Poet Wang Jibing: I love the world clumsily

"54 years old, delivery boy", riding 150,000 kilometers, writing more than 5,000 poems, read by more than 26 million people -

"I love the world clumsily" - Impressions of the poet Wang Jibing

Wang Jibing on the way to food delivery (Photo provided by interviewee)

"Driving the wind out of the air / Driving the knife out of the wind / Driving fire out of the bones / Driving out water from the fire / There are no seasons for those who are in a hurry / Only one stop and the next ..."

On July 20, 2022, "The Man in a Time" was forwarded to the Sina Weibo platform, and the author Wang Jibing's name was written "53 years old, delivery boy". As soon as the poem was released, it resonated with countless "migrant workers" and received more than 26 million views in a short period of time.

Wang Jibing became popular on the Internet as a result. His life has changed dramatically. Many things that he never imagined were out of reach have now become his daily routine.

01

He used to pick up rags for a living. "Scavenging" is his most satisfying pseudonym

"I came back from Beijing and will be back to Kunshan immediately."

When we received our contact, he had just finished an event in Beijing and was on his train home. From the invitation to Wang Jibing to officially finalize the interview, there was a week. After becoming popular, he was soon contacted by a publishing company, and he was released two poetry anthologies, "The Man in a Time: Poems of a Delivery Boy" and "I Love the World Clumsily".

Now, Wang's WeChat profile picture is the cover of the two poetry collections, but his personal signature reads "Customer first, home delivery", followed by his own mobile phone number. This also seems to imply that literary ideals and reality constitute two aspects of his life.

Just look at his recent "schedule" to know that he was originally rushing to one takeaway business after another, but now he is busy with one literary activity after another. Participating in poetry forums, dialogue seminars, award ceremonies, program recordings, live broadcasts, etc., seems to have become the "new normal" of his life. This is certainly not his original life.

After leaving Wangzhuang Village in Pizhou, Jiangsu, Wang Jibing worked in many kinds of jobs in order to make a living. He has set up a street stall, worked as a construction worker, driven a dump truck, worked as a stevedore, a sand catcher, walked the streets and alleys to sell fruit... The most dangerous job he has ever done is unloading iron from the train, lifting a piece of iron weighing fifty pounds to a height of one meter and five pounds, and repeating this action all the time.

When Wang Jibing was at his hardest, he even made a living by picking up rags. However, the extreme scarcity of material life did not bring about the darkest moments of his life stage. Probably because he particularly likes to write.

For a long time, he has been working in the traditional way of pen and paper. During this time of picking up the rags, Wang Jibing found that he could often rummage through other people's household garbage and find a lot of cardboard boxes, but rarely neat paper. However, writing on a cardboard box with a ballpoint pen is neither clear nor pleasant. So he switched to oil-based markers to write large letters on cardboard boxes. Write full, sell it.

"Sometimes, when an article is written, it is not enough to open one cardboard box, I have to open several cardboard boxes and spread it there to write."

He has a particularly satisfying pseudonym, "Scavenging", which comes from this experience. "The pseudonym scavenger has a motivating effect for me. It reminds me that, in a way, writing is also an act of scavenging – we pick up scattered words and make sense of them. ”

When the book was published, he said that he hoped to use this pseudonym as a signature, but the publisher and distributor considered from the perspective of publicity and promotion, believing that using a pseudonym would reduce the attention and dissemination, and in the end, he did not achieve his wishes. But he still appended the pen name in parentheses to his WeChat nickname. It seems to imply his tribute and retrospection to that hard life, as if it is his understanding and obsession with literature.

After this, life slowly got better. At the end of 2005, he and his wife opened a "Golden Goose Shop" in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, because the income was not enough to cover the family's expenses, Wang Jibing began to go out to deliver food to subsidize the family, he has a lot of affection for this job: "I especially like to deliver long-distance takeaway orders." When running long distances, the feeling of freedom blown by the wind is very important to me, and often after running long distances, I will write satisfying works. ”

"Although there will always be some conflicts with customers, colleagues, or company management, food delivery is the most dignified and free job I have ever done in so many years."

