One Man's 2021 Chinese Novel Rankings
Wang Chunlin
About the Author
Wang Chunlin, born in 1966, is a native of Wenshui, Shanxi. Editor-in-chief of Novel Review. Professor of the College of Literature of Shanxi University, doctoral supervisor. Distinguished Professor of School of Chinese Chinese Literature, Xi'an University of Foreign Chinese. Vice President of the Chinese Novel Society, Vice Chairman of the Shanxi Writers Association, Judge of the 8th and 9th Mao Dun Literature Award, Judge of the 5th, 6th and 7th Lu Xun Literature Awards, Judge of the Chinese Novel Rankings, And Standing Director of the Chinese Contemporary Literature Research Association. Mainly engaged in the study of modern and contemporary Chinese literature. He has published more than 4 million words of academic papers in journals such as Literary and Art Studies, Literary Criticism, Modern Chinese Literature Research Series, Contemporary Writers Review, Novel Review, Southern Literature Circle, Literary and Art Controversy, Contemporary Literature Circle, and Yangtze River Review. He has published a personal monograph and critical essay collection "Discourse, History and Ideology", "Thought on the Edge of Life", "Research on Novels in the New Century", "Literary Symphony of Multiple Voices", "Landscape of Novels in the New Century", "Map of Novels in the New Century", "Jia Pingwa's "Ancient Furnace", "Rural Writing and Regional Literary Experience", "Unknown Heavens", "Scene of Contemporary Chinese Literature (2013-2014)", "Observation of Novels in the New Century", "Scene of Contemporary Chinese Literature (2015-2016)", "Scene of Contemporary Chinese Literature (2015-2016)", "Miscellaneous Works in China", "Ancient Furnaces" Cultural Personality and Contemporary Literary Character Images", "Wang Meng's Theory", "Literary Dialogue", "Contemporary Chinese Literature Scene (2017-2018)", "Jia Pingwa's Novel Theory", "Research on the Narrative Experience of Novels in the New Century", etc. He has won the 9th and 15th Outstanding Achievement Awards for Contemporary Chinese Literature Research, the Shanxi New Century Literature Award, the Zhao Shuli Literature Award, and the Shanxi Provincial Humanities and Social Sciences Award.
Special instructions:
1. This ranking is only the status of annual novel creation in a limited personal vision, and it is not enough to rely on.
2. Comparatively speaking, because the author pays more attention to the genre of long novels, the ranking of long novels may be more convincing, and the number of short and medium stories is limited and is for reference only.
3. In order to further strengthen the seriousness of the personal rankings, starting from 2019, the list will be strictly limited to 20 novels and 10 short and medium stories.
4. Due to the high level of publication of "Harvest" magazine itself, or because of personal high recognition of the ideological and artistic interests of "Harvest", despite efforts to avoid, the number of works on the list of "Harvest" is still quite large. Knowing that I have sinned against me, let me laugh and curse.
5. Because some works were published in the last issue of the year, they could not be allegorized, so naturally they could not be listed.
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Tribute of the Year:
Huang Yongyu, "The Wandering Man of the Worryless River: Day Reading", People's Literature Publishing House, August 2021.
Novel:
