Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 487 Li Ao: You're really fucking amazing

At 11 p.m., everyone greeted Sanmao at the hotel entrance. When Sanmao saw Yao Xueyin and other representatives from the mainland personally welcoming her, she was immediately moved to tears.

With her curly hair and sunglasses pulled up to her forehead, Sanmao quickly hugged Yao Xueyin and said loudly, "Mr. Yao, we meet again."

"Sanmao, yes, we meet again. You must be tired from your journey. Let me introduce you. This is Yimin, Liu Yimin."

"Yimin, may I call you that so affectionately?"

“Ms. Sanmao, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Just call me Yimin.” Liu Yimin extended his hand.

Sanmao originally didn't want to come, but Li Ao was also coming. After meeting Sanmao in 81, Li Ao launched a tirade against her, displaying not only his characteristic sharp and sarcastic remarks, but also extreme malice, calling Sanmao ugly and a jinx to husbands.

However, after hearing that Yao Xueyin and Zhang Leping were in the delegation, he accepted the invitation from Lianhe Zaobao.

Sanmao was a very unconventional woman, yet she also possessed a yearning for tradition and a naive spirit.

This may be the reason why Li Ao criticized her. Some people also believe that Sanmao's deep affection provoked Li Ao, who was a sentimental man but considered himself to be a sentimental man.

Upon entering the hotel, Sanmao humbly said to Liu Yimin, "Yimin, you are the well-deserved candidate for the Golden Lion Literary Award."

"Ms. Sanmao, I also really like your works."

“You can’t compare to me. My works are about my personal spiritual world or experiences, while your works are about the country, the nation, and the ever-flowing Chinese culture. In terms of conception, you are a step ahead of me. This is also what writers on the island lack. Writers on the mainland have a stronger sense of national identity.”

"Literature has a macro perspective, as well as a meso perspective and a micro perspective; it has both rough and delicate emotions. In this respect, the two are complementary and both are what readers need."

“Your work is what the nation needs; you speak out for Black people, and your work is also what all of humanity needs,” Sanmao praised repeatedly.

Yao Xueyin said with a smile, "Sanmao, you and Yimin don't need to be so polite. We are all children of the nation."

“I really hope that one day I can go to the mainland and see my home again.” Sanmao suddenly looked at Zhang Leping next to her: “Mr. Leping, my name comes from your cartoon. You are my family. I really want to call you Dad.”

Sanmao's words startled everyone present, except for Liu Yimin, who remained relatively calm. Jiang Zilong and the others were puzzled by Sanmao's unconventional thinking; how could she call someone "dad" just because of a name?

Zhang Leping was completely at a loss, not knowing what to do. Liu Yimin stepped forward and said, "How about this, Ms. Sanmao can recognize Comrade Zhang Leping as her godfather, and call him godfather or godfather? What do you all think?"

Sanmao looked at Zhang Leping and said, "Yimin is right. You should be my family. You are my roots on the mainland."

Zhang Leping's hand trembled as he held Sanmao's hand: "I've painted Sanmao my whole life, but I never imagined I'd paint a daughter instead."

Everyone laughed upon hearing this, and the atmosphere became lively as the godparents were officially recognized.

In 1991, Sanmao committed suicide. Zhang Leping, who was in mainland China, wept uncontrollably and told others that the daughter he had drawn was gone again.

The family reunion ceremony ended at midnight, but everyone was more energetic than the last. Jiang Zilong stared with wide eyes and kept chuckling, as if he had seen a wonderful show.

Yao Xueyin clapped her hands and said, "Alright, everyone go back and rest. Sanmao, you've been on the plane for a long time, go to sleep early too."

"Okay, Mr. Yao, you should go to bed early too."

Liu Yimin was very tired and fell asleep as soon as he lay down on the bed.

On the 19th, six more Chinese writers arrived one after another. Among them, Li Ao, Yu Guangzhong, and Xi Murong arrived in Singapore from the island.

On the 20th, the literary training camp officially opened, with more than 20 Chinese writers gathering in the conference room of the Apollo Hotel. The editor-in-chief of Lianhe Zaobao, Du Nanfa, personally presided over the meeting and introduced the participating writers and their famous works to everyone.

Upon entering the conference room, Liu Yimin sensed that many people were scrutinizing him. Jiang Zilong, sitting next to him, whispered, "That guy's gaze is a bit unfriendly."

Liu Yimin met Li Ao's gaze and found that Li Ao was staring intently at him, making no attempt to hide it.

Yu Guangzhong and Xi Murong, who were standing next to him, were also looking at him, but their gazes were more relaxed, and Yu Guangzhong even gave them a friendly smile.

Sanmao didn't sit with them, but with Liu Yimin and the others.

"This is a grand event for the Chinese literary community. In the past two years, our Chinese literary community has been very active internationally. Mr. Ba Jin received honorary medals from countries such as France, and Mr. Liu Yimin received the National Book Awards of Italy and the United States, and his articles are widely circulated around the world. It is the right time for the Chinese literary community to enhance its influence."

This is the reason we've gathered here; I hope everyone will speak freely.

As soon as Du Nanfa finished speaking, Li Ao looked at Liu Yimin: "Professor Liu Yimin, I've heard that you have a great understanding of international literary thought. May I ask you a question?" Liu Yimin smiled and looked at everyone present, without looking directly at Li Ao: "Does everyone want to hear it?"

