After 95, the author's realistic theme has attracted attention, reproducing the "galloping era" of going south and north

On May 25th, under the guidance of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Press and Publications and sponsored by Reading Group, the award ceremony of the 5th Reality Theme Online Literature Essay Contest was held in Shanghai. A total of thirteen award-winning works were selected in the competition, and "The Galloping Era - To the South to the North", which focuses on the growth and struggle of young people after the reform and opening up, won the special prize.

"The Galloping Age - South to North" was created by the writer "Mei Shiniang" signed by the Reading Group, telling the story of several small characters in the 1990s who fled from a small city in Zhejiang in order to survive and ideal, go south and break into the north, struggle, and grow as barbaric and stubborn as a wild grass. Through the ups and downs of small people, the struggle of a generation and the growth of a generation are strung together. Born in 1998, the author "Mei Shi Niang" is the youngest winner of this competition, but with delicate and calm brushstrokes, he leads readers back to the intoxicating and fascinating stirring of thirty years.

The father's experience of "breaking into the sea" was shocking

Like many gifted novelists, Mei shiniang grew up in an environment full of stories. She revealed to the Nandu reporter that when she was a child, the family was very lively, the downstairs was the factory, and the uncle and aunt lived with their family. There are many friends coming and going, from all walks of life. Mei Shiniang is a clingy child, and her parents take her everywhere, "There will be more than half a night a month, going out to drink and eat supper in the middle of the night, that kind of occasion, that is the occasion when everyone tells stories." ”

In 1988, Hainan Province became a special economic zone, attracting enthusiastic young people, dream seekers and gold diggers from all over the country. The spectacular scene of "100,000 talents crossing the strait" is rare in a hundred years. Mei Shiniang's father and uncle were "sea breakers" in the 1990s. Uncle Da was a painter, his father had worked in the government unit, and they talked about the past of the struggle in that year, which was simply colorful. Mei Shiniang likes to break the casserole and ask the end, constantly asking "Later?" ”

As a result, an era of ups and downs, intertwined with the joys and laments of life, gradually unfolded in her heart.

Now looking back on her father's experience in Hainan, Master Mei still feels shocked. Because in the era of no Internet, some small county young people such as my father and uncle only rely on hearsay to understand the outside world. They go out together, both because of the urge and the desire to change the status quo.

She told the Nandu reporter: "For example, at the Guangzhou Railway Station, I was tricked into going to the bus in Zhanjiang, found the money, or counterfeit money, bought food on the road, and was found by the people in the small shop to know, almost beaten." When I arrived in Hai'an, I saw that the black pressure on the seashore was all people, all because there was no border defense certificate, and no one knew that they would have a border defense certificate to go to Hainan. ”

At that time, many of the "sea breakers" had no long belongings, and when they arrived in Hai'an, they could not cross the sea, and even the road fare to go back was gone. "Tens of thousands of people were there looking at each other and sighing, and everyone's eyes were filled with despair and anxiety, some of whom were picking up customers by private ferry, and some of whom bought basketballs and wanted to swim with them, were driven away and arrested."

"If the despair is black, the despair of tens of thousands of people will definitely blacken the whole of Hai'an, and at that time, the whole Of Hai'an will be full of these desperate people." Mei Shiniang said.

At that time, after her father and uncle managed to cross the sea, they arrived at Haikou and looked at each other blankly and without relatives. Sleeping in Haikou Park at night, I don't know what to do next, and I don't dare to spend the money on my body.

"Although their generation is ignorant and ignorant, compared with us, far less exquisite than us, and even a lot more vulgar, they are like this, when changing their own destiny, they are also changing the whole country." 」 Master Mei sighed.

Write from the perspective of a weather-beaten middle-aged man

Year after year, too many such stories have accumulated in my mind. Later, when her uncle, who had a good relationship with her since childhood, died, Master Mei was very sad, and finally took up her pen to write the long-brewed "Galloping Age - To the South to the North". In the novel, Mei Shiniang uses sharp and vivid writing to portray the "original ecology" of that generation: from the fall of the fall to the so-called success of fame, from the coarse to the slow refinement of the evolution process. At the same time, the novel feels intimate and warm, showing the inseparable connection between people when the class division is not so clear.

According to the author, many of the characters and events in "The Running Age - South to North" have prototypes in life, but they use ingenious means, Zhang Guan Li Dai, and Flower Transfer Elder Wood are spliced together. "For example, a large part of Zhang Chen's experience in Hainan is my uncle's experience, being pit and breaking up with his girlfriend, which is a real thing. Liu Lizhan, as far as his personality is concerned, is an uncle I am very familiar with, although he is not a 'sea breaker', but I know that if I put him in Hainan at that time, he would deduce these stories. ”

In order to achieve the truth and accuracy of the details, Mei Shiniang will use old photos and movies of the time in her writing, and more importantly, she will go back and constantly ask and verify, and many details in the novel are provided by her father and uncles.

Because he had been a cadre in an organ and paid more attention to current politics, his father provided a lot of help to Mei Shiniang's writing in this regard. "Every chapter I write will give him a first look, and if there is anything wrong, he will bring it up to me."

But it can't be too "real", many things if written "thoroughly", it will scare off some readers. This is the part of Mei Shiniang's distress. "Some readers of online literature, he is looking for 'cool', and novels with realistic themes, in comparison, must follow the logic of life, and it is precisely 'cool' that they can't get up."

When it comes to the relationship between reality and fiction in realistic novels, Mei Shiniang believes that using a house as a metaphor is the relationship between the foundation and the building on the ground. "The foundation must be solid, the information must be sufficient, only the foundation is solid, the imaginary part, the imaginary part will not appear so light, will not be shaky."

In the process of serializing the novel, many readers left messages for Mei Shiniang, and what made her most interesting was that many people wanted to know whether the author of the novel was male or female. The text of "The Rushing Age - South to North" is old and funny, the details are clear and solid, the logic is rigorous, and even full of life experience and life wisdom, it is difficult to imagine that the author is a young girl who is not deeply involved in the world.

In this regard, Mei Shiniang said that she would write from the perspective of a "middle-aged person". "I grew up as a person who liked to read a lot of books, and read a lot of books. When I started writing, my grandfather often warned me that the first role to enter when writing a novel was the role of the author. In the traditional concept of literature, if a person's writing is very young and the story he tells is full of loopholes, he is certainly not a good writer, or even ridiculous. Therefore, when I write, I will set myself as a weathered middle-aged man and cut in from that perspective. The first novel I created was a traditional martial arts novel, and people who have seen it may know that every move and style in it is clearly explained, the sense of picture is very strong, and I think that only in this way can I enjoy it. ”

It is reported that a total of 19,256 people participated in this competition, an increase of 40.6% year-on-year; a total of 21,075 entries, an increase of 42.4% year-on-year, and the number of participating authors and works hit a record high. Creators from all walks of life have contributed a large number of excellent works that observe social reality, reflect the development of the times, and record the changes of the home country, convey positive social energy with good Chinese stories, promote the mainstream and high-quality development of online literature to a new level, and help the high-quality development of culture.