"Ask the Vast Land" book cover Courtesy of the People's Literature Publishing House
Beijing, March 21 (China News Network) -- The People's Literature Publishing House recently launched the famous writer and screenwriter Shi Zhongshan's novel "Asking the Vast Land." On the afternoon of March 20, the launch ceremony of the new book was held in the form of online live broadcast, and nearly 100,000 readers watched the live broadcast through various platforms and enthusiastically interacted with the message.
On the eve of the liberation of northeast China, Bi Jian, chief of the intelligence section of the Social Department of the Northeast Bureau, and the Kuomintang agent code-named "Old Master" began to exhaust the "cat and mouse game" of his life, and the one who was ordered to pretend to be the wife of "Old Master" was actually the sister of Bi Jian's lover who had been lost for many years, and the fates of several characters were entangled with each other, stirring up a string of waves in the tide of the times.
Shi Zhongshan himself called "Asking the Vast Land" an "atypical" spy war novel, because this work does not focus on the ups and downs of the plot and the intricate character relationship like a typical spy war drama, but focuses on the contest between people and the fate of the characters in the context of the big era. He believes that the fate of each character in this work is inseparable from the times.
Group photo of guests at the launch ceremony Courtesy of the People's Literature Publishing House
The famous critic Meng Fanhua has long been concerned about the current literary creation, and he believes that the biggest contribution of Shi Zhongshan's previous military-themed novels is to shape a new military image, such as "Shi Glory" in "The Years of Burning Passion", which is different from the righteous and unblemished character image in the past; at the same time, the film and television drama adapted from Shi Zhongshan's novel has made such theme works more lifelike, thus winning the love of the majority of audiences.
As for the new work "Ask the Vast Land", Meng Fanhua prefers to regard it as an "anti-special novel". Because of the success of a series of works from "Latent" to "Cliff", spy dramas have become a trend, such works are written by our personnel to break into the enemy's interior, and Shi Zhongshan's new work continues the tradition of "anti-special themes" in classic works such as "Yangcheng Dark Sentinel" and "Secret Drawings", which is also a type that readers and audiences like to hear.
Young writer Shi Yifeng is also the editor of Contemporary magazine. He believes that writers must be able to write both vertical and horizontal lines, but also be able to write about daily life, which is also the characteristic of Shi Zhongshan's works, both with a big mind and a big perspective, as well as the ability to write about the daily details of a high degree of life. "Ask the Vast Land" epitomizes this point, the novel begins with the Liaoshen Campaign, thousands of troops and horses entering the city, the pattern is very large, after entering the main line of the plot, the shaping of the characters is shaped in the daily scene. For example, the character of "Old Master", Shi Zhongshan wrote how he dealt with cadres and neighbors and how to marry his daughter-in-law after he lurked, in fact, his life trajectory is the life of an ordinary person in northeast China.
Zang Yongqing, president of the People's Literature Publishing House, believes that "Asking the Vast Land" is not only another excellent masterpiece in the current spy war novel, but also provides many new elements that are different from similar works in the past, from the eve of the liberation of Northeast China to after the reform and opening up, such a long time span has brought a heavy sense of history. He looks forward to the next film and television adaptation of the work.
Shi Zhongshan's novel "Father Goes to the City" was adapted into a TV series "The Years of Burning Passion" to cause a sensation, and since then a large number of novels have been adapted into film and television works, and he has also begun to cross-border film and television, serving as a screenwriter and producer. His representative works include "The Years of Burning Passion", "Shi Guangrong and His Children", "Happiness Like a Flower", "Brothers in the World", "Military Song Loud", "Mainland Island" and so on. (End)