The picture shows Feng Jicai (data map). Photo by Zhang Daozheng
Tianjin, March 11( China News Network) Title: Entering the "Post-80s" Feng Jicai: Life feelings are more abundant
China News Network reporter Zhang Daozheng
Feng Jicai, a well-known Chinese writer and former vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, is 80 years old this year. This legendary figure in the contemporary Chinese literary world does not seem to be old, and has always maintained an aggressive posture. Literature, painting, cultural heritage preservation, education, collecting... He has left a deep footprint in many fields and is still innovating today.
Just recently, Feng Jicai's two new works, the full-color graphic essay collection "A Hole in the Studio" and the new collection of novellas "Danube Gorge", were published and distributed, which attracted attention from all parties. A reporter from the China News Service recently interviewed Feng Jicai, asking him to talk about the feelings and experiences behind these achievements, and to explore how an energetic literati can "open up the territory" in multiple fields and disciplines.
The picture shows that in 2015, Feng Ji introduced the museum to the guests. Photo by Zhang Daozheng
Talk about age: Living a long time, life feelings are more abundant
March 11 is Feng Jicai's 80th birthday. In the year of the staff, the feeling of nature is different.
Looking back on his life, Feng Jicai recalled that in the early 1980s, the era of reform and opening up, he was full of creative passion, writing hundreds of thousands of words a year, his body really couldn't bear it, and he suddenly fell seriously ill. Mr. Yan Wenjing, a senior writer, once wrote a letter to Feng Jicai, and wrote a sentence in it, which impressed Feng Jicai.
"What he meant was: Feng Ji, you must try to live longer." Only when you live a long time will your understanding of life be deeper. Because at different ages, the understanding of life, fate, people, and many things is different; only when you live a long life and see all aspects of life, life feelings may be richer and deeper. Feng Jicai said.
For his 80th birthday, Feng Jicai also had two thoughts. "One is to eat a bowl of noodles with my mother, which is very meaningful, and maybe it will touch me to write an essay." Because my mother is 105 years old, it's rare that someone in my 80s can still look at my own mother. There was also an idea to do an event in our academy. This activity is not to give me a birthday, but to talk about my birthday and do a little research. ”
Feng Jicai said that some writers are born from their hometowns, and when they grow up, they fly away, like birds, and they will have a lot of life experience when they go to society. But I am different, from birth to now, the past 80 years are basically all in Tianjin, all on a piece of land.
"I want to provoke a discussion, through my relationship with Tianjin's land, to discuss what kind of relationship should intellectuals have with his homeland?" I think this discussion should make sense. ”
The picture shows Feng Jicai taking a souvenir after completing the draft of the new book. Courtesy of Writers Press
Talking about painting: For me, painting is a more personal thing
As we all know, painting occupies a very important position in the 80-year life course of Feng Jicai, and is known as one of his "four carriages". He also maintained a long friendship with painters such as Han Meilin.
Feng Ji was only fourteen or fifteen years old to learn painting, and when he was young, he made a living by imitating ancient paintings, and later switched to painting glass paintings. When he was young, he spent a year and three months to complete a long volume of "Qingming on the River" and was taken to New York by a "Chinese American" who said all the good things, and it was impossible to get the photos.
The story of tangling with the "Qingming Upper River Map" for decades was written by Feng Jicai in his new work "A Cave in the Studio", looking back at the "Qingming Upper River Map" that was taken away by the "Chinese-Americans", Feng Jicai said: "I have the feeling of being plundered, and I am empty. But he also consoled himself: "Trust mostly comes from a kind of trust or emotion." The best things in the world have not been taken away, and they are still in me. ”
For the beloved painting, Feng Jicai is still continuing, he believes that painting is a more personal thing for him, more of a spiritual life feeling of the soul, a kind of rehearsal and expression. Literature bears more social responsibility, thinking about life, and understanding life with readers.
Feng Jicai told reporters that painting also influenced his literary writing. "When I write, I can see his characters."
Writing and painting, Feng Jicai thought that there was no need to deliberately allocate time, "My studio and study are at both ends of a corridor at home, when I have the impulse to create literature, I must go to the study to write; when I have the desire to paint, I will go to the studio, this is a sweet round trip, this feeling is sometimes very happy." ”
Talk about creation: leaving an aesthetic image for literature
Feng Jicai's literary achievements are recognized, and the writer is also his first identity. From the beginning of the creation of scar literature in the 1970s, he has been working tirelessly. "Carved Pipe" won the 1979 National Outstanding Short Story Award, and his "Pearl Bird" and "Mountain Picker" were famous articles in primary school Chinese textbooks.
Over the past 40 years, Feng Jicai has continuously created literature and won various literary awards. On December 18, 2021, at the 19th Hundred Flowers Literature Award Ceremony, he also won the Short Story Award with "Wooden Buddha", sharing the stage with generations of literary people, making a group of post-80s and post-90s writers sigh.
