On April 23, 2021, in Beijing, writer Yu Hua brought his new book "Wencheng" to participate in a reader meeting event at Wudaokou Bookstore. / Visual China
For Yu Hua, 2021 is a busy year.
Yu Hua is 61 years old, and for a writer, this age is a turning point in his career. Those who debuted earlier and became famous are more likely to have less pen power than before. Of course, there are exceptions to the late bloom, such as Saramago, who wrote "The Blind Man" at the age of 73, and Italo Svevo, who wrote "Zeno's Consciousness" at the age of 60 and became his stream of consciousness masterpiece. As for which category Yu Hua belongs to, this is a matter of opinion.
However, in 2021, Yu Hua is busy. This year, in his collection, a new "Wencheng" that has been brewing for more than 20 years has been added. In addition to being busy with literature, he also "walked the cave" for the first time. He attended a business event and taught students the skills of exam-taking essays, which was confusing for a while. In addition, in Jia Zhangke's new work "Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue", Yu Hua also plays the role of a documentary narrator, and in addition to telling passages as always, he also takes people back to the "golden age" of literature.
Stills from "Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue".
"Whatever you write
Criticism will come to you."
The decline of literature is an indisputable fact at the moment. Today's books, which can sell tens of thousands of copies, can be called bestsellers. Some market acceptance is not high, the first print of three or five thousand copies, can already be regarded as a brave attempt. But these, for Yu Hua, are not a problem.
As one of the few writers in China with public influence, his new work "Wencheng" was first printed in 500,000 copies, and 100,000 copies were printed the next day in pre-sale. These numbers appear in the book market, and it is almost like a fantasy. When Zheng Zhi, Zhou Kai and other young writers participated in an interview with Blancpain Republic, they exclaimed that this was an achievement that was unattainable in his lifetime.
From the content point of view, "Wencheng" is still Yu Hua's most convenient story mode. He did not pursue complex structures, nor did he adopt the sharp tone of the pioneers as in his early creations. Or perhaps because of this, "Wencheng" is like a traditional and even somewhat conservative novel.
The whole text of "Wencheng" is divided into two parts. In the main chapter, Yu Hua tells the story of Lin Xiangfu, a man from the north, who took his daughter to Nanfangxi Town to find his wife Xiaomei. If it's just pure pursuit, it will seem too boring. Yu Hua, who is well versed in this way, let his personal fate stir into the tide of the times. During the turbulent period, warlords were fighting and bandits were rampant, and Lin Xiangfu finally did not find his wife, but was also killed by bandits.
In the supplement, Yu Hua focuses on the love between the child's mother, Xiaomei and Ah Qiang. The two are "mandarin ducks with a bitter fate", after eloping away from home, poor and destitute, forced to make a living, Ah Qiang pretended to be Xiaomei's brother and married him to the rich family Kuo Shaolin Xiangfu. But the good times did not last long, and Xiaomei escaped with the money after giving birth to the daughter. Many years later, Ah Qiang, Xiaomei and the deceased Lin Xiangfu passed by and froze to death in the wind and snow.
To the reader, it seems that only two paragraphs can completely summarize the content of the entire book. Therefore, Yu Hua, a national writer, has also attracted different voices. The comments on one side are naturally in the circle, and most people praise his works.
On April 23, 2021, at Page ONE Bookstore in Wudaokou, Beijing, Yu Hua held a reader meet and greet event in the store with his new book "Wencheng". /Visual China
Professor Jin Li of the Department of Chinese of Fudan University commented: "Violent and warm, sad and not desperate, both bitter love drama and a little exciting thing." Yang Qingxiang, a professor at the College of Letters of Chinese Min University, interpreted this work from the spatial dimension of the geography of the north and south. He said that this work integrates the two cultures of the north and the south, and embodies faith, righteousness, and love, which is the reason for the endless life of Chinese civilization.
But people who don't buy it are also everywhere. "Mediocre works", "old shuangwen", "second-rate legendary novels", readers do their best to put all the bad reviews they can think of on "Wencheng". Everyone who is held on the altar by the reader will one day be dragged back to the human world by the same group of people. This is timeless. And "Wencheng" has become just such an introduction.
However, Yu Hua did not care much about those opinions. For him, the swarming scolding is only one of thousands of evaluations, "Some people pay attention to it, and only then do people scold." He attaches great importance to those who criticize sincerely and pertinently; but he can only laugh at those who scold for the sake of scolding, and the right is for others to vent their emotions. In an interview with Southern Weekend, Yu Hua admitted that he had been scolded for more than 40 years, starting with "Brothers" and "The Seventh Day", and now becoming "Wencheng". "Whatever you write, criticism comes to you," he said. ”
But what puzzled him was that in the past, when he and Mo Yan and others were at the Lu Xun Literature Institute, whether they were talking about literature at home or abroad, they would always pick out their strengths for mutual exchange and learning. But now, some writers and readers are often staring at shortcomings. This kind of writing ecology makes him feel a little uncomfortable—maybe the world has really changed.
