Generation Z Artists

Chapter 122 Mountain-Opening Strange Cube Galaxy
This sudden nationwide surge of enthusiasm has manifested itself in a pattern of spreading from specific points to the whole area, erupting in multiple locations, flowing from top to bottom, and continuing uninterrupted.

The earliest demolition sites were the capital, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Northeast China.

A cultural capital, an economic capital, and two frontiers of openness, it is a hub for elites and was originally the location of Time magazine's largest readership.

The average sales of Time Asia magazine are around 50 copies per issue, with nearly half coming from Japan and South Korea, 15 from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong and Taiwan, and just over 10 from mainland China. 80% of the sales are concentrated in the four major first-tier cities.

Yet, these mere 8 first-tier sales generated an astonishing amount of buzz.

Before even reading the full article, many media outlets wrote sour comments like, "What merits does Fang Xinghe possess?", "Being good-looking means you can do whatever you want", and "Fang Xinghe does not represent the cultural power of mainland China"...

Of the 13 ugly people, six immediately started criticizing and attacking. Since the relationship was already like this and the image was fixed, the buddy had to raise the banner of opposition and never compromise.

When the first batch of subscribers and media read the full interview, they were all dumbfounded.

Damn, this is really hard to spray!
Time magazine's interview with Fang Xinghe was an extremely rare occurrence, published simultaneously in both Chinese and English. The English version was more than twice the length of the Chinese version, meaning that Fang Xinghe alone occupied six pages.

This refers only to the text portion.

Including the four close-up photos inside, it makes a total of 10 pages.

Such lavish treatment did not elicit any criticism—those who couldn't understand the interview were unworthy of questioning, and those who could understand it dared not question it. Only the colonialists, driven to despair by the criticism, jumped up and down, adding footnotes and amusement to this already somewhat legendary interview.

On May 2nd, media outlets from four major first-tier cities and a handful of Northeastern media outlets, all vying for attention, launched a concentrated and explosive campaign to sing praises to Xinghe Times magazine.

"A cultural force of historic magnitude!"

"Fang Xinghe truly captured the essence of the Chinese national spirit!"

"Fang Xinghe's significance as a cultural icon continues to rise!"

"How magnificent are these young men! They have brought glory to our nation!"

"Fang Xinghe's most prestigious cultural interview with Time magazine graces Asia!"

If young people in later generations saw this, they would definitely be baffled—how did you suddenly have an orgasm? Didn't you need to build up any emotion at all?
But in the current era, this makes perfect sense.

At this moment, the Chinese people truly lack honor and crave external recognition.

When Gong Li was crowned in 96, domestic newspapers were flooded with articles praising her as the number one film goddess in China, even though the content of the interviews was not particularly valuable.

It's now 2000, four years have passed. Fang Xinghe is already significant as the second mainland cultural celebrity, and then there's that interview with him... even the most stoic person is soaked with sweat.

It's no exaggeration to say that everyone who read the main text was completely overwhelmed with emotion.

Some were thrilled, some were devastated, and some were furious, but no matter what, whether it was positive or negative, no one could simply laugh it off and remain indifferent.

Four o'clock explosion... five o'clock? The magazine sales in Northeast China combined are pretty bad.

Anyway, once it's ignited, it quickly triggers a chain reaction and spreads out over a wide area.

The most direct result was that sales, which were usually around 10, doubled to 20 the next day, with everyone rushing to order more stock.

Zhao Yao was overjoyed, feeling like he was about to launch a huge satellite.

And that was indeed the case. At times, the few sales outlets in the country would call him up to eight times a day, urging him to reprint.

On May 3, Jing Dajie, a well-known female host on CCTV, published a short commentary in the literature section of People's Daily, saying: "This issue of Time magazine is worth treasuring forever by all Fang fans."

Sister Jing is a peaceful person who doesn't like to fight. She writes very well but rarely does. This time, she couldn't help but give Fang Xinghe a shout-out.

She is not an isolated case; the older female fans and mothers among Fang's fans are almost all strongly supporting this issue of Era.

Girls who dream of owning a Time magazine can only drool over the cover... Damn, Time magazine is too expensive! A single copy retails for over 60 yuan. I can't save up enough to buy it, I really can't!
On their way to school, Xiaotong and her close friends, who were fans of the author, gathered in front of a newsstand and slurped loudly at the image of Brother Ziwei.

