Exciting 1979!

Chapter 460 The bold will open it, the timid will walk away.
In order to let Wei Ming know about their award as soon as possible, Zhou Huimin also sent him a telegram this time.

Ah Min's popularity in the Hong Kong music scene exceeded Wei Ming's expectations. He knew that Ah Min's records were selling like hotcakes, and he was sure that her new songs were outstanding in 82, but he never expected that the title of most popular female singer would fall on her, a singer who was just doing it for fun.

This honor, coupled with the passing of Karen Carpenter, seems to have inspired Amin to seriously pursue music.

She knew that due to her innate limitations, her voice couldn't compare to those powerful female singers. Even if she did her best in terms of technique and emotion, it would still lack a bit of impact.

Therefore, she felt that the path of becoming a singer-songwriter was more suitable for her. In this telegram, she earnestly asked Wei Ming for advice on how to write her own songs.

Wei Ming thought about it carefully and then replied to her.

Just like writing online novels, the most suitable type for beginners is fan fiction. By creating a derivative work within someone else's existing framework, you can save a lot of trouble. Once you understand the rules of creation, you can start creating original works.

Therefore, Wei Ming suggested: "You might as well take a look at those ancient poems and lyrics. Their 'lyrics' are readily available and are very sophisticated. These ancient poems and lyrics, including the Book of Songs and Han Yuefu, were also passed down in ancient times in the form of chanting. It's just that there were no phonographs in ancient times, so their melodies were not passed down. This is an opportunity for musicians. You mentioned in your previous letter that Teresa Teng's 'Light and Elegant Feelings' greatly impressed you. Why not follow suit?"

After sending the letter, Wei Ming hurriedly completed the Chinese version of "Night at the Museum" and handed it over to Aunt Xiaoyan for review.

Aunt Xiaoyan took the manuscript to her workplace, but because she was called to a meeting by the publishing house and Zheng Yuanjie was keeping an eye on her, they let her read it first.

Zheng Yuanjie read it with a mixture of anger and resentment: Damn it, how could it be written so well!

Because "King of Fairy Tales" features works by Wei Ming, Zheng Yuanjie has always been embarrassed to say that the good sales are due to his own novels, and he is also embarrassed to mention raising his royalties, let alone have any idea of ​​starting his own publishing house.

However, Lü Xiaoyan has already raised Zheng Yuanjie's manuscript fee to the same maximum of ten yuan per thousand words as Wei Ming. Any further increase would be against regulations, and at most, subsidies would be provided through his salary, year-end bonus, and employee benefits.

Because he writes quickly and frequently, and sometimes submits his work to other publications, Zheng Yuanjie's monthly income has long exceeded 300 yuan, which is quite high for a young man like him.

After completing the Chinese version of "The Museum," Wei Ming used his home computer to finish another English story and sent it to Melinda.

He had been in seclusion for the past two days. He was supposed to help his parents prepare for the New Year's shopping after he came out, but unexpectedly, Biaozi came back from Tianjin.

Old Wei waved his hand dismissively: "Go go play with them. There are three of us: me, your mother, and your sister."

Biaozi returned later than Huang Qiuyan, and the couple still had to join the film crew after the New Year to complete the remaining parts.

He thoroughly enjoyed filming this movie, not only playing the male lead but also serving as the martial arts instructor. The crew couldn't do without him; after filming his own fight scenes, he had to instruct others. So even though he was in Tianjin, he stayed until almost the Chinese New Year before going home.

Upon returning, he immediately met up with Wei Ming and Mei Wenhua, saying, "I missed you guys so much!"

Biaozi had heard of Wei Baiwan's fame in Tianjin. At that time, he proudly pointed to Wei Ming's name in the newspaper and said to the crew, "This is my older brother!"

Even after returning home, he still felt excited when he talked about it. He wasn't particularly shocked by how much those Hong Kong tycoons donated, but Wei Ming was someone close to him, and one million was an astronomical figure for a mainland Chinese.

Some newspapers even said that in addition to the 100 million yuan he donated to Peking University, Wei Ming also donated a considerable amount of money to education and transportation in his hometown, saying that he had emptied his pockets.

But Biaozi knew that Ming wasn't that stupid; he would only donate at most half of his personal wealth.

It has to be said that Biaozi still thinks too highly of Ming Ge.

Even including Wei Ming's overseas assets, he only donated less than one percent.

All three were owners of the lucrative Oriental Plaza shop. Wei Ming took the opportunity of donating to scholarships to talk to them about the social responsibility of entrepreneurs.

