Editor's Note
Creation and criticism, such as the wings of a bird, the axle of a car. The development of literary creation is inseparable from the prosperity of literary criticism and the efforts of generations of literary critics. In 1998, the Southern Literary Circle launched the "Critics Today" column, which has introduced more than 100 critics so far. Critics of different personalities speak "my view of criticism" with their sharpness, talent, and agility, and hundreds of articles have accumulated to form a sensitive, vivid, and full of vitality and talent.
Now the China Writers Network has re-launched these articles to share with you, so stay tuned.
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Critics of the day
He Ying (Filmed in 2013)
Vice Chairman of Xinjiang Literary and Art Critics Association, Deputy Editor of Journal of Xinjiang Academy of Arts. Doctor of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was a visiting scholar at Peking University and Beijing Normal University, and served as a judge of the Fifth Lu Xun Literature Award. In 2006, he won the second "Tianshan Literature and Art Award" in Xinjiang, in 2013 he won the "Literature Newspaper And New Criticism" Newcomer Award, in 2013 he was selected as the "Four Batches" talents of the autonomous region, in 2016 he won the first Mao Dun Literary Newcomer Award, he won the excellent achievements of the Xinjiang Social Science Foundation project "Xinjiang Contemporary Literature Research", and won the 2021 Excellent Paper Award of "Chinese Contemporary Literature Research". He has published more than 1.5 million words of commentary in many newspapers and periodicals such as Contemporary Writers Review, Novel Review, Southern Literary Circle, Literary Freedom Talk, Literature and Art Daily, Literature Newspaper, China Culture Daily, and China Reading Daily. He is the author of the commentary collection "The "Innocent Eye" of Criticism", "Presenting Xinjiang", "The Secret of the Depths", and the essay collection "Crazy Woman in the Attic". Some of his works have been selected by Xinhua Digest, China Social Science Digest, Guangming Daily and so on.
My view of criticism
The "Innocent Eye" of Criticism
HE Ying
The Eye of Innocence, a concept proposed by the 19th-century art critic Ruskin, has been challenged by the theories of Arnheim and Gombrich, and there seems to be little room for truth in its concepts. Gombrich said that there is no eye of innocence, and it is impossible for people to look at an object of art without preconceptions. Gombrich certainly told the truth, but I suspect that Ruskin didn't know when he came up with the concept of the Eye of Innocence! He simply wanted to absolve his imaginary artistic creation with an extreme, idealistic, utopian concept.
In a world that has lost its overall imagination, where everything is fragmented and uncertain, the finiteness of truth becomes our wisdom. Why not revisit the "eye of innocence" in literary criticism? Perhaps, a child who has not been polluted by the preconceptions or prejudices of knowledge and is not afraid of the hardships and embarrassments of the world will see that the world is closest to the origin of the world.
The innocent eyes of critics can avoid others. When you say good, you are all good. When it is not good, it is not good to be like it. This is unnatural, untrue, and even less in line with the professional ethics of the critic; the innocent eyes of the critic can avoid his gangs and gangs. A person who is not in the clouds, with an independent will and desire, is unwilling to join the choir in a mediocre way, and naturally does not know how to pay attention to those grievances. Or some predecessors worriedly warned: how many people to offend, a little carelessness to cause trouble. It has been more than ten years in the mix, and the gains and losses are not enough to sum up, but fortunately there are two eyes in the heart that strive for innocence, so what hurt; the innocent eyes of the critic can avoid the value of beauty that he does not understand. Since the 1990s, critics have been seeking and shaping their own independent genres. After the discipline, standardization, and learning, it is the loss of the value of criticism and beauty. Most of the criticism we see is difficult to call it beauty, and beauty is a value. In this overwhelming process of aesthetic routineization, the criticism that should have the most beautiful qualities is gray-headed and stateless; the innocent eyes of the critic can avoid his self-demotion and write works that he is not satisfied with. A critic in today's world, who else can control his mouth. When it comes to self-discipline, critics are the most self-disciplined group. As long as it is guaranteed that each work is produced at the time when it is bound to fall to the ground, that it is full of your love and responsibility for it, that it is the crystallization of your body temperature, temperament, blood, and wisdom, and that you cherish feathers more than anything else, then what is more noble than a person's sense of responsibility; the innocent eyes of the critic can avoid his criticism of the soul against the love of wisdom and truth. Critics are also engaged in artistic creation, and the requirements of this kind of creation may be more complex and profound. Not only is the worldly right and wrong not in sight, but the greater freedom of the mind is the supreme enjoyment of her like an innocent child in her own game kingdom: the ultimate and pure artistic realm, the top game of "non-utilitarianism", thoroughly displaying personal endowments and talents, crossing her own talents, both sharp and humorous, elegant and pure... If you can do this, what else can you ask for in life?
