Lin Xi, writer, screenwriter, member of the China Film Literature Society, has published 5 million words in more than 100 newspapers and periodicals, published 20 essay collections such as "Nothing CanNot Be Changed", "Life Doesn't Need Too Much Luggage", novels "The Age of Gossip", "Behind the Yang Conspiracy" and film and television drama works.
Some of Lin Xi's works were published in China Youth Daily. (Draft:Hengwen only)
Author: Lin Xi
A work sharing meeting before the New Year, I accidentally met the editor of "China Young Writers Daily", I used to write to newspapers and periodicals, I had a natural affinity for newspaper editors, so I talked enthusiastically, and learned that "China Young Writers Daily" was sponsored by China Youth Daily, I couldn't help but be very emotional, my thoughts returned to the distant 1997, I met with "China Youth Daily" by chance, opened my literary journey, and also left a deep regret ...
The bitterness and wandering of youth need to be confided in people. The best way to talk is to write
After graduating from university, I worked as a teacher at a key high school in Dalian. From school to the workplace, the desk is replaced by a desk, although the position is not large, but it finally has a place in the society. But life has not changed much, every day at three o'clock, offices, classrooms, dormitories, the days are monotonous and repetitive, and every day I see the same people. Is this the life you want? I do not know. I was lost in confusion and pain.
In fact, looking back now, it is not a pain, but the bitterness and wandering of youth, which needs to be confided in people. The best way to talk is to write. So I picked up my pen and wrote my first essay, "Back Shadow." After writing, I don't know who to vote for, I ran to the school reading room to read the newspapers and magazines, and saw the "Young Essayist" introducing the writer Sanmao, my favorite writer, feeling very lucky, so I sent the article out.
Two months later, the article was published, which gave me great confidence, and I spent my spare time writing, successively publishing many works in Dalian Daily and Dalian Evening News. Because of these works, I was transferred to the newspaper as a reporter and had a new place.
I thought I had published articles, had writing skills, and wrote news reports. Unexpectedly, the first draft was returned by the director of the department, saying that my subjective feelings and psychological descriptions were too much, unlike reports like prose. This left me feeling frustrated. But sagittarius I became more and more frustrated, and I studied journalism theory on my own while exploring in practice.
Once I came back from an interview, the director of the department said, your manuscript is on the front page, two questions. My eyes were a little moist, and I couldn't help but say with emotion: In order to write a good news report, I have given up writing prose.
I thought the director would praise me, but he said: Don't give up. Your prose is very spirited, but the material is relatively single, which is related to the previous experience. Now the work of journalists will open your horizons, contact all levels of society, enrich creative materials, increase the sociality and profundity of your prose, and resonate with more readers.
I folded my hands and said heartily: Thank you Director. I thought you would object, it was a side hustle outside of work.
The director waved his hand and said domineeringly: Regardless of the main business and side business, as long as you can write a good article, you will boldly engage in it. Good articles will affect people's lives, and even change their destiny, I was reading the "Freezing Point" special article "Yangtze River Crusoe" of China Youth Daily, and my blood was boiling, before I turned to journalism. "China Youth Daily" I must read every day, you want to be able to publish articles here, I invite you to dinner.
I took "China Youth Daily", read it carefully, read it while conceiving, and wrote "The Horizon That Never Disappears" based on one of the entrepreneurs I interviewed, and submitted it to the supplement department. Soon, the article was published, and on June 13, 1997, the "Life" edition of China Youth Daily. For others, this is an ordinary day, but it means a lot to me, I interrupted for a year to resume prose writing, I can publish in the national newspaper, I don't feel a little fluttery, I feel that I rushed out of Dalian and went to the whole country.
I excitedly took the newspaper to see the director, and the director nodded his head and said that it was very good, no pride, zero mentality, and continued to write.
I looked at him, and I had a clever move and said, the next article will be "Mentality To Zero".
