Literary Master 1983

Chapter 363 Expert in Foreign Warfare
Yu Qiezhen won the Cervantes Award!
Many people were unfamiliar with the Cervantes Prize before this, only knowing that it was a kind of Spanish-language literary award. In factories, government offices, and construction sites in special economic zones, those who heard the news were like newborns, still cluelessly learning about this literary world.

Previously, they had not delved into literature; nor would they become literary youths afterward, but that did not prevent them from eagerly learning about it.

When they are given science education and recommendations, and key terms such as "near-Nobel Prize winner," "youngest in history," and "only Asian writer" are mentioned, even those who don't understand can't help but feel proud—it's like hearing about a great victory on a distant frontier!
This is exactly what people urgently need right now.

We won! The Chinese are awesome!
Yu Qie is awesome, that's why I'm awesome!
Upon hearing the news, students from Yenching University came out, surrounded Yu Qie, lifted him up and took him for a walk, and sang the national anthem: "Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!"

They brought out all the pots, pans, brooms, and dustpans, banging them and shouting all the way, "Chinese writers have won Cervantes! Chinese literature is the best in the world!"
Biology students worked through the night, embroidering the words "Literature Goes Global" onto their bedsheets and boldly displaying them. Whenever someone was drawn to them and asked, they would immediately shout, "Senior Brother Yu got Cervantes!"

"What is Cervantes?"

"It's a literary prize that even Gabriel García Márquez didn't win! He's a Nobel laureate!"

"Huh?! Isn't that even more prestigious than the Nobel Prize?"

"You can't say it that way, but you can also say it that way!"

You've confused me!

"Don't overthink it, just come with me! Hurry up!"

"—Lu Buxuan, Lu Buxuan!" In the boys' dormitory next to the dining hall, Lu Buxuan, who had just fallen asleep, was dragged up by Cheng Guoping and Chu Fujun.

"Get up quickly!"

"What?"

Lu Buxuan was startled when he opened his eyes.

Cheng Guoping acted as if he had hyperthyroidism, so excited that the veins on his neck bulged and he couldn't utter a word for a long time. On the contrary, Chu Fujun was still a normal person.

Chu Fujun sternly reprimanded him: "Get up right now! Yu Qie won the Cervantes Prize! Our literature department won't be able to sleep tonight!"

"The dining hall is packed with people! Yu Qie is coming over here... We've even carried his people and his car over! He won't get any sleep tonight!"

What is Cervantes?

Lu Buxuan, who came from a poor family, naturally didn't know. But he didn't have time to think about it, so he put on his clothes and ran downstairs.

As soon as he stepped out into the corridor, he was shocked again. These students were going from room to room, excitedly discussing the tongue-twisting name "Cervantes." Even those dorm rooms where the doors were closed and people were asleep were woken up and then repeated like broken records, "Yu Qie got Cervantes!"

The student who was called was initially angry, then shocked, and finally changed into his underwear to prepare to go down and celebrate.

Cheng Guoping then spoke up: "Cervantes is a true grand prize! It will be very difficult for us to see Senior Brother Yu again in the future! He is truly in a class of his own!"

"Actually, this is the first time a Chinese writer has won such a big award, and he did."

“Ba Lao, Lao She, Shen Congwen… those are people I’ve heard of, but Yu Qie is someone I’ve actually met in person.”

Chu Fujun didn't say anything, but his increasingly rapid pace betrayed him. Lu Buxuan felt that the usually sentimental Chu Fujun was about to cry.

"What is Cervantes?" Lu Buxuan asked abruptly.

what?
You're unworthy of being a Chinese literature major!

The two then realized that Lu Buxuan had only recently come into contact with literature. He might know about Yu Qie, but he knew nothing about the division of power in world literature.

"Cervantes is... in some ways the highest award! Why not the Nobel Prize? It depends on how you understand the literary prize."

Cheng Guoping and Chu Fujun each said one sentence.

“We believe that the prizes are more purely literary; the Nobel Prize, on the other hand, is based on merit, emphasizes seniority, and is sometimes unfair…”

As the two were explaining, they walked down to the dormitory and bumped into students from other dormitories!
Ma Yanan from the school newspaper, Zhou Haitao who wanted to meet Deng Liping... now they've all come here for one thing.

"They all came for Senior Brother Yu?" Lu Buxuan asked.

