On the afternoon of December 21st, the "Love of the Homeland of the Oriental Land - Xu Xiaonan's "Love of Secret Painting" New Book Sharing Meeting" hosted by Huacheng Publishing House was held in Guangzhou Nanfeng Academy.
Xu Xiaonan, the author of this book, a professor at South China University of Technology and a famous literary critic, was a guest at the scene and talked with Wu Xiaoliang, the founder of Haibo Culture and a media person, about the love, beauty and life shown in the novel, so that the warmth of the work "dispelled" the sudden cold in Guangzhou. The sharing session was moderated by reading promoter Li Jingjing.
The scene of the sharing meeting
The reporter learned that a few days ago, the novel "Secret Painting Love" was published by Huacheng Publishing House. Behind a garden with twists and turns of fate, what kind of lingering love and enduring memories are hidden?
The story revolves around the survival of the Redhorn Poplar Garden. Covering a vast area, dense trees, and peculiar architecture, the Red Horn Poplar Garden has accumulated thousands of years of Chinese feelings and beautiful memories, and contains priceless art treasures, but it is facing the fate of demolition in 2019. Some veterans, scholars, doctors, musicians, and architects have formed a whole to protect the love and beauty, idealism and bright life symbolized by the Red Horn Poplar Garden.
The novel looms the story of the Italian Medici family branch migrating to the Yanzhi grassland in China and then to Moon Bay, reviewing the history of the Ming royal family legend to the battle of northern Burma and western Yunnan, and showing the origin of the secret painting and the feelings of the world.
Secret Painting
A "Symphony of Life" about love and beauty
As a university scholar, Xu Xiaonan has long written literary criticism, and "The Love of Secret Painting" is his first novel.
At the beginning of the sharing session, Xu Xiaonan said that the basic theme of the novel is love and beauty, light and homeland love. "I especially write about a kind of life relationship, close to the life of ordinary people, hoping to let readers enter the warm poetic legends and magical stories of the novel, and discover love and beauty, life and home, life and ideals, ordinary and great. ”
He sees the "Red Horned Poplar Garden" as a symbol of idealism, allowing a manor house to carry the things in life that cannot be forgotten or lost. "I try my best to make sure that every sentence and every detail pulls the reader forward, so that the reader cannot leap forward in ten lines at a glance, but appreciate the meaning of the story in the process of slowly reading it. Xu Xiaonan said.
"The biggest feeling I have in this book is that the still water flows deeply, and the words are particularly warm and healing, not only the characters and stories have healed me, but it also has a strong sense of warmth and healing for the writing of cities and buildings. Wu Xiaoliang said. He believes that this kind of warmth and healing is very rare in many literature, film and television works.
"It's a symphony of life about love and beauty. Li Jingjing said. She then led the audience to read the passage in the novel that introduces the Red Horned Poplar Garden.
Xu Xiaonan
Write the beloved Guangzhou
In recent years, quite a number of local writers have begun to write novels about Lingnan culture. Many of the stories of the characters in "Love in Secret Paintings" take place in the city of Guangzhou.
"Guangzhou is a city that we love, but almost no domestic literature, film and television dramas write about Guangzhou, and even if they write about Guangzhou, a few of them don't write well, and they put together all kinds of elements related to Guangzhou like a brine platter. I just think that Guangzhou is so good, why don't everyone write about it? Then it is up to us who live in Guangzhou to pay attention to it and love it. Xu Xiaonan said.
Xu Xiaonan said that the "Red Horn Poplar Garden" is neither a Western manor nor an ancient Chinese garden, but a place in between. He does not write about ugliness, but combines grandeur and subtlety, ordinary and magical, and writes about the lives of ordinary people. He believes that the novel has an important feature, it is not to copy reality, but to write reality into magic, "If fiction can't write about the magic of life, then this is a big flaw of fiction, because you can't make people feel the magical changes in life, feel hope." ”
Wu Xiaoliang believes that in domestic literary and film works, like "Downton Abbey" and "Batman Manor", there are very few works that build the ideal country on a certain manor, and Xu Xiaonan based on his profound Chinese and Western literary skills, establish an ideal in the "Red Horn Yang Garden" and turn it into universal values and spirits, which is commendable.
Audience interaction
Fiction wants to "create life"
In the creation of "Love of Secret Painting", Xu Xiaonan is committed to integrating the thick history into reality and bringing real feelings to readers. In this kind of writing interspersed with historical stories and myths, he brings "romance" to the reader.
"The novel writes about Aphrodite and Athena, and writes about Roselle, and when the gods of Homer's epic meet the gods of Roselle and Dunhuang, I think it's very youthful and cartoon-like. Wu Xiaoliang said.
Xu Xiaonan also pays attention to the spiritual outlook of contemporary people in his creation. "The mental state that we present in this era has changed somewhat compared to before, and we need a kind of hope for life, a yearning for life, so that we can cope with reality. Xu Xiaonan said.
As a result, his novels focus on those who create life, "Anyone has to create life, and if we don't create our own life and blame the times for it, then we can go with the flow and do nothing, but life will remain the same, or even get worse".
He believes that if people look at things with a unique perspective every day, then the feeling of life becomes better. And literature exists for human beings to help people live better. It's a life standpoint, but it's also a literary standpoint. "I don't write things that people can study, but things that people can read. My stance in life is to pursue light, love and beauty, and make life better. Xu Xiaonan said.
Reporter Chen Xiaonan
Photo courtesy of Huacheng Publishing House