On the cover, Fang Xinghe sits on a sofa in a low position, but looks ahead with a tiger-like posture. His right index finger is suspended in front of his temple, and his expression is hard to describe—it seems righteous, yet also evil. His firm gaze and the corners of his mouth with a mocking smile create a contradiction.

The photographer deserves a chicken leg; he has delivered what can be considered the pinnacle of his composition.

Fang Xinghe's fingertips, the corners of his mouth, and his eyes form a perfect equilateral triangle in the picture.

The shadows cast by the sidelight on his cheeks and hands, after post-production color correction, created a tremendous tension.

"So handsome... *slurp*"

Xiaomi wiped her mouth, resolutely took out all her pocket money, and clenched it into a small, crumpled wad.

"I can't take it anymore, let's buy one together!"

Xiaotong immediately pressed, "Who gets the final prize after watching it?"

"Whoever contributes the most money gets it!"

"I won't do it!" Dou Dou immediately objected. "I have 22 yuan, and Xiao Tong has 25. Why should she get the money when we're only 3 yuan apart?"

"Xiaomi also has a 15 yuan one, you only need to pay 20 yuan..."

"I'm not listening to this bastard's rambling! I'm not doing it unless you cut out all the inner pages and give them to me!"

"impossible!"

Xiaotong was furious; this group of girls had started arguing for the nth time because of this episode of "Era"...

This is not an isolated case; the young female fans really can't afford it, but they really want to buy it.

So Time magazine did indeed explode, but not to an outrageous degree; well, it only saw a fourfold increase.

On May 5th, the second batch of urgently printed magazines sold out as soon as they were released.

On May 7th, Time magazine's official website announced that sales in mainland China had exceeded 500,000 copies.

Because official websites in that era were so rudimentary, they only had a single line of text explaining the situation, yet that still caused another media frenzy.

"Fang Xinghe's business miracle is happening again!"

"The Purple Star? The God of Wealth! As long as Fang Xinghe appears, even an international magazine that's half English and half Chinese can sell like hotcakes!"

"Why did a Chinese edition of Time magazine, specially made for the domestic market, appear? The arrogant Time magazine has finally bowed its noble head before Fang Xinghe!"

"Reprint! Reprint! Reprint! Time magazine is selling like hotcakes in mainland China, and rising star Fang Xinghe is stirring up an Asian storm!"

Tsk tsk, they're so sensitive...

Fang Xinghe makes similar remarks every day because there are always media outlets that manage to create new climaxes from different angles.

It's actually quite sad. Being overly sensitive only means one thing—they've really never seen anything like the world, which is why they get hard easily when a woman of average looks touches them, and then they're over after just a couple of touches.

But can we blame the cultural figures and artists of this era for not being good enough?
Fang Xinghe knew it was impossible. Unparalleled geniuses who transcend their eras are not so easy to appear. Being able to reach the top in one's own era is already extremely difficult. Any further demands would be unreasonable.

However, China's entertainment industry is exceptionally bad. It's not a matter of whether it can compete with outsiders, but rather that it's too spineless and doesn't dare to fight back at all, before collapsing en masse.

If it were as full of brilliant and powerful figures as the scientific, political, and economic circles, what would be wrong with me just lying down and living a wealthy life?

So, you damn messed-up Chinese entertainment industry, you absolutely need me!
Many people in the cultural sphere have also realized this—we desperately need Fang Xinghe.

Then, most people in the industry expressed their disagreement through various means.

Beyond the phenomenal sales figures that generated a sensation in terms of commercial value, the content itself was the key to this explosive response.

One very obvious but rare trend is that universities such as Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiao Tong have collectively joined in, and key humanities-related institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have issued a series of articles, creating a top-down wave of discussion.

The topic of discussion was not the "cultural power" given by Time magazine, but the national spirit that the descendants of Yan and Huang should possess in the new era.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is a top choice for top universities, while Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities are less

The reason for this is that Professor Wang Biao, a researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, director of the Modern Literature Research Office, and president of the Modern Literature Society, was working on sorting out the historical context of the transformation of modern Chinese literature. His article, "Exploring the Transformation Process of Chinese Literature from Classical to Modern," which has been completed but not yet published, has basically established its status as a classic document in the field of study.

This thing has been completely unknown to the outside world, but those who study literary theory, general literary history, and literary and art history should know its academic value and influence in the industry.

Coincidentally, Fang Xinghe's sudden emergence landed right in Professor Wang's research field, providing him with cutting-edge research ideas. Professor Wang immediately began writing on the main theme of exploring modernity, working with great enthusiasm.