Published the first collection of essays, "The Last Train Always Returns in Despair", more than a hundred essays in the book, one-third of which were published by China Youth Daily
After "Zero Mentality", I wrote a number of essays such as "Knocking on the Door Alone" and "Seeds of Success", the material was collected during the interview, and some were heard at the dinner table, I did not like the dinner bureau before, and now in order to listen to the story, I mix the rice circle all day. Friends asked me for dinner, but they didn't say an appointment, they said hurry up and give you a good story. By the end of the year, the newly added names in the address book were all people with stories, all of them were my "models", and I described them in words and posted them in the life supplement. Start with one article per month, and publish 3 articles in a row in November, which is equivalent to opening a column in "Life".
1997 was my lucky year, not only the news reports on the front page of this newspaper, but also the "life" journey of China Youth Daily, which was a real surprise.
What surprised me even more was that on the last day of the end of the year, I received a letter from Tang Weizhong, the editor of "Life", not printed or handwritten, and the beginning was called: Mr. Lin Xi, I was scared, but I didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly looked down:
Your prose is very characteristic, concise and clear, without too much foreshadowing, like a machine gun, straight to the point, into the story. I appreciate that in the future, although there is a manuscript sent over, I regard you as my own person, can be sent or not, I will try my best, or transfer to other suitable pages. But I think that at this stage, don't write too much and too fast, some materials should be precipitated, thick and thin, and complete the inner release.
You are forming your own style, and style is a sign of a writer's maturity. I believe that in the future, you will have a place in the Chinese literary world.
I hurriedly showed the letter to the director, who nodded as he looked at it, and said, Do you know, female writers Bing Xin, Yang Dai, and other people, the editor was honored as Mr. when he wrote the letter. It looks like you're going to be the climate. In the future, there will be a place in the literary world, don't forget China Youth Daily, which is the cradle of your growth.
How could I forget? Because in the "China Youth Daily" continuous publication of works, several articles were selected by the "Reader" and "Youth Digest", my reputation in the industry soared, and the editors of newspapers and periodicals in various provinces and cities asked me for manuscripts, if 1997 was a lucky year, 1998-2000 was a bumper harvest year. My average monthly publication record in China Youth Daily is not only the "Life" edition of the Youth Hotline, but also the "Under the Roof" of Life Weekly, and at the same time publishes articles and columns in more than 100 newspapers and periodicals across the country. As the director said, it is going to become a climate.
In 2000, I signed a contract with the China Youth Publishing House to publish the first collection of essays, "The Last Train Always Returns in Despair", in which more than 100 essays were published by China Youth Daily. After the book was published, three more publishers contacted me and published four collections of essays in one year. It was also this year that I decided to quit my job and write full-time.
In four years of journalistic work, I have learned and gained more than four years of college. But if people want to move forward, they have to learn to say goodbye. When I said goodbye to the director, I was ashamed inside. He single-handedly cultivated me and supported me in my side business, and now I want to turn my side business into my main business and leave the newspaper. I'm really sorry for him.
But he didn't blame him in the slightest, just smiled bitterly and said, I had expected to have today. You have a place in the literary world, and you don't need our land anymore.
When I submitted my first manuscript to Life, when Teacher Tang Weizhong sent me a handwritten letter, we had already seen it. In the world of words, we have ever seen each other in the purest form
I don't know if I have a place, I don't even know where the literary world is, it's not like the schools and newspapers I work for, there's a building, there's an office, it's a concrete presence. It is invisible and abstract. I quit my job to write a novel, I interviewed the CEO of a listed company, the process from entrepreneurship to listing has ups and downs, the prose can not present such a heavy subject, can only write a long novel. It takes a whole chunk of time and can't be written in fragments like before.
When I conducted in-depth interviews, studied the materials, and prepared to write, I found that I lacked the skills and had no experience in writing long stories. I was afraid of living up to such a good subject, so I decided to write a romance novel first and practice penmanship. I picked out a few characters from the previous prose, built a story, and wrote a 200,000-word long debut work "Love Is Not in the Service Area" in a month, and then revised according to the opinions of the publishing house, published in Sina serial, was favored by a film and television company, bought film and television rights, let me be a screenwriter, and stepped into the film and television circle. Once you enter the film and television, the depth of the water is like the sea, the place where there is more money is deeper, the film and television circle is much more complicated than the literary circle, and there is no one like Tang Weizhong who is a kind editor.
