Text | Husheng
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress, Yan Jingming, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the China Writers Association, submitted a proposal to "propose to raise the basic remuneration standard and stimulate writers to have more creative motivation." Yan Jingming said that according to the "Method for Paying Remuneration for The Use of Written Works", the current original works are 80 yuan to 300 yuan for thousands of words, and the remuneration standard has not kept pace with the development of the times, and it is recommended to at least double.
After the above news was reported by the media, it immediately triggered a heated discussion. "Good advice" and "it is too difficult to raise the salary" and other voices emerge in an endless stream, brushing the circle of friends. Why is it so difficult to increase the remuneration?
In fact, the remuneration standards of famous literary journals and magazines such as October and Harvest have been rising. The reason is also very simple, as Zong Yongping, deputy editor-in-chief of October magazine, said, "About 10 years ago, we rose to about 500 yuan in a thousand words; five or six years ago, it rose into 600-700 yuan in thousands of words." If other people's manuscripts are paid high and our manuscripts are paid low, the quality of the manuscripts will have an impact. ”
However, it should be pointed out that in 1958, the average monthly wage of employees of state-owned enterprises was 45 yuan. According to this standard conversion, if a writer takes a 15 yuan remuneration for a thousand words and publishes a 3,000-word article, he can earn an ordinary person's salary for one month. In the third quarter of 2021, the national average salary reached 9739 yuan / month, the salary increased by 216 times compared with 1958, while the highest value of the basic remuneration standard was only increased by 20 times. In other words, the increase in the remuneration standard has not kept pace with the development of the times.
So why don't so many journals raise some pay anymore? The fundamental reason is that the survival pressure of the vast majority of literary publications at present is also very large, even if there is the idea of increasing the remuneration, it is also powerless.
University Library Xinhua News Agency
One reality that must be confronted is that the literary profession, or serious writing as a whole, is no longer highly concerned by the public. Whether it is self-media writing or major information integration platforms, it can provide more content and massive information to the majority of netizens and readers. In the era of fragmented reading, it seems that devoting a lot of time to literary reading also seems to be an option that does not have "cost performance".
At present, the salaries of practitioners, the cost of printing paper, and the remuneration of manuscripts all bring greater pressure to the operation of journals. The price increase of goods can be passed on to consumers, and the public is not interested in pure literature or serious reading. In this situation, it is naturally impossible to raise the standard of remuneration.
But it's also unfair to blame readers entirely for the decline of serious reading. Some netizens believe that it is not that everyone does not want to read seriously, but that they have walked around the book market and found that there are very few works of real quality, and they are very disappointed. It seems that journals and magazines want to improve the attractiveness of serious reading, and it is not enough to make articles on the remuneration standard.
A bookstore in Shanghai was issued by Xinhua News Agency
How to make a big splash and provide readers with better content? How to innovate and dig out more excellent writers? There's a lot more work to be done.
In addition, writing is after all in the public domain, and it cannot be pushed into a pure market, always thinking of making a profit from it. Therefore, increasing the remuneration of writers is not only an economic issue, but also should be regarded as a social welfare undertaking. Just like in the field of education, serious writing should also be supported, because spiritual products have a long-term impact on cultural construction and have a close relationship with everyone. The overall value of a society is to respect creation and respect knowledge, so that our lives will have richer choices for spiritual consumption.
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Text: Husheng
Recitation: Wang Qian
Photo: Xinhua News Agency
Editor-in-charge: Wang Zimo
Editor: Wang Yuanfang, Wu Yaqi