Writers teach compositions
Is it "literature is dead"?
What pushed Yu Hua to the cusp of public opinion was a commercial event he attended. On March 10 last year, he delivered a speech at the event on "How to get a high score in the middle and high school entrance examination essay". A writer who did not pass the college entrance examination to teach the composition skills of test-taking education sounds more like the bridge section that appears in the black humor novel, but it happened to Yu Hua.
The content shared by Yu Hua mainly has three points: first, whether the title is broad or not will affect the tension of the composition; second, writing things must have a central idea; third, writing should have bright spots, good words and good sentences, are all scoring tools. These suggestions are no different from those of ordinary teachers. But precisely because these words were said by Yu Hua, doubts poured in.
Yu Hua specially prepared a speech for this purpose. /@Red Star Video
Some netizens believe that "Yu Hua teaches composition, just like Zhang Yimou teaches you to shoot short videos." Others, modeled on Roland Barthes's line, commented that "literature is dead." In the minds of some readers, Yu Hua's participation in such activities means that sacred literature has been trampled and humiliated.
At a book sharing meeting in Wudaokou, Beijing, someone questioned Yu Hua. Yu Hua said: "Today's literature is in the front of the charge, and the language is down to 'pick peaches'. The value of literature lies in openness, but when it enters the textbook, the teacher can only educate students in this closed way. ”
In fact, every year, the education and training industry will invite similar celebrities to stand. An indisputable thing, put on Yu Hua, who was a big move, was raised to such a high level of value. Equating Yu Hua's name with the rise and fall of serious literature is a biased argument. In contrast, those who are mixed in the so-called literary academic circles and do utilitarian things in the name of research should be criticized.
In a given era, literature is indeed a white moonlight. But in an age of commercial success stories, there should also be a new way out for those who work in literature, because, after all, the choice should not belong to only a few. Moreover, literature is not a product of narrowness, and within its framework, anything can be allowed to happen.
Swim until the water turns blue
Also last year, Yu Hua also lit up on the big screen. In Jia Zhangke's "Swim Until the Sea Turns Blue", Yu Hua is one of the narrators. This documentary shows the past of different generations of writers and their hometowns, thus sorting out the context of the development of Chinese literature. The film was originally called "Literature of a Village", but when Yu Hua was partially filmed, Jia Zhangke felt Yu Hua's words and changed the title.
In the film, Yu Hua tells a lot of memories related to Haiyan, Zhejiang. He said that because he liked to be lazy and took a fancy to the idle errands of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, he began to write novels and aspired to work in them. This was the beginning of his career as a writer. In addition, he also talked about people's attention and respect for literature in the 1980s and 1990s. Many viewers watched it and felt that in the era of material abundance, the spiritual world could be so full.
In the process of narration, Yu Hua did not hide the hardships of his life. However, the way he adopts expression, like Fugui in "Alive", has some cunning "little cleverness" in his tenacity. Although many of the clips have been told many times by Yu Hua in public, the humor and clarity revealed by Yu Hua still make his chapter the most popular part of the film.
In fact, as early as 2002, Yu Hua talked about the relationship between his literary path and his hometown at the Sydney Writers Festival. In his speech, he said: "Although I have lived in Beijing for more than a decade, I still feel that this is someone else's city. I think that the place where a writer lived in his childhood is his city, and childhood is like a photocopier, copying the first image of the world in my whole consciousness, and only adding a little or modifying a little to this photocopy when I am an adult. So, even if I find a good story in Beijing, I have to move it to my hometown to write it, so that I can be sure. ”
It is undeniable that Yu Hua's generation has a strong contingency in becoming a writer. Most of them are "halfway out of the house", with love and hard work, and eventually become masters in the field of literature. Therefore, extreme readers should also be optimistic, and do not have to use lofty stereotypes to judge Yu Hua's generation of writers.
At the end of the film, Yu Hua walks on the breakwater, the sea breeze pulls his hair to the side, and he opens his arms and moves forward against the wind. He and Jia Zhangke talked about their childhood swimming memories. He said: "Just keep swimming, keep swimming, swim until the sea turns blue." "Today, the water is really blue.
Author | Liu Xu
Typography | Fang Yongxin
Original title | Yu Hua: Today's literature can still charge into the battlefield
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