Unforgettable Suzhou PEN Club | Miao Junjie

Caption: Xinhua News Agency

Recently, when I was flipping through old manuscripts and correspondence with writers, I found a copy of the "Letter of Agreement" signed by Lu Wenfu and Li Guowen and others in my cabinet. The Letter of Agreement reads:

In the autumn of 1988, the first Suzhou PEN Conference, jointly organized by the Literature and Art Department of People's Daily, Suzhou Magazine and the Editorial Department of Yuhua, invited famous writers and theorists from all over the country to discuss and exchange views, and achieved good results. It is hereby agreed that in the autumn of 1990, the Literary and Art Department of People's Daily, the Editorial Department of Selected Novels, Suzhou Magazine and Yuhua will jointly hold the second Suzhou PEN Conference in Suzhou...

The second Suzhou PEN Conference, which was scheduled to be held in the autumn of 1990, could not be held for various reasons. However, the first Suzhou PEN Conference held in the autumn of 1988 was engraved in my mind for a long time with the taste of a traditional "literary and art salon" with a frank exchange of literary friends, frank exchanges, serious and lively, and a traditional "literary and art salon".

The participants in the PEN club came from all over the world, and most of them were the same as the reform. I remember that fan Rongkang, Li Guowen, Chen Rong, Zhang Jie, Radar, and Gao Ning from Beijing attended the PEN conference; Jiang Zilong from Tianjin; and Lu Wenfu, Ye Zhicheng, Lu Jianhua, and Zhou Tonggan from Jiangsu.

Our pen meetings are like meetings, and they are like small talk. But there is no official cliché, it is all chat-style conversation. I was presiding over the meeting and asked a few writers who were very popular at the time to speak first. I shall first give the floor to Chen Rong. Why should I ask for forgiveness in the first place? Because I work in a department with her husband, Comrade Fan Rongkang, he is my leader. Lao Fan is the famous "pen holder" of the People's Daily, and the reviews are very well written. I didn't ask him to talk first because he didn't specialize in literary criticism, and he didn't give in. Our two families live in the same compound and are more familiar with each other, so I asked her to speak first, and I guess she would not object. Chen Rong spoke first. She said bluntly: "The protagonist of my "Man to Middle Age", Lu Wenting, has a model, and one of my former neighbors is an ophthalmologist at Union Hospital, a middle-aged woman, very dedicated. In order to write a good ophthalmologist, I went to the ophthalmology department of Beijing Tongren Hospital to go deep into life, the director of the department is also a female comrade, but also very dedicated, I saw the admirable spirit and touching deeds from her body and her experience. I've also interviewed other ophthalmologists and learned many stories. Taken together, I shaped Lu Wenting's image. After the publication of "People to Middle Age", there was a great influence among intellectuals, especially middle-aged intellectuals, and there were Lu