▲ Silent Painting, "The plagiarists do not just hang a mask similar to the original creator, as people think, but directly take away the faces of others - the original creator who has been plagiarized, in addition to anger, must feel some kind of loss"
"I also hope that the majority of readers can think differently, respect and understand the difficulties of novel creators." Lin Peiyuan, a writer who was questioned for plagiarism, said in a response to the article. However, equally deserving of respect and consideration are the writers who questioned his plagiarism, Muyin, and countless other creators.
This article was first published in Southern People Weekly
Text / Southern People Weekly reporter Yang Nan
A plagiarism incident from 12 years ago was recently revived. Although the writer Mo Yin, who questioned the plagiarism of the writer Lin Peiyuan, did not wait for a sincere apology, she said that she had gained inner relief with the support of the forces of "morality" and "bystanders".
"A normal creative environment, first of all, has the ability to copy and touch the bottom line. Without this layer, it would be victim-centric, and the idea of the plagiarized person is the most important. An editor at a publishing house told Southern People Weekly.
After 12 years of being questioned for plagiarism, young writer Lin Peiyuan made his own response on his personal WeChat public account: he believes that his short story "Dark Light" is a reference to the silent "Next to The Word", not plagiarism.
"Due to my own cowardice and lack of courage, I have not responded publicly to this matter for more than a decade. I apologize for the trouble and harm caused to Teacher Mo Yin for such a long time. He said in "A Belated Apology Letter" (hereinafter referred to as the "Apology Letter").
▲ Lin Peiyuan released "A Belated Apology Letter" on his personal public account
In the "Apology Letter", Lin Peiyuan told that when he was a literary newcomer, he wanted to seize the opportunity to publish his works in the third anniversary special issue of "The Most Popular and Popular Youth Journal" "Minimal". He successively read "Human World: Retelling the Legend of the White Snake" co-written by Li Rui and Jiang Yun, Wang Xiaobo's "Green Haired Water Monster", "Wolf Child" news reports, and watched the movies "Green Snake" and "Twilight". Finally, he read "Next to The Word". "This novel inspired me to write the story of a wolf child who was adopted, shaved and became a human being, and eventually disappeared because he was not accepted by secular society, borrowed from the plot of "Next to the Word"." He wrote, "I am also confused, how to define between plot borrowing and imitation and plagiarism. If it is just a new story, using some plots, but injecting your own thinking, is this considered plagiarism? ”
Finally, Lin Peiyuan once again criticized the impetuous atmosphere of youth literary creation, bluntly saying that he had transformed into a serious literary path, "Dark Light" did not constitute the cornerstone of his creation, nor was it his masterpiece, and his academic research after his doctoral studies had nothing to do with this novel. "I also hope that the majority of readers can think differently, respect and understand the difficulties of novel creators." He said.
As a young novelist, Lin Peiyuan's resume is beautiful: Doctor of Literature of Tsinghua University, postdoctoral fellow of Jinan University, visiting associate researcher of the University of Hong Kong, he has won the first prize of the two New Concept Essay Competition, the "Zijin People's Literature Star" Award for Short Story Masterpieces, and the Asia Weekly's Top Ten Novels of 2020.
He is an active member of the literary circle and interacts extensively with literary journals, publishing houses, universities and even cultural media. And this apology letter, whether in the cultural circle or among ordinary readers, has caused two completely different voices: some people understand and support, think that young writers should be given more tolerance, apprenticeship is inevitable to make mistakes, sincere apologies should be forgiven; some people question Lin Peiyuan's apology letter to avoid the importance of light, amplify the text differences between the two works, avoid the character setting, the high degree of consistency in the storyline, and do not apologize to Muyin for "plagiarism".
In addition to the discussion of whether the "Letter of Apology" confuses plagiarism and borrowing, and whether it sincerely faces fault, Lin Peiyuan's distinction between youth literature and serious literature has also aroused controversy. "There is no original sin in youth literature, and no literary genre is inferior." Douban user "Tan Xiangshan" said.
Zhang Yueran also disagrees with this distinction, as she is both a writer and an associate professor at the Faculty of Letters at Chinese University. "The outside world may have a label for the trend, but this is something particularly external." Individual creations are continuous, and they cannot all correspond to external labels. For various reasons, youth literature is often criticized in general, but I think that for individual creators, your journey is composed of one creation after another, and your changes, the changes you create, are difficult to cut. If the problem of plagiarism is attributed to youth literature, I am a little disapproving. She said.
