Young writer | Chen Tao: Finding poetry among the mountains

Chen Tao, a member of the China Writers Association, holds a doctorate in literature and works for the China Writers Publishing Group. He is the author of non-fiction works "Years in the Mountains" and "Between the Mountains". His works were selected as the key publications of the Propaganda Department's theme publishing, and won the Bingxin Prose Award and the Chinese Young Writer Award. He is the chief editor of the "Chinese Youth Literature Collection" and "Lantern". In February 2021, he was awarded the title of "National Advanced Individual in Poverty Alleviation".

Author: Jiao Minlong, reporter of China Young Writers Daily

Six years ago, the 36-year-old Chen Tao was selected as an outstanding young cadre to hang out in Yeliguan Town, Lintan County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, for two years. From the capital to the small town of Northwest, those 24 months, writing gave him the strength to quiet down. In reading and writing, he learned to enjoy solitude and fill his heart, growing from a literary worker to a real writer, and successively published non-fiction works such as "Years in the Mountains" and "Between the Mountains".

Awarded the National Advanced Individual Honor for Poverty Alleviation, he believes that the work "always needs someone to do it, but it just so happens that I am one of those people." In that battle, the writers and writers were always present and were not absent."

Chen Tao said that he is glad that he has such an unforgettable time in his life, refining his youth and character, and making his whole life full of more and more abundant and vast possibilities.

Integrate into the social classroom to absorb nutrition and have a deeper understanding of the local cultural landscape

Chen Tao's childhood home was in Weifang, Shandong Province, within a 200-meter radius of almost all the schools and bookstores in the town. That's why he loved to go to bookstores since he was a child. He bluntly said that he had lived a very happy life since he was a child, thanks to his parents' business and good family, and he did not easily change his life ideals because of practical difficulties. When he went to college, he chose Chinese major according to his preferences, "then he said I was going to write a book."

Although he has written and published many reviews, essays, and novels since his 20s, he feels that most of his works are expressing personal emotions and playing with words.

In Chen Tao's view, going to Lintan County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, is the starting point for him to truly become a writer. Since then, he has successively completed "Years in the Mountains" and "Between the Mountains". "These works are a grander expression of personal emotion." He said he was more in awe of words.

Unlike some writers who maintain strict writing habits, Chen Tao does not give himself regular quantification, "write what you want." He explains this "casualness" as: be sure to write what you like and want to write, not only to complete a good written record and self-expression, but also to impress the reader. Even if you write a propositional essay, you must "reach things", and you must be integrated with the theme of writing, "words that arise from the heart will impress the reader".

In April 2015, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Office of the Central Rural Work Leading Group, and the former Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council issued the Notice on Selecting and Dispatching Outstanding Cadres of Organs to Villages to Serve as First Secretaries. At that time, many people were unfamiliar with targeted poverty alleviation, and not many people signed up. Chen Tao often felt that his daily life was routine and mediocre, and wanted to actively integrate into the social classroom to absorb nutrition, so he signed up for Yeliguan Town, Lintan County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province.

Whether it's as a teacher at a university in Qingdao or later going to Lu Xun Academy to be a class teacher for writers, Chen Tao of Capricorn says he's used to doing things rigorously and paying attention to orderliness.

A stop-and-go journey on the prairie with no specific schedule; a meeting was held but the township cadres prevaricated with "just coming" and "on the road" to "release pigeons"... When he first arrived, Chen Tao was once very uncomfortable with this kind of freewheeling work and life rhythm, "feeling that he was out of control, like falling into a weightless situation."

Later, he found that the immersive style of collecting style can make him have a deeper understanding of the local humanistic style, the township cadres are not "Buddhist", and there are indeed uncertainties in the work arrangement. In those two years, he learned to find a balance with the local work life, allowing himself to relax moderately and plunge into the interior of life. So that after returning to Beijing, he no longer pursued perfection as in the past, and tried to prioritize the work tasks, and the urgent things could be done quickly, and vice versa.

Read about native China in the corners of the mountains and try to find a poetic feeling

During the 24 months of hanging up his post, Chen Tao sought pleasure in suffering. How bitter is it? He worked and lived in the same office, and once failed to take a shower for nearly 3 months. He joked that "the ultraviolet rays in the highland area are strong, and not bathing is also a kind of protection for the skin".