Cheng Guoping answered decisively: "Yes! It can only be him!"
At this moment, Chu Fujun suddenly exclaimed excitedly, "There's an acquaintance over there, did you see him?"

who?
Lu Buxuan looked in that direction and found that the person was the student who had questioned Yu Qie a few days ago.

At the time, this person thought that "Carrying Dad to School" was poorly written and said that those who supported Yu Qie were all "Yu-isms," and that only he was objective.

He was kicked out, but there are definitely some people at Yenching University who support him.

However, those same people are now among the cheering crowd. Lu Buxuan has no doubt that these people who claim to "oppose Yu Qie" will immediately drop their defiant attitude and practically prostrate themselves before Yu Qie the moment they actually see him.

Lu Buxuan's family were pig butchers, and he was very skilled at it. According to his observation, some people who frequently handled blood could instill fear in animals simply by walking by quietly.

"So what exactly is the Cervantes Award? You still haven't explained it clearly to me," Lu Buxuan said.

"I can't explain it clearly, you just need to know... this is unprecedented, and most likely it will never happen again."

At 10 PM, CCTV's "Evening News" airs.

Since its premiere, the show has consistently had low ratings because it rarely features major news happening late at night. Furthermore, the "Evening News" segment is only ten minutes long, essentially a brief repetition of daytime events, and has always been broadcast pre-recorded.

News is all about timeliness, and the lack of breaking news has resulted in low viewership for the Evening News.

This actually involves the issue of global time zones.

In Chinese news, the "West" primarily refers to the United States and Europe. However, the time difference between the US and China is twelve hours. When it's late at night in China, it's still early morning in the US, before the day has even begun, so there's naturally little news.

There is news from Europe, but Europe is too close to China, on the same Eurasian continent. After the news comes out, it will be mentioned in the 7 o'clock "Lianbo" (News Broadcast), leaving only scraps for the "Evening News".

Since the program's inception, there have been almost no major news stories that happen right in this "vacuum zone".

This month, CCTV's color television center was completed, and it leased a relay satellite from Australia. The program team was quickly dispatched there, and the leadership decided to try a live broadcast using the equipment.

Although it was called a live broadcast, it was actually a pre-recorded broadcast five minutes in advance.

At 9:58, the female host took her place. She was already very familiar with the script and even had the leisure to take a look at the recording footage.

"Signal provided by News Corp Australia!" "Charoen Pokphand Group provides you with the time..."

At 9:59, the screen switched to the words "Evening News" on CCTV, with a bright blue two-dimensional planet rotating in the center of the screen, representing that this is an international news program.

At 10:00 sharp, the host got into the swing of things:
"Hello viewers, this is CCTV's evening news. According to Xinhua News Agency, the General Office of the Government recently forwarded..."

Five minutes of domestic news, five minutes of international news.

"We are looking at the international arena. Recently, the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister visited China, where he made… proposals, and highly praised… We believe…"

Suddenly, a hastily written script was slipped onto the host's desk from a blind spot in the camera's view.

The director across from them held up a banner that read: "Domestic News".

Occasionally, there will be such breaking news.

This really tests a host's basic skills. Memorizing a script is the norm for hosts, as it reduces mistakes, but impromptu news cannot be prepared with a script, as it's easy to ramble on.

Because it's the first time meeting someone, the host's true feelings may sometimes be revealed.

But how could this possibly stump me?

So, the host read the script aloud in his mind while looking at it, and then spoke it clearly and precisely:

"According to Spanish national television, at 2 p.m., which is 8 p.m. in China time, the Spanish Ministry of Culture announced the winner of the 1987 Cervantes Prize for Literature. Our writer Yu Qie was awarded this honor for his contributions to Spanish-language literature."

"He will receive a prize of five million pesetas, which is equivalent to about sixty thousand US dollars, or nearly five hundred thousand RMB!"

The host's voice began to change slightly.

"Award winners are often invited for multiple interviews, which triggers a new wave of personal book publications, generating far more revenue than the prize money... King Juan Carlos I of Spain expressed his approval of the award results, saying he was ready to offer his sincerest blessings."

"The Cervantes Prize is not the Nobel Prize in Literature, but within the industry, its recognition is no less, hence its nickname 'the Spanish-language Nobel Prize.' Among previous Cervantes Prize winners, the oldest was Jorge Guillem at 86 years old, and the youngest was Octavio Paz at 67 years old."

