Wang Xiaobo's "Golden Age" was rejected by many publishing houses because its content was too explicit

I was twenty-one years old that day, and in the golden age of my life, I had many extravagant hopes. I want to love, I want to eat, and I want to turn into a half-light and half-dark cloud in the sky in an instant. Later, I learned that life is a slow process of being hammered, people grow old day by day, and their extravagance disappears day by day, and finally they become like a cow that has been hammered. But on my 21st birthday, I didn't foresee this, and I felt that I would be fierce forever and would not be able to hammer me.

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Hello everyone, the book I want to introduce to you today is a bit special, it is an excellent literary work, but also a controversial literary work, has been rejected by major publishing houses many times (want to publish but dare not publish), including the author himself is difficult to define this book, you can even think of it as a "colored novel". Seeing this, can you guess the book you're going to introduce today? It is the writer Wang Xiaobo's "Golden Age".

Regarding Wang Xiaobo himself, he is a maverick, a way of thinking that is different from ordinary people, the words in his pen have a strong jumping nature, he was not valued before he died, and his works were only popular after his death. This encounter is a bit like Van Gogh and a bit like Kafka.

Let's first talk about some of the stories behind Wang Xiaobo and "The Golden Age", and maybe hearing these stories, you will understand why he died before he became famous.

In 1952, Wang Xiaobo was born into a family of revolutionary intellectuals, the second oldest in the family. At that time, his father was criticized, and the family situation suddenly changed dramatically. Fortunately, the father was finally safe and the family life was gradually returning to the right track, but this sudden change caused a huge blow to Wang Xiaobo.

In 1968, at the age of 17, Wang Xiaobo worked in the Yunnan Corps and began experimenting with writing. The impact of this experience on his life was profound. During this period, he often sat alone in loneliness and loneliness, looking for inspiration for his own creations, loneliness is the best companion for writing, and the experience of this period has also become the background for his future writing of "Golden Age", and it is also the inspiration for his debut work "Long Days".

In 1977, Li Yinhe, then the editor of Guangming Daily, accidentally read the novel manuscript "Green Haired Water Monster" circulated in Wang Xiaobo's circle of friends, so he became deeply interested in this witty and humorous author, and "Green Hairy Water Monster" also became an opportunity for the two to meet and fall in love and get married. In August of the same year, the college entrance examination system was restored, and Wang Xiaobo also applied for the Chinese University the following year and was successfully admitted. After graduating from university, he worked at a branch of Chinese University, and this teaching life was the background for his later writing of works such as "Thirty and Standing", during which time he began to create the famous work "Golden Age" that took ten years to appear.

In 1984, Lin Yinhe was sent to the University of Pittsburgh to study, Wang Xiaobo also came to the University's East Asian Research Center as a graduate student, relying on Li Yinhe's scholarship and odd jobs, Wang Xiaobo wrote and read at ease in the United States, wrote short stories such as "Red Breeze Night Run", and continued to create "Golden Age". After returning to China as a university lecturer for a while, he resigned from a stable teaching position despite everyone's objections and chose to become a full-time writer. But it's not an easy path. Wang Xiaobo's people are maverick, his writing is also unique, most of them can not avoid the fate of being killed, publishing is very difficult, the editors of the publishing house say that the novel is very wonderful, but dare not publish.

Few of Wang Xiaobo's novels have been published in the mainland, and his novel "Golden Age", which he spent more than a decade writing, was published in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 1992, and won the 13th Lianhe Pao Literary Award, the Novella Award and the prize money. Later, Wang Xiaobo used the prize money to buy a house in Shunyi, Beijing, but what Wang Xiaobo did not expect was that the publication of "Golden Age" in the mainland repeatedly hit a wall. The circle feels that this book is well written, but many publishing houses dare not publish it, largely because Wang Xiaobo is bold and open, and even has some heavy taste writing. The "Golden Age" published in Hong Kong was renamed "The History of Wang Er's Wind and Currents" and was classified as a colored novel, facing the cruelty and ruthlessness of reality, Wang Xiaobo at this time was inevitably a little disheartened.

In 1994, Zhao Jieping, then the editor of Huaxia Publishing House, took a huge risk and secretly published "The Golden Age" without his superiors, but was later severely criticized by his superiors. However, what is even more tragic is that the "Golden Age" that was secretly published was dismal in sales because it did not go through formal distribution channels. During that time, it was common to see Wang Xiaobo and Zhao Jieping pushing bicycles, and the back seat was tied to "Golden Age" to run around the large and small book stalls and book wholesale markets to sell. But even with such hard sales, at the time of Wang Xiaobo's death, the set of books was still not sold.

Wang Xiaobo died in 1997. The book continued to sell poorly until four years after his death, when two of his other novels, the Golden Age, formed the Times trilogy, were reprinted and became a bestseller.

This is the story of Wang Xiaobo and the "Golden Age", in the next issue we will introduce in detail what this "colored novel" "Golden Age" has written, and the small partners who like it remember to support it with one key and three times.

XL17 Wang Xiaobo Collection Golden Age + Silver Age + Black Iron Age Era Trilogy ¥98 Purchase