The Monkey and the Boy
Wang Meng's latest novel
A book of wisdom that runs through the past and the future,
Wang Meng dedicated it to the most unforgettable monkeys,
Steaming hot with the times,
This is the echo of long live youth.
At the beginning of the new year, Wang Meng, winner of the "People's Artist" Mao Dun Literature Award, launched his latest novel "Monkeys and Teenagers" at Guangdong Huacheng Publishing House.
Shi Bingyan, an old revolutionary and expert at the age of ninety,
Recalling his experience of working and living in a mountain village in the base area of the anti-Japanese guerrillas more than sixty years ago,
Missing the lovely young Hou Changyou, remembering The Third Young Master of The Wise and the Unfortunate Little Monkey,
Recall the entanglement and interaction of fate between the Third Young Master and the teenager.
Except for a son of a landlord who has gone and returned,
There is also a Wang Meng, who is also a fictional character.
Through the perspective of novelist Wang Meng, "Monkeys and Youth" tells the life of shi Bingyan, a ninety-year-old foreign literature expert. In 1958, the young Shi Bingyan came to Da walnut Shuyu Village, Luoying Township, Beiqingshan District, and began different life experiences, experiences and reverie. He met a young Hou Changyou who had a wonderful fate with the monkey "Three Young Masters", and in his decades-long interaction with Changyou, he could glimpse the changes in the fate of the times and characters.
The protagonist of the novel is not afraid of difficulties, has the courage to accept challenges, bravely assumes the responsibility of the times, is calm and determined, knows his destiny, and is frank and frank. The fiery labor made Shi Bingyan change his living method and change his body, but he still retained his fiery heart and faith, and the encounter with the teenager was a thought that he still felt deeply happy in retrospect decades later.
"Monkeys and Teenagers" is the latest novel of "People's Artist" Wang Meng. In Wang Meng's theme of old age, the past is always alive, youth is still long live, and old age is boundlessly beautiful. This time, the monkey "Three Young Masters" he wrote unforgettablely is the favorite in his novel.
Wonderful Book Reviews:
Listening to Grandpa's Dad tell stories - reading "Monkeys and Teenagers" has a feeling
Author: Yuan Yun
"Monkeys and Teenagers" is Mr. Wang Meng's new work, as far as Mr. Wang Meng's age is concerned, readers like me after the 80s should call him Grandpa, for the younger generation of readers, it is naturally the grandfather's father level. For contemporary readers, this is a writer who spans four generations and continues to work tirelessly. Professor Wen Fengqiao, director of the Wang Meng Institute of Literature at ocean university of China, said: "If you want to understand China's ancient literature, read 'Dream of the Red Chamber'; if you want to understand China's modern literature, read Lu Xun; if you want to understand China's contemporary literature, read Wang Meng." When I opened "Monkeys and Teenagers", the first impact on me was "time".
In 2021, shi Bingyan, a foreign literature expert born in 1930, recalled his different life experiences since 1958. He talked to his little brother Wang Meng about his experiences and various reverie. He was quite excited. ”
This is the beginning of "Monkeys and Teenagers", mr. Wang Meng listening to the story of Shi Bingyan, who is four years older than him, the memories of an old man who is old, and the presentation of a writer in his old age, reading with respect.
I don't remember where I saw the saying, "Spend some time every day with the elderly over 70 and the children under 6, you can get more wisdom in life, more innocence." Reading "Monkeys and Teenagers" seems to meet these two conditions at the same time, Mr. Wang Meng's shi Bingyan's youth, prime-age, middle-aged, and elderly in a pile by piece, inseparable from the social environment, interpreting the experience of tasting and reminiscing, hoping that readers of "children" and "grandchildren" can listen to the words of "old people" and see their own way. From this point of view, I think that this "Monkey and the Teenager" can be classified as a children's literature sequence, although children who may be in the real childhood age may not read and understand, but the expression of "monkeys" "physical fitness, action lightning, cliff climbing, desperate life, flashing and moving, climbing branches and jumping branches, gambling and fruits" is not exactly the nature and photography of children?
Whether the child can read and understand is actually not so important, as long as he "sees" the old grandfather's father is still learning and working hard, and does not want to have any difference, it is a force that does not slacken forward.
