Beijing, May 25 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) In more than 40 years, a total of more than 18 million words of works have been created, and without the help of computers, completely handwritten, what kind of experience is this?
This is Zhang Wei's real creative experience. He is a famous contemporary Chinese writer, author of many works such as "Ancient Ships" and "Allegory of September". In 2011, he won the 8th Mao Dun Literature Award for his 10-volume novel "You are in the plateau". He wrote poetry, children's literature, and traditional culture. In his view, true pure literature will not change with the times, but will certainly keep pace with the times.
Teenager, yearning for the road of literature
People who have never met Zhang Wei always think that as a writer, his speech is always crepe, but this is not the case. Simple and low-key is everyone's first impression of him.
Writer Zhang Wei. Courtesy of the International Writing Center of Beijing Normal University
Born in 1956 in Huang County (now Longkou City), Zhang Wei moved with his family to a forest on the shores of Bohai Bay as a child, with a horticultural farm in the distance and a sparse village in the distance. His mother had to work, his father was out of town for many years, and he spent most of his time with his grandmother, hanging out, sometimes running in the woods by the sea.
Due to the relatively closed environment, what Zhang Wei can see is the scenery of nature and the people who work hard through the forest. Fortunately, there were many books in the family, and with this light, he read many literary and artistic works, and his vision gradually became broader.
In his childhood, he participated in simple activities such as "picking herbs" and "catching fish", "there were labor classes in school, and the teacher took us to the forest to collect medicine." Like music lessons, sometimes I go to the woods."
Zhang Wei also couldn't tell when he began to aspire to become a writer. When he was in junior high school, he heard that there was a big writer somewhere and was determined to go to the teacher. Zhang Wei, who was originally introverted, ran a long way with his classmates to find this writer, sat cross-legged on the kang, and seriously chatted about literature.
Living in the woods became a source of inspiration for his writing for decades to come. At school, Zhang Wei and several creative classmates initiated the establishment of a literary club to publish mimeograph publications. It was also at the age of 17 that he wrote his first work, "Wooden Car", and the road of literature slowly began.
A "model worker" writer
Zhang Wei is a writer, but he can be regarded as a "model worker". Indeed, over the course of more than 40 years, he has created more than 18 million words, writing an average of more than 1,000 words a day, and completely handwriting without the help of computers.
From this point of view, it is not too much to say that Zhang Wei is one of the most prolific writers in contemporary China. He became famous very early, won the "National Outstanding Short Story Award" in his 20s, and at the age of less than 30, he has written one of his masterpieces, "Ancient Boat", which describes the ups and downs of several families in the town of Wahu on the Luqing River in Jiaodong For more than 40 years.
Infographic: Writer Zhang Wei. Courtesy of the People's Literature Publishing House.
The birth of this novel is very laborious. In order to find a quiet writing environment, he deliberately found a room in the guest house, and walked from home to this writing room, which is less than 10 minutes away. Zhang Wei always walked along the street, afraid of encountering acquaintances or bumping bicycles, which disturbed his thinking.
Entering the room, Zhang Wei pushed open the window, washed his hands, laid out the paper, and then wrote again. The writer Song Suiliang recalled that when writing about emotion, Zhang Wei said that his two eyes were almost bulging out, and his pen was almost about to puncture the paper, and when he wrote about "Brothers' Night Talk", it was like a serious illness, "He was such a diligent labor for literature."
"Ancient Ships" was a success, first winning the People's Literature Publishing House's 1985-1986 Novel Award, and also being selected for the book "A Century of Chinese Literary Classics".
Now, recalling "Ancient Ships", Zhang Wei said that the preparation and conception of the novel took about four years, when he was just 27 years old, there will definitely be flaws and impeccable places, "This is my first novel, which is very important to me." It always makes me nostalgic for my youth."
Write poetry, but also children's literature
Writers who write "serious literature" for many years seem to have a hard time associating with children's literature. But Zhang Wei broke this boundary, and in recent years he has published a number of children's works, including "Lion Cliff", "Fairy Tale by the Sea", etc., of which "Looking for the Fish King" and "Rabbit Writer" have been widely praised.
In Zhang Wei's view, there is no conflict between writing a grand "epic" work and writing a simple and easy-to-read children's literature work, "children's literature is actually the entrance, foundation, and even core of the entire literature." Any writer who strips and removes elements of children's literature from the whole creation may not be a good writer."
In a way, the writer's creation needs a curiosity and purity, and without these, the work will become difficult. Zhang Wei said that even when he wrote novels with complex plots such as "Ancient Ships" and "You are in the Plateau", he always held a kind of childlike curiosity and enthusiasm, and only then did he gain a fresher and more simple understanding and feeling.
Zhang Wei's works "Notes" (revised version), "Reading". Courtesy of Zhonghua Bookstore
He studied traditional poetics, publishing Notes (Revised Edition), Reading, Li Bai and Du Fu, Tao Yuanming's Legacy, etc.; perhaps it was always full of enthusiasm in his heart that Zhang Wei also wrote poems and published seven poetry collections.
Zhang Wei and Nobel Laureate mo yan are both from Shandong. Mo Yan feels that Zhang Wei's poetry name is actually "suppressed" by the name of the novel, and recently began to write children's literature, in the "post-50s" writers, Zhang Wei's diligence should be able to rank first.
"Sometimes I feel tired." Occasionally, Zhang Wei would complain vaguely, "After people are in their 50s, there are so many things that need to take too much energy to deal with." Time becomes scarce, writing becomes a luxury, and so does reading."
However, looking over the achievements of many great writers before, Zhang Wei felt that he should not complain, "Su Dongpo has written so many things in his life, translated into contemporary works of about 20 million words, and he has only lived a little more than 60 years." I consoled myself that I should remain amateur and pursue professional standards."
More than 40 years of "fingers and fingers": will continue to write
More than 40 years have passed since I started writing in 1973. Zhang Wei lamented that time passed too quickly, "The writing scene of "Wooden Car" is like yesterday."
In May this year, Zhang Wei was invited to become the 12th writer-in-residence of Beijing Normal University. He will give lectures to graduate students in the direction of literary creation, and share the mysteries of writing that he has experienced with young literary enthusiasts.
Infographic: Writer Zhang Wei. Courtesy of the International Writing Center of Beijing Normal University
He was still writing diligently, still handwriting, "When I first wrote something, there was too little good manuscript paper. So make it a habit to write one stroke at a time, and don't waste the manuscript paper."
Zhang Wei once tried to write by computer, but felt that the taste of the manuscript was still different, so he insisted on writing one stroke at a time, "Now that I am older, I feel a little harder, but I enjoy it."
"The longer you write, the more difficulties you encounter." Looking back on his writing experience over the past 40 years, Zhang Wei said that poetry, prose and even children's literature have also been written, and the change of genre is sometimes a manifestation of the difficulties encountered in writing, hoping that another way of writing can make a breakthrough.
Now, he is conceiving his own new works, and whenever he sees good material in his life, he silently puts them away and buries them in his heart to cultivate, "Any of my novels, if they are buried in their hearts for less than 15 years, they will not be written." It's similar to winemaking, which depends on time."
"I still have several seeds in my heart, and they grow there. Maybe after more than ten years, there will be a tree that can grow into a towering tree. (End)