This happened when "Azure Night Snow" was first released.

At that time, Professor Wang was only writing about "the unique formation mechanism of modern discourse," and Xiao Fang and "Cang Ye Xue" were cases and samples. He was very happy writing about it.

When "Better Days" became a hit, Teacher Wang continued to revise the manuscript while frantically grabbing his hair.

"Damn it, this is never going to end! There's no way this will ever be finished!"

At this point, he had no choice but to write about "further explorations into the transformation of literature in the new era".

His wife suddenly noticed that he had started staying up late in his study again to revise his manuscript, and she was very puzzled: "Old Wang, isn't it almost finalized? Why are you working overtime again?"

Teacher Wang sighed, "Sigh, who knew Xiao Fang could advance so quickly and so aggressively? He's already released new stuff, and his influence is so great. It would be a shame not to add to it. I'll just wait and see; it'll only take a couple more days anyway."

So he diligently stayed up all night for another week.

Then, after it was all repaired, I happily put it aside and spent two days in the office, legs crossed, drinking tea.

Suddenly, like a bolt from the blue, Time magazine was released.

When Teacher Wang watched the interview after being recommended by someone, she could hardly believe her eyes.

Damn it, not again?!
While we stared in disbelief, the laughter of my old colleagues in the lab seemed to come from afar: "Old Wang, are you still going to revise the manuscript?!"

"I'll change your banana-shaped pants until they rip!"

Teacher Wang slammed his fist on the table and stood up, as hard as a steel bar.

When I was working overtime in the study late at night, my back never bent over.

Ultimately, within the "macro framework of national rejuvenation and modernization," he established the trajectory of "Chinese literary transformation," and through textual analysis focusing on key writers such as Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Zhang Xianliang, Mo Yan, and Fang Xinghe, he revealed the two-way interaction between social change and the generation of literary modernity, while also leaving "remarkably evocative blank spaces," "returning the power to contemplate the future to academia"...

Oh, those last two sentences are Peking University's Institute of Literature's high praise for Professor Wang's paper.

But no one knew that the so-called blank space meant that even if Teacher Wang wrote until his head was about to explode, he still couldn't finish writing...

In conclusion, Fang Xinghe became "an important node in the macro framework of national rejuvenation and modernization, constructing a new generation of globalized narrative techniques and localized spiritual core" in Professor Wang's writing.

Teacher Wang used very modest language, only using the word "node" instead of a more laudatory term like "milestone." However, upon closer examination, those who read the article were suddenly struck with alarm—

Damn it, Fang Xinghe is the only "key figure" in all of China who has said these things, done these things, and written the so-called spirit of the new era. There is no one else like him. He is not only a pioneer, but also seems to be half a literary master?!
Emperor Wenzong's claim is exaggerated, and even academics don't agree with it.

However, everyone had to accept the outline that Teacher Wang had laid out.

In other words, Fang Xinghe, as the latest generation of writers in the modern literary system, is at the forefront of the transformation of Chinese literature and has a special status and value.

This is an indelible presence.

The literary research group led by Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan and Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities mainly did two things: first, they tried to categorize Fang Xinghe's works as popular literature; second, they tried to obscure the uniqueness and originality of Fang Xinghe's linguistic style.

"Cang Ye Xue" falls somewhere between serious and popular literature, but it actually leans more towards seriousness.

But this is strange in China—writing is the writer's business, but the conclusion is the academic community's business. As for the quality of a work, neither the writer nor the readers have the final say; the academic community has its own consensus.

Therefore, a director of the School of Journalism at Peking University truthfully wrote: "As a work of youth literature, 'Cang Ye Xue' is not serious enough, its style is disjointed, and some of the writing is too vulgar. It is a pioneer in the field of new youth literature, but it still has great shortcomings compared with orthodox literary works..."

It wasn't entirely one-sided among them; Cao Wenxuan from Peking University spoke in support of "Cang Ye Xue," and Chen Sihe from Fudan University also spoke out. However, compared to the much larger voice of opposition, a few individuals were like a drop in the ocean.

There have been criticisms of Fang Xinghe's writing style from the very beginning, dating back to "Knowing but not conforming".

Short paragraphs, using only common words, low resistance, colloquial language, and direct emotional stimulation...

They were all described as rough, dry, and shallow.

Now, with Fang Xinghe's writing style being widely used and disseminated online, the academic community is even less fond of it.

