The "National Reading Conference • 2021 China Good Books" ceremony was broadcast on the night of "World Book Day" on April 23, 2022 on CCTV-10 CCTV Science and Education Channel and CCTV-1 CCTV Comprehensive Channel. Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House's "Distant White Horse" and "Ping An Batch" won the "2021 China Good Book".
Award speech
"The White Horse Gone" takes "White Horse" as the guide, and tells the legendary life of Zhao Xiuying, a former heroine during the Liberation War, and shapes the ordinary and great ordinary people in the war.
"Ping An Batch" writes a unique "Overseas Chinese Batch" culture, through the unique form of letters "Ping An Batch", telling the history of the difficult entrepreneurship of Chaoshan expatriates in Nanyang, as well as their strong feelings of home and country and noble traditional virtues.
Host Li Pan interviewed Han Jingqun
Han Jingqun, editor-in-chief of Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, said:
"The white horse is a symbol of firm faith, tenacious fighting spirit, brave spirit, and noble personality. "The White Horse Gone" has a high degree of people's nature. It writes an ordinary and magical image of a female hero. Heroes come from the people, and they are people's heroes with abundant flesh and blood. It was the thousands of such heroes who made the Chinese revolution victorious. ”
"Ping An Batch" enters from a small incision, and through Zheng Mengmei's life story, writes the history of overseas Chinese criticism, writes about the faithfulness and righteousness of Chinese businessmen and their feelings of home and country that they do not forget. Solid details, flesh and blood characters, not only wrote the reason why Chaoshan people are Chaoshan people, and by extension, also wrote Chinese the reason why they are Chinese. How to write a beautiful and readable Chinese story, "Ping An Batch" provides a good model. ”
Title: The Gone White Horse
Author: Zhu Xiuhai
Publisher: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House
Publication date: February 2021
"The Distant White Horse" is a weighty and thoughtful military literature. After interviewing many survivors of the Liberation War, Zhu Xiuhai, a famous military writer, collected a wealth of creative materials and opened the curtain on the long novel "The White Horse Gone" with a white horse galloping on the battlefield as the introduction.
The protagonist of the novel, Zhao Xiuying, organized the villagers' support many times during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and led the whole village workers' team to cooperate with the Eighth Route Army. During the Liberation War, Zhao Xiuying and the detachment she led came to the northeast battlefield. The pain of leaving her hometown and missing her children did not shake the heart of this Communist Party member, and she gave full play to her organizational ability and experience in doing mass work, organized a grain brigade to help the Thirty-seventh Regiment survive the arduous years of lack of clothing and food, and saved the whole regiment from hunger and hardship several times. On the battlefield, she braved the rain of bullets and bullets to snatch wounded soldiers from the front line, and used her flesh and blood to build the life and death line of battlefield communication in the bombardment of the enemy army. After the victory of the Liberation War, she continued to adhere to the mission of the Communists and dedicated her life to the water and soil on one side and the people on the other.
This book is rooted in real historical stories, with the help of rich historical facts, with the decisive battle related to China's future and destiny - the Liberation War as the background, with a sober and objective literary standpoint to examine and write the complexity and truth of history, the goodness and loftiness of human nature, the writing of war scenes, battlefield plots and details, and the depiction of the emotions and fates of many characters, all of which are controlled and accurate. In the two time and space of history and reality, with poetic tones and aria passion, he successfully shaped the image of a group of selfless and fearless communists, firm in conviction, vivid and full of character, which shocked people's hearts and touched people's hearts.
The White Horse Gone Honor Roll
2021 China Good Book
"China Press, Publication, Radio and Telegraph" 2021 good book
China Press, Publication, Radio and Telegraph 2021 Excellent Bestseller List Literature Sub-list
China Reading Daily 2021 Top 100
The Central Propaganda Department's 2021 theme publication key publication selection
2021 annual cultural boutique project key projects
2021 Chinese Literature and Art Theme Publication List
February-March 2021 China Good Books
March 2021 China Reading Newspaper Monthly Good Book List
China Press, Publication, Radio and Telegraph 3-4 months excellent bestseller list literature list
Impact Books for the first quarter of 2021
China Publishing & Media Business Daily March 2021 Good Book List
List of 100 Good Books in May 2021
"Publisher" a good book in April
Publishing Business Weekly Is a good book for February
The 8th Readers' Reading Festival recommends good books
Published a letter recommended by the editor-in-chief of Business Weekly
Literature Good Book List February and March 2021 List
Book Title: "Ping An Batch"
Author: Chen Jiming
Publishers: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, Huacheng Publishing House
Publication date: October 2021
"There is a kind of family letter called 'peace approval'; when you receive a peace approval, the stone in your heart falls to the ground."