In 2003, Reader magazine signed hundreds of writers, which has a high reputation in the contemporary Chinese literary world, and is also the most concentrated and frequent use of Reader's works. I was fortunate enough to be selected, and the following year I was invited to Lanzhou to attend a PEN conference and met the famous writers Zhao Lihong and Xiao Fuxing. Two great writers were mild-mannered and approachable, and I talked about literature and writing. I remembered what Teacher Tang Weizhong said in his letter that "there is a place in the literary world", not only was I a little ashamed, but I mistakenly entered the film and television circle and became farther and farther away from the "land".
Returning to Dalian from Lanzhou, I took care of the matter at hand, buried my head in writing the business war novels I wanted to write, and returned to the ranks of writers. It took a year to complete the second full-length "Dark Box", which was first published in the original edition of the novel monthly newspaper, and then published in a single book.
At the end of 2009, I left Dalian and moved to Beijing. I wanted to prepare a generous gift to visit Teacher Tang Weizhong, but this made me difficult. Any worldly gift, the unique affection between me and him, seems too light. Only works are the best gifts. I found out more than a dozen collections of essays and two novels that I had published, and once, this was my pride, but now that I look at it, I have produced many dissatisfactions, and I feel that the weight is insufficient, not enough to prove my place in the literary world.
I closed the door and immersed myself in writing a third novel. After completing the first draft, I repeatedly revised it, finally satisfied, handed it to the publishing house, and finally got the new book, you can go to see Teacher Tang, but I saw it in the newspaper: Tang Weizhong, deputy editor-in-chief of China Youth Daily, suffered a sudden heart attack during a business trip and was ineffective in rescue, and unfortunately died.
I was so shocked I couldn't believe it was true!
Since he left the "Life" supplement, the connection between us has been broken, but the connection between our hearts has never been broken. I knew he went to the main news department, to the editor-in-chief's office, and I knew that he was not only a good editor, but also a good journalist who wrote a lot of influential stories. Over the years, as long as I see his signed articles, I have carefully read them. Along the way, from newspaper typewriting to laser printing, we witnessed the golden age of newspapers. What a wonderful time it was! The unsavory editor rewrote the manuscript for the obscure author, sending a handwritten letter with ink fragrance across thousands of miles. Did he know how much power this thin piece of letterhead carried? Did he know that this noble "place" inspired me on the edge of the literary world?
I believe he knew, though I never told him personally.
A month later, I went to the "China Writers" magazine for a symposium, and my mood was still a little low. When I met the editor-in-chief and the famous writer Mr. Akbar, I couldn't help but talk about Teacher Tang Weizhong and pour out this regret that we knew but had never seen each other.
He listened silently and comforted me, saying that you don't have to blame yourself, in fact, there is another way to meet between editors and authors, that is, in the world of words.
I was silent. Writing is to create an illusory world with words, but for the creator, it is incomparably real, that is, to take off the mask and remove the disguise, without the slightest impurity, to show the most authentic self. In fact, when I submitted the first manuscript to "Life", when Teacher Tang Weizhong sent me a handwritten letter, we had already seen it. In the world of words, we have ever seen each other in the purest form.
Teacher Aikbayer took us to visit the magazine, and on the wall hung portraits of Ba Jin, Mao Dun, Lao She, and Feng Mu, and I looked at them, and the feeling of reverence suddenly arose, and I couldn't help but sigh: All these years I have been thinking, where is the literary world? It turned out to be here, in this building.
The editor-in-chief of Akbar said, no, the literary world is not here, it is in your heart.
China Young Writers Daily, January 11, 2022, 16th edition
Source: China Youth Daily client