In the early morning of April 11, 1997, 44-year-old Wang Xiaobo died of a sudden heart attack in a closet office outside Beijing. Afterwards, his wife Li Yinhe found that Wang Xiaobo's forehead was scarred, there were even marks on the wall with teeth scratched, and a pile of wall ash fell on the ground, which showed that he died of a heart attack and could not help but hit his head in pain.
Wang Xiaobo can be said to be the earliest batch of self-media people in China, or the earliest freelancers. In order to concentrate on writing, he even resigned from the teaching position of the National People's Congress as a highly educated returnee, which was undoubtedly a shocking move in 1992.
All his belongings were a computer, a bed, and a chair with a backrest. His friends came to see him and needed to go to the commissary outside to buy water, and he didn't even have water at home!
In fact, at this time, Wang Xiaobo had already written the famous "Golden Age", and it had been published in Taiwan and Hong Kong. But because the book describes a lot of intellectuals, broken shoes, sex...
It was once named "The History of Wang Er's Wind and Currents" by Hong Kong merchants, and published as a colored book under the banner of "Wind Flow". Although Wang Xiaobo was very angry about this, he had no choice...
It is conceivable how difficult it was for such a work of "obscenity and theft" to be published in the mainland press at the time node of the early nineties!
Although Wang Xiaobo's "Golden Age" was favored by many editors, it was always not approved when it was reviewed. The opinions of the leaders of the various publishing houses are astonishingly unified: "The novel is brilliantly written, but we dare not come out!" ”
In 1994, Zhao Jieping, the veteran editor of Huaxia Publishing House, made up his mind to publish "The Golden Age" after reading "The Golden Age", and in order to avoid the leadership from passing, Zhao Jieping specially took advantage of the absence of the editor-in-chief on a business trip and directly produced 6,000 copies on his own initiative.
After the leaders found out, they directly and severely criticized Zhao Jieping, and Zhao Jieping once had a serious illness. The 6,000 books produced could only be sold by Wang Xiaobo and Zhao Jieping because of incomplete procedures.
So Wang Xiaobo and Zhao Jieping could only push their bicycles to bundle books to the back seat, and constantly switched between various book stalls and various book wholesale markets to see if they could sell.
But unfortunately, until Wang Xiaobo's death, these books did not sell much.
During this period, Wang Xiaobo, at the request of director Zhang Yuanzhi, created the script "East Palace west palace".
In 1995, his novel Future World won the Novella Award at the 16th United Press Literary Awards.
In October 1996, Li Yinhe went to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom as a visiting scholar, but he did not expect that the airport would be a farewell.
In April 1997, Li Yinhe, who received Wang Xiaobo's death from illness, immediately returned to China, which was the first scene.
After Li Yinhe returned to China, he published a eulogy entitled "Romantic Knight, Troubadour, Free Thinker - Mourning Xiaobo", in which Li Yinhe wrote:
"I think the biggest gain and luck in my life is that I picked Xiaobo's book to read. In the 20 years from the time I met him in 1977 to the time I said goodbye to him again in 1997, I saw one of the best, most interesting, and best books. As his wife, I used to be the happiest person in the world; without him, I am now the most miserable person in the world. ”
Wang Xiaobo was lonely and nameless before his death, but after his death, all kinds of reports that could not be sought before his death followed.
On April 16, the Southern Metropolis Daily first issued "The Death of Writer Wang Xiaobo", which was the first news about Wang Xiaobo's death in China.
On April 17, Beijing Youth Daily published an article entitled "Wang Xiaobo, a well-known scholar and writer, died of illness in Beijing."
Over the next month or so, more than a hundred media outlets released relevant news and reports. The "Times Trilogy", which was originally a variety of procrastinations and bottlenecks in publishing, is now a green channel.
Photo note: On January 21, 1997, Wang Xiaobo sent a postcard to Zhong Jieling of Huacheng Publishing House, urging the publication of the "Times Trilogy". The postcard read: "Zhong Jieling: Their World triptych has not yet passed. There should still be one at home, but it hasn't been found yet. My mother is sick again, and now she is in a mess, so she will send it. Book things please tighten. Wang Xiaobo saluted..."
Huacheng Publishing House has also set up a special group to connect various publishing links.
On May 9, 1997, Southern Weekend took out an entire page and made a commemorative edition of Wang Xiaobo, which had two huge titles: one was "The Man Who Died for His Place" and the other was "Like a Beautiful Song". Others took copies of the entire layout and framed them in a large wooden photo frame for Wang Xiaobo's mother.
Photo note: Wang Xiaobo's "Times Trilogy", published by Huacheng Publishing House in 1997
On May 13, when Wang Xiaobo was 45 years old, the Beijing Museum of Modern Literature held a seminar on the "Times Trilogy", and each delegate held a new book that was freshly baked and airlifted from Guangzhou: "Golden Age", "Silver Age" and "Bronze Age".
In 1997, Wang Xiaobo's only film script, "East Palace west palace", won the Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, best film award at the Argentine Film Festival. The film "East Palace West Palace" was also shortlisted for the Cannes Film Festival.
It's just that these Wang Xiaobo don't know anymore!
The fate of writers, painters, and poets is more or less the same
Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of #Wang Xiaobo #