How to enjoy? At night, when he was idle, he practiced brush writing, copied poems, and sent away visiting friends, so he wrote a "farewell" "Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the grass is green in the sky"; friends in the south sent specialties, and wrote a "Gift Fan Ye Poem" "Jiangnan has nothing, talk about giving a branch of spring"; also copied some poems describing Gannan to experience the author's feelings about this land.

Of course, reading is also an indispensable project. He read "Native China" and "Jiangcun Economy", which are related to the "three rural areas", and also read Qian Mu's books on Chinese studies, "The room was full of books. The sofa is broken and will sink as soon as you sit down. Reading books makes life more meaningful. ”

"Life will give people a lot of tribulations, if you blindly immerse yourself in it and complain about the world, you will never experience the poetic side that life brings you, and you must try to find a poetic feeling." 」 Chen Tao said.

However, the free time of the suspended post is not limited to reading and copying poetry. The people of Gannan are hospitable, and drinking alcohol at night in winter is a way of life. Chen Tao was often invited to participate in the liquor bureau, and at first it was very unaccustomed to seeing someone drunk. As soon as I went to the wine table, I always heard local friends say, "Today my stomach will be handed over to you" and "I want to accompany the guests"... He gradually felt that this was actually a courtesy of the locals to their friends and a respect for the guests from the bones.

In August 2021, his 160,000-word non-fiction literary work "Between the Mountains" officially met with readers, and used "Looking Back", "At That Time", "Shifeng" and "Youth" to write about what he saw and felt in the 24-month hanging poverty alleviation work. I heard that the book written by Secretary Chen was related to Yeliguan, and everyone in the village asked him for a book. He sees the book as a collection of nonfiction works, "and the chapters of the book, 'The Mountain Guest' and 'The Death of Mangla Township', are written in the style of a novel. ”

In the chapter "Children on the Earth", he told that during his suspension period, in addition to his daily work, he spent 8 months doing student assistance activities in 5 townships in the county, such as Yeliguan, issuing a love initiative to writers and social benevolent people across the country, receiving a large number of books, clothes, teaching aids and other materials for teenagers; not only setting up a library and a calligraphy room, but also mastering the reading situation of students through borrowing books; asking calligraphers from all over the world to write and hang them in schools and rural bookstores, so that children can feel the charm of calligraphy and painting art. "Cultural poverty alleviation is our own job, and the fourth local secretary has taken over this work and continued this work idea."

In the chapter "Cultivation", he tells that he and grassroots cadres repeatedly negotiated with a villager to pay for land requisition and cooperate with road construction. Chen Tao said that this chapter is called "cultivation", which is a pun, on the one hand, referring to the construction of roads, on the other hand, to self-cultivation. In his view, cadres at the town and village levels often have to face sharp controversies and conflicts, and when peasants do not know much about state policies, they cannot implement policies mechanically, and they must communicate and coordinate repeatedly to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the masses to the greatest extent.

After the publication of "Between the Mountains", her daughter Maizi not only finished reading the book, but also proudly took her to the school to share it with her classmates. The chapter "Can Not Be Read" contains a family letter written by Chen Tao to his daughter. As he read the letter, the wheat wept.

Talking about the two years of hanging work, he still feels indebted to his daughter, who only went to kindergarten when he left home, there is no obvious separation anxiety, and when he was 5 years old, he often called his father to ask "why not come back". Now, Maizi is 10 years old, Chen Tao laughed and said, "She loves to listen to books, she does not love to read", but like herself, her daughter loves books, and after listening to classic stories such as "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", her writing ability is also good, and sometimes the composition will be selected by the teacher as a class model.

Position, vision, and world view determine the direction of writing words, and we must understand the ideas we want to express in our hearts

"I was far away from Beijing, and even away from literature, which also made me jump out of the inherent trajectory of life and examine my previous life and myself." Looking back on those two years of hanging out of work experience, Chen Tao said that life makes people real, not impetuous, not vain, "Before, I was particularly concerned about the views of others. After going to the countryside, I paid more attention to my own heart. If one thing is right, stick to it. ”

After a fierce son plunged into the grassroots, he found that life educated himself, and finally clarified what is alive and what is life. "To live is to eat, to sleep, and other specific things; and life is to live hard, to truly invest yourself in what you do, to be always enthusiastic about life, to maintain a high-spirited, indomitable spirit, and to learn to discover the beauty of life." 」 Even if you encounter setbacks, you must try to find poetry from the difficulties. ”

Chen Tao said that to study literature, it is necessary to see the complexity of human nature, to look at life and human nature dialectically, to always have a reverence for life, and to truly understand the rich connotation of life. "Literature is anthropology, and writing is writing about people." When moving forward at full speed on the road of literary creation, Chen Tao always pays attention to how to control the details. He said that when using words to show people, regions, and events, it relies on touchable details that can move people. For example, how do you "write" a character? He believes that it is necessary to observe the speech expression habits and living habits of the characters, and enrich the cognition of the characters like examining the cadres.