02

"Labeling and tearing labels are someone else's business, I just want to be myself"

After entering the public eye, labels such as "takeaway poet" and "cycling poet" were attached to Wang Jibing, and whenever he was mentioned, he must first mention the identity of "delivery man", and then mention that he is a poet. "What do you think of these labels that are attached to you?" It has almost become one of the most frequently asked questions when Wang Jibing is interviewed by the media. However, he is very frank that he does not reject these labels, but views them with a grateful attitude. He believes that the label means, first and foremost, the affection for him and his poetry, and the kindness and tolerance that the public has released to him.

"In simple terms, people first position me as a laborer at the 'bottom', and then when they read the poems I wrote, cultural contrasts will be formed and an upward spiritual force will be generated."

He paused and gave an example quite humorously: "For example, if the same poem is written by me, or written by a university professor or a well-known poet, people may be more tolerant of me, and more critical of famous scholars." ”

"Labeling is someone else's business, tearing labels is someone else's business. I want to be myself, and even if people change my label or tear off the label in the future, I will accept it. Having said that, he still insists on the "literary" and "artistic" nature of his work: "However, I still hope that in the future I can appear in front of you as a real writer, and everyone can exclude other factors to talk about pure literature." In that case, my literary creation will be more valuable. ”

In fact, Wang Jibing first had the identity of a "poet" and later joined the food delivery industry. As early as 1988, Wang Jibing became associated with literature. At that time, when he was under 20 years old, he went to work for the first time, doing a "small job" without any technical content and only contributing, except for taking care of things, it was to carry and carry it. "At that time, I felt a special emptiness in my heart. Suddenly changing identities from a student, as if this is what life will be like later. ”

He admits that when he reads and studies, all his life deviates from reality, and he may have 10,000 ideas in his mind every day, but none of them are realized as migrant workers. During that time, he went to hang out in the neighborhood every night after work to pass the time, and accidentally found an old book stall not far from the construction site.

"Strange to say, when I read, I don't feel any strong desire to read books, and when I suddenly have no books to read, I especially want to read." Because of this used book stall, Wang Jibing began to have a strong interest in reading.

"I remember, my salary at that time was three and a half cents a day, and renting a book for one night seemed like two cents. I couldn't bear to spend flowers, so I cheekily rubbed books at the book stall. "Because of the generosity of the shopkeeper, as long as you don't take it, you can stand in front of the stall and look at it, unless someone comes to rent it, you have to return it." Wang Jibing often reads Jin Yong, Gu Long's martial arts novels and Qiong Yao's romance novels at the old book stall, but unfortunately he can never read the ending. "You get it in your hand and start reading it, and someone is going to rent this book, every day. I always read only half of the episode and felt very unhappy and unhappy. Later, it was also a whim, since I can't finish reading it, can I continue the second half of the work myself? ”

Starting one night, after Wang Jibing returned to the construction site from the old book stall, he would spend a period of time to continue the plot of the story for half of the story, even if it was only half an hour or an hour. Day after day of pen practice, which invisibly increased his interest in reading and the joy of writing.

At the end of 1988, he had the idea of creating his own independent story, until 1992, when he first published the short novel "Little Car into the Village" in the magazine "Hundred Gardens Little Fiction World".

At that time, editor Yang Xiaomin, who received the submission, wrote him a personal reply letter with a writing fee of 25 yuan, saying that he was so young, and the submission was selected and published by the magazine, which was still very promising, and encouraged him to write well.

The joy of publishing his work and the encouragement of his editing teacher ignited Wang Jibing's enthusiasm for creation, and since then, his writing has been out of control, and even a little "crazy", often writing about forgetting to sleep and eat.

03

"My father burned all my manuscripts, but the fire warmed me all the winters that followed."

"Later, my obsession with literature seriously affected my daily life, and finally my family boycotted, and my father set fire to my manuscript of hundreds of thousands of words. For the next 25 years, I didn't stop writing, but I didn't submit any more manuscripts. ”

Wang Jibing said that since he was a child, he took what his father said as a kind of faith. After the burning of the manuscripts, he did not say a word to his father for two months, the only time he could remember confronting him. But after 25 years, he stopped contributing, not to continue his silent struggle with his father, but simply to keep his original promise.