1. Lin Bai's "North Stream", October Novel, Bi-Monthly Issue 3 and 4, 2021.
2. Yu Hua, "Wencheng", Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, March 2021.
3. Yan Lianke, "Zhongyuan", Huacheng, No. 2, 2021.
4. East-West "Echoes", People's Literature, No. 3, 2021.
5. Luo Weizhang, "Who's Knocking on the Door", Guangxi Normal University Press, April 2021.
6. Li Rui, "Prisoner", Harvest, No. 4, 2021.
7. Lu Min's "Golden River", "Harvest" novel special number 2021 autumn volume.
8. Wang Xiaoying, "Monument", People's Literature Publishing House, July 2021.
9. Huo Xiangjie, "The Complete Works of Copper Seats", Writers Publishing House, August 2021.
10. Ah Ying, "Chang'an", Writers Publishing House, July 2021.
11. Zhang Ming, "Ballad of Spring Mountain", People's Literature Publishing House, February 2021.
12. Yao Emei, "Fourteen Days", Harvest, No. 3, 2021.
13. Liu Zhenyun, "One Day and Three Autumns", Flower City, No. 4, 2021.
14. Chen Yan, "Comedy", Writers Press, March 2021.
15. Xu Chunqiao, "The Next Stop Can't Be Stopped", People's Literature Publishing House, November 2021.
16. Wu Kejing, "Fengqi Town", Zhong Shan Novel Supplement, Volume A, 2021.
17. Wang Huaiyu, "Bloody Grassland", Writers Publishing House, January 2021.
18. Fan Wen, "The Sun Turns", Contemporary, No. 5, 2021.
19. Chen Jiming's "Ping An Batch", People's Literature, No. 1, 2021.
20. Du Yanglin,"Sting", Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, July 2021.
novelette:
1. Rather "Black Dream", Harvest, No. 3, 2021.
2. Yin Xueyun, "Ghost Finger Root", Harvest, No. 5, 2021
3. Sun Pin's "Heavenly Objects Market", October, Single Month, No. 1, 2021.
4. Ge Liang, "Tile Cat", Contemporary, No. 1, 2021.
5. Hu Performance, "Maling Road", Yangtze River Literature and Art, No. 11, 2021.
6. Hu Xuewen's "White Dream", The Great Wall, No. 1, 2021.
7. Yu Yiming, "Lake and Yuanqi Lian", People's Literature, No. 2, 2021.
8. Lin Nabei, "Look Up", Harvest, No. 6, 2021.
9. Cheng Yongxin, "Records of Qingcheng Mountain", Huacheng, No. 2, 2021.
10. Du Bin, "Horses, You Go Slowly", Yellow River, No. 4, 2021.
short story:
1. Zhong Qiu is "The Sky on the Ground", Harvest, No. 5, 2021.
2. Liu Jiandong," "The Unfinished Portrait", October, 2021, Single Month No. 6.
3. Deng Yiguang's "The First Explosion", Harvest, No. 2, 2021.
4. Nanxiang", "Earl Cat", Furong, No. 2, 2021
5. Yi Zhou, "Chemistry", Flower City, No. 4, 2021.
6. Zhou Xuanpu,"The Man," Furong, No. 2, 2021
7. Wang Fangchen, "Fengqi Wu", Beijing Literature, No. 5, 2021.
8. Tie Ning, "The Messenger", Beijing Literature, No. 6, 2021.
9. Chen Rong, "Lao Tzu Forgot...", People's Literature, No. 9, 2021.
10. Han Dong, "Su Su and Li Yun", Huacheng, No. 5, 2021.
Notes on the 2021 Chinese Novel Ranking System
The pace of time is so hurried and urgent, last year's release of a person's novel ranking is still in front of us, and it is time to release the 2021 list. Looking back at the chinese novel creation in the era when the new crown epidemic is still raging this year, I have a different feeling in my heart for the writers' persistent insistence on literary stance. In the face of his hesitation, after repeated consideration, he finally determined the list, and for a while he did not know what to say. Although there are as many as 40 novels (parts) on the list, it may have to do with my more attention to the genre of the novel, and I just want to give a few important novels.
The first is about Lindbergh's novel, "North Stream", which is a masterpiece in terms of language, style, or ideological connotation. In my understanding, in essence, there are probably only two kinds of writers in the world, one is a writer who is not so mature in writing, and the other is a writer whose art of thought has reached a mature level. If you look at it from the perspective of mature writers and immature writers, Lindbergh is of course a very mature writer. But then again, because she wrote so many works, including a large number of short and medium stories. But I'm just here to discuss her novel writing. If I were to speak of Lindbergh's novel creation in the general sense, then strictly speaking, there can only be two novels that can be regarded as truly mature works. One is 1994's "One Man's War", and the other is this "North Stream". In this process, so many other novels, such as "Women's Small Talk", such as "Say, Room", and even the acclaimed "North to Come", I am afraid that in a sense, they all have a certain degree of unfinished nature, with exploration and exploration. Lindbergh has been looking for his own way, how to better reach life, how to better express the world. But she had been on the road all the time and had not yet found it. Until "North Stream", whether it is eight drafts or ten drafts, the writer finally finds a new way to dialogue with the world, a new way that is completely different from "One Man's War". "One Man's War" is a typical personalized writing, I am not willing to use the label of female writing, I think it is personalized writing, is a typical whisper writing, "One Man's War", just like the title, is always exploring the survival world of Lin Domi, a personalized character, how she faces the world, her daily life and spiritual world. But in "North Stream", Lindbergh completely moved from the individual to a more open, vast, and deep world. According to my understanding and experience, from "One Man's War" to "North Stream", from the individualized existence, then to the existence of Chinese, and finally to the existence of human beings, from local writing, and finally to universal writing, writers have completely opened themselves, opened up life, opened the world, and opened up the existence of human beings.
