A few days ago, according to the election results of the Ninth Sichuan Writers' Congress, Du Yanglin, a writer from Nanchong City, was elected as a member of the presidium of the Sichuan Writers Association.
Du Yanglin, a native of southern Sichuan, is a senior researcher; a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the Presidium of the Sichuan Writers Association, a deputy director of the Novel Committee, and a contracted writer of the Ba Jin Literature Institute; he was the chief reporter of the West China Metropolis Daily and the editor-in-chief of the Chengdu Women's Daily; his works have been published in october, Harvest, Chinese Writers, Meiwen, Haiyan, Hunan Literature, Sichuan Literature, and other periodicals; and he has authored novels and essays such as "Stinging", "Step by Step", and "Crossing the Sea with Long Wind and Waves".
After du Yanglin's novel "Sting" by Du Yanglin, a young writer in southern Sichuan, was released at the end of July this year, it achieved four reprints in just two months, which shows the reputation and love of this work among readers. Not only that, but many heavyweight writers and literary critics also do not hesitate to praise. In Ah Lai, Du Yanglin came from the barren countryside of northern Sichuan and served in the Kawauchi news media, no matter what kind of identity he later held, one thing in his heart has never changed, that is, his dedication and love for literature. Li Jingze also said that Du Yanglin wrote a powerful work with intuition, wrote about that generation, and also had a very unique experience with a strong locality. Meng Fanhua believes that "Sting" is a symbol and metaphor of the environment of the times, and the author has emotions, hopes and great impulses for this era, jumping on the paper and seeing at a glance.
On October 17th, as one of the series of activities of the 2021 Tianfu Book Fair, the "Breakthrough of The Life of Teenagers in the Change of the Times - Sharing and Signing Of the Novel "Sting" was held in The Chunxi Road Store of Chengdu Dayi Tea Super Experience Hall. Xu Ke, executive vice president of Lu Xun Literature Institute, a famous writer and critic, Li Mingquan, vice chairman of the China Literary and Art Critics Association and chairman of the Sichuan Literary and Art Criticism Association, Du Yanglin, author, and Cao Yuanyong, executive vice president of Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, had a wonderful dialogue on the realistic theme work "Sting".
The novel "Sting" takes place in Guanlong Village in the southern county of northern Sichuan from the 1970s to the late 1980s. When the protagonist Ling Yunqing was four years old, his father suddenly died of illness, leaving the five brothers and sisters and their mother to rely on each other for their lives. Young Ling Yunqing could not face the cruelty of life, the torture of cold and hunger, and the hardships and humiliations of neighbors and relatives. But Ling Yunqing met many well-meaning people who helped him and his family through this painful life, including Zhou Ye, Teacher Han, and Sister Xiao... It is these subtle but firm supports that enable this calm teenager to have hope and pursuit for the future in a life of suffering. Zhou Ye taught him "the ambition not to fall into the clouds", and he always had the desire to study and the yearning for a distant place. After ten years of suffering, Ling Yunqing finally moved from the countryside to a broader world.
"Sting" as a long novel, and its author Du Yanglin in the writing of the novel extraordinary, the novel was published more than a month and printed four times, in the current literary market is not so prosperous, can create miracles, where is his trick? Xu Ke believes that the first is that the novel "Sting" is particularly profound in the writing of suffering, but it does not specify the description of suffering. "Many people know that the writing of suffering is a tradition, like 'Ordinary World' is also about suffering, this book is more real and inspirational than 'Ordinary World', than 'Alive', so I say that his writing of suffering is very profound. In the novel, Ling Yunqing and his family endured poverty, hardship, and hunger, for many of our generation have the same memory, have suffered from hunger, not only their family, but also the people around them, but their suffering is unexpected by many people, the degree of suffering and the humiliation and bullying of the neighbors around them. Despite such a heavy encounter, the protagonist did not bow his head and give in, but grew tenaciously, like a small seedling growing into a talent little by little in the cracks of the stone. That's why I say that his description of suffering is very profound, but he doesn't specify suffering, but gives people a kind of strength to work hard. ”
Xu Ke said: "The criticism of human nature in "Sting" is very sharp, but it also gives us hope. Many writers, especially those who were born relatively poor, often like to write about their hometown after becoming writers, and when everyone looks back at their hometown, they are full of feelings, which is no objection, and we write about our hometown as well. Consciously or unconsciously, it whitewashes the hometown, beautifies the hometown, and poetically beautifies the hometown. There is also the fact that the novel is very mature and perfect, and the story is a linear structure, single-line. The book is divided into three stages, upper, middle and lower, and the writing is very restrained. In addition, "Du Yanglin is thinking about whether people want to be knocked down by suffering when they face suffering, or to overcome." This is what he wants to convey to us, and that is what we have to consider."