"To be honest, my father and I have never had the term 'reconciliation'. I never blamed him. Only the youngest had a cold war with him, and after that, the matter was put down. As I got older, I came to understand that he cared for me out of fear that my children would care for me, not stop me. My father wanted me to be better. ”

In 2009, Wang Jibing switched careers and began writing poetry.

Because he was running around and had been going up and down in this turbulent life, he didn't have enough time to create. Even if you want to write an article of several thousand words, it is almost impossible. After my thoughts were interrupted, I picked up the pen again, as if I had lost the original feeling. Later, Wang Jibing had his first computer, and he continued his writing habits into an Internet log, and some netizens suggested that his works could be turned into poetry by branching them. Wang Jibing felt that this short and concise form seemed to be more in line with his life at that time, and he could write a complete work in a limited creative time. On the way to deliver food, because of the shortage of time, inspiration came, sometimes there was no chance to record with pen and paper, in order to adapt to the current pace of life, he turned to WeChat to leave his voice to write. This habit has been preserved until now, but when he is particularly busy, Wang Jibing often chooses to use "keywords" to capture inspiration. Walking through an intersection and waiting for a red light, he will write down information such as "traffic light", "second hand", "a waiting person", etc., and in ten seconds, write down what came to mind at that time. When you are free, you can listen to what you said when you look back, and you can quickly think about what you were thinking at that time. "As soon as a poem comes out, I will be happy all day. Even if I write it after a busy day and write it at night, I feel that the day is worth it. ”

Later, he met Yang Hua, vice chairman of the Pizhou Writers Association, another "nobleman" on his literary path. After the two had a long talk, the other party warmly invited him to join the Municipal Writers Association. This was something that Wang Jibing dreamed of, but when the opportunity was really in front of him, he hesitated.

"To be a member of the association is to see the results. I haven't published a single work since 1992. With Yang Hua's encouragement and recommendation, Wang Jibing selected some satisfactory articles from the poetry works he had created over the years and submitted them to the poetry journal "Green Wind", and the works were successfully accepted and published in the 4th issue of 2017. This is the second time he has published his work in 25 years.

Since then, his poetry seems to be on track. Created, submitted, published, one work after another became pencil printed on paper, in 2018, he obtained the certificate of Xuzhou Writers Association. In September 2020, his poems were published in Poetry Journal. In 2021, he joined the Jiangsu Provincial Writers Association. In July 2022, the contract for the publication of the first poetry collection was signed, and half a year later, the publication plan for the second poetry collection was signed. As Wang Jibing gradually showed his edge in the poetry world, his family no longer rejected and hindered him from engaging in creation, and after the official signing of the poetry collection for publication, it completely changed the concept.

Recently, he submitted an application to join the China Writers Association. Although it is not known whether he can successfully join the association, when he was in Beijing, he had already visited the building of the China Writers Association and took a photo with Lu Xun's bust. In fact, joining the Writers Association will not change Wang Jibing's life materially, but it will invisibly give him a kind of faith and a kind of power, always remind him that he is a "writer", and let him have a sense of belonging to "home".

"You're a member of a writers' guild, and you're responsible for the text. You have to write, you can't be lazy, you can't slack, and the words you write will become more deliberate. Even if you have more respect for words, reverence for culture, and more trust in the power that literature can produce. You will strive for progress and demand more and more of yourself, which is especially important for writers. ”

"Paper can't contain fire", Wang Jibing's poetry creation has received attention and recognition from the local writers' association, and his father naturally learned the news. This should have become an opportunity for him and his family to "break the ice", but unexpectedly, it became a "heart knot" in his heart that could never be calmed and could not be let go.

Speaking of this, Wang Jibing choked up several times and frequently wiped his tears. Before his father's death, the three brothers took turns taking care of his daily life according to the doctor's advice, trying not to make him aware that he was seriously ill. Unfortunately, it was precisely when Wang Jibing was not by his side that his father passed away. The fact that he republished his work and became a member of the association seemed to add a lot of pressure to his father's heart. The father has mentioned the past to his eldest brother and second brother many times, and until he died, he carried a feeling of guilt, as if he delayed his son and was sorry for his son.

