At 7:30 p.m. on December 31, 2021, at the special moment when the annual calendar is about to be renovated, the People's Literature Publishing House set a precedent for the first time in the live broadcast of the Literary New Year's Eve, invited 18 heavyweight guests to gather in beijing in the name of literature, and presented a warm, broad, interesting and cutting-edge "Literature China - People's Literature Publishing House 2022 Literature New Year's Eve Festival" live broadcast for readers across the country through 18 mainstream network platforms, with the total number of views on the whole network exceeding 10 million times.
Huang Zhijian, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Secretary of the Party Group of China Publishing Group Co., Ltd
Literature best represents the ethos of an era. The fiery and magnificent nature of the new era has opened up a vast world for literature and stimulated deep enthusiasm and surging creativity. Huang Zhijian, chairman of the board of directors of China Publishing Group Co., Ltd., secretary of the party group, and chairman of China Publishing and Media Co., Ltd., said at the opening ceremony: "This year is the big year of the People's Literature Publishing House, celebrating its 70th birthday; tonight, it is a grand gathering, creating a precedent for the literary New Year... We are all feeling the vigorous weather of the new era, and we are drumming up the lofty ambitions of the new era in our chests. Great times produce great works, and great works reflect great times. Tonight we gather together to experience the vitality of literature and the beauty of reading in this era. Mo Yan, Feng Jicai, Yan Jingming, Ah Lai, Ge Fei, Su Tong, Dong Xi, Dong Qing, Ma Weidu, Ge Liang and nearly 50 other "old friends" who are associated with the Humanities Society have sent New Year's wishes to readers across the country in the form of videos.
Nietzsche said: "What matters is not eternal life, but eternal vitality", and literature is the flowing past, present and future, which records our lives, witnesses our times, and makes life colorful. The feast was held with four themes: "The Power of Literature", "Classic Charm", "Reading Feast" and "Youth Hope", and the invited guests included MEMBERS of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, university professors, famous writers, critics, Mao Dun Literature Award winners, international Hans Christian Andersen Award winners, heads of well-known literary institutions, champions of the "Chinese Poetry Conference", media people, gold medal reading promoters and other well-known cultural figures.
The power of literature
For those who read, literature is the starting point for a wider life, allowing us to travel through time and space, beyond our own horizons, and to recognize the wider world. The four guests who opened the first topic were Zhu Yongxin, member of the Standing Committee and deputy secretary-general of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for the Promotion of Democracy and spokesperson of the national reading image, Li Jingze, member of the party group and vice chairman of the China Writers Association, critic, writer Liang Xiaosheng, cao Wenxuan, winner of the International Hans Christian Andersen Award, and He Chao, one of the top ten reading figures in the country, as the host guests of the ceremony.
From left: He Chao, Zhu Yongxin, Li Jingze, Liang Xiaosheng, Cao Wenxuan
"Social sciences, like history and philosophy, rely more on the power of reason to impress people, literature also has reason, but reason is presented in a perceptual way... Writers present the scenes of our lives in a literary way, so that everyone can find themselves in it or find the people around them... So it's particularly emotional, and its power is unique throughout the humanities. Zhu Yongxin viewed the power of literature this way.
Liang Xiaosheng shared with everyone how he began to embark on the road of literature by a "truant ghost" who was forced to be under pressure at home, because of an accidentally published essay, "Composition gave me the dignity of my first child... In order to maintain this self-confidence and dignity, I prefer to write essays, and I ask myself to write better essays... So I read a lot of books, which became a nutrient for later embarking on the path of literature, or the original literary vitamin. ”
Cao Wenxuan talked about one of the forces of literature is to cultivate compassion: "Ideological education, knowledge education, aesthetic education, and emotional education are all education. In the face of this situation, the best way or the only way is to read literary works, because literature is the product of feelings, and literature has always been about the spirit of compassion and compassion. ”
Li Jingze shared the importance of literature from the unique perspective of the meaning of the Chinese character "wen": "This 'text' means that we have imagination, we have the ability to create a world for ourselves, and we have the ability to build a world of meaning for ourselves. So in this sense, literature is indeed important because in this 'text', literature is particularly and particularly basic, and in all civilizations, literature is basic in the great 'literature'. ”
The Humanities Society also specially invited young writers Di An, Jiangnan, Sun Pin and cartoonist Bai Cha to record a short video of "Blind Box of Questions" and participate in the ceremony by asking questions from outside the venue.
Classic charm
In this era of information explosion, life is constantly updated, and what has not changed is the charm of classics. From the ever-changing Tang and Song poems to the four famous works with their own charms, from Shakespeare in the Renaissance to Kafka in the 20th century, classics always make us calm down and listen to our inner voices.