“You can do some charity work when you have money in the future, but for now, let’s keep a low profile.” Wei Ming was not keeping a low profile because his huge fortune came from writing income, not from business.

Although last year's constitution recognized the individual economy, it will be several more years before businessmen can openly flaunt their wealth. The social order has not collapsed, and the music has not yet broken down.

Of the three, Mei Wenhua was the most promising to become a qualified businessman. He asked, "Brother, people hate the rich. I recently saw on the news that some people who had 10,000 yuan in assets were very distressed after being reported."

"Oh."

Mei Wenhua said: "As representatives of the people who have become rich first in the local area, once their deeds are reported, they will first be envied by the masses. Envious people will even relentlessly find various reasons to report them. In addition, there are village cadres and junior leaders who try to take advantage of them, always thinking of squeezing benefits from those who have become rich first."

Wei Ming nodded, not finding it surprising.

Therefore, Mei Culture can't help but ask: "The contradiction between the rich and the poor seems to be getting bigger and bigger. Will people really appreciate it when we donate money to do good deeds?"

“I think most people will appreciate it, but there will definitely be people who don’t, and they will say some very hurtful things. However, the primary purpose of donating money is not to make everyone like you,” Wei Ming told him. “First of all, donating money is to make yourself happy. Helping others is a very joyful thing. For example, if someone has a terminal illness and has no money for treatment, but you can save a life and a family by contributing your daily income, would you do it?”

"Of course we did!" they both said in unison.

Wei Ming: "Are you happy after you finished?"

"I'm so happy to have done such a great deed," Biaozi said frankly, and Mei Wenhua nodded in understanding.

Wei Ming: "Doing charity with this mindset will make you much happier. Secondly, doing good deeds will also bring good rewards. If you can make a name for yourself in charity, for example, if you have donated teaching buildings to universities all over the country, I think the country will definitely give you corresponding political status. In our country, political status is more important than money."

Mei Wenhua nodded in deep agreement, but how could it be possible for every university to donate a building? Even Ming Ge couldn't do that!

~
That day, Liu Rulong left TVB with Li Zhiqing, the cartoonist of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes". They had just visited the "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" crew, and Li Zhiqing had drawn cartoon images of the four main actors, preparing to promote them in "Madman Comics".

The drama is scheduled to air after the Lunar New Year, but filming is not yet complete, which is quite normal in Hong Kong.

Due to its high sales and loyal fanbase, "Madman Comics" is very effective in promoting entertainment products. This year's Spring Festival releases, "The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman" and "Project A," were also promoted in the magazine.

Action movies, fantasy films, and comics go well together, but their rival is "Aces Go Places 2," which makes things difficult.

Although Tsui Hark was the director of "The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman" and was one of the Seven Freaks of Cinema City, the film was actually produced by Golden Harvest. This was because the bosses of Cinema City did not agree to Tsui Hark making such a big-budget fantasy film, and Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest also wanted to divide Cinema City, so he generously invested in the project.

Now, "The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman" and "Aces Go Places 2" are being released on the same day and competing with each other. Although "Aces Go Places 2" is not performing as well as the first one, judging from the trend, it should be able to reach 2000 million.

This result surpasses that of "New Shushan Swordsman", but "Shushan" also has the potential to reach tens of millions.

As for "Project A," which also belongs to Golden Harvest, it will be released later. Both Golden Harvest films will be screened in Shaw Brothers theaters, and the situation of Golden Harvest joining forces with Shaw Brothers to fight against Cinema City is already very clear.

~
Zhou Huimin and Lin Ni had just returned from the cinema after watching "The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman," and Lin Ni was showing off her connections.

"I know Brigitte Lin well. If you like, I'll get you some autographed photos when I go back this time."

They thought "The New Legend of Shushan Swordsman" was quite exciting and the special effects were amazing, but the plot couldn't be examined closely and was indeed inferior to "Aces Go Places 2" which they saw yesterday.

"Aces Go Places 2" not only has great comedy and a smooth plot, but also impressive special effects.

This made Amin a little worried about Amin's script, "Project A," but he would definitely support it as soon as possible.

They had just gotten home when they saw Wei Lingling, who had come to say goodbye to her mother.

"I'm going to the United States on a business trip, and I'll go straight back to Taiwan for the Lunar New Year."

"You're still going on a business trip even though the Lunar New Year is over?" Lin Ni felt sorry for her daughter, thinking she was working too hard. "You don't have a younger brother, what's the point of working so hard?"