The article was published in Southern Literature Circle, No. 5, 2013
Critic Impressions
Ho Ying Ho Ho Man
Zhou Tao
Who is Ho Ying?
I am ashamed to say that the author has heard of her name from afar, has met several times recently, and knows that she serves in the Literary Association and is a talented woman; after reading several of her review articles and most of the "Crazy Woman in the Attic", as for where she is, what her origin, the geometry of her age, and what her temperament are, it is all unclear. With such a little understanding, it is really difficult to write an impression on others. I said to her, "I know too little about you, I'm afraid it's hard to do it." She replied to the text message: "Teacher Zhou can completely refuse, then I have nothing." ”
There may be too many people and things that I refuse at once, and I am notorious. Rejecting the request of others is naturally inevitable to have a bad reputation, which is nothing more than "laughing and scolding by people laughing and scolding, and notoriety I bear my own name." But for He Ying, I couldn't refuse one bite, I had to accept it first, and then I had to search for my nearly seventy years of dry intestines. Why was he so kind to He Ying? Some people will say that He Ying is a talented woman, and in the eyes of writers, a talented woman is a beautiful woman. This is half right, only the word "female", only in the front, female in the back. I am a person who sometimes despises power and reduces money, but never dares to belittle people's talents. Talent and backbone are inseparable.
Talent must have bones, and no bones will not become talents. In the late 1980s, several military writers in Beijing Xiaoju had become drunk, and agreed to say goodbye to each other's slaps, and it was Mo Yan's fat face, afraid of his talent, and did not dare to hurt his fierce hand. Now that he Ying is a stubble person, too, he cannot "refuse one bite". But writing her impressions is not easy, she is not easy to send - too smart, too high understanding, although it is a generation apart, the old man this bit of tai chi kung fu, it is easy to show flaws, mouth does not say that the heart will laugh "he is also so ah."
I don't know how old He Ying is this year, but I read in her article that there is a teenage son, estimated to be after 70. This stubble has less contact, but also knows that the best of them are much higher than our generation. Let's say that He Ying has the academic skills of critics, the language control ability of essayists, and the understanding and imagination of young poets. It varies from text to text, sometimes it is incisive and insightful, it does not avoid famous artists, and the pen is sharp; sometimes it has been several generations of talented women, full of affection, and feminism; sometimes it is written about all kinds of flowers and plants, such as huang ruirui in "Yellow Tulip", which is also a rare wonderful text -- "I have lived until now, if there are people around me who have made me have an insurmountable jealousy, it is really Huang Ruirui in college." It is not easy for He Ying to say such things, and as a result, Huang Ruirui's self-sinking Qinggeda Lake made He Ying say something even more powerful - "It is difficult for me not to hate her in my heart." Before I could finish my final test with her, she left proudly. ”
So, who is He Ying? In this wonderful article, it is exposed that He Ying is a person with a woman's heart and a man's heart. She not only has "insurmountable jealousy", but also the confidence to "finish the final test with her". He Ying has a very tough thing in her heart, you don't look at her usually low-key, indisputable with the world, and even sometimes pretend not to understand anything, but in her heart, it is not too much to say that she is "ambitious". This kind of person is born as a daughter and engaged in literature, which is a fortunate thing for men who advocate heroic achievements; otherwise, it is really difficult to say "who is the enemy of the heroes in the world."
