On January 18, 2022, China Poetry Network launched the headline article "Li Shaojun, Editor-in-Chief of Poetry Journal: Calling for the Grand and Magnificent Atmosphere of Poetry in the New Era". Seeing this topic aroused my interest, the view of Li Shaojun, editor-in-chief of the Poetry Journal, which is basically the direction of the current poetry world, and also indicates the future direction of the poetry world.
In this article, Li Shaojun mainly talked about his feelings and harvests when he attended the Tenth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association. Then, combined with his own experience and understanding, he talked about the future development direction of the poetry world. This is indeed a topic worth studying well, and Li Shaojun's article has also written a lot of content.
"This is an era of cultural self-confidence and cultural self-consciousness, from self-ugliness to self-improvement, from self-denial to self-affirmation, from self-deprecation to self-confidence and self-improvement", Li Shaojun's words show that in his view, at least in the poetry world, there is indeed a situation of self-ugliness, self-denial, and self-deprecation.
Indeed, in our poetry circles, there has been the saying that "our poetic aesthetic is a hundred years behind the West", and the view that "the West is the place of the gods of modern poetry". These views, which completely negate our traditional poetry and blindly align with the West, are indeed undesirable.
Under the guidance of such a point of view, our current poetry is blindly imitating the West. What doctrine, what genre, has led to the current poetry becoming the target of public criticism. With the exception of a few insiders, few believe that our poetry reflects the true character of our time.
Therefore, Li Shaojun's words can be regarded as coming to the point. Our culture has a long history, so why should we blindly cater to the West? Why leave our brilliant culture behind? Why should we completely abandon the Tang poems and Song poems, and imitate the so-called modern poems that are different in length, do not rhyme or rhythm?
The role of the baton of "the only central poetry journal" and the "Poetry Journal" is undoubtedly enormous. Li Shaojun, editor-in-chief of the Poetry Journal, can realize this, and that should be a great blessing for our poetry world. If the "Poetry Journal" can abandon the old diseases, open up precedents, and publish more works containing traditional culture, it will inevitably refresh the poetry world, let the poetry re-enter the public, and regain its new life.
However, the further I look at this article, the more disappointed I become. In particular, Li Shaojun said: "Contemporary writer Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem", like Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions", Zhang Ruoxuan's "Spring River Flower Moon Night", and Guo Moruo's "Goddess", is the embodiment of a new world outlook and a new cosmology when a new era arrives. "A little confusing, huh?"
Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Question", Zhang Ruoxuan's "Spring River Flower Moon Night", and Guo Moruo's "Goddess" are all poems, which is no problem. But Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" is not poetry, it is a novel? Or science fiction, how can it be juxtaposed with these poems? Does this reflect the dilemma of modern poetry?
Modern poetry can get his hands on the works, Li Shaojun searched over and over again, and he couldn't find one, so he had to take Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" to top the bag? Don't we have long poetry prizes every year? It is still blown well, and it is an epic that has opened up precedents, why can't it be compared? Li Shaojun's own long poem "Song of Breaking into the Sea" also won the Long Poetry Award.
It seems that Li Shaojun himself knows in his heart that the various poetry awards now can only be a momentary hilarity, and it is not true. If you really want to bring out these award-winning works, you can only make people look at them as a joke. There was no way out, Li Shaojun had to take the "Three-Body Problem" that was not poetry to top the bag.
This also shows from the side that our current poetry world has really come to a time when it has to change. What works have been published in the "Poetry Journal" over the years? What kind of works have been awarded to poetry prizes over the years? Don't even have a work that can barely be handed?
Self-denial requires not only courage, but also perseverance. I hope that Li Shaojun, editor-in-chief of the "Poetry Journal", has found problems, pointed out problems, and can withstand the pressure of all aspects to solve the problem. What can't be said is a set, and it is still the same thing as the old thing. Just shout slogans, then everyone will, and even shout louder than one.