"Sometimes it takes another person a lifetime to get to know one. Now I especially regret that I should not have told him about it, because he did not see my work published in a collection, which was not enough to comfort his guilt. I often wondered if everything would have been different if I had shown him two books of poetry a few years later. ”

Wang Jibing wrote in the preface to his new work: "Thirty years ago, my father burned all my manuscripts with a fire, but that fire warmed me all the winters that followed. It took me decades to get to know my father little by little, learning to let go of a man's reserve, spreading my arms, but my father was gone. ”

04

The feeling of being basked in the sun makes him feel alive

Enter Wang Jibing's name in the web search bar, and questions such as "how to evaluate Wang Jibing's poems" and "Wang Jibing's poetry level" will pop up, pointing to various platforms such as Zhihu, Weibo, and Douban, and many people who have never known each other will compile some terms related to him to judge his life and his creations.

In the period after the release of the poetry collection, Wang Jibing paid special attention to these evaluations. Of course, most netizens are still mainly encouraged. Justified criticism, he will definitely adopt and accept, and try to change himself in future creations. However, there are also some netizens who say some irritating words with some hostility. In particular, after he reopened his Douyin account, his family was sometimes even scolded and cried by bad words in the comment area.

"In the process of recording a video, accidentally saying the wrong sentence may cause discomfort to others, and will also bring attacks and interrogations from netizens. But we must carefully consider these harsh sounds. Those that don't make sense, just let it be..."

"I often tell my family and children that a drop of ink can change the color of a bottle of water, but it can't change a river. We can do our best, as long as we do well enough, these negative evaluations will be diluted by the value of our work. ”

From February this year to now, he has been busy with various literary activities, and the money he has earned through the takeaway platform is less than 3,000 yuan, which is equivalent to half a month's income when delivering food full-time. "As a writer, it's a wonderful thing to be able to bring your work out. Of course, I actively cooperate with the various activities of publishers and publishers, and I also want to sell more books and earn a little more manuscript fees, even if I can balance it with my other income. ”

Wang Jibing said with a smile that he was much whiter than before, but he was afraid of becoming fine-skinned and tender and polite. As soon as I have time, I go out to give two orders, always thinking about going out to sun, run and run, and make myself a little darker and stronger. The feeling of being basked in the sun makes him feel alive. "It used to be a race against the clock to write, but now food delivery has become a race against the clock."

Some writers will give up their original jobs and become professional writers after their works become popular. But Wang Jibing does not want to give up the job of delivering food for the time being, and he admits that his creative style has changed since delivering food five or six years ago. In the past few years, he has always found the excitement of creating inspiration on the way to food delivery, which is what he needs in his heart.

Once, Wang Jibing was participating in a literary activity abroad, and when he returned to Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, it was already 8 o'clock in the evening, but he felt empty in his heart, and he couldn't say where he was uncomfortable. So, I started to go out to run a takeaway and didn't go home until 10:30. He needs to find creative inspiration and thoughts through this state of life, which is very important to him.

05

"Clumsiness is sincerity"

Wang Jibing should be called a prolific poet. Since I first started writing poetry, I have written at least 5,000 poems. Today, under normal circumstances, he can write about 70 new poems a month, an average of more than two a day. "I position myself that although I write a lot, there are still very few masterpieces that can reach the level of publication, no more than 500 at most. So, my original assumption was that it would be nice to have a book of poetry. ”

The first book of poems initially selected more than 200 old poems, and after reviewing and screening, 182 were finally left. Wang Jibing always felt a little regretful, he had communicated with the publishing house, hoping to add more articles, but the publisher said that if a new poetry anthology is too thick and priced too high, from the sales experience, there is likely to be a risk of slow sales. After negotiation, Wang Jibing decided to respect the opinions of the publisher, buried his regrets deep in his heart, and secretly thought: "If it really doesn't work, I will publish another one!" ”

As he wished, a second book of poetry was released shortly thereafter. Most of the poems included in the collection are new works, and many of the works in the preliminary selection have not been overly embellished by Wang Jibing himself. He specially commissioned the editor of the publishing house to carefully select and filter out those that were not suitable for printing, and finally compiled 130 poems from the more than 200 poems selected in the preliminary selection to meet readers.

"People in a hurry" was not the title Wang Jibing's original idea. He once thought that everything is conceived on the earth, including human beings, can he use "the womb of the earth" as the title of the book? However, considering that the poem of the same name has become much more popular on the Internet than others, the title of this poem was finally chosen as a summary of the poetry collection, hoping to gain higher acceptance.