The crowd didn't speak, but instead applauded. Du Nanfa gestured for Liu Yimin to go on stage and give a speech.

Liu Yimin went on stage and began to talk about the mainstream literary ideas in various countries. He focused on explaining the key literary ideas and only briefly mentioned the rest.

After he finished speaking, Li Ao asked again, feeling uncomfortable with Liu Yimin's gaze sweeping across the room but not looking at him: "Professor Liu Yimin, do you think these literary ideas are good or bad?"

"Literary thought is neutral; it is neither good nor bad. If we must judge it as good or bad, we should look at the literary content beneath the literary thought."

"If international literary ideas are bad, why should mainland writers study them?"

Liu Yimin roughly understood what Li Ao wanted to say: Li Ao wanted to prove the superiority of Western culture. Li Ao's father was a student of Hu Shi and received financial support from Hu Shi during his school years. He was deeply influenced by Hu Shi's ideas and believed that China should be completely Westernized. Only in his later years did he gradually acknowledge the merits of traditional Chinese culture.

"The development of society or the development of literary thought is a process of integration. Mr. Li Ao studies history, I don't know if he studies the entire history of China, but the entire history of China is a history of integration. It is about combining the strengths of all schools of thought for one's own use, but this 'one' is a 'one' centered on oneself."

“If we’re going to integrate, why don’t we go for a major integration? The West has already proven its superiority, wouldn’t it be better for us to learn from them wholesale?” Li Ao asked sharply.

Li Ao's view is the same as Hu Shi's: if you're inferior to others in everything, you might as well become them.

"The Chinese nation is a concept that is held together by politics and culture. Without culture, would we still be ourselves?"
Furthermore, while the West is industrially advanced, is it culturally advanced? The West operates on a dog-eat-dog worldview; will the world continue its cycle of colonization and plunder?

The two sides clashed right from the start, which surprised everyone. Liu Yimin was also helpless; Li Ao's personality proved that if he had the chance to speak, he would definitely target Liu Yimin.

In his view, there weren't many Chinese writers present who could be considered his targets.

“Western concepts of democracy and freedom are worth learning from.” Li Ao suddenly burst out with curses: “I just express some opinions, and they either arrest me or shut me down.”

"The West is extremely hypocritical. Western 'masters' talk about democracy and freedom, but then they turn around and bleed their own colonies dry. Not to mention the past, they are still carrying out economic and cultural colonization of their colonies now. Africa is France's bloodsucking pool, and most parts of the world are America's bloodsucking pool."

Chinese culture is an excellent culture; it is inclusive and non-exclusive. However, it is precisely because of this non-exclusivity that we have extreme examples like Mr. Li Ao, who directly gave his home to the other party.

Li Ao quickly said, "I'm doing this for the development of the country; we want to be as strong as the West."

"We are developing, and the mainland is undergoing reform and opening up. Of course, this is not Westernization. We learn from our shortcomings and develop industries where we lack them. The People's Republic of China will soon be 37 years old, and our defense science and technology and industry have developed rapidly. This rebound from rock bottom comes from the resilience and indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation. Without this spirit, we would not have developed so quickly."

Complete Westernization only leads to spinelessness and a loss of backbone. Mr. Li Ao, you've always been bold and responsible; are you willing to be a spineless coward, born to be inferior to the West, born with the attitude of "I must learn from the West, I am a descendant of a dwarf culture"?

"I think you are being sophistical. In fact, the mainland is learning from the West, specifically Marxism."

"We have always emphasized the Sinicization of Marxism and paid attention to its Sinicization."

"Isn't this supposed to be learning?"

"We never said we didn't study; on the contrary, we love learning the most. But we're not betraying our ancestors' traditions and adopting a completely different approach!"

Li Ao reiterated, "The principle of 'Chinese learning as the foundation, Western learning for practical application' has proven to be a failure."

"The key to his failure was the corruption of feudalism. That's just sophistry. You're applying historical events while ignoring the real context. Mr. Li Ao, you should calm down before arguing. I want to tell everyone a fact: the roots of Chinese culture are on the mainland. Without roots, Chinese people have nowhere to place their emotions."

After Liu Yimin finished speaking, he returned to his seat. Du Nanfa quickly invited the others to share their literary thoughts. Sanmao was the happiest person there, having been speechless for the first time when Li Ao was confronted.

Yu Guangzhong nodded appreciatively to Liu Yimin. Yu Guangzhong's original poetic ideas also advocated Westernization, and it could be said that everyone on the island advocated Westernization.

A group of people rushed to the island, only to find themselves feeling disoriented and lost, desperately grasping at a straw of inspiration. So they looked westward, and after being rejected, Yu Guangzhong's poetry began to incorporate traditional culture, returning to the embrace of Chinese culture.

More importantly, Li Ao had also criticized Yu Guangzhong quite a bit. Yu Guangzhong felt incredibly awkward sitting next to Li Ao this time. Liu Yimin, on the other hand, was secretly pleased, feeling he had gotten revenge for Yu.

The two were originally good friends, but later became enemies, with Li Ao calling Yu Guangzhong a "flattering poet".

Liu Yimin mostly listened to the ensuing discussion, listening to how they promoted Chinese literature or critiqued a particular work.

As the morning meeting ended and Liu Yimin was about to get up, Li Ao suddenly walked quickly to Liu Yimin's side and said, "You young man, you're really damn amazing!"

(End of this chapter)