On the afternoon of March 25, 2022, the online class of "Open Class for Chinese Writers" welcomed a special lecture by the famous writer Zhao Benfu entitled "A Brief View of Contemporary Chinese Literature and Cultural Exchanges between East and West". The course was chaired by Professor Xu Baofeng, Dean of the Belt and Road Research Institute of Beijing Language and Culture University, and was attended online by more than 200 teachers and students.
First of all, Professor Xu Baofeng introduced The creative achievements of Professor Zhao Benfu and the cross-media dissemination and influence of his works. Teacher Zhao Benfu is a first-class writer in mainland China, enjoys the subsidy of the State Council, and his works have won more than 20 awards such as "National Excellent Short Story Award", "Wang Zengqi Chinese Novel Award", "Shi Nai'an Literature Award", "Purple Mountain Literature Award Long Fiction Award", "Hundred Flowers Literature Award Novel Award", etc., and have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Professor Xu Baofeng presided over the course
Teacher Zhao Benfu is not only a popular writer in the "Novel Monthly", but also favored by the film and television industry, and a large number of his works have been adapted into movies and TV series, which have been widely praised. In 1998, the 7th issue of "Novel Monthly" selected the novel "No Thief in the World", which was later adapted into the movie "No Thief in the World" (2004), which received great response; in addition, the TV series "Out of the Blue Water River" based on the novel "Knife and Woman" also received unanimous praise.
The novel "No Thief under Heaven" and the movie poster of the same name
As a writer at the forefront of the times, Teacher Zhao Benfu has always adhered to the traditional way of writing - "make a cup of tea, smoke a cigarette, and write with your hands on the paper." What is written in this way seems to flow out of the veins, very kind and natural." Starting from the unique feeling of adhering to the "handwritten tradition", Teacher Zhao Benfu recounted his keen sense of contemporary life and the situation of the Chinese literary world, and expounded his unique views on the development of contemporary Chinese literature and its relationship with Sino-foreign cultural exchanges.
Teacher Zhao Benfu believes that the ideological emancipation brought about by reform and opening up and the rise of the cultural and entertainment industry have provided a good soil for the diversified development of contemporary Chinese literature. Contemporary Chinese literature itself has a profound cultural heritage, and under the background of the era of globalization, it is also influenced by world literature, showing the characteristics of common inclusive personality and diversified literary aesthetic experience.
Teacher Zhao Benfu gave a speech
Therefore, the essence of cultural exchange between the East and the West is neither conquest nor convergence, but based on mutual appreciation of equality and respect, using its own culture to enrich the world culture, and the world is colorful because of differences. Acknowledging the differences between Eastern and Western civilizations and upholding the Chinese philosophical proposition of "gentlemen and differences" helps preserve cultural heterogeneity and diversity.
"Cultural exchange is like travel: independent travelers will appreciate different landscapes and feel the diversity of culture, so that their horizons are broader and their steps are more solid and powerful – this is the meaning of cultural exchange and communication," said Zhao Benfu.
In the question-and-answer session, teacher Zhao Benfu answered the questions raised by the students on how to find writing materials in life and the cultural identity positioning of Chinese youth in the context of globalization, and emphasized in particular: first, we must read through history to strengthen depth, second, we must increase experience to broaden our horizons, and third, we must adhere to cultural self-confidence to be generous and inclusive. In the in-depth and simple explanation of Teacher Zhao Benfu, the students were deeply inspired.
This semester, the China Writers Open Class will continue to cooperate with Novel Monthly, inviting influential writers and critics from contemporary China to enter the classroom and engage in dialogue with readers and translators at home and abroad, inside and outside the classroom, to build an active communication platform for Chinese literature to "go global", and to contribute to improving the literary literacy and cross-cultural communication ability of students at Beijing Language and Culture University.