"My love of literature seems to be innate." Feng Jicai said that when he has a passion for life, he must express it in words, that is, a kind of nature of people who engage in literature. "I love literature, so even when I do cultural heritage rescue, I often have literary impulses and literary imaginations."
Now, with plenty of time to create literature, Feng Ji found that it was different from his previous writing. He said: "In the past, I may have preferred to know life with readers, but now I feel like a return to life, in addition, I think literature also has a very important mission, that is, to leave an aesthetic image, the writer's thinking about the times, the understanding of life, including philosophy, must be reflected through the aesthetic image." ”
This kind of writing is the joy of aesthetic creation, and it also prompts Feng Jicai to stop writing one by one. "Some reporters ask me what I have plans, and sometimes I don't seem to have any plans, because there was too much time to suppress in the past, too much accumulated in 20 years of life, and too much to see, and I wanted to write it." Feng Jicai said that now he will adhere to a standard, that is, to create literature as a work of art, must have aesthetic value, in addition, the language must be refined, which is also the tradition of Chinese literature.
Talking about intangible cultural heritage protection: I gave my heart to the earth
Since the 1990s, Feng Jicai led the team to devote almost 20 years to the rescue of cultural heritage, and he has traveled all over the country to do carpet cultural census and protection of architecture, handicrafts, folklore, folk art and intangible cultural heritage of 56 ethnic groups.
In order to raise funds to protect folk culture, Feng Jicai can't remember how many paintings he sold in those years. However, when it comes to the experience of selling paintings, he said in a word: "Selling paintings cannot save folk art." ”
"The protection of China's intangible cultural heritage has now been sorted out and formed into a national, provincial, municipal and county four-level list, of which more than 1,300 items are listed at the national level, and hundreds of thousands of cultural heritage items are included in the remaining three-level list." With so much cultural heritage, what role can you sell a little painting do?! Feng Jicai said, "But I know that it plays a role, that is, some people must think, why does Feng Jicai sell his paintings?" What was the importance of making him have to sell his paintings?! I think it can arouse people's thinking. ”
Recalling the experience of selling paintings in the Suzhou Museum, Feng Jicai still sighed with emotion: "Those paintings were taken away, and I had a feeling of four walls of family. I had a sense of tragedy at the time, and then I said something that I said was a little bit tragic in what I liked to do. As a man, I felt that this sense of tragedy could inspire myself, and I gave my heart to the earth.
For the protection of intangible cultural heritage, Feng Jicai did not even have time to engage in literary creation. But looking back on this experience, he bluntly said that he had no regrets: "If I were to go back to 60 now, I would still put down my novel and go to the scene of protecting cultural heritage." Moreover, new problems are still emerging in the protection of cultural heritage, and there are still a lot of things that have not been done. ”
Feng Jicai believes that there is a very important rational thing in the rescue of cultural heritage, that is, we must realize its value and significance, which is not personal, national, and future, and must do this thing for future generations.
Feng Jicai's study. Courtesy of Writers Press
Talking about education: Discipline construction and cultural heritage protection are in the same vein
Feng Ji is the activist among intellectuals, in addition to personally participating in the "intangible cultural heritage protection" action, measuring the earth with his body. He also danced with long sleeves, putting deeper thinking and longer-term plans into reality. Tianjin University Feng Jicai Institute of Literature and Art is one of the carriers, which is one of the earliest units in China engaged in the construction of intangible cultural heritage disciplines.
"Discipline construction and cultural heritage protection are in the same vein, if the first 20 years I mainly did is the protection and rescue of cultural heritage, what I want to do today is scientific protection." Feng Jicai said that through the efforts of a generation of people for more than 20 years, the cultural heritage has been rescued, "but we now have no protection standards, no norms, no professional talents, I am still not at ease, so in the university must open such a non-heritage discipline education." ”
Today, the Feng Jicai Institute of Literature and Art of Tianjin University is divided into two parts: the Teaching and Research Department and the Museum Department. The teaching and research content includes modern and contemporary literature research, cultural heritage research, folk art research, traditional village protection and development research, oral history research and so on. There are three cultural research centers with national brands in the Department of Education and Research, namely the Research Center for Chinese Woodblock New Year Paintings, the Research Center for the Protection and Development of Traditional Chinese Villages, and the Institute of Chinese Heritage and Population History; these three centers are not only national research institutions, but also academic bases for graduate students to study and practice. Since 2002, more than 40 master's and doctoral students have studied, worked and completed their studies here.
"For the professional education of intangible cultural heritage, it is necessary to enter the system of higher education, and doing this is in line with the protection of cultural heritage, so I still insist on doing it." Feng Ji said so.
For the future plan, Feng Jicai is still full of enthusiasm, although he is 80 years old, he does not accept the old. "Frankly, my psychological age, including the feeling of the body, is still between 50 and 60 years old, the imagination and sensitivity to things are also fluent, or love literature, love the aesthetic creation of words, love pen and ink, or like these things." 」 (End)