"Ping An Batch" is the latest novel by writer Chen Jiming, which depicts a history of the struggle of Chaoshan overseas Chinese merchants to "go to Nanyang". Zheng Mengmei shouldered the mission of reviving the family business, and when people were getting middle-aged, they went to Nanyang alone. In a foreign country, "Ping An Pi" unexpectedly became his life's work. The contract and credit of the "foreign fan" are written down with a brush, and the "Chinese heart" that emphasizes love and righteousness beats. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mengmei and her relatives and friends deeply understood the great righteousness of their homeland and resolutely threw themselves into the torrent of serving the motherland...
Using Ping An Pi as the medium, the novel integrates into the changes in the world in the past hundred years, profoundly writes the spiritual world of a party, and writes a "Chinese heart" that cherishes love and righteousness, patriotism and love for the country.
"Peace Approval" Honor Roll
2021 China Good Book
Impact Book of the Year 2021
China Reading Daily 2021 Top 100
Funded by the National Publishing Fund in 2022
2021 Chinese Literature and Art Theme Publication List
October 2021 China Good Book
The eleventh issue of "Xinhua Recommended Books" recommended books
China Press, Publication, Radio and Telegraph's October Excellent Bestseller List
December 2021 China Reading Newspaper Monthly Good Book List
Fourth Quarter 2021 Impact Books
"The Publisher" is a good book in November
December 2021 Top 100 Good Books List
Publishing Business Weekly January 2022 good book
Publishing Business Weekly's latest blockbuster book in 2022
Shenzhen-Hong Kong Book Review 2021 1201 Good Book Weekly List
Literature Good Books List November List
Tribute to heroism with literature (creation talk)
Zhu Xiuhai
In my literary career, the creative process of the novel "The Distant White Horse" (Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House) is not the most difficult, but the longest span of time. In the early summer of 2003, I started a field interview to write a biography of a person. Originally, because I still had the script writing task of "Joe's Family Compound" on hand, I hoped that the interview would be completed as soon as possible. But it soon became apparent that this was impossible, because I had entered a magnificent history of blood and fire in the Liberation War.
In the following 13 months, I walked 11 provinces, autonomous regions and cities, interviewed more than 130 historical witnesses, and was shocked by the people and events in them again and again. In 2008, I ended my biography writing work, but my focus on the heroic team that built meritorious service in the Liberation War (the 37 regiments in the book) did not end, and the tracking of the heroine of the book, Zhao Xiuying, and other heroic deeds of the 37 regiments did not end, until the summer of 2019.
It was a rainy afternoon and I got a call. The caller was a descendant of an old hero I met in that interview, who told me that his father had passed away in the spring of that year. Hanging up the phone, I recalled the scene of the old hero riding a white horse on the northeast snowy battlefield before he died, and suddenly a sense of sadness and urgency struck my heart, urging me to write about this heroic group that I had always wanted to write and had been brewing, but had never dared to write hastily, and to write out the deeds and spirit of those people's heroes who had contributed to new China, so as not to be buried and forgotten with the departure of a generation.
"The Distant White Horse" tells exactly such a story: After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, tens of thousands of troops in our Jiaodong area rushed to cross the sea and participate in the battle to liberate northeast China. Zhao Xiuying, a communist party member and leader of the district branch forward team, after landing in the northeast, in order to recover the lost members of the branch and fulfill her promise to the family of the former branch, resolutely stayed in the temporarily formed 37 regiment and was born and died with all the officers and men of the regiment. She witnessed how the 37th Regiment faced the new battlefield environment and war situation, how to overcome many difficulties, spell out a way to survive, and gradually grew and matured in the war, and after the thrilling bloody battles such as sticking to the Skyscraper Ridge, Sibao Linjiang, Raiding Tonghua, and Tashan Blockade, it finally became a strong force that could withstand the test of harsh war. After the army entered the pass and fought the Battle of Pingjin, Zhao Xiuying returned to Shandong, hid his merits and fame, moved from his hometown in Jiaodong to the deep mountains of Yimeng, buried the memory of the war years in his heart, and spent his life with hard work and resentment.
