Writer Observation | Cao Yuxiang: 2021 is a busy and tiring year, a year worth living

Editor's note: Since the 21st century, the global economy, science and technology have developed rapidly, culture and art have interacted closely, the time and space distance between people has suddenly shortened, and people's communication methods, social and cultural forms have all carried the unique characteristics of this era. In this regard, focusing on science, art, psychology, medicine, ethics, environment and other related topics, the New Hainan Client Culture Channel and the Hainan International Communication Center invite well-known writers, poets and scholars from the mainland to jointly launch a series of interviews with "Writers Observation", so please pay attention to it.

The timing alternates and everything is renewed. Looking back on 2021, I have experienced confusion, laughter and pride, and brilliant achievements, full of indelible memories and eternal nostalgia. Looking forward to 2022, standing on the threshold of the New Year, we not only feel the warmth and hope of the New Year, but also feel the dreams and expectations of the future.

In the past year, writers and scholars have, as always, used their affectionate brushstrokes to depict the changes of the times, and wrote the grandeur of the world with Han Mo Danqing. The years are hurried, the page of 2021 has turned over, in the new year, what are the expectations and prospects of writers and scholars?

In this issue, the New Hainan Client Culture Channel and the Hainan International Communication Center interviewed the famous poet Cao Yuxiang and brought his views.

Interview guest: Cao Yuxiang, born on November 24, 1957 in Qiansheng Village, Yanzhou, Shandong Province, lives in Beijing. He graduated from the Literature Department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts in 1991 with the rank of colonel, an expert with special allowances of the State Council, and a leading talent in the national press and publication industry of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television. He won the Chinese People's Liberation Army Journalism Award, the Second and Third Youth Literature Awards, the Star Poetry Award, the Second (1997-2000) Lu Xun Literature Award, the Long March Literary and Art Award, and the Chinese Long Poetry Award. Vice President of the Chinese Poetry Society.

1. Looking back on 2021, what did you gain from writing?

Cao Yuxiang: In February last year, the China Writers Association launched the Poetry Creation Project of the New Journey of the Centennial Road, and my task was to write about the Yellow River. In June last year, a reporter from China Youth Daily interviewed me, and in the interview I talked about the scene when I wrote this long poem. Those days, I suddenly awakened the memory of the Yellow River, as if I had been preparing for decades to write this long poem. In 1986, I saw the statues of the children of the Yellow River and the mother of the Yellow River on the banks of the Yellow River in Zhengzhou, and my soul was greatly shaken. The Yellow River originated from Chinese civilization and is called the mother river of the Chinese nation, who among us has not been the baby in the mother's arms, the group of children on the shore?

I have traveled to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau twice, witnessed the source of the great river, seen the Yellow River in Guide, Qinghai, the Yellow River flowing into the desert of Inner Mongolia, seen ancient towns such as moraines on the banks of the Yellow River, the Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River, seen the Yellow River Xiaolangdi Project twice, twice reached the mouth of the Yellow River, and also seen many old roads of the Yellow River. Those days, from the Xingsu Sea in Qinghai to the estuary of Dongying in Shandong, I "soaked" in the Yellow River for 18 days. I remember that in the early morning of March 7, this poem was unscripted, and I felt that I climbed ashore, but in fact, it was still in the greater waves: customs and beliefs, language and writing, people's virtues... The Yellow River into the sea has not disappeared, the Yellow River civilization and the blue ocean civilization are integrated, that is the more magnificent rush of the Yellow River.

This 211-line "Yellow River Poem" was published in the special issue of the "Poetry Journal" celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Party in July last year, and was selected into the "Selected Outstanding Works of Poetry in the New Era" of the Poetry Journal and the "2021 Poetry Selection" of the Innovation and Research Department of the China Writers Association. Critics Huo Junming, Cheng Jilong, Wang Nianjun, and others discussed the poem in many reviews and gave encouragement. Haha, at that time, I put this poem forwarded by the public account of "Poetry Journal" into the family group, and I was also praised by my family. The eldest son, a lieutenant colonel soldier, never talked about my poems, and this time he said that I wrote a mountain and a river, and the Yellow River Poems were comparable to the long poem "Mount Everest" that I wrote when I was young. I'm happy enough.

I wrote a lot of manuscripts last year. There is also a poem that is more memorable. In September last year, the Working Committee of the Central and State Organs and the All-China Women's Federation held a large-scale event to ask the China Writers Association to coordinate a poet to write a theme poem. The leaders of the relevant departments of the China Writers Association asked me to complete this task. I stayed up late for many days to complete this theme poem suitable for recitation, and on September 29, in the auditorium of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, it was recited by 6 party members and cadres of the central and state organs, which is also the fruit of labor.