Emphasize that Lindbergh is fragmented, with special emphasis on the writer's concern for fragmentation. This is certainly true, but on the other hand, it is probably not enough to just emphasize fragments. While emphasizing fragments, we should also emphasize the existence of a holistic way of thinking in Lindbergh's "North Stream". If we leave a holistic approach, then a novel is actually not valid. Lindbergh's genius lies in the fact that she skillfully combines those fragments into an artistic whole, and she has a holistic artistic thinking to capture so many fragments of her own life. I'm less inclined to use the word grand narrative, I think it may be a personal, individualized overall narrative, I prefer to use the word "whole". That is the first thing I want to say.
The second meaning I want to express, I pay special attention to Lindbergh's use of dialects in the novel, the use of Beiliu dialects and Cantonese dialects, from the perspective of etymology, our modern Chinese probably comes from three paths: one may come from ancient Chinese, it needs to borrow something from the predecessors, and make it complete the creative transformation. Second, our modern Chinese sources are related to the translation of literature and can be said to constitute an important aspect of our etymology. Third, one point that needs special emphasis in etymology is the dialect of the vast number of people from the folk.
Literature is the art of language, so from the perspective of language use, dialect writing is a very important aspect. It is not only wild, not just vibrant, not just alive, to a large extent, only with the help of this dialect can Lindeau's worldview be fully presented, showing her understanding and understanding of the whole world, the whole existence, the whole human life.
The third aspect is the richness of style and the diversity of styles. Notes, notes, notes, different words, Li Yuedou Dictionary, Western Dictionary, poetry... But these rich genres, such as notes and notes, notes, and different words, on the surface seem to come from tradition, of course, related to our local traditions, but strictly speaking, they are not only traditional, when Lindbergh requisitioned these into the entire novel of "North Stream", in fact, there is a modern temperament. Therefore, the rich diversity of this genre is both traditional and local, and at the same time modern, open and future-oriented.
To sum up, "Beiliu" is really not only a very important novel in Lin Bai's personal writing process, but even if it is placed in the vision of contemporary Chinese literature and placed in the genealogy of novels in the entire 20 years of the new century, "Beiliu" is also a very important existence.
The second is Yan Lianke's novel Zhongyuan. Leaving aside other aspects, the writer's creative use of dialect in the text of the novel alone fully demonstrates the unquestionable ideological and artistic value of the work. In fact, it is from the perspective of dialects that I wrote this evaluation text: "Since the details of the research examined by the linguistics professor come from novels such as "Zhongyuan", if we focus on the characteristics of the literary style itself, I am even willing to understand those dialects in the text as a fictional act of the writer Yan Lianke. A key reason for this is that in the current situation where such a modernization trend is obviously irreversible, the pure or true dialect is likely to have long disappeared, and even if it is a fluke, I am afraid that it can only be a piece of armor, fragmentary. Therefore, what Yan Lianke can do is to create such a dialect landscape for us on the basis of those fragmented and fragmented dialects, after a process of fictional processing that is not unnecessary. If my judgment is generally not bad, and the dialect landscapes in "Zhongyuan" do have a certain degree of fictionality, then the narrative intention that Yan Lianke is trying to achieve through such a dialect method obviously has the meaning of cultural confrontation that cannot be ignored. What the writer is trying to confront in such a way is a certain unified will hidden behind the "Mandarin Mandarin". ”
There is also Ah Ying's novel "Chang'an", which has the significance of filling in the blanks in the theme. Although he is an amateur writer (in fact, a writer is a writer, there is no amateur or no amateur, here is just to borrow a habitual expression), but Ah Ying's creation of "Chang'an" is very amazing. According to my personal prejudices, compared with previous industrial novels, especially novels, The affirmation of Ah Ying's "Chang'an" is prominently reflected in the close integration of the so-called grand narrative and the daily narrative.