The book spans 16 years from interview to writing. 16 years of tracking and missing, how long these heroes and their stories have been buried in my heart, how long they have been suppressed, and when it comes to writing, how powerful they are like a team and rush like rivers. The creative process of "The White Horse Gone" made me understand that reality is the most powerful weapon of the creator. With an understanding of real history, there will be real emotion and enthusiasm for creation. The real history, the real historical figures, the real heroic hearts of the historical figures deeply touched me, and today through my pen, they have also touched many friends who read this book. The power of literature lies in the transmission of this emotion.
I know that in the long river of literature that wrote the history of the Red Revolution, "The White Horse Gone" is just a wave. Heroic regiments such as the 37th Regiment that fought tenaciously abounded in the ranks of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and the touching image of Zhao Xiuying who resolutely threw himself into the revolution and dedicated his life to the people is also numerous in the history of the revolution. The reason for writing down their stories is not only that their bloody struggles and heroic sacrifices in exchange for our happy life today, but also their ideals, their beliefs, the value of their resolute adherence and lifelong struggle, and the flesh and blood connection with our time today. Their deeds and spirit deserve our repeated review and solemn memories.
Whether it was Zhao Xiuying's eldest sister or the heroes of the 37th Regiment, in the era in which they lived, they were just the most ordinary Chinese. Originally peasants born in poor rural areas, with a simple and sincere understanding of the revolution, they threw themselves into the great battle to overthrow old China and build a new China, and became heroes who the Chinese nation has always praised. At a time when the fate of the nation is decided, the people show their character and strength.
"The White Horse Gone" is my tribute to the heroes of my predecessors. As a soldier, I will always firmly believe that strength is among the people and heroes are among the people. Although the heroes of the older generation of the Beacon Baptism are gradually gone, their deeds, spirits, and bones will survive with our nation for eternity, inspiring future generations to cut through thorns and thorns and move towards the future.
This article was originally published in People's Daily (07th edition on October 7, 2021)
Chen Jiming's "Ping An Batch": Tracing the historical imprint of the place
Yue Wen
Good novelists probably have a magic power, when they gaze at something, the thing will gradually take on its own contours, textures, and flesh and blood, as if awakened from the inanimate material world, begin to breathe softly, and have an independent will, glowing with a charming luster. Now, the novelist Chen Jiming has set his sights on the "Ping An Batch". The writer, who moved from the northwest to the south, was particularly sensitive to local culture. From the "Ping An Batch", he discovered the living world of the Teochew people, discovered the character of Lingnan culture and a period of disappearing time, and all this was richly and fully condensed in the novel "Ping An Batch". What is Ping An Batch? Readers outside of Chaoshan will probably be confused by this. As if to answer this doubt, on the cover of the "Ping An Batch", there is a perceptual description of the Ping An Batch: "There is a kind of family letter called 'Ping An Batch'. When I received a peace note, the stone in my heart fell to the ground. In the "Dialect Interpretation", Chen Jiming tried to accurately define it: "Batch: refers to the remittance and family letter sent to China by overseas Chinese through the approval bureau, which is a special mail carrier that is sent and converged." Letters from Fanpan are called approvals, and letters from China are called letters. Obviously, the batch is related to the special geography and history of the Chaoshan region. As early as the Two Song Dynasties, with the improvement of navigation technology, the ocean shipping routes were continuously explored, forming an unprecedented wave of overseas immigrants, and the "overseas Chinese batch" came into being. The "overseas Chinese criticism" full of touching emotions is the economic line and lifeline between the two places, and it is also a testimony to the sangzi complex and home and country feelings of overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese in foreign countries.
