of Ba Lao's house, and Li Xiaolin was very happy to see him.

"My dad's been busy with something lately and doesn't know what to do. Do you have any ideas?"

"Tell me what it is first?"

"Let him tell you."

Li Xiaolin led Yu Qie straight into the house.

As expected, Ba sighed and lamented, leaving Yu Qie somewhat at a loss.

Here's the thing.

This summer vacation, ten fifth-grade students from Qianqiao Central Primary School felt confused and lost in the face of the societal trend of "everything is about money." They wrote a letter to Mr. Ba seeking his advice.

Buffett is a very introverted person, and his health is not as robust as Ma Shitu's. As people get older, they like to reminisce about the past. This year, Buffett wrote a lot of "confession" articles, and when he saw elementary school students writing letters asking for advice, it made him very sad—what has our society become?

We seem to be losing faith.

Are you telling elementary school students not to look at money?

That would be too hypocritical.

Should we make elementary school students stare at money?

That's even less likely.

Yu Qie's novel "Children of Heaven" was recommended to these primary school students by Ba Jin, but Ba Jin was still not satisfied. He felt that by the time primary school students were raising questions, the adults in society had already been poisoned for a long time.

"Yu Qie, do you think our society has lost its faith?" he asked Yu Qie.

“I don’t know, that’s a very broad question,” Yu Qie said.

"Do you have any new ideas for a novel?"

Of course.

Yu Qie is planning to write a TV series called "Lurking". The original timeline is based on a part of Ma Shitu's experiences.

When the protagonist Yu Zecheng was working as an underground party member, the organization arranged for him to become a revolutionary couple with another underground party member, a situation almost identical to that of Ma Shitu and his lover.

Moreover, there are three main female characters in "Lurking": one is exceptionally good with no flaws; another is Yu Zecheng's mentor and theoretical teacher; and the last is Cuiping, Yu Zecheng's revolutionary comrade-in-arms and final lover.

After the TV series aired, viewers debated who Yu Zecheng truly loved. In reality, these three were different aspects of the same person.

Because in Ma Shitu's eyes, his lover, who was persecuted to death, was originally from a wealthy family, yet she possessed the strength of the working class, being both reckless and meticulous, gentle and simple, delicate and brave... just such a person.

Yu Qie stayed at Ba Jin's house again and wrote this novel. He told Ba Jin the outline of the novel, and Ba Jin was very interested and invited him to publish the novel in "Harvest".

Yu Qie said, "I was originally going to post it on the harvest page!"

At the same time, Ma Shitu also left Shanghai and took a boat along the Yangtze River to go home.

(End of this chapter)