On the ninth day of the second lunar month (March 11) this year, Mr. Feng Jicai, a well-known Chinese writer, celebrated his 80th birthday. Prior to this, writers publishing house launched his two latest masterpieces - the full-color graphic essay collection "A Hole in the Studio" and the new collection of novellas "Danube Gorge", which showed his rich life experience and profound creative skills in many ways.
Feng Jicai.
Among them, "A Cave in the Studio" is a companion book to Feng Jicai's essay collection "Study A World" published in 2020, and the two books are combined to show the mutual interrogation and inquiry between the writer's innermost "literary self" and "painting self"; the novella of the same name in "Danube Gorge" won the overall champion of short and medium stories in the 23rd "Contemporary" Literary Rally in 2021. A few days ago, Feng Jicai was interviewed by a reporter from Nanfang Daily, and through the creative experience of the two books, he shared the feeling of "living a little deeper" at each important node of his life, as well as his experience of still working hard and innovating in his old age.
Talk about literature
Novel creation must have "cultural aesthetic value"
In the past 20 years, Feng Jicai has frequently made public appearances as a rescuer of cultural heritage, and the image of a famous writer who has created classic literary works such as "Pearl Bird", "Mountain Picker", "Divine Whip", "Three Inch Golden Lotus", "Strange Man of the World" and published nearly 100 kinds of anthologies seems to have gradually faded out of the public vision.
In December last year, at the 19th Hundred Flowers Literature Award Ceremony, Feng Jicai won the Short Story Award for "Wooden Buddha"; the novella "Danube Gorge", completed in October last year, was affirmed by the "Contemporary" Literary Rally Award Ceremony at the beginning of this year, solemnly "announcing" the return of writer Feng Jicai.
When it comes to the "homecoming" in the field of literature, the old writer seems to be light and breezy. He told reporters: "In the sense of writing, I have been separated from literature for 20 years, but I will not leave literature in this life. ”
A collection of novellas and novellas, Danube Gorge.
"My passion for literature seems to have been born that way." Feng Jicai said that from a young age, once he developed a passion for life, he urgently felt that he had to express it in words - this is an irrepressible creative nature, even when doing cultural heritage rescue work, literary imagination and the impulse to lift the pen will often occur in his mind.
In his view, the 20 years of "temporarily leaving" the literary world is a rare harvest, because "the more things experienced, the thicker the foundation of the writer." He still clearly remembers that when he was young, he suddenly fell seriously ill, when he received a letter from Yan Wenjing, a writer of seniors, who wrote: "Feng Jicai, you must try to live longer. Only when you live a long time will your understanding of life be deeper. ”
For him, to return to writing now is also a natural choice to try to "live a little deeper" at every important point in life. When talking about the difference in the mood of creation in the past and the present, he laughed and said that in the past, writing, he may have preferred to "know life" with readers; now, he feels more like "returning to life" and re-feeling the joy brought by aesthetic creation. He still insisted on setting two standards for his novels: first, as a work of art, it must have cultural aesthetic value; second, it must follow the Chinese literary tradition, and the language must be exquisite, elegant, and aesthetic.
He admitted that after writing "Artists", he once faced a bottleneck in creation - "nothing can come out". In "Wooden Buddha", he consciously changed the angle of writing, allowing himself to transform into a thousand-year-old wooden Buddha statue in a brocade box, and read all kinds of worlds as various people traveled around. Little by little, he felt a sense of "freedom" joy.
In the short story collection "Danube Canyon", the five stories have twists and turns, with different styles, bizarre, romantic, absurd, poignant, humorous... Feng Jicai, who once again released his creative passion, took a sharp turn in his literary style, "also true and illusory", telling the strange world and the subtle hearts of people in the modern city, bringing freshness and surprises to readers.
Talk about painting
"Poetry, calligraphy and painting are of the same origin" is an important tradition of literati painting
Feng Jicai, who is known for his literary achievements, is also a painter with profound skills. Since he studied painting at the age of 145, Feng Jicai has published a variety of large-scale painting collections and held many solo exhibitions at home and abroad, and his works have been called "representatives of modern literati painting" by critics.
Feng Jicai was in the study. Photo by Wang Xiaoyan
In Feng Jicai's home, the studio and study are located at opposite ends of a corridor, and for him, from the study to the studio, it is a "sweet round trip".
He told reporters that these two spaces are not only different in the way of work, but also in fact, the difference in the division of labor in the soul. Writing for him means more social responsibility; painting for him is more about the expression and expression of personal hearts. In the new book, he calls his studio "a hole in the sky", which means that there is a hole like privacy, a home like freedom, and a fairy like magic.
A collection of full-color graphic essays "A Hole in the Studio".
The 76 short articles in "A Cave in the Studio", chronicle people, talk about the past and the present, and expound on the mysteries, describe Feng Jicai's own artistic career and spiritual life, rich and thick in content, rigorous and sincere in writing, both interesting and more emotional, so that readers can feel his living, touch-up spiritual life.
"The advantage of writing one's own is that you can be loyal to yourself and even more loyal to your readers." Feng Jicai once said that literature is an endless picture, and painting is literature with static fragments. In his paintings, he pursues literature, poetry, and artistic conception - poetry and painting are of the same origin, which is also the tradition of Chinese painting, especially literati painting.
The path of culture and art requires long-term achievements. "Creation is a life of the soul, a spiritual work." He said that a person's artistic standards, skills, and cultivation can only be nurtured and nourished through protracted time, and only those artists who are the most persistent, fully attentive, and energetic can finally run to the end.
"If you want to devote yourself to art, you must take out a lifetime of energy!" Feng Jicai believes that with the prosperity of China's national strength, more and more people will be full of cultural self-confidence in the future, returning to tradition and thinking about the soul.
[Reporter] Huang Chuxuan
【Author】 Huang Chuxuan
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client