Wei Lingling said, "The foreigners don't celebrate the New Year, and this collaboration is very important. We're going to add car logos to Transformers, which is a lot of money."

Given that the Transformers craze has spread from North America to Asia and Europe, the automotive market has also seen the huge potential of this toy.

In order to cultivate their customers from the children, American automakers decided to cooperate with Lanning to combine their logos and car designs with Transformers. Wei Lingling's trip to the United States was to hear quotes and choose a suitable cooperation.

Moreover, not only American car brands, but also Japanese and European brands will be participating. She also needs to visit her aunt and wish her a Happy New Year in advance. Wei Lingling ate a meal at home, while Zhou Huimin saw Wei Ming's reply after returning home.

He suggested that he start by composing music based on ancient Chinese poems, just like songs such as "Alone on the West Tower," "May We All Live Long and Prosper," and "How Much Sorrow."

The composers of these songs are all masters like Liu Chia-chang and James Wong. It feels like A-Ming set himself a very difficult task from the very beginning.

"I thought you would make me start practicing from nursery rhymes."

However, Amin listened to advice and immediately found "Three Hundred Tang Poems". She didn't look at the short poems, but only the long poems, such as "Bring in the Wine", "The Road to Shu is Hard" and "The Song of the Pipa". While looking at the poems, she thought of the melodies.

When Zhou's mother returned, she saw that her daughter was not watching TV, listening to the radio, or doodling on a drawing board. Instead, she was reading a book and reciting poetry. She even rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't mistaken.

When her mother asked, Zhou Huimin replied, "I want to improve my Chinese language grades."

Zhou's mother was overjoyed: "Okay, you study hard, and Mom will cook you something delicious!"

During this winter break, Zhou Huimin spent her time exchanging ideas with Wei Ming about Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan drama, and even earlier works like the Book of Songs and Han folk songs. Wei Ming also sent her many related books that he had bought in mainland China. As a result, Amin is becoming more and more proficient at reading simplified Chinese characters and can read them almost without any difficulty.

~
With the Lunar New Year just two days away, Wei Ming mailed a letter to Amin and then received a package from Melinda containing a sample copy of the picture book "Night at the Museum" and a letter from her.

The movie "Night at the Museum" is very famous, but the original book is actually a best-selling American picture book.

Wei Ming's novel is closer to the movie version, and he even left a cliffhanger for a future sequel. When the novel was adapted into a picture book, it was further adapted to be more accessible to younger elementary school students.

However, the theme remains the same, mainly conveying reverence for and inheritance of history, knowledge, and order, which also makes children irresistibly interested in museums.

Of course, turning it into a picture book inevitably sacrifices the storytelling aspect of the novel.

Melinda also mentioned this in her letter: "I hope that Night at the Museum can be published as a novel, which can be matched with older elementary school students or even junior high school students, but the story is too short to make up a book. And Honey, I Shrank the Kids" gave me an idea. What do you think about combining them into a book for publication?

Wei Ming's second English short story was "Dear, I Shrank the Children," which tells the story of a scientist who invented a machine to enlarge and shrink objects, and accidentally shrunk four children, leading to the following events.

It was also adapted from a classic Hollywood children's movie, and it did well at the box office, ranking in the top ten in North America that year.

Melinda noticed the similarities between the two stories: both presented an interesting premise, leading the protagonist on an adventure that was even somewhat thrilling.

In her letter, she said, "If you have any more stories like this, please write more. We can combine two stories into a book and name them as a series, creating a brand, such as Mr. Why Tells Stories, or Mr. Why Gives You a Big Scare."

Wei Ming indeed had many more such stories, but he felt that Melinda's names were all terrible, and he had a more suitable one.

How about "Goosebumps"?

It has to be said that Melinda is a business genius. She inspired Wei Ming, who felt that he could actually write a "Goosebumps" series.

The profits from bestselling children's books are indeed tempting; even a thin layer can be sold at a not-so-cheap price.

Before the Harry Potter series came along, there was a book series called Goosebumps, which was the best-selling children's book series in the world at the time, with global sales of over 300 million copies. It was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the best-selling children's book series.

If the film and television adaptations hadn't been less successful and its influence in China hadn't been so limited, its total sales might not have surpassed those of "Harry Potter." However, Wei Ming once bought a Chinese version of "Calabash Brothers" for Xizi's family, and he was familiar with most of the stories in it.

Each of its stories is short and unrelated, standing alone.

Each book in the Chinese version contains two stories, such as Welcome to the House of the Dead, Blood of the Monster, The Curse of the Mummy, and The Scarecrow's Midnight Parade. These are stories that children find irresistible, giving them goosebumps and a touch of horror.