After publishing two non-fiction literary works in succession, "Years in the Mountains" and "Between the Mountains", Chen Tao felt that he had found a suitable writing style for himself. He said that "Between the Mountains" contains both fictional novel style content and real character stories, as well as poetry and letters to his daughter. He describes the non-fiction genre as a basket where "so many things can fit in." "Different genres are mixed together to present a richer literary landscape. The author's way of expression does not have to be constrained. ”

For example, Chen Tao said that Liang Hong's "China in Liangzhuang", Liu Zichao's "Lost Satellite - A Journey into Eurasia", and Huang Lantern's "My Second Student" are all excellent non-fiction literary works that face social problems and are very powerful. In his view, non-fiction works are not completely reportage, and are more inclusive and literary than reportage.

Compared with other young writers, Chen Tao has an excellent professional platform and resources. After working at Lu Xun Academy of Literature for 9 years, he listened to thousands of literature classes. He liked Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, and Tolstoy, and the habit of reading and listening to lectures helped him constantly correct his literary concepts. He experienced the different literary concepts of different creators, and thus determined the kind that suited him. "Literature, for me, is a way of life. Be sure to write, to express, to write out what you see and feel. ”

It is impossible to write on the road without confusion. Chen Tao frankly said that at present, his literary creation also needs to more accurately grasp the writing scale of the subject matter, especially how to write more sharp events. "The position, vision, and worldview determine the direction of writing words, and we must understand the ideas we want to express in our hearts."

Use words to engrave the traces of poverty alleviation in the village, and set out for another kind of life

For young people who also have writing confusion, Chen Tao suggested that in terms of mentality, we should fear life and respect words, neither use words as games, nor can we play life, we must be really down-to-earth and be patient in writing; in terms of practice, we must read, train, walk, travel, read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles, and go deep into literature. He also reminded that some people are particularly obsessed with literature at present, believing that "without literature it is impossible", and it is not necessary to do so, but to use it as a way of life to express themselves.

Standing at the starting point of the New Year, Chen Tao set some writing plans for himself: prepare to write rural education works with children's literature, or will continue to focus on the grassroots in the northwest region; want to write about some interesting craftsmen such as bicycle repairers, shoe repairers, unlocks, fried fritters on the street; intend to challenge themselves and write some works of academic nature, such as taking the river as the key word, writing about the river in history, reality, and poetry, "To constantly improve the difficulty of writing for yourself and give readers a sense of freshness." ”

After returning to Beijing for more than 4 years, Chen Tao still maintained contact with many grassroots young cadres in Gansu. He said with emotion that in those 24 months, everyone was growing together, which was precious. After returning to Beijing, Chen Tao never rode a motorcycle again, nor was he able to go to Langshan. He recalled to reporters the scene of going to Langshan with several young cadres: We were in a very primitive forest, fetching some water from the river, boiling lamb to eat, the mobile phone had no signal, and it was isolated from the outside world. "It is a state of unity between heaven and man, and man is integrated into nature. Man is a part of nature, very small, as if returning to the embrace of nature. Although in the past two years, he has also gone to the outskirts of Beijing to climb mountains and eat barbecue meat, he bluntly said that it is a completely different feeling from in Gannanlang Mountain, "People are still people, mountains are still mountains, nature is still nature, it cannot be integrated." ”

Gansu to Chen Tao is a cluster of memories that cannot be erased in his mind. When he was stationed in the village, he ate noodles for three meals a day, and on the morning of the first day of work in Beijing, he actually sent God to eat a bowl of noodles at a Lanzhou noodle restaurant near his unit. "I don't know why, it's to eat a bowl of noodles and then go to work, it's a sense of ceremony." Now when I see Lanzhou beef noodles, I can't help but go in and eat a bowl. ”

After the publication of "Between the Mountains", Chen Tao did not expect that industry experts would take the initiative to open a seminar for his own works, and involved 3 places in Beijing, Gansu and Guangdong. "As the protagonist of the conference, I was sincerely afraid, but I was very rewarding and inspired. The more I feel that I have to write well and live up to everyone's expectations. Chen Tao said.

Source: China Youth Daily client