2. In 2021, one thing that makes you feel more deeply, can you talk to us?

Cao Yuxiang: In early July last year, I followed Mr. Wang Meng, a people's artist, to Ili, Xinjiang, the secretary of the Chinese Poetry Society and poet Ouyang Jianghe, the poet, and several other writers and poets. When Mr. Wang Meng was young, he traveled from Beijing to Xinjiang, where he lived for 16 years. I was deeply educated and touched to see the touching scene of his deep affection for the local people, to see him and his young partners who worked together hugging and clinging to each other, to see the former site of the second brigade headquarters of Bayandai Commune, where he had served as deputy captain, to see Wang Meng's bookstore, and to see his eyes showing affection and care for that land.

When Mr. Wang Meng and his young labor partner, who is now a white-haired old man, embraced each other, I stood by with tears in my eyes. People have feelings, "the country is the people". On this trip, I wrote a group of poems "Ili Dedication Poems" to pay tribute to the people's artists, to the simple and warm frontier land, and to the people living there.

3. How many books did you read in 2021? Are there any books worth noting?

Cao Yuxiang: This year, foreign books were read very little, and many works by domestic teachers and peers were read, and they could not be remembered at once, such as "Poetry Reader", "Haitian Collection", "Deformation", "I Saw My Motherland in a Pomegranate", "Cutting Tong", "Notes on Black Pond Dam"... There are many more, and they are all well written. In the past, when interviewed by reporters, I said that I don't call reading books, I call it turning books randomly, and where to turn them is counted. I usually run from east to west, have writing tasks, often stay up late to write, and fail to calm down to read well. Haha, my house is full of books, coffee tables, sofas, pillows, dining tables, study, last year found a few books that used to be bought heavy, let my son take them back to their home.

4. Which cities did you go to in 2021? Which city do you have a unique feel for?

Cao Yuxiang: I retired from the army when I was 60 years old, and I have been to many places in recent years. In 2021, the large, medium, and small cities to go to are incomplete, including Wuxi, Xiangtan, Ziyang, Yugan, Fuzhou, Luzhou, Hangzhou, Gulin, Luzhou, Gongyi, Linfen... Going to Wuhan in December to participate in the Wuhan Poetry Festival was very touching, and I remembered fate.

I have been to Wuhan many times in the past, the earliest of which was in 1981. At that time, I was just in my 20s, and I was seconded from the Beijing Garrison District to the editor-in-chief of the "China Township Enterprise Newspaper" and as a reporter, and Li Ying, the editor-in-chief, asked me to follow the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture to Hubei and Guangdong to inspect township enterprises. I was poor, I was a warrior, I didn't even have a camera. At that time, I was staying at the East Lake Hotel, chatting with a white-haired elderly man in the hall, and later I learned that he was Yao Xueyan. The second time I went was in 1984, when I had been transferred to the People's Armed Police Warning Agency of the Armed Police Headquarters, and Director Lun Yanyong accompanied me to take a black-and-white photo by the East Lake. Last year, when I went to Wuhan, I posted this old black-and-white photo in the circle of friends, and compared it with the photos taken at Zhuoer Bookstore this time, I was out of my mind, like seeing the years and years rolling away.

5. How would you rate your 2021 and can you talk about your writing plans for 2022?

Cao Yuxiang: A busy and tiring year, a year worth living, this year I am full of gratitude to others, life and the world. I don't have any writing plans for 2022. I have many poems in hand, and I am not satisfied with them and am more harsh on myself. Many teachers and friends instructed me to write a manuscript, and many of them have not been given after several years. I want to write well, and if I feel that I am not writing well, what is the meaning of publishing it, I will feel very ashamed.

6. Regarding the Spring Festival, what unforgettable stories do you remember to this day?

Cao Yuxiang: My hometown is Qiansheng Village in Yanzhou, Shandong Province, and a few years ago, when it was urbanized, Qiansheng Village was gone, and those villagers in my village did not know where they had gone. I vividly remember my father setting off firecrackers when I was a child. My father participated in the Liberation War, fought from the Battle of Huaihai to Xiamen, and fought on the battlefield. Chinese New Year's Eve night my father carried a firecracker in his hand and played in the yard, while I hid behind my mother at the door of the hall... That scene is still in front of me.

New Hainan Client, Nanhai Net, Nanguo Metropolis Daily reporters Liu Xinting, Cai Qianlan, Hu Yalan