Its slogan is "The bold open it, the timid walk away."

Author R.R. Stein topped the list of bestselling authors in the United States for three consecutive years with this series. At the height of its popularity, the Goosebumps series occupied eight of the top ten spots on the annual bestseller list for children's books in the United States.

This thing has potential!

The popularity of "Goosebumps" in the United States must have led to film and television adaptations. The television adaptation was quite successful, but the film rights were sold to Columbia Pictures, which resulted in a flop, severely impacting the IP value of the series and the enthusiasm for adaptation.

But now, based on "Night at the Museum" and "Honey, I Shrank the Kid," Wei Ming's "Goosebumps" series IP value is not bad.

In addition, when selecting stories, Wei Ming can specifically choose those that have been successfully adapted into movies, while also maintaining a consistent style throughout the series.

To be even more shameless, "Jumanji" is very much in line with the tone of this series. Once the contract with Macmillan expires, it can be reissued under the name of the "Goosebumps" series, and Wei Ming can even write a sequel story!
With his current abilities, writing long English novels is indeed quite difficult for him, but short and medium-length stories are a piece of cake for him.

When the idea of ​​creating a super best-selling children's book series that would also be adapted into a best-selling book was born, countless classic stories flooded Wei Ming's mind.

The more Wei Ming thought about things like the Sixth Sense, Pan's Labyrinth, It, Chucky, Orphan, and so on, the more excited he became. It felt so good to scare the kids!
Even many traditional Chinese stories that Wei Ming had heard since childhood could be included, such as the cat-faced old lady.

Although this thing can hardly be called literary, Melinda's publishing company was just starting out and needed to produce works that could consistently sell well. "Goosebumps" perfectly met the requirements, and Wei Ming felt that he had a duty to do so.

He immediately wrote down his ideas and discussed with Melinda how to create this "Goosebumps" series.

Meanwhile, Wei Ming and Melinda were happily communicating and discussing important plans.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the day before Lunar New Year's Eve, "Project A" was officially released. This film was completed by Jackie Chan over a year and was also written by Wei Ming. However, for the sake of the Taiwanese market, the fact that Wei Ming was the screenwriter could not be promoted in a big way.

However, Golden Harvest entrusted this film with the historical mission of surpassing Cinema City and "Aces Go Places 2".

Raymond Chow now regrets his past agreement with Wei Ming, which involved a "ten million yuan deal".

If the box office exceeds 1000 million, Wei Ming will receive 5% of the box office revenue.

However, times have changed. Back then, it was difficult to gross over 10 million yuan at the box office, but last year the box office exploded, with all of the top ten grossing over 10 million yuan.

Even more surprisingly, Qingniao's art film "Boat People" also grossed 1500 million yuan at the box office, making a fortune.

Raymond Chow: "If I had known, I would have bet on whether it would exceed 2000 million!"

Because Plan A has very considerable revenue from overseas, he can save face as long as Hong Kong can generate 2000 million.

And then there's "The Lucky Stars." He asked Hong Jinbao and the others to work on the script. This time, they can't hire Wei Ming; he's too expensive!

~
"Here it comes, it's starting!"

At this time, Wei Senhao, an elderly man who stayed behind, was spending the Lunar New Year with Zhou Huimin and her daughter. On New Year's Eve, they watched TVB's new drama "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" together. When Roman Tam and Jenny Tseng sang "Iron-Blooded Loyal Heart", the audience in Hong Kong was amazed.

Vivian Chow feels that Roman Tam and Jenny Tseng will definitely be present at next year's two award ceremonies. She is genuinely happy for them and hopes that Jenny Tseng will win the Most Popular Female Singer award.

Hong Kong people are watching "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" at this time, while mainlanders, especially those in the north, are waiting for the long-awaited Lunar New Year Gala.

At the village branch office in Gouzitun, Lao Wei invited everyone to watch TV together.

I've been home for a few days now, and the villagers no longer avoid me like the plague. They've all become immune to it. You can brag all you want, we'll just mindlessly cheer you on.

This is the first Spring Festival with electricity in Gouzi Village. Even the most frugal families are planning to keep their lights on until midnight this year.

"Here it comes, here it comes, it's starting!" With Qi Delong's shout, the Spring Festival Gala officially began.

Sitting in the center, Wei Ming munched on sunflower seeds, waiting for Sister Xue's Spring Festival Gala debut.
……

(Today's guaranteed minimum)
(End of this chapter)