On March 17, 2022, Mo Yin recalled the plagiarism of "Next to The Characters" on Douban. Two days earlier, she had seen two plagiarism incidents in a row, and she was not angry. After voicing her support for the two plagiarized creators, Mo Yin forwarded her January 3, 2010 article published in a discussion group in the literary journal Carp, "Author's Statement: Copied", and wrote: "Being plagiarized makes people angry and disgusting, and there is an irreparable sense of loss." At that time, I first dabbled in pure literature, wrote my first novel "Beside the Word" published in "Carp", was translated by Lin Peiyuan in "Minimal", and after issuing a statement, there was no response. More than a decade has passed. Fortunately, I did not put aside my pen because of this, and I am still writing. ”
▲ Mo Yin's early statement post
In 2010, in addition to this statement, Zhang Yueran, the editor-in-chief of "Carp", tried to contact Lin Peiyuan, but there was no reply. "I can't remember if I didn't answer it, or if it was turned off, but I couldn't get in touch." Zhang Yueran said.
"The editor of Carp magazine approached me and called me, but I didn't dare to say anything and hung up. During that month, I was restless every day, afraid to look at Douban, and did not dare to see any news related to this matter. Lin Peiyuan recalled in the "Apology Letter".
After seeing Mo Yin re-mention this matter, Zhang Yueran's first thought was how much support his memory could provide to solve this matter. "I try to think back to some things, and a lot of things are really vague in my memory, 'Minimal' has been disbanded, and 'Carp' has not been published in paper for a long time." 」 She said, "But I still feel that this thing needs to be faced, otherwise this thing will always be in that place." ”
Minimal Fiction is a literary magazine edited by Guo Jingming, founded in October 2006 and now closed. Four months before the launch of "Minimal Society", the Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court issued a final judgment for the "Guo Jingming Plagiarism Incident", which lasted for more than two years, finding that Guo Jingming's book "How Much Do You Know About Flowers in Your Dreams" constituted plagiarism of Zhuang Yu's "Inside and Outside the Circle" as a whole. Fourteen years later, on the last day of 2020, Guo Jingming formally apologized to Zhuang Yu in a weibo post, expressing regret for refusing to admit his mistake after the court's judgment.
Initially, Mo Yin learned from a friend that "By the Flip-Flops" had been copied, and after she confirmed that Dark Light had been plagiarized, she relayed it to the editorial board of Carp. After comparing the two works, the editorial board unanimously believed that this was plagiarism. "If there is a silhouette of the story, we feel that these two stories are not only like the outline, but also like some minor twists in the outline." Zhang Yueran recalled, "We hoped to find Lin Peiyuan and communicate with him about this matter to see if there could be a further solution." ”
As the editor-in-chief of "Carp", Zhang Yueran did not think of communicating this matter through "Minimal Society". "We were doing Carp as a book series, not a magazine in the traditional sense. So when thinking about this matter, it seems that there will be a so-called 'unit', tending to think that the individual responsibility is greater, thinking that the author is facing the matter of being copied, and there should be a communication between the authors, and then an apology. ”
In addition to the editorial department of "Carp", there were also Douban users "Huo Xiaolu" and others who tried to contact Lin Peiyuan at that time, but there was no result. Today, Lin Peiyuan explains his silence in the Apology Letter: "At that time, I thought about writing an open letter to clarify the matter and admit my mistakes and omissions. Friends around me who learned of this advised me not to respond. I have always been timid and afraid of things, afraid of causing quarrels and disputes, especially on the Internet, so I followed the advice and was silent. In addition, he also explained in detail that he was under family pressure because of his creation, coupled with the preparation for graduate school, "physically and mentally exhausted, and did not have the energy to respond to the accusations of "Dark Light" plagiarizing "Next to The Word". ”
▲ Lin Peiyuan's "Dark Light", published in the "Minimal Story : Third Anniversary Special Issue", was published in December 2009
In 12 years, there was a faint echo of this incident.
"Many years after the incident, I can't remember which year, I met Lin Peiyuan at an event." Zhang Yueran said, "At that time, there were many people and the environment was very noisy, but Lin Peiyuan seemed to feel very embarrassed and tried to explain to me that he did not answer my phone." I was reflecting myself, and I didn't tell him that he should go to Silent Ton to communicate. I should have made that clear at the time. ”
In the past 12 years, Mo Yin has gradually grown from a newcomer to literature to a writer and translator who has published many novels and translations. "I was very careful to avoid any opportunity to come into contact with Lin Peiyuan, I felt embarrassed, I didn't know how to control my expression. I was once added to a group in a literary forum, and I would be very weak-minded and want to see if there was any of him. In fact, this kind of lack of heart is very ridiculous. ”
She had withdrawn her manuscript from a publishing house because she found that the publishing house had just published Lin Peiyuan's new book. "I felt embarrassed as to why I put it together. But one of my recent books is actually from the same publishing house as him, and we appear on the same mouth. The publishing industry is also so big that it cannot be avoided. Silent said.
