Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Song Hao Intern Reporter Yan Kexing
Every year around April 23 (World Book Day), on the day of spring breeze and warmer, a grand event about reading, the Spring Wind Reading List Awards Ceremony, is held in Hangzhou.
Writers, translators and critics from all over the country gathered in Hangzhou to take stock of the high-quality books of the past year and work with readers to unveil a comprehensive and high-quality "Spring Breeze Delight Reading List".
Since 2012, the Spring Breeze Reading List has been awarded for nine sessions. It achieved its original goal and became a unique reading event in the Yangtze River Delta.
Past judges, award-winning writers, and award guests have formed friendships with Chunfeng Yue Reading List and left a story in Hangzhou. The Spring Breeze Reading List connects them with readers and records milestones for the course of literature.
It's spring again, and on the occasion of the 10th Spring Wind Yue Reading List, we visited these old friends and listened to their stories with the Spring Wind Yue Reading List. What expectations do they have for the upcoming 10th Spring Breeze Yue Reading List?
Xu Zechen
【Character Business Card】
Xu Zechen: Winner of the 3rd Chunfeng Yue Reading List "Silver Book Award" / Deputy Editor of "People's Literature" / Judge of the 10th "Chunfeng Yue Reading List"
Winner: Jerusalem
In April 2015, the third Chunfeng Yue Reading List was announced, and Xu Zechen's "Jerusalem" won the "Silver Book Award". Xu Zechen, who has a long history with the Chunfeng Yue Reading List, became a judge this year. Together with many judges, he will select the 10th "Spring Breeze Reading List".
In 2014, after the publication of Jerusalem, in December of that year, beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House republished, and in 2020, it was republished. In August 2015, four months after Jerusalem won the Silver Book Award, the book was nominated for the ninth Mao Dun Literature Award, and Xu Zechen became the youngest nominated writer in that year after the 70s.
In 2019, Xu Zechen won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Award for "Going North". "The first post-70s writer to win the Mao Dun Literature Award", this is the label given to him by the media, publishers and the public.
Commentators believe that "Jerusalem" has triggered a current discussion about the "post-70s", a once-obscured literary group. As a post-70s writer, Xu Zechen ploughed a new land like a cow, pulling a new generation of stalwart writers to the center of the stage.
Unlike his predecessors, who had rich experiences in special years, as a generation that grew up in the tide of reform and opening up, Xu Zechen drew nourishment from experience and observation—such as his observation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal—which probably provided an infinite source for his writing.
After graduating from Peking University with a graduate student in the Department of Chinese, Xu Zechen entered the People's Literature as an editor, and the energy condensed in his body gradually burst out and continued endlessly. Although he told the media that he was not prolific and that his writing was done in his spare time, from 2014 to today, Xu Zechen's new books have been published every year.
In the eyes of many readers and critics, Xu Zechen has become a leading figure among the current "post-70s" writers with his own creations.
Xu Zechen has also become the research object of more and more literature majors in colleges and universities.
After the interview, Xu Zechen put on his backpack and walked to the direction of the Jingmi Diversion Canal to take the subway. On the map, this water flow is connected to the Grand Canal, to the south directly to the North Canal, and also to Hangzhou. The car walked away, looked back at Xu Zechen, and walked forward alone on the bridge and the big river.
On April 23, 2015, Qianjiang Evening News, Wang Xiaoni, Li Jingze, Xiong Peiyun, Xu Zechen, Huang Canran, Di An and others launched a roundtable discussion on the topic of "to whom to write".
【Spring Breeze Q&A】
Hourly News: Can you tell the story of your encounter with chunfeng yue reading list?
Xu Zechen: Before I won the Silver Award in Jerusalem, I was already familiar with this award. Because I am very familiar with Qianjiang Evening News, I have been paying attention to relevant information. So it is indeed a great pleasure to receive the Silver Award. An award that I identified with, received its affirmation and encouragement. I also went to Hangzhou to participate in the award ceremony and some related activities.
Hangzhou is a good place, and although it has always been said to go – and often go – but every time I go it is in a hurry. That time was the longest time I spent in Hangzhou, and I had a good feeling of the before and after of our award: its connotation and extension, its activities and influence, and at the same time, I also had a good feeling of this place in Hangzhou, went to many places, and met many people. That time was a spiritual feast for me.
I remember going to the Innocence Book Bar, the bookstore on the mountain, which I particularly liked, and the feeling of climbing the mountain was very good.