From the second from left: Zhang Qingshan, Kang Zhen, Dong Qiang, Chen Geng
Zhang Qingshan, president of the China Dream of the Red Chamber Society, talked about the charm of "Dream of the Red Chamber": "Some people say that a great literary classic like "Dream of the Red Chamber" should accompany you for life like a lifelong lover. "Dream of the Red Chamber" is not tired of reading for many Chinese, it has gone beyond the relationship between ordinary literary works and us, "Dream of the Red Chamber" seems to be the spiritual home of Chinese, so there is such a saying as the endless Dream of the Red Chamber. When asked about the significance of people reading classics today, Kang Zhen, professor of the College of Literature of Beijing Normal University, doctoral supervisor, and deputy director of the Academic Committee of Beijing Normal University, took Li Bai's poem as an example to answer: "Since there is a natural phenomenon of waterfalls in the world, there will be writers who continue to write about it, but only Li Bai's "Wanglushan Waterfall" refreshes our impression of waterfalls... The most eminent classical writers will refresh your perception of it, so that you will have new emotions about it. ”
When asked about the significance of people reading classics today, Kang Zhen, a professor at the College of Literature of Beijing Normal University, used Li Bai's poem as an example to answer uniquely: "Since there is a natural phenomenon such as a waterfall in the world, there will be literary artists who will continue to write about it, but only Li Bai's "Wanglushan Waterfall" refreshes our impression of the waterfall... The most eminent classical writers will refresh your perception of it, so that you will have new emotions about it. ”
Dong Qiang, head of the French Department of Peking University and chairman of the Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award, has such a quality in his heart: "I think it is definitely the first time in human history to take a unique vision and use unique words to open up a unique world for you. Such people, such works, are classics for me. ”
Chen Geng, the winner of the fourth season of the "Chinese Poetry Conference", shared the significance of classic literature for her: "We often say that reading history makes people wise, and classics are the warmest, most fascinating, and most humane history... We must make friends with the best people in the whole long river of history, and by reading the classics, we can look at them across the paper, have a spiritual dialogue with them, and let these classics shine in our hearts... Get yourself out of the tacky and mediocre. ”
On this special day, Nobel laureate in literature Le Clézio also met Chinese readers via video from France, 8,000 kilometers away. As a witness to the friendship between Chinese and French writers, Kang Zhen and Dong Qiang presented beautiful and atmospheric Chinese calligraphy works to overseas friends at the scene. In addition to discussing the literary classics of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, several guests also showed the breadth and profundity of Chinese through interesting literary games, using only a few words such as "she does not have a single soldier in her hand, but she can play an earth-shattering serial plan" and "he is the idol of all the police in the world", and vividly depicts the classic literary images such as sable cicada and Sherlock Holmes.
A feast for reading
In His Life of Words, Sartre likens books to "vertical gems," saying, "A bookcase is a mirror that brings the world together." It is as boundless, varied and unpredictable as the world. ”
From the second from the left: Li Er, Zhao Baisheng, Zhi An, Chen Luyu, Wen Zheng
Li Er, winner of the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize and deputy director of the Museum of Modern Literature, shared the "Notes of the Southern Court" by Li Boyuan of the Qing Dynasty, which he was recently reading: "It tells that the Qianlong Emperor had a problem when he conducted the palace examination... Only one candidate answered correctly... When Qianlong approved the scroll, he said... He was reluctant to tell others, so that others did not know... This person will definitely be a mean and unkind person when he becomes an official in the future. We can't understand the heart of the Sacred One, but you can see Qianlong's understanding of human feelings and sophistication, and he has his perspective on the problem, which is very wonderful. ”
Zhao Baisheng, a professor at Peking University and director of the World Biography Research Center, was the first professor at Peking University to offer a special research course on African literature for graduate students, and when talking about the phenomenon of the "African Year of World Literature" in 2021, he said: "Why do you want to open up the north and the south? Because the biggest cross-cultural model of the twentieth century is actually the Chinese and Western model, what new things do we contribute in the twenty-first century? Open up the north and south. This is what it means to study African literature and culture... When we talk about Africa, the stereotype is particularly high... But I would like to say that South Africa, a country with a population of 52 million, has produced a total of 11 Nobel Laureates, can you think of it? Such an Africa, do you know..." He also introduced five African writers who won the International Literary Awards in 2021 through the big screen.
