In 1982, Lu Yao, who was just in his early 30s, published a 130,000-word novella "Life" in Harvest magazine, which caused a huge response. This novel not only won the 2nd National Outstanding Novella Award, but also was adapted into a movie of the same name by the famous director Wu Tianming, and won the Best Feature Film Award at the 8th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards, which once again caused a sensation across the country. As a result, Lu Yao not only received letters from readers flocking from all over the country, but also won many honors and joined the Chinese Writers Association.
The establishment of the Mao Dun Literature Award stimulates the desire for creation
For a young man from a rural background, this is already an unattainable height. But Lu Yao was not satisfied, and began to try the field of novels that he had not yet set foot in. Just one year ago, in order to encourage the creation of novels in mainland China, the Chinese Writers Association sponsored and established the Mao Dun Literature Award, which was selected for two consecutive years in 1981 and 1985; However, Shaanxi Province, where Lu Yao is located, has not been able to recommend a novel for two consecutive years, which has aroused Lu Yao's desire to participate in the competition.
But he hadn't written a full-length work before, so he decided to make thorough preparations. In order to study the structure of the novel and find the theme of the novel, he first made a reading list for himself, including nearly 100 classic works at home and abroad, and studied them carefully. Among them, only "Dream of Red Mansions" was read 3 times, and "History of Entrepreneurship", which is also a rural theme, was read 7 times.
Check out the bound editions of newspapers over the years
In addition, he read extensively on theory, politics, philosophy, economics, history, and religion, and collected pamphlets on fish farming, beekeeping, fertilization, taxation, finance, meteorology, and afforestation in order to enrich the content of his novels. Considering that the time span of the upcoming novel is 1975 to 1985, the characters involved include everything from the provincial party secretary to the farmers in the mountain villages.
Lu Yao consulted the bound editions of "People's Daily", "Guangming Daily", "Reference News", "Shanxi Daily" and "Yan'an Daily" year by month year and month by month, turning through the pages day and night, and recording the major events that happened in a certain year and month in his notebook. Due to the long reading time, my fingers were ground by the paper to expose the capillaries, and it hurt when I touched it, so I finally had to use the palm of my hand to flip through it, and I persevered for several months to complete the work.
I prepared for 3 years before I started creating
One year later, the preliminary preparations were finally completed, and Lu Yao began to experience life at the grassroots level non-stop. He went deep into rural towns, industrial and mining enterprises, school institutions, and bazaars; From the daily life of party and government cadres to the daily work of ordinary people, he tried his best to understand and touch. In order to describe rural life, he even recorded the growth process and seasonal characteristics of various crops and wild plants in detail, and mastered the folk customs of the rural areas of northern Shaanxi in every detail.
For three years, only the notes recorded accumulated a large box, until the fall of 1985, Lu Yao finally officially began the creation of the novel "Ordinary World".