Xu Zechen came to Hangzhou many times to participate in the Qianbao Reading Club
In April, Beijing was still quite cold. Going south, the whole person gradually opened up all the way, very relaxed, and arrived at the place where the spring breeze was blowing. Clothing, physical relaxation, but also mental relaxation. Walk down the stone steps to the Book Bar of the Innocent Age, the steps are covered with moss, and you walk very carefully. There are few places like this in Beijing. You don't even need to look under your feet to prevent slippage. At that time, you thought it was also interesting to slip.
Looking down at the Book Bar in the Age of Innocence, facing the West Lake, it is different from a place as scarce water as Beijing. There are mountains, there are waters, there are books, and there is a group of friends who talk about literature, this feeling is the dream of a reader.
The number of 10 years is not big, and it is not small to say small. I think our grand festival and this list can continue to be held for 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, 100 years. If for 50 years, 100 years, 10 years is really not big. But for its influence, I think it is very big, in China, a list of awards, to 10 years is actually relatively small, to run to 10 years have such an influence, less.
In terms of its maturity and influence, 10 years is a big number. In the industry, literary circles, including readers who care about literature and love to read, this list and this award are a very important, credible, instructive, and recommended list. In this sense, 10 years of achievement is now an achievement, very, very difficult.
News: Can you tell us about your recent creative journey?
Xu Zechen: I am ashamed, I have been very busy at work recently, in addition to writing a little tofu block and unit materials, it can be said that it is literary, that is, two short stories written at home during the New Year. Now it's slowly changing.
This may be my recent literature in a narrower sense. But in a broad sense, I write every day, and every day I am transferring some materials and ideas in my head. But these things do not know when to form a word, can only wait for it to ripen and fall.
Hourly News: Can you talk about an interested newcomer or a new book?
Xu Zechen: Last year, because I was busy at work, I didn't read as many books as in previous years. But in limited reading, I still see some good books.
The first is Malaysian writer Lai ZiShu's "Flowing Place". Li Zishu is not a newcomer, his writing is very mature, and he has been running rampant in the literary world for many years. But it may still be relatively unfamiliar to mainland readers, because she is a Malaysian writer.
Nor is this novel the MCA literature that we usually imagine and recognize — it may be grand themes such as race, homeland, and discord, which are very fashionable and grand themes in literature. In "Fringed Land", Li Zishu avoids these themes, and she wants to seriously write about the Daily Life of the Chinese in Malaysia, including Indians and local Malays.
She doesn't have that strong historical impulse, but in everyday life, the whole history of Malaysia is revealed little by little. This is also in line with my personal understanding of the relationship between literature and history.
No matter how grand a piece of history is, if it does not have a flesh-and-blood connection with the characters in the novel, if it does not produce some kind of flesh-and-blood connection with the author's understanding, I think it is meaningless. Several of the characters in this novel, such as the blind woman Yinxia, her friends Xiaohui and Razu, grew up small; as they grew older, the whole society was changing, history was evolving, and the whole of Malaysia was experiencing many big things and small things. But these things only have a relationship with the lives of these characters, this novel is more real, more real, and it resonates when you look at it.
Li Zishu had an online conversation with writer Wang Anyi, Professor Chen Sihe of Fudan University, and Professor Zhai Yejun of Zhejiang University.
So we used to think that writing daily and personal narratives would not be trivial and low to the dust? Not really. As long as you can grasp a country, a nation, a piece of history, and a culture as a whole, on a macroscopic level, as a whole, and at the same time you have the ability to make these grand details and the daily lives of people. After the combination of big and small, such novels will be very good and very moving. It has a strong sense of substitution, and you will have a strong empathy with the characters.
It is actually reminding us that "big" is important, "small" is also important, and even "small" is more important. Without an effective "small", it may be difficult for you to show the "big" things, and the "big" you get and see may be empty, it may be a flower shelf. From this point of view, I think "Flowing Land" is really worth watching.
In addition, I would like to recommend our Zhejiang writer Yang Yifen's "Leaving the Dead". It was her first novel, and I felt very patient, with very rich details. To some extent, it can also be said that it is a work that combines the big history with the daily life of the individual, and the big narrative and the small narrative. And the background of this novel is in her hometown of Zhoushan, which is a very interesting place, and I personally like it very much.
During World War II, Zhoushan was a very important place, and there was Putuo Mountain, which was a sacred place of Oriental Buddhist culture. Such a place, when you put it in the context of big history and daily life, you will find it particularly interesting. Before, I really haven't seen anyone so complete, rich and three-dimensional depiction of the history and present of Zhoushan, the marine culture and daily life of Zhoushan so comprehensively presented, so I also recommend this book to everyone.
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