On the afternoon of April 21, the "Never Admit Defeat, Always Strive for the First - "Honor Guard" New Book Sharing Meeting, jointly sponsored by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House and Beijing City Library, was held in the Daohe Hall of the Cultural Exchange Zone of Beijing City Library. Wang Yun, a famous writer and member of the Military Committee of the Chinese Writers Association, and Han Jingqun, editor-in-chief of Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, attended the event to conduct in-depth exchanges on topics such as the creative process of the book and the current situation of military theme writing.
The new book sharing meeting of "Honor Guard" was held in Beijing on the afternoon of the 21st
Tao Chun, whose real name is Yao Zechun, is a native of Dong'e County, Shandong, and a military writer. He has studied in the Department of Literature of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts and the first National Senior Seminar for Young and Middle-aged Writers of the Lu Xun Academy of Literature. In 1988, he began to publish his works, and his works "Xiongguan Mandao" and "National Destiny" won the "Five One Project" award of the Central Propaganda Department's spiritual civilization construction. The novel "A Camp" was selected into the 2015 Chinese Novel List of the Chinese Novel Society and the "Top Five of the Year" novels of "Contemporary". In 2017, he published the novel "Romantic Vicissitudes".
Tao Chun, author of "Honor Guard".
The novel "Honor Guard" focuses on the group of honor guards of the three armed forces of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, with the personal growth of the protagonist Li Zhenjie as the main line, and the life stories of other characters such as Lu Tianxiang, Geng Changming, and Wu Qingjiang as the context, vividly reproducing the daily life, training tasks and emotional waves of the honor guard group.
In order to write this book, the author Tao Chun went deep into the honor guard brigade to conduct field investigations and interviews, collect information, from the historical evolution of the honor guard, past and present life, to the diet and daily training of the honor guards. The work deeply writes the growth process and spiritual character of a generation of honor guards, as well as the high national dignity and spirit of the times in this army.
Fresh subject matter, unique reading experience
Han Jingqun said that the book "Honor Guard" is as its name suggests, and it is straightforward from the beginning of the title, revealing the main content of the book. "The honor guard is the first soldier in China, which is respected, revered and looked up to, and we often see them on TV screens, but in reality we rarely have the opportunity to contact them, and we cannot understand how they develop strong wills and how their daily training is carried out. Mr. Tao Chun is probably the only Chinese writer who has had the opportunity to go deep into the barracks of the honor guard. ”
Han Jingqun, editor-in-chief of Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House
Tao Chun said that he was invited to the honor guard in 2016 for an interview, and it took two or three months to accumulate a lot of materials and materials. But for various reasons, I have not been able to start writing, and these materials have been in the computer for five or six years. "Later, I realized that if I didn't write about it, no one would have the opportunity to write about it for several years, so I decided to write a complete and mature novel that would give readers the opportunity to learn about the honor guard of the three services. ”
Wang Yun said that "Honor Guard" involves a very fresh theme, which is rare both domestically and internationally, so it can bring readers a very unique reading experience. The reason why Tao Chun was able to write such good works stemmed from his deep feelings for the army and the motherland. Tao Chun has been in the army for many years, started a family in the army, and won the cultivation and love of the people's army, so he has been deeply involved in military literature for many years, and his feelings for the country and the army are also reflected in his works.
A balance between truth and fiction
Wang Yun said that from a writer's point of view, the subject of honor guards is not easy to write. There are many rules and precepts for writing about military subjects. Take the love writing of the honor guard in the novel as an example, without this content, the novel will be emotionally thin, but as a military novel, it cannot be opened to write about love like other novels. Tao Chun took into account the truth and fiction, the real and the imagination when dealing with this content, so he handled it quite appropriately, which not only fitted the reality of the troops, but also increased the emotional depth of the story.
Wang Yun, a famous writer and member of the Military Committee of the Chinese Writers Association
Tao Chun said that fiction is fiction, but fiction comes from life and is higher than life. China has only one guard of honor, and many details cannot be faked. But if it's written entirely with real material, it's not fiction. Therefore, the materials need to be selected, refined and sublimated. "It's not right to write about this theme, it's not right to look too much like an honor guard, and it's even more wrong not to look like an honor guard. Creation is about the virtual and the real, the true and the false, striking a certain balance between the real and the imaginary. ”
Han Jingqun said that some themes will bring great challenges to writing, and sometimes the author cannot be present in person, so he can only fill in through his own accumulation and imagination. This kind of imagination is not arbitrary, but based on the material for rigorous deduction and moderate play.
Mr. Tao Chun carried forward the spirit of realism in the novel, integrated a large number of detailed descriptions, and wrote the characters full and three-dimensional, flesh and blood. Han Jingqun said that although these honor guards are indeed very remarkable and represent the image of the country, the author does not blindly elevate the characters in his pen. The honor guards also grew up from ordinary soldiers, they are all ordinary people, they have the weaknesses of ordinary people, they will be timid, and they will also waver. Many of the descriptions in the novel are derived from the writer's careful observations, such as the author's observation that the honor guard would hold a playing card between his legs when practicing his military posture, and the specific number of steps taken by the honor guard when performing the mission, as well as the specific size of the national flag and flagpole, etc., all of which were written into the novel by the author.
The context and current situation of military literature
At the sharing meeting, the three guests also exchanged views on the current situation of contemporary military literature writing in China. Han Jingqun said that "cultural inheritance" was treated by Mr. Tao Chun as a thing called "military soul" in "Honor Guard". From Wu Dengyi to Geng Suo, the inheritance of the characters in the novel from generation to generation has also made the "military soul" passed down from generation to generation in this army, giving this work a sense of historical depth and awe. Chinese military literature also has its cultural heritage, and Tao Chun and Wang Yun are both important links in this context. ”
Tao Chun said that the history of war is an important part of human history. China has a long history of writing military themes, from the ancient Biansai poems, military poems, the four famous works "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin", to the fifties and sixties of the last century "Red Sun", "Defending Yan'an" and other revolutionary novels, war is an important literary theme. "Nowadays, in times of peace, war is far from our lives, and there are fewer writers who understand and study war, and there is a corresponding decrease in the writing of military subjects, so it deserves more attention. ”
Wang Yun said that China's military literature had a period of prosperity and heyday, and a large number of popular literary works, film and television works have emerged. "It must be admitted that the influence of military literature today has indeed declined compared with the past, military literature is actually about the writing of war, the highest state of war is peace, and the writing of military themes is to let us learn to be prepared for danger in times of peace, so we should persist in the writing of military literature. Although Tao Chun's "Honor Guard" does not directly describe the war, it writes the soul of the soldier and the proper meaning of the title of military literature. ”
South+ reporter Wu Binbin
【Author】 Wu Binbin
[Source] Southern Press Media Group Southern + client