If I say that He Ying has feminist tendencies, I don't know if she can accept it, of course, it means that there is no practice in literary research and social behavior. You look at her "Why Talented Women Need to Be Blessed", which is unfair to the talented women of chinese generations; and then look at her "Crazy Woman in the Attic", which is too long for the burning strange women around Rodin, Brebut, and Picasso. The marriage system under the long-term patriarchal society of mankind is certainly far from being reasonably perfect, let alone perfecting the liberation and harmony of human nature, and the extraction and coldness of those brilliant artistic masters from the body to the inspiration of beautiful women are shocking! As an intellectual woman, it is strange that there is no bit of feminist tendency, at least numbness or lack of success.
But feminism is not the same as sexism, and blind gender protection has become a regression. He Ying's article "Hatred for Eternity Spreads Out" by He Ying can see her independent opinions and judgment skills, everyone praises Zhang, she does not protect Zhang, and as soon as she comes up, she tells the truth: "I first read Zhang Ailing's novels and did not like it, but the blind obedience of the Chinese people made me always dare not say my doubts, as if to say it like that, I am a layman who has no artistic appreciation." He also said, "Women in their twenties are prone to liking Zhang Ailing, and Zhang Ailing's style of a propertied person easily fills our hearts with empty and flashy fantasies, and we even look for knowledge and experience about men in Zhang Ailing's novels." ”
This view made her speak to my heart again, which coincided. I don't deny that Zhang Ailing is a talented woman, but I also don't see that she is so mysterious! Just like that Zhou Zuoren, I can't see the beauty of his prose! I don't know who is secretly manipulating the cultural value judgments of this era. These people can't create any culture on their own, but they can influence other people's cultures as they please, as Lu Xun said, "Whipping as a slave master." They are neither government departments nor competent officials, but the energy is so great that thousands of tabloids across the country are their mouthpieces! We think that "referring to deer as horses" is a joke made by Zhao Gao of a distant dynasty, but if it is not right, it happens all around us, and it is often staged.
But He Ying was not a slave, she did not listen to the whip of the general manager, she said her own views, there were analysis, there were criticisms, there were regrets, and there were also fair and objective evaluations. This is another good article, but unfortunately, the people who are coaxing the crowd have no intention of listening to the monologue in the corner. People's malicious lamentations about the "decline" of literature, "slippery slopes", "marginalization", etc. have been going on for twenty years, is this not the case? Compared with the national literary fever of the 80s, literature is now marginalized, but "decline" and "landslide" are not necessarily the same. I think that the writers born in the three decades from the 60s, 70s and 80s are silently pushing contemporary literature to a new peak!
I am not saying this with my eyes closed, I also draw conclusions from the book "A Hundred Years of Chinese New Poetry" edited by Hong Zicheng and Cheng Guangwei, the works of the last five volumes are surprising, especially the works of female poets Lu Ye and Song Yu, I think it is far more than the previous generations of poets! These people are not famous, and if it were not for this set of canonical selections, I would not have known about their existence. I suddenly understood that the literary kingdom had already matured! The current façade is an illusion of strong support, the inner pocket is exhausted, vulnerable! He Ying is one of these generations, she has an unexpected intelligence, talent, persistence, and forbearance like them, they already have everyone's vision, but they always play the role of primary school students...
From this, I remembered the conversation with He Ying for the first time, which was quite symbolic.
He Ying: Oh, Teacher Zhou is too tall and too big, really need to make people look up!
Me: Not so tall, maybe your husband is not tall, so look at me tall, right?
He Ying: My husband is not short, but he is not as tall and burly as you.
Me: How tall is your husband?
He Ying: He is one meter nine.
Me: Huh?! I was shrunken by one meter eight.
Ho Ying who is he?
That is, he obviously has one meter nine, but he still has to look up at one meter eight.
(Zhou Tao, Xinjiang Military Region Creative Studio)
The article was published in Southern Literature Circle, No. 5, 2013
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Read more
Impressions of a Critic
Zhang Yanling, Zhang Ping, editor-in-chief
Writers And Publishers September 2019
My View of Criticism
Zhang Yanling, Zhang Ping, editor-in-chief
Guangxi Normal University Press, January 2016
Editor: Liu Ya
Second instance: Wang Yang
Third instance: Chen Tao