Looking back at 2010, Muyin feels that he is an author that no one knows, and Lin Peiyuan already has a certain number of "fans". After she posted the statement, Lin Peiyuan's fans left a message for her, expressing their belief that Lin Peiyuan would not plagiarize. "I came out at that time and said something like that, in a situation that wasn't exactly reciprocal, to talk, and it was very powerless." She recalls, "I think I'm able to speak up very openly now, also because I've come to realize that we're actually on a very equal footing." Although I don't know exactly how our books are selling, we have published several books from each other, and they are all authors with some social recognition. ”
"By the Word" is a novel closely related to silent sound, containing her self-confusion and self-exploration. "I was particularly upset because it was the first time I had written pure literature, and it was a bit like my original intention had been copied. And what I'm most angry about is not plagiarism, but that my "Next to Herringbone" is a trilogy, with a complete internal structure around gender, race, fate, and as a result, you only copied one of them, and I feel sad and feel ruined. Silent said.
▲ Silent "Next to The Character", published in the inaugural issue of "Carp", published in August 2009
This time, "Next to the Human Characters" was pushed in front of the public, and Mo Yin was very embarrassed by the immaturity of the work, but it was also because of the greenness between the lines of the words that revealed the confusion and understanding of the 29-year-old Mu Yin about the world. "I wrote it in a day, which I can't do anyway now, it's a novel with a lot of energy."
In an interview with Southern People Weekly, Mo Yin mentioned that some friends who are also creators are often hit hard after experiencing plagiarism when they first entered the literary world. "A friend saw me about this and talked to me a little bit in the past few days. She had a work that had devoted a lot of effort to it, and it was copied by a famous author, which was a great blow to her spirit and almost gave up writing. "Because the support that creators can receive is very weak, in fact, the most important support comes from readers, when you are weak, you don't have enough readers, and when you encounter such a thing, it is easy to be frustrated." ”
On the fourth day of the re-mention of the old matter, Mo Yin posted a small article on the WeChat public account "Mo Yin Eats Wine to Go" "Why should I repeat an old matter of plagiarism more than ten years ago?" " to draw her personal rest for the controversy. She writes:
"I'm glad I've been writing and translating, and I've published a few books that I'm quite satisfied with. Looking back, I was not without doubt, and if I had given up writing halfway through—and of course there had been moments of such wavering, more than once—wouldn't I have lost to that shadow? ”
"In 2010, I mentioned in my statement that I hoped Lin Peiyuan would publicly apologize for the plagiarism of "Herringbone" in Dark Light."
"In 2022, I no longer expect any formal apologies, only that justice is in the hearts of the people."
Six hours later, Lin Peiyuan posted an "Apology Letter" on the WeChat public account "Lin Peiyuan".
Southern People Weekly contacted Lin Peiyuan twice, but he declined to be interviewed. "After the statement, I will no longer speak out about this matter." He replied.
On the night of the statement, Lin Peiyuan contacted an intermediary to help him communicate with Muyin. Considering the situation of both sides, especially the feelings of Mu Yin, the middleman suggested that Lin Peiyuan calm down for a while.
"This is actually an opportunity for Lin Peiyuan to change everyone's slander against him, if he really realizes the mistake and the seriousness of the matter." Poet and literary critic Zhang Dinghao said.
Mo Yin had planned to write another response to the Apology Letter. In her view, Lin Peiyuan apologized for "not publicly responding and expressing his position on this matter for so many years", and did not apologize for specific "plagiarism", which was an insincere apology. But after thinking about it, he decided not to talk about it anymore, "Thinking about responding, it's so tiring." It was over for me. She said.
Luo Mengxi, editor of the publishing house, told Southern People Weekly: "A normal creative environment is first of all the self-purification ability to copy and touch the bottom line. Without this layer, it would be victim-centric, and the idea of the plagiarized person is the most important. ”
In fact, MuYin says he has gained relief with the help of the forces of "morality" and "bystanders." After she recalled the past, the Unknown Douban netizen "No Flow Kirishima Night Follow" quickly purchased the special issue of the third anniversary of "Minimal Society" in the second-hand book market, and took photos and uploaded the full text of "Dark Light", and Mo Yin also published the full text of "Next to The Word".
▲ A simple comparison between the silent "Next to The Word" and Lin Peiyuan's "Dark Light"
Netizen "One Farewell Pear" produced a detailed comparison of the two articles, showing that the character relationship, storyline and plot advancement of "Dark Light" are consistent with "Next to The Word", and Lin Peiyuan's so-called "orc" story is only two strokes in "Dark Light".
"I didn't expect so many people to pay attention to this matter this time, in fact, after so many years, I didn't want to prove it, but the netizens are too good." Mo Yin said, "I have seen a lot of forwards, some people are more calm, some people are indignant, but everyone's words have their power." I think I made it clear, I said everything I wanted to say, everyone recognized it, and I was relieved. ”
Many creators, publishers and university teachers have shown tolerance for the imitation of young authors during their apprenticeships. "Creative learning exists with boundaries." Zhang Yueran reminded, "This matter is also a warning to young authors, imitation and borrowing are very normal, but this has a boundary, not a sentence of borrowing can get rid of everything." ”