Mai Jia was elected vice chairman of the China Writers Association: retreating to the depths of the individual soul and entering the depths of the soul of the nation

Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Sun Wen

The first plenary session of the National Committee of the Tenth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association elected a new presidium, and the Zhejiang writer Mai Jia was elected as the vice chairman.

If you talk to others about espionage literature and movies, he will definitely blurt out - "Mai family! ”

Yes, although in the reader's cognition, the name of the Mai family is tightly tied to the word "spy war", and he is a famous writer, screenwriter, and winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award, but he is not mysterious.

If you walk into the Maijia Ideal Valley in Hangzhou's Xixi Wetland, you are likely to meet him. Many important works of the Mai family were also completed here.

The Writing of the Mai Family began in 1986. He has been deeply engaged in literature for nearly 40 years, and he has authored more than 60 novels and short stories, more than 200 essays, and more than 150 episodes (parts) of plays, such as "Decryption", "Dark Calculation", "The Sound of the Wind", and "Life In the Sea". Among them, "Decryption" won the 6th National Book Award; "The Sound of the Wind" won the 6th Chinese Media Literature Award; "Dark Calculation" won the 7th Mao Dun Literature Award; the TV script of "Dark Calculation" won the 13th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Best Screenplay Award; "Life Sea Sea" won the 18th Chinese Media Literature Annual Outstanding Writer Award.

With the publication of the novel "Life Sea Sea", in the past two years, ordinary readers have more opportunities to see the Mai family.

His works have been translated into more than 30 languages and published in more than 40 countries and distributed in more than 100 countries and territories.

The English editions of "Decryption" and "Dark Calculation" have been selected into the "Penguin Classics" library, which is the only two contemporary novels in China that have been included in the library so far. In 2014, "Decryption" was named "The World's Top Ten Novels of the Year" by The Economist magazine in the United Kingdom; in 2015, it won the BEST BOOK AWARD IN THE UNITED STATESALA; and in 2017, it was selected by the British "Daily Telegraph" as the "Best 20 Spy Novels in Global History".

For Chinese readers, the TV series "Dark Calculation" and the movie "The Sound of the Wind", based on Mai Jia's novel of the same name, are almost must-see spy war articles, and they are the pioneering works that set off the frenzy of contemporary Chinese spy war films and television.

After more than thirty years of hard work in the literary world, the Writing of the Mai family has been innovating.

"The innovation of literature is to open up new writing possibilities in the existing reality, and this possibility is hidden in our great times and long traditions. Today's China is striding on the road of great rejuvenation, there are many people and things worth writing, the key is how to write. We must be down-to-earth, take up with the atmosphere of life, and continue the context of history, and we must not be sublime and arrogant. Find your own perspective and depth in observing the world. ”

Mai Jia said that this is why we still shed tears and are still moved when we read "Peony Pavilion" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" today. "Works should enter people's hearts and go to the world, and writers should excavate and present the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature with the most sincere posture, not just hunting curiosity." To tell the story of China well, in the final analysis, it is necessary to tell the story of Chinese well, so that the world can hear the footsteps of the times. ”

Of course, the Mai family feels that a good story must also have a strong "support".

Why did "Decryption" and "Dark Calculation", which he wrote more than a decade ago, suddenly become favored overseas in recent years?

Mai Jia believes: "The China behind us is strong. As the most convenient way to understand a country and a nation, literature has naturally won attention. As the country continues to become stronger and stronger, the influence of Chinese literature must become greater and greater, and the possibility of a new generation of young writers going to the world will become more and more likely. ”

The beneficiary behind this, Mai Jia said, is not only him: "In recent years, the status of Chinese literature in the world has risen rapidly, and the number of translated works has increased geometrically. ”

Zhejiang is a fertile land of literature, since the Eastern Han Dynasty has been an important town of Chinese literature, especially after the May Fourth Zhejiang literature flourished, emerging Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Yu Dafu, Xia Yan, Xu Zhimo, Ai Qing and a large number of literary giants, creating half of Modern Chinese literature.

As a writer in Zhejiang, the Mai family has a love for this hot land of literature and more expectations.

"Today, Zhejiang is a hot land and a thick soil, which is not only an 'important window'" but also a 'demonstration area' of common prosperity, and the thriving life has spawned a number of young writers and excellent works. In 2017, after several coordinations, the British Penguin Publishing House, which has published its own works, launched a five-volume series of Zhejiang writers, focusing on showing the strength of the "Literary Zhejiang Army" overseas and telling the story of Zhejiang to the world.

Balzac said that the novel is the secret history of a nation. In recent years, China's literary territory in the world has expanded significantly, Chinese writers have frequently won awards overseas, and the world has invested unprecedented enthusiasm for Chinese literature. Why? In the end, it is the 'person' behind us who is strong, and it is the strength of the country that helps us go global. Today's China has its voice, footprints, and influence in any corner of the world, it is so powerful that no one dares to ignore it, the world wants to understand it, and literature, as the most convenient way to recognize a country and a nation, has ushered in the red luck and won the instructions. Therefore, at this time, we should be most grateful to the 'person' behind it: this is a giant, carrying the glory and dreams of 1.4 billion people. ”

Mai Jia's latest work, "Life Sea and Sea", has been published for two years, and the paper book alone has sold 2.2 million copies. He felt that it was the blessing of the country's strength —

"This is a book I wrote about my hometown, and there is no doubt that it will attract more overseas readers to listen to a Chinese story that takes place on the land of Zhejiang." At the same time, I also want to encourage my writer friends that the times are so great, we must cherish our talents, withdraw from too much desire, withdraw from vanity, retreat into the calm and loneliness that a writer should have, and retreat into the depths of our personal souls. Only by retreating into the depths of the individual soul can we enter the depths of a nation's soul; only by entering the depths of the national soul can we write works that have the bones and bones of the Chinese nation and the body temperature of our ancestors. Only such works can go out, and only such works can go out meaningfully, so that the people of the world can truly understand China. I will work hard, we will work together! ”

This article is the original work of Qianjiang Evening News, without permission, it is forbidden to reprint, copy, excerpt, rewrite and carry out network dissemination of all works of copyright use, otherwise this newspaper will follow judicial channels to pursue the legal responsibility of the infringer.