"The fact that Chinese writer Yu Qie is 24 years old dispels doubts about the Cervantes Prize's 'Lifetime Achievement Award' and demonstrates the jury's bold and pragmatic selection style."

The female host's voice had noticeably changed. Her emotions were fluctuating greatly, and there were perceptible pauses during her broadcasts, as she needed brief moments to process her emotions.

"This is actually the first time a Chinese writer has received a Nobel Prize-level honor overseas. Cervantes' work involves more than 200 million Spanish-speaking people worldwide. According to relevant data from the United Nations, Spanish is currently the third most spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English."

"The total area of ​​countries where Spanish is an official language reaches 16 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to one-tenth of the world's land area."

"..."

After delivering this news, the host became completely animated, like a messenger returning from the battlefield. She gained a clear understanding of the true nature of this little-known literary award.

Like her are the viewers in front of the screen.

Just as newspapers tirelessly popularized Goldbach's Conjecture to the entire nation back then, they transformed this niche mathematical problem into a cultural phenomenon in China overnight.

Moreover, because Goldbach's conjecture, as a form of number theory, is easy to understand on the surface, it has led to a nationwide craze for mathematics, giving rise to China's first batch of "amateur scientists".

Yu Qie's novels are easier to understand. Even his most obscure translation of Neruda's poems can be understood by anyone who can read.

This news went viral!

Starting from the 20th, suddenly everyone was discussing the tongue-twisting name "Cervantes." Yu Qie fulfilled their expectations of a hero: a Chinese man who, in a field where others excelled, did not carry the label of "sick man of East Asia" and become bitter and resentful, but instead decisively overthrew everyone else.

Spain may not be as developed as the United States, but the United States also has a large Spanish-speaking population, and people there are more likely to have children.

Following the evening news, the same news was broadcast again on the morning news the next day, and even on the evening news, it was mentioned that the leaders praised Yu Qie on behalf of the country.

"Your personal honor has enabled China to achieve a breakthrough from zero and boosted our nation's self-confidence."

The Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Writers Association quickly organized a "Yu Qie Discussion Meeting" and a "Spanish Literature Discussion Meeting," inviting Yu Qie to give a speech. After the speech, they also invited Yu Qie's teacher, Ma Shitu.

Ma Shitu said he knew nothing about Spanish, but the Writers' Association didn't care at all and asked Ma Shitu to talk about how he trained Yu Qie.

“I did nothing. Without Ma Shitu, Yuqie would still be Yuqie. On the contrary, it made a difference to the rest of my life.” Ma Shitu was particularly modest.

In late April, the "Five Elders of Sichuan" were about to part ways, and they were all lamenting that they wouldn't live much longer and that their literary lives would also come to an end.

How can we continue their literary legacy?
They all had their own ways of doing things.

Studying oracle bone inscriptions, writing letters to young people, or writing memoirs... it turns out that this little horse is about to have a second spring.

When people get old, what memoir in this world can compare to "My Good Disciple Yu Qie"?

Yenching University was in a frenzy of celebration, with people lining up to join the New Reality Society. Many remembered this incident. The area around Weiming Lake used to be filled with poets, but now it was full of Yu scholars, their conversations revolving around major international literary awards.

"The world's three major literary awards are the Prix Goncourt in France, the Booker Prize in the UK, and the Cervantes Prize in Spain."

Where is the Nobel Prize in Literature?

"You don't know, the Nobel Prize in Literature is not just about literature. It's not that fair."

"There's also the Büchner Prize in Literature from Germany, Faulkner's from the United States... there are many more; the world isn't just about the Nobel Prize in Literature."

Ding Leisun seized the opportunity and handed over the matter of Yu Qie's promotion to associate professor to the teachers' own academic committee for a vote: it passed unanimously.

Yu Qie became Teacher Yu from then on.

He was both a graduate student and a teacher. Yenching University had seen this situation before; Ping Xinqiao, the former class monitor of Yu Qie's class, was a graduate student and a lecturer at the same time, but this had never happened before with an associate professor.

The school held another general meeting, and Ding Lei pretended to ask the other bigwigs for their opinions, but still no one objected.

Principal Ding was relieved.

Being an expert in external warfare is truly impressive; no matter what you do, others will give you a wide berth.

(End of this chapter)