"I love the world clumsily" comes from a love poem written by Wang Jibing to his wife. "The editors of the poetry book especially liked this clumsy feeling, they once asked me, why do you say clumsily love the world? I say that clumsy is sincere, clumsy people generally do not play tricks, he is sincerely treating life and society. In turn, society and life will also treat such people clumsily, and they exchange sincerity for each other. I felt as if the editors were moving by this sentence while chatting with me, and later used the title of the poem as the title of the second book of poetry. ”

At present, many people are immersed in repetitive work day after day, and their daily lives are full of unsatisfactory and unsatisfactory things. It is in this sense that Wang Jibing's poems written to "catch up with time" and his "clumsy" and "sincere" attitude to life will arouse the empathy of many ordinary people's true feelings, and make people rediscover and realize that literature has the important power to heal people's hearts, save souls, and provide spiritual support.

When talking about the impressive details of the creative process, Wang Jibing told us that basically every narrative work in these two poetry books, he can introduce what happened at that time. For example, the song "The Man in a Time" is because a guest repeatedly leaves the wrong address, causing the order to time out, and the guest attacks him with very unfriendly language, and at that moment, he is in an angry emotional state and becomes the inspiration for this poem.

"Then I calmed down and thought that I should thank him in turn, and without him, I wouldn't have this poem. As the saying goes, life is unsatisfactory, nine times out of ten, literature is exactly the tenth of my wishes, with this most important part, other unsatisfactory can be ignored. ”

06

"I can't live without literature"

For Wang Jibing, writing is not only an outlet to relieve the stress and negative emotions of life, but also a way for him to find happiness. He has always believed that people need the support of faith. With faith, there is a sense of direction that makes people feel that living is a meaningful existence. It was literature that gave him meaning in life.

"I don't know if it's because I like literature, I just know that I can't live without literature."

"I used to use an analogy to say that I was like a cucumber seedling, and without literature, I was pulling out the scaffold of my life. My life is still there, but my state is different. The fruit I produce is on one side against the ground, yellowed and wilted, it is not emerald green and healthy. So, I need this kind of support that literature gives me. ”

All along, writing filled in all the gaps in his spare time and made his life hopeful. When talking about the relationship between life and literature, he thought for a long time, did not know how to summarize, and finally smiled cheekily, and made a vivid analogy: "It is said that smoking is harmful to health, many people smoke and smoke all their lives, have this kind of hobby, and keep going!" I'm better creative than smoking, right? Why can't I have my own hobbies? I write with this in mind, and although I've always been sneaky, as long as I like it enough, there will always be time. ”

"Sometimes, we complain that we are too busy at work and don't have time to do anything else. I do feel that only means that we don't like it enough, we don't love it much. As long as we love enough, we will always find ways to do what we want to do. ”

He was excited to tell us that this year's creative plan is to write a book of poetry dedicated to the delivery boy, writing about the daily life of this social group, and writing about their emotions and experiences. At present, Wang Jibing has begun to conduct interviews and produce questionnaires. His questions included: "What did you do before you delivered food?" "Why do you choose food delivery?" "What is the happiest thing about food delivery? And what is the most painful thing? "How long have you been in the food delivery business, and how long do you plan to do it?" "After taking off your takeout clothes, what else are you going to do?"

He sent these questions to the delivery boys, asked them selectively according to the different situations of different people, and noted their responses. If the interviewee wishes, he will also record the other party's place of origin, age, work number and mobile phone number. At present, he has begun to organize related materials and has created dozens of works.

Wang Jibing's idea came from netizens' discussion of the popular topic "should Kong Yiji take off his robe", and he originally wanted to choose to write in a non-fiction way, but he was greatly resisted during the interview. Many people are very reluctant to take a seat. Authentically recording their stories is like exposing the nature of their lives to the sun. But poetry is gentle and doesn't talk specifically about one person or something. Therefore, he wants to use the group of takeaway brothers as an incision to record the joys, sorrows and sorrows in the lives of ordinary people in the form of poetry, and record their imagination of the future and remembrance of the past.

Perhaps, their stories will soon meet us.