There are two major miracles in the history of Urban Construction in China, one is Shenzhen, Guangdong, and the other is Longgang, Zhejiang.
"Chinese Peasant City" tells the true history of Longgang's development from a small fishing village to China's first peasant city, leaving a hot and solemn record of the people's struggle.
A group of farmers in Longgang, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, with the wisdom and diligence of the people, in just forty years, not only realized the dream of farmers to enter the city, but also created a miracle for farmers to build a city. Longgang provides samples and experiences for China's urbanization path in terms of urban development, urban governance, and the pursuit of common prosperity.
Zhu Xiaojun: Reportage should grasp what the people really care about
Wen 丨 Xu Min
In the reportage section of the contemporary literary world, the writer Zhu Xiaojun occupies a very important position. From "Angels in Battle" and "A Doctor's Redemption" to "Express China" and "Chinese Peasant City", Over the years, Zhu Xiaojun has worked tirelessly and published reportage reflecting major issues in the national economy and people's livelihood, which has aroused strong repercussions in China. In particular, "Angels in Battle", which won the Lu Xun Literature Award, because of the influence of his works, the protagonist Dr. Chen Xiaolan was selected as the Chinese moving object of CCTV.
Recently, on the occasion of the publication of Zhu Xiaojun's "Chinese Peasant City", "The Most Difficult Writing Process", the New Yellow River reporter interviewed him on topics such as reportage writing.
Writing is the end of life
Zhu Xiaojun was born in Shenyang in the 1950s because his father was an employee of a construction company, so his family ran with construction projects and traveled to several cities in the three northeastern provinces. According to Zhu Xiaojun's recollection, for a while the family moved to Fularki, a heavy industrial area in Qiqihar, the second largest city in Heilongjiang Province, and in the era of cultural poverty, there were no literary books to read, and only Chinese textbooks could be read. In college, Zhu Xiaojun followed his father's advice and chose to major in construction machinery. However, even after studying science and engineering, later working as a journal editor, and then teaching in colleges and universities, Zhu Xiaojun always loved to read and write until he won the Lu Xun Literature Award.
The love for reportage stemmed from Xu Chi's "The Gotbach Conjecture" in 1978. According to Zhu Xiaojun's recollection, he was in his freshman year of college at the time, and after the reportage was published in China Youth Daily, many classmates huddled together to read it. It is more inconvenient for many people to huddle together, so it is read by a classmate, and everyone is still unsatisfied after listening. Later, Zhu Xiaojun read many work-related books and literary works, and writers such as William Faulkner, Truman Capote, and Marcel Proust all had an influence on his writing.
"Chinese Peasant City" by Zhu Xiaojun
People's Literature Publishing House Zhejiang People's Publishing House
"Angels in Battle", "Express China", "A Doctor's Redemption", "The Great Desolate Brigade"... These are all reportage works of Zhu Xiaojun, who are more familiar to readers, and these works profoundly show all levels of current society from different sections. However, what many readers do not know is that Zhu Xiaojun was also a contributor to magazines that are more popular in public perception such as "Family" and "Zhiyin". In the interview, Zhu Xiaojun talked about his views on such magazines. He said that people often think that the manuscripts published in popular magazines are vulgar and vulgar, but in fact, they are not, and the style of "Family" magazine is not low, and they have published a lot of topics that "Beijing Literature" can publish.
"In the past, some of the topics I chose were to publish a 3,000- to 5,000-word feature article in Family magazine, and then publish a novella of more than 30,000 words in Beijing Literature." Zhu Xiaojun said that "Angels in Battle," which won the Lu Xun Literature Prize, was first published in the 4th issue of Family in 2006 under the title of "Refusing to Slaughter Patients, Female Doctors Fighting Black Medical Treatment for Nine Years." Because of the limited capacity of the "Family" publication, the manuscript was required to be short, and only more than 6,000 words were used to give a true and brief description of Chen Xiaolan's deeds, which was later expanded into long-form reportage. As for "Zhiyin", he wrote less, and he was impressed by the story of a heart transplant of a Writer in the Northern Wilderness.
On June 20, 2002, the gas explosion of the Zihe Coal Mine in Jixi City killed 124 people. Zhu Xiaojun's first reportage, "Let the Heavens Speak," was written in 2003 about the "Jixi 6.20 Mining Disaster." In "Let the Heavens Speak", Zhu Xiaojun excavated many touching and profound stories, especially Zhao Wenlin's story that touched many people.
Like many people who love writing, writing is Zhu Xiaojun's life and the destination of life.
Reportage "what to write" is important
In 2007, Zhu Xiaojun won the 4th Lu Xun Literature Award for "Angels in Combat". The award speech reads: "Angels in Battle" fully embodies the militancy of reportage, and dares to write straight books on major issues related to the national economy and people's livelihood, which is one of the most powerful works that have emerged in recent years. Some critics said that "Angels in Battle" "its significance lies in the basic spirit that the reportage style should be adhered to" and "gives the current 'sweet' reportage literature an indispensable spicy taste." ”
Looking back at this work from 16 years ago, Zhu Xiaojun said that for writing, it is nothing more than the question of "what to write" and "how to write". For nonfiction, "what to write" is important, and it is also important to write at any time. As a reportage writer, we must have a sense of problems and a sense of publicity, a sense of mission and responsibility, and a spirit of responsibility. The success of a work is first of all the success of the topic, so it is definitely not "digging into the basket is a dish", even if it is a dish, it must be repeatedly compared, and which is the best to fry. "I've been a journal editor, I've edited non-fiction manuscripts, I've cultivated my awareness of topic selection, and my topic selection is basically good. Only when non-fiction writers are rooted in the people can they breathe with the people and share a common destiny, and they know what topics are valuable and what the audience needs. Zhu Xiaojun said that 16 years have passed, and now looking back, "Angels in Battle" is still a good topic.