In Li Mingquan's view, "Sting" is one of the most important collections of contemporary Chinese literature, especially coming-of-age novels. "This book has contributed several people, and Ling Yun's teenagers have a lot of spirits that make us admire learning, especially his self-conscious spirit." The novel writes a person's growth history, put it in the history of the world, writes about the relationship between human growth and education, but Yang Lin writes about the life of a teenager from 4 to 14 years old, eager to go out of the distant mountains, eager to read, and writes out the image of a person who relies on his own struggle and relies on his own reading to change his destiny. There's a lot to consider. There is no father, no father love in a person's growth, there are indeed many missing, the image of Grandpa Zhou inside is too powerful, without this grandfather, Ling Yunqing's growth may be different, it is his teenager worship, sheltered, like the image of father love like the mountains, behind this image is very interesting, the grandfather passed the information in the city to the small village, this image is to some extent the image of the father, but also an expression of the change of the times, the change of the times, the ideas of the times, Without this image, there is no breadth and height, depth, and this image is very historical. To completely bundle Ling Yunqing's personal experience with this era, and his father, peers and friends, the bundled description method, the power of the novel to us is particularly huge, relying on the image of one person alone is not enough, it is to rely on many group portraits to highlight Ling Yunqing, highlight Ling Yunqing's mother. ”
Li Mingquan also said: "There are many revelations for the literary creation of "Sting" and contemporary literature with similar vernacular themes, and I feel that the biggest need for us to study is how to effectively combine the cultural customs, dialect slang and the world, story, structure and rhythm he describes, and the rhythm of the narrative is very clear. His internal structure and structure are both time loss, space is limited, and the temporal rhythm is very historical. Vernacular literature includes works with the theme of growth, many novels like to write about love, write about the theme of fierce themes, but he writes about the growth of a person, this person grows up in a lot of stories, the characters are very rich, this aspect can study the local themes, vernacular literature, the internal relationship of local work. In short, I think that novels are an important harvest of writer Du Yanglin's novels on life and on the theme of contemporary literary growth. ”
Xie Youshun, professor of the Department of Chinese of Sun Yat-sen University, doctoral supervisor, and literary critic, commented: This kind of suffering and breakthrough on the land of northern Sichuan is the main color of "Sting", the author has an ambition, wants to use a small metaphor for the big, a village is a small nationality, a person's fate is the fate of a generation, Ling Yunqing and Guanlong Village are alluded to, it is precisely about a generation, a nation's thinking. Du Yanglin is too familiar with this history, "Sting" has a lot of his personal memories, his writing is like a semi-autobiography, emotional investment is a lot, which also makes it difficult for him to face these memories completely calm and detachment.
Du Yanglin, who wrote "Sting", has too many things he wants to say, his memories and experiences of the times, those pains of the skin, he can't forget for the rest of his life, he must record it, he is afraid of forgetting. But on the other hand, he also knows that man cannot always be immersed in the memories and accusations of suffering, but must obtain supernatural strength and realize the rational examination of suffering, so that people can move forward and obtain true spiritual salvation.
Suffering here in DuYanglin did not accumulate into hatred and despair, but into forgiveness and love. Camus said, "Without the despair of life there can be no love for life." Indeed, a writer who describes those dark and desperate pictures is closely related to the love and yearning for life he is trying to tell, and the hope without suffering as a foundation cannot touch man.
Therefore, what is important is not whether the writer writes about misfortune, failure, suffering and despair, but how he treats these things, and only a person who has infinite sympathy and attachment to life will truly understand the value of misfortune, failure, suffering and despair. Just as in "Sting", young people rush to leave Guanlong Village and run to the city, while the intellectuals Zhou Fengzao and Shangguan Yuncao choose to return to Guanlong Village to settle down, through their choice, it shows that the value of the countryside is being re-recognized.
When Ling Yunqing has been away from their homeland for a long time and has been tempered by urban civilization, what kind of posture will they look back at their homeland? After "Sting", Du Yanglin may be thinking about this, or rather, many Chinese villages are facing this. In the process of vast modernization, the direction of the countryside is becoming one of the most acute questions at present, and literature must of course try to answer these new issues.
As a publisher, Cao Yuanyong admits that he is actually a reader. When I got the final draft of "Sting", "I read it carefully, I read it again and called Yang Lin first, I didn't expect the work to be so deep, after making a call I went out of the office with tears in my eyes, I walked to the street near the publishing house, read this book I suddenly thought of my sister and mother in my family, I want to call my mother, she is already a little deaf, I have 4 sisters and 1 brother, I suddenly thought of my sisters, in that era we experienced a difficult rural, tearless life, I called a few of my sisters, I hadn't called my loved ones in a long time, and I suddenly remembered what I had been doing. There are many details in this book that evoke my experiences and memories of the late 1980s and 1970s. ”
Cao Yuanyong said that it is both fortunate and inevitable to be able to publish such an excellent realistic theme work as "Sting", and the most important thing is the power and potential contained in this novel. This book writes the coming-of-age story of a rural teenager, and may be some distance away from today's high-speed urban life. On the one hand, it is a common memory of a generation that can resonate deeply; on the other hand, such a force to face and transcend suffering is exactly what the current society needs. In "I personally have one of the strongest feelings, "Sting" first vividly awakened my memories of that era, and I recommended it to many colleagues and peers, and also especially recommended it to children. I hope to let the children know that no matter how comfortable your life is today, your grandparents and parents have gone through difficult years, and know how they came to be. ”
Cao Yuanyong also mentioned that in contemporary Chinese literature, there are many personal situations in the change of the times, and many of them are complaining, and Du Yanglin also wrote about the issue of "personal responsibility to society" in "Sting". "What a person can't change is birth, what can be changed is only the attitude towards fate." The second half of the story writes that Ling Yunqing wandered alone for 29 days before returning home, allowing Ling Yunqing's personality to complete a self-sublimation, which made him very moved. "He saw good and bad, human feelings were cold and warm, he realized that at least in this society it is worth living, and he had an epiphany about himself and life."
Source | Nanchong Wenguang Brigade Xuan