Wen Zheng, a famous scholar and professor at the School of European Languages and Cultures of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese, led everyone to review Dante's relationship with Chinese readers: "Dante's Divine Comedy entered the vision of Chinese for the first time, and Mr. Qian Daosun of Peking University was the first to translate the Divine Comedy... But he translated it in The Chu script and published it in the Novel Monthly newspaper that year, a full hundred years. So this year, in addition to commemorating the 700th anniversary of Dante's death, it is also a commemoration of the centenary of Chinese reading the Divine Comedy. ”
The writer and scholar Shi-an recommends to the reader the "Promise" in the detective novel collection written by the Swiss German-speaking writer and playwright Dürrenmatt: "A very wonderful novel is a particularly important thing about human beings that he wrote- when we do something with our hearts, it may backfire, and the harder you try, the more wrong you may be... In my opinion, there is no strict distinction between genre literature and pure literature, and I think this is very high-level pure literature, very beautiful. The books I like to read, the first is very good-looking, and the second is to make us think deeply after reading them. ”
Reading is not only limited to words, but images also provide us with a wealth of reading resources. Many films are based on literary works. When asked whether he is the "original party" or the "adaptation party", he said: "First of all, depending on the way I open it, I first contact the original work or the film and television works, but I usually contact the original work more, especially if I love the original work and the author, then I am an original party." Last month I just watched "The Three-Body Problem" for the third time, I am definitely the 'original party', and I am now looking forward to the first TV series made in China. ”
Each book is a unique little universe in which you can see hundreds of forms, see sentient beings, appreciate the ever-changing world, and listen to the hundreds of turns in your heart. As an Easter egg session, several guests recited classic fragments from literary masterpieces such as "Visitor", "Here and Now", "Promise", "Divine Comedy", "Jane Eyre" and other literary masterpieces in Chinese, English and Italian, bringing the audience both auditory and spiritual enjoyment.
The hope of youth
Life is a novel that will not end, it is a poem without an end, there will always be people with active minds, energetic energy, adventure-loving, and life-loving people, who use words to show the declaration of youth and face the torrent of time. The fourth conversation kicks off with a brain-opening improvisation game.
From left: Xu Zechen, Cui Manli, Shi Yifeng, Li Zheyuan
Xu Zechen, a writer and deputy editor-in-chief of People's Literature, created a wonderful science fiction story based on the three key words extracted: "Li Bai was a Tang Dynasty man, and he also died in the Tang Dynasty, and when he died, he fell from the boat and drowned in the water." But he didn't know it—he fell into the water and fainted, and when he woke up, it was 2122, and he found that he was not on the ground, but in the air, in a place like the Tiangong Space Station..."
Writer Cui Manli's improvisation revolves around the Little Prince: "... So on this day, it was raining in Paris, and the little prince understood one thing, although he did not drink 100 coffees, but if you want to insist on doing a thing, even if the whole earth does not exist, or when no one echoes you anymore, you can still exist here, because of the existence of the little prince, so in rainy Paris, there is still a café on the earth. ”
Shi Yifeng, a writer and deputy editor-in-chief of Contemporary, shared the reason for becoming a writer: "When I was a child, I didn't have any career design, I was really confused at that time, my life was confused, and I didn't think about what to do. Being a writer is because I am an editor in a magazine, watching people write, sometimes discussing with others how to change, discussing for a long time, I said that I can do it, I became a writer, probably such a process. ”
Harvard Yale double material scholar, young writer, known as the "post-90s national leader" Li Zheyuan told the original intention of writing: "When I was studying abroad, I had a lot less opportunity to contact Chinese, nostalgia sometimes wanted to eat domestic things, and sometimes I wanted to speak more Chinese or write down my feelings through Chinese words. I found that writing small articles in a foreign country with Chinese, although not so well written, was a thing that could make me no longer so lonely.
Live messages
Although this literary feast carefully planned by the People's Literature Publishing House lasted for more than five hours, because the guests were full of witty remarks, golden sentences, and wonderful links such as literary games and multilingual recitations, everyone listened to literary dialogues, participated in interactive guessing, praised, and left messages. "We must continue to do it next year!" When the applause did not stop, the "New Youth • New Year Gift" gift box prepared for the lucky audience by the cultural and creative brand "Treasure of Humanities" under the People's Literature Publishing House was also very popular. In a joyful, peaceful and interesting atmosphere brought by literature, we bid farewell to 2021 and ushered in the bells of the 2022 New Year.
From left: Wang Qiuling, Wu Liangzhu, Zang Yongqing, Li Hongqiang, Xiao Liyuan, Kong Lingyan
"How vast life is, life is the ocean... To ignite the fire of others with one's own fire, to discover the heart with the heart... Wherever there is life, there is happiness and treasure. Before the end of the event, Zang Yongqing, president of the People's Literature Publishing House, led all the members of the leadership team of the Humanities Society to greet the arrival of 2022 with He Qifang's poem "How Vast Life Is". In his New Year's address, President Zang Yongqing said: "2022 has come. In 2022, we will take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guide, continue to uphold the publishing concept of 'ancient and modern Chinese and foreign, improvement first', adhere to high-quality publishing, adhere to high-quality development, and publish more good books for the great times and dear readers! ”
I hope that literature can penetrate into every corner of our lives and bring people a warm fire on the cold winter night.
Nandu reporter Huang Qian