"Ping An Batch" with mengmei far across the ocean, and the "overseas Chinese batch" to make friends, and then run the batch bureau, nine deaths during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to open the land mail road, after the founding of new China to create the Anti-Japanese War period of the Shen Batch Museum life experience, telling the history of overseas Chinese batch, thus illuminating the history of overseas Chinese soaked with the imprints of history. Mengmei, a teenager who grew up in Yinxi Village, faced the vast sea and foresaw that she was going to "go over". This is probably the fate imprinted in the bones of teochew people. In the eyes of the Teochew people, the sea is not a dead end, but a way to the vast unknown life. Sure enough, as an adult, he took a boat to Siam and became good friends with George and Chen Guangyuan, who were in the same boat. After arriving in Siam, Mengmei became a writer because of her literacy and hyphenation, and took over the batch of Song Wanchang and ran Everbright. In 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, and Mengmei and other overseas Chinese actively raised funds for the relief of refugees and the anti-Japanese national salvation. After the fall of Chaoshan and the sea route was cut off, Mengmei was determined to take her son Naicheng over the mountains and mountains, through all kinds of hardships, open up land routes, and transport thousands of silver that had been backlogged for two years back to China. This postal route has also become the most memorable road in Mengmei's life. Until the age of 65, he always retraced on a solo hike every two years. In the later years of his life, he founded the Museum of Shen Criticism during the War of Resistance. This museum became the sustenance of his life, and he either stayed in the museum all day, or continued to walk from village to village and search around in the most ordinary way, hoping to save the dead critics who were sleeping in history. Qiao Pi is not so much Mengmei's career as it is his soul. From a letter of letter of approval to overseas Chinese, he touched the real and perceptible lives of many people, personally felt the heavy nostalgia of himself and the vast number of people overseas, and established an unbreakable connection with his hometown and the motherland in the form of overseas Chinese approval. In fact, not only Mengmei, but also the lives of many people in Chaozhou are closely linked to overseas Chinese. For example, for Lao Zu, receiving overseas Chinese approval is the most solemn and ritualistic moment in life, covering all kinds of tastes of life and worth revisiting repeatedly. "Ping An Batch" is like a long slow motion lens, it slowly shakes, and the most glorious moments in many people's lives are magnified and illuminated, and those moments are often associated with overseas Chinese. Overseas Chinese are no longer inanimate relics, it shares human emotions and vitality, has its own life, and becomes the eye of history that flows.
The charm of "Ping An Batch" also lies in writing about the abundant emotional power carried by overseas Chinese in the historical storm. Overseas Chinese are linked between the sea and overseas, and in this sense, the road is the hidden theme of overseas Chinese. The novel specifically writes about the three roads that Mengmei has traveled. The first way is the way out to sea. Mengmei boarded the "Yongxiang" foreign ship and was alone, looking for her own destiny. This was the first time he had left his hometown and left the motherland, and his heart was filled with a variety of complicated thoughts such as hope, confusion, and sorrow. At this moment, he felt "like a grain of sand on an old wall blown down by the wind." This is also the personal feeling of fankers looking for the mainland on the other side of the sea. They inherited the oldest part of Chinese culture, but now they have to cross the mountains and seas to open up new possibilities for their lives. The second route is the overland route from Siam back to Chaozhou. Chen Jiming depicts in great detail the process by which Mengmei and Naicheng opened the land route. Carrying 10 pounds of gold on their backs, they trekked across the long border between Myanmar and Laos into Yunnan. They walked in the primeval forest, driving new roads from where there was no way out. When this road proved unfeasible, they crossed the Mekong River from Bangkok to the east, passed through the city of Nagqu in Laos, and crossed the Cheong Son Mountains to reach The territory of Annam. Then drive east from Hanoi to Haiphong, then to Mong Cai, across Mong Street from Dong Xing Town in Guangdong. This is a road full of difficulties and obstacles to return to China, and it is also a road of life that precipitates morality and responsibility. Neither war nor disaster can stop the sailors from sending the silver home. At this time, the overseas Chinese criticism condensed the consensus of the Lingnan generation on Xinyi. The third time she wrote the road, after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mengmei decided to take a boat from Shantou to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Bangkok to restart Wanchang's overseas approval industry. This time, Mengmei encountered a fire. This is a symbolic moment. At this time, Mengmei no longer felt that he was a grain of sand, on the contrary, he felt that he was part of the sea. Because, after a long period of upheaval, he began to identify with his destiny, drifting itself became the new normal of life, and he found his home again in the vast ocean of impermanence. In this sense, writing about overseas Chinese is writing about the path of deep lyricism, realism and symbolism, and it is also writing about a life with mixed feelings.
Today, after the establishment of a mature modern postal and banking system, the overseas Chinese who have existed for hundreds of years have disappeared into the smoke and dust of history. Chen Jiming salvaged it from the depths of time and built a museum of overseas Chinese on paper with literature. Here, we hear the heartbeat of people of another era and discover the historical imprints that belong to the Chaoshan region.
This article was originally published in Literature and Art Daily (third edition on December 8, 2021)
October Literature and Art has been awarded the "Good Book of China" book in the past year
2014 "Good Books of China": "The Book of Shangzhuang"
2016 "China's Good Book": "If the Snow Closes the Door"
2017 "China Good Books": "Our Old Courtyard", "Notes on Zhongguancun"
2018 "China's Good Book": "Going North"
2019 "China's Good Book": "In the Clouds"
2020 "China's Good Books": "Heart Residence"
2021 "China Good Books": "The White Horse Gone", "Ping An Batch"
Editor: Wang Hao
Review: Hu Xiaozhou