"Ninety percent of the content on the internet is quite vulgar and devoid of substance, just like Fang Xinghe's writing style. They complement each other perfectly. I don't understand why some people always praise this low-end writing style that diminishes the beauty of Chinese, but to me, it will never pass the test."

The "failing grade" argument has been met with widespread approval, and the academic community now generally agrees that Fang Xinghe's writing is subpar.

This infuriated Fang's fans, who complained constantly.

Every time Wang Yali and Aunt Chen called Fang Xinghe, they would curse him, calling him a "bundle of old fogies." But actually, it wasn't a matter of whether he was an old fogy or not.

The main problem is that Fang Xinghe offended Peking University badly during his last appearance on the show, using very vulgar language, which upset many people.

The influence of Peking University's Chinese Department is well-known to those who understand it.

Then, suppressing him is also a practical necessity for the academic community.

—The greater the influence, the more it should be suppressed, because this influence was earned by Fang Xinghe himself, not bestowed upon him by others.

Do we still need academic authority?

Moreover, with Time magazine's explosive expansion, the value of Professor Wang's comment is constantly increasing, which is extremely important.

"Within the macro framework of national rejuvenation and modernization, this is a crucial juncture for constructing a new generation's global narrative approach and core local spirit."

Many believe that in a few years, this sentence and Fang Xinghe, whom it describes, will appear in textbooks together, becoming an unavoidable hurdle in modern literature studies.

Most people born in the 90s probably experienced this: taking a general history of literature class, where the key points were highlighted, and there were seven or eight test points in a single sentence. Memorizing the answers was so tedious that it made your scalp tingle...

The more this is the case, the more the academic community will try to suppress him.

However, the literary research and criticism circles are ultimately too small. Even if we include the 13 ugly people who tried their best to oppose and criticize the opposing side, they still couldn't stop the explosion of national sentiment.

Fang Xinghe's discussion went too deep and wasn't really suitable for the general public to understand, but his commercial value was so great that the media were happy to report on it, analyze it, and summarize it. Teacher Wang is a good example, but not an isolated one.

Like Teacher Wang, who placed high hopes and great honors on Fang Xinghe, the interview was embellished to a new level, highlighting the significant meaning of the awakening of national consciousness.

Then he clashed head-on with the academic community who disagreed and with the media who opposed him for the sake of opposing. It was a fierce battle of wits that went viral throughout May.

Around May 10th, Fang Xinghe was completely unable to leave his house.

The continuous clashes kept his popularity soaring. Starting on the 3rd, media outlets began staking out his small, run-down county town. By around the 10th, paparazzi had set up a defensive perimeter around his home.

Under the protection of his senior brothers, Fang Xinghe was able to come and go as he pleased, at most he would get his face shoved and photos taken.

The problem is that the fans who came from surrounding cities were harder to handle than pigs during the Lunar New Year. It was one thing that the female fans were inconvenient to deal with, but the male fans were also quite crazy, yelling for Fang Xinghe to sign all sorts of strange things.

Moreover, a significant portion of the male fans are not purely loyal; they seem to possess the triple attributes of fans, paparazzi, and proxy photographers, constantly lingering around Fang Xinghe, taking every opportunity to take photos, meet him, and ask for autographs, so frequently that it's impossible for them to be doing it for their own use.

Fang Xinghe specifically chatted with two of the male college students. Sure enough, it wasn't for personal use; it was for girls at school who wanted it, but they had to attend classes and couldn't afford to squat.

So they would take some time to come over, take photos and sign autographs, and then use the photos to please girls, or even sell them.

Fang Xinghe thought about it carefully and was dumbfounded: Good heavens, the idol industry chain born from top celebrities has already taken shape in me so many years ahead of schedule?!

Selling celebrity autographs has always been a business, but before the emergence of top-tier celebrities, this market was not large enough to achieve economies of scale and stable returns, thus remaining a niche market.

Now, due to Fang Xinghe's popularity and reclusive lifestyle, the prototype of proxy bidding has emerged in advance, which is both absurd and reasonable.

A sense of urgency arose spontaneously in Mr. Fang's heart.

It seems it's time to establish a professional operations organization to meet the needs of our fans.

Money is not the point; the key is to control the source and ensure the authority and controllability of information.

His first thought was of a bald head and dark circles under his eyes.

*********
　I moved into a small courtyard and went to CNKI to read through Professor Wang and Professor Qian Liqun's academic papers from around 2000. I owe you another chapter, and I will definitely make it up to you.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)