And "he is ninety, an hour a day will not be bad, if the difference of five minutes, then five minutes later is not bad, if the difference of ten months, then, a little peace of mind, you are stretched, unless you have heart failure brain collapse father chase the sun and time race to grab the head." Such a language, one day children will understand, will be glad that before they have experienced, someone has already told the story, so in the future, no matter how fate "challenges" them, they will be like a brave warrior, brave to cut through thorns, bravely move forward, achieve victory, become the wise man of life.
Because Grandpa's father has long said, "People can't live in big cities from a young age, make a fire in winter, eat watermelon in summer, add popsicles, go out on trams and buses, ride bicycles, roads are completed by others, cross the street to see traffic lights, hungry to buy burnt cakes, shredded meat soup noodles or vegetarian soup noodles, big eye sockets, light bulbs at home, and running water." You can't think that the earthen mountains in the park are mountains, the small lakes and small ponds in the city and the suburban reservoirs are the water sources, hydrological and water features, and buildings and so on, the higher and higher..." These seemingly "outdated" scenes, will child readers ask, "Daddy, did Grandpa's father come from 'ancient'?" Our answer, of course, is no, even if she thinks that young and beautiful mothers are "very old and very old" in the eyes of children.
Time is fair to anyone, children, teenagers, youth, prime-age, middle-aged, old age are fleeting, yesterday is today's history, today is tomorrow's history, when these histories become another expression of language- words, they are preserved in the long river of time and the memory of history. When we accompany children to read, when we tell stories to children, are we not also reminiscing, thinking, comparing, and improving?
The second impact of "Monkeys and Teenagers" on me was "language". If you don't immerse yourself in it when reading, there is a feeling of "vocabulary accumulation", but if you think about it carefully, from 1958 to 2021, from Hou Bingyan's twenty-five to ninety years old, a nail is still five years more, how many stories and experiences this old man has to tell us about these descendants, such "excitement", perhaps only the elderly who are nearly the age of the back can feel empathy. The humanistic nature of literature is bitter and chattering in Mr. Wang Meng's pen, although he modestly said: "Bingyan old man, I am very touched by what you said, but I tell you, such a story, I am not easy to write." But he still wrote it, and wrote it like he returned to earth.
In Mr. Wang Meng's language arrangement, the third impact of "Monkey and Youth" on me is "philosophy". This is a literary scholar who loves philosophy and mathematics, and the novel is full of philosophical brilliance and mathematical rigor.
In the text, "There is a sadness in the world that even if it is lost, including all achievements and possessions, but it is not as good as age and age, it is such a gain and loss", inadvertently, and it fits with a sentence on the cover of the book, "Steaming with the times, this is the echo of long live of youth."
Reading it inevitably reminds me of Mr. Wang Meng's very famous novel "Long Live Youth", which was the youth he began to write when he was nineteen years old, nineteen-year-old people can't understand the youth of eighty-nine years old, and eighty-nine-year-old people don't seem to be embarrassed to talk about nineteen-year-old youth, but youth talks about not talking, writing or not writing, everyone has experienced it, at that time, that person,perhaps traced back to the ancestor of human beings "monkey", the elderly man easily wrote out the youth story of the old man with the naughty and clever "monkey", what a cute story What an intriguing narrative, what an expression full of wisdom. "Monkeys and Teenagers" was born with kindness, naughtiness, and wisdom to the readers of the "children" and "grandchildren", and the person's affair at that time was also this person's matter at this time.
About the Author
Wang Meng, a famous contemporary Chinese writer, won the 9th Mao Dun Literature Award and was awarded the national honorary title of "People's Artist" in September 2019.
Wang Meng has been practicing for nearly 70 years and is known as a pioneer in the modern writing techniques of contemporary Chinese literature. Representative works include "Long Live Youth", "A Young Man From the Organization Department", "Activities Change into Human Form", "This Side of the Landscape", etc., and the works have been translated into English, Russian, Japanese and other languages and published abroad.
Title: Monkeys and Teenagers
Author: Wang Meng
Flower City Press, January 2022 edition
Text/Guangzhou Daily, New Flower City Reporter: Wu Bo
Photo/ Guangzhou Daily, Xinhuacheng reporter: Wu Bo
Video/Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng Reporter: Wu Bo
Correspondent: Chen Yu
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Dai Yujing