Comparison of Longgang in the past and present
Talking about the difference between fictional literary forms such as reportage and fiction, Zhu Xiaojun said that these are two types of writing, if you use the metaphor of takeaway, writing novels like running Starbucks to deliver coffee and other drinks, writing non-fiction like sending rice noodles and buckets of water at RT-Mart, is a hard work. "For fiction, there is what you want, and for non-fiction, there is something to want. Mo Yan created a 500,000-word "Life and Death Fatigue" in 43 days, and a non-fiction writer may not even be able to complete a fieldwork in 43 days. Zhu Xiaojun said. But he has enjoyed it, the survey interview broadened his horizons, and the writing gave him a deep thinking and understanding of the fate of society and individuals.
Reportage is the hardest work to create, and writing high-quality reportage works must be spent at all costs and time. When writing the book "Chinese Craftsmen", Zhu Xiaojun interviewed a shaoxing person, and because of the dialect, he could only understand about 60% of the other party's words. Zhu Xiaojun believes that it is not possible to say that 40% do not understand, even if 0.4% do not understand. Any lack of understanding can lead to a work of inaccuracy, and the most terrible thing about reportage is the inaccuracy. To this end, Zhu Xiaojun asked local young people to translate the recording into Mandarin sentence by sentence. Not only that, but after the recording is organized into words, I listen to it repeatedly, even if it is a subtle tone, because it may contain the emotions of the narrator.
To write a good reportage, the writer must read his own people, read the background of the characters, read the characters' action trajectory - the plot, but also read the relationship between people and things, to understand the characters' emotions and inner conflicts. Zhu Xiaojun said that in this way, we can be worthy of the soul of reportage: authenticity, ideology and the times.
"Chinese Peasant City" is the most difficult to write
Recently, Zhu Xiaojun published a new work "Chinese Peasant City" at the People's Literature Publishing House and the Zhejiang People's Publishing House. There are two major miracles in the history of Urban Construction in China, one is Shenzhen, Guangdong, and the other is Longgang, Zhejiang. This book tells the true history of Longgang's development from a small fishing village to China's first peasant city.
Zhu Xiaojun said that "China's Peasant City" is the most difficult work in his writing career. The reason why it is difficult is because the time is too long, and the characters, plots, details and scenes are presented by the witnesses. However, the fund-raising of the city is nearly 40 years ago, and most of the witnesses are more than ancient, some have suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and some have passed away.
Author Zhu Xiaojun
"The study of false memories has found that human memory is not only easy to pass away, but also misled by external interference information, and will be spontaneously changed by association. The past is like smoke, the memory is or washed away by the long years, or like an old photo that has been soaked in water, it has become blurred, and even lost, deviated, misplaced, there is a crown And Li Dai. Zhu Xiaojun said that in order to explore the truth, the amount of interviews can only be increased, and nearly 100 people have been interviewed. Among these nearly 100 people, Hu Wanli, who was sometimes secretary of the county party committee, and Liu Xiaohua, the county magistrate, included more than a dozen cadres of the town party committee and the town government at that time, and also interviewed dozens of peasants who raised funds to build a city, as well as Chen Xirui, who went to Longgang to start a business, and other small people. Among them, the interviews of the old secretary Chen Dingmo alone have been as many as a dozen times.
What was Longgang Town like when it was founded? Is there any power? Is there running water? How many roads have been paved? These seemingly simple questions, but the answer Zhu Xiaojun got in the interview was different. To this end, each interviewee Zhu Xiaojun interviewed at least twice, and the important plot should be repeatedly confirmed more than twice, and it is also necessary to analyze and identify, and spare no effort to find the truth. In addition, Zhu Xiaojun also supplemented by fieldwork methods such as file inquiries and field investigations, consulted and remade a large number of red-headed documents and important meeting minutes of Cangnan County and Longgang Town, as well as the minutes of meetings of the Longgang Town Party Committee and the town government. "Observe, feel, experience, imagine and associate the natural environment or scenes involved in the text, even if the time has passed, you must go to the scene to feel it." Zhu Xiaojun said.
Dragon Harbor today
In "Chinese Peasant City", every character is writing a legend with his life and dreams. Whether it is Chen Dingmo, an old secretary who only has a primary school diploma but can read through masterpieces of political theory, or an ordinary peasant who struggled and grew up in Longgang, Zhu Xiaojun has vividly recorded them in the history of Longgang. When it comes to how to write these small characters well, Zhu Xiaojun said that his approach is more stupid, that is, to contact the characters in the work as much as possible, to read him and understand him like reading an unfathomable book. Reading these things clearly, it is close to his heart.
"Did the odd man create the miracle, or did the miracle make the odd man?" For the question he raised in the introduction, Zhu Xiaojun said that it was still difficult to answer when the book was received, probably because the two often appeared at the same time, and with the appearance of miracles, strange people were also born.
Article source: Jinan Times