Tan Ge, formerly known as Tan Tongzhan. Born in 1954, his ancestral home is Shunping, Baoding, former vice chairman of the Hebei Writers Association, member of the China Writers Association, famous writer and journalist. He began his literary creation in 1977 and has published more than 30 novels and more than 1,000 short and medium stories, totaling more than 16 million words. Dozens of novels, such as "Dachang" and "Absolute Slaughter", have been translated into Japanese, French, and English and introduced abroad. He has won the awards of "Contemporary", "October", "People's Literature", "Novel Selection", and "Novel Monthly". Tan Ge, together with Guan Renshan and He Shen, is known as the "Hebei Troika". In 1996, the leading figure of the "realism shock wave" in the Chinese literary world was jokingly called the "Year of Talking Song" by the media.
The inspiration of the writer is inseparable from the city in which he lives, and the city is more vibrant under the writer's pen. How did the writer who lived in the ancient city see the city and her literary creations? In the early autumn morning, we invited the famous writer to talk about Baoding literature, and he did not say a word and gladly went to the appointment.
In 1977, the 23-year-old Tange was seconded from Zhangjiakou Xuangang to work for the Baoding Geophysical Exploration Company, and his relationship with the ancient city began here. At that time, Tange was an active member of the propaganda team, painting, performing cross-talk, and also liked to write. His one-act play "Greeting the Inspection Troupe" for the Baoding Workers' Repertory Theatre was published in the Workers' Daily in 1979, which was also the first work officially published by Tange. It can be said that his literary career began in Baoding.
It was in this year that the literary bimonthly magazine "Lotus Pond" sponsored by the Baoding Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature was founded, and a call for papers was published in the newspaper, and Tan Ge sent his novel "High Section Chief" to the address. In his memory, it was a "golden age" of literary creation: "When sending manuscripts, cut the envelope to a corner and mail it without stamps." If the editor adopts it, the author will be notified, and if not, it will be sent back. ”
When Tange returned from a business trip, someone told him that the editorial department had written and that the manuscript had been adopted. He went to the editorial office of "Lotus Pond" located in the ancient lotus pond and received 8 yuan of manuscript fees. "At that time, my salary was more than 40 yuan, a pound of pork was only 60 cents and 5 cents, and the writing fee could be used for living." Recalling the past, Tan Ge's face appeared a little bit of youthful spring breeze pride.
In the era when literary creation was in full swing, it was a rare thing to publish in newspapers and periodicals, but it was obviously not "difficult" for talking about songs. In the following decade, he published more than 300 essays on short stories and more than 100 poems in dozens of newspapers and periodicals.
But he also remembers that in the late 1970s, five or six months after the Baoding Daily published the article. Because of this, in 2007, when Lotus Pond was revived, Tange suggested leaving more pages to grassroots authors in the county and township, "I also wrote it from a young age, and for young people who love literature, a single publication may rewrite fate." In the days that followed, there were indeed many county literature lovers who, through publishing works in "Lotus Pond", stepped onto the road of literary creation step by step and realized a broader value of life.
"Publications are the front, the stage for literary creation." Tange believes that even in the Internet age, literary creation is inseparable from "rules and regulations", and writers' works need to be published in regular publications to have the "effectiveness" of literature.
Tan Ge grew up in Zhangjiakou, but his ancestral home is Baoding Shunping, and he carries the uninhibited and free of Peach Blossom Garden in his bones.
Yannan Zhao Bei, generous and sad songs, was expressed in words as the Baoding disposition of chivalrous liver and righteousness. In his works, "Baoding" is a place name that often appears, especially in the "absolute" novel, which writes folk anecdotes centered on Baoding from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the reform and opening up. The Baoding people who are straightforward and righteous, full of Yan Zhao's pride, are famous for their novels. And this kind of temperament also happens to be the attitude of talking about songs and dealing with the world, not pretentious, not against the heart.
"On the afternoon of the autumn of the twenty-second year of the Republic of China, Baoding City was drowned in a cry of knowing." This is the beginning of Tan Ge's "Qin Qiong Selling Horses", a short story published in "People's Literature" in 1999, which was selected as a reading comprehension test question for the national volume B of this year's college entrance examination.
This is not the first time that Tange's works have entered the field of education, and now the Renjiao version of the sixth-grade primary school Chinese textbook has his "Bridge", which many students in Baoding have studied. This short story, which is only 600 words long, tells the story of an old man who built an immortal bridge of life with the faith of a Communist Party member and a deep father's love for the safety of the villagers during a flash flood. The article was originally published in Baoding Daily in 1988 and later published in Beijing Evening News, where it was awarded the first prize in the country.
In addition, Tan Ge's short stories "City TicketEr", "Mu Guiying Hangs Up", "Excellent Product", etc., have been compiled into university textbooks and secondary school teaching aids. "The article is short, the language is clean, and full of righteousness" is his summary of these works, and it is also the most worthy place for young authors to learn.
From 1977 to the present, Tange has been engaged in literary creation for more than 40 years. He confessed that he had grown up in Baoding. "If I had stayed in Zhangjiakou, I might have become a poet, and it was Baoding that changed me." In his eyes, the "Baoding Writers Group" is not only the inheritance of the spirit for future generations, but also the inspiration for innovation. "A generation has the highlights of a generation, and it is not right to remain unchanged. And innovation is not a matter of one person, but a matter of the times. ”
Talking is also trying to explore innovation, such as the characters can not be old-fashioned, and the writing format also needs to change. "Fear of not having a style, but also afraid of becoming a style", this may be a proposition that all writers have been thinking about all their lives.
Baoding is the soil for cultivating fiction writers, with profound literary heritage and a rich creative atmosphere, but it is always inseparable from personal efforts. "To become a fiction writer, you need to dabble in a wide range of knowledge, accumulate continuously, even if you are not aware of it at the moment, but it will be helpful in your future writing." Tan Ge said that writing is a lonely thing and a chore, and writers must be able to step on their hearts. "Baoding still has a rich and excellent traditional culture, which is a piece of literary fertile soil worth digging deeply, and I believe that the works of many later generations will surely surpass those of their predecessors in scale, quantity and depth."
Some people are not optimistic about the current situation of literature, but Tange maintains a positive attitude: "Life needs yesterday's experiences, characters and stories, and literature will neither die out nor be at a low ebb, but will be transformed into another, higher form." "He hopes that the vast number of literary lovers will build up their confidence, face up to their responsibilities, and re-gather the eyes that readers have been looking forward to for a long time." Writing as a hobby, spiritual nourishment, enjoying the process, is a happy thing. ”
Literature is not "barbaric growth" either, it needs the ideological guidance of the party and advances in the right direction. Tange believes that in a period of relative impetuousness and weakness in literature, Baoding needs more influential literary publications, as a position of "strengthening cultural self-confidence and making better use of cultural strength", to show Baoding's feelings and cultural soft power.
Excellent culture must always walk ahead of the times and shout for the times. As a representative of the "shock wave of realism" in the 1990s, Tange firmly believes that literary creation is inseparable from "realism": "The reality we face today is the revitalization and development of Baoding, and literature should focus on young people, lead them to write a magnificent era, and let literary works play an important cohesive role in the new journey of modernization." ”
Author: Zhao Lin, Zhang Tianyu
Source: Lotus Pond Weekly