In view of this, asserting that the ideological and artistic achievements of novel creation in 2021 are good should be a relatively reliable and credible conclusion.
Famous masters read a list of one's Chinese novels
Lu Min
writer
The "One Man's Fiction List" has been a long arc of time with a flexible, powerful sense of time.
Mr. Wang Chunlin's vigorous enthusiasm for literature is not only visible to the naked eye, but also time-learned. This enthusiasm is in full swing, covering the long, medium and short three-way hills and ravines, looking at the beans, waving the flag and receiving orders. Another example is the brave man's chopping thorns, the author's sand panning for gold, leading to the prosperity and clarity of the depths of the hundred flowers, and picking the strange stars inside the text.
The one-person list, the tenth anniversary, seeing and being seen, is the luster and gift of interaction, and it is the cold and warm knowledge and mutual foam of critics and writers.
Yu Yiming
At the end of the year, all kinds of rankings are about to be released, and as a person who is still writing a novel, it is impossible not to pay attention. The leaderboard is surging and dizzying, and there are recognized masters on the list, and it is inevitable that the articles will be indiscriminately filled, and the heart will be gone with a smile. The so-called Wen Wu Wu Wu No Second, the critic has a master and a ruler, seeing the wisdom of the people, seeking the same in the difference is the rule. In contrast, why do people respect Mr. Wang Chunlin's ranking? A ten-year-old personal leaderboard? I think that this personal list is precisely because it comes from his own vision, independence, no need to be wronged, no need to be comprehensive, it has become a unique scenery in many rankings. To be honored on Mr. Wang's list, although there is no award dazzling, no money, but can be generally recognized and liked among the same, the reason is precisely because the standard of the list is a personality vision, is a pure literary view. Another reason, I think, is because Mr. Wang has a broad field of vision, is recognized as a model of reading and writing in the industry, he always pays attention to literary dynamics, and can timely arrest the representative works of writers, this ranking is not his whims, but the result of his dedication throughout the year.
Quarterly
scholar
Perhaps not many people have the courage to launch the "One Man's Novel Ranking" and persist for ten years! Behind the "One Man's Novel Ranking", it represents the massive reading of the expo, showing a unique value position, and presenting a splendid literary scene. In the face of countless collective literary lists, Wang Chunlin's personality, temperature, sharpness and insight of "one-man novel ranking" are really eye-catching. It is expected that there will be more "one-man novel rankings" like Wang Chunlin in the contemporary literary world, guiding readers to experience the noise and turmoil of contemporary literature together, and highlighting the richness and complexity of contemporary literature to the world.
Cui Xinping
critic
The internal texture of the discipline of contemporary Chinese literature is the focus and circle of high-quality works at the synchronic level, and it is a diachronic examination of the times and artistic evaluation. In the face of the increasing volume of contemporary Chinese literature, it is difficult to focus on this first step. This is the first selection of works to land in the literary field, it is the consideration of the reader's reading and appreciation, courage and publicity, and the "publicity" of the "present" judgment that is not afraid of "trial and error". Wang Chunlin, who has insisted on in-depth tracking of contemporary literary scenes for decades, is an active intervener in the construction of contemporary literary history. "One person's literary list", Wang Chunlin has insisted on it for ten years. In the past decade, many works that have been on the list have tested the annual judgment of the selector with their awards or best-selling or the subsequent dissemination evaluation of the niche or the public, and supported the artistic vision of the selector.
Since the 1980s, when the trend of rewriting literary history has become a hot spot in the production of knowledge in the academy. However, the "active" visible to the naked eye is like engaging in the study of ancient literature and modern literature, and more and more researchers are focusing on the "scientific paradigm" of the salvage of contemporary literary historical materials, and the literary criticism of the contemporary literary scene is too unpalatable from the perspective of academic utilitarianism. How precious it is that the undesirable contemporary selectors, with a huge reading throughput, adhere to the annual scene of contemporary literature in the form of rankings, assert the judgment of the times of literary criticism, and devote themselves to the construction process of historicalization and classicization of Contemporary Chinese Literature!
concentrate:
This article was published in the Literary Observation column of Yanhe Magazine, Issue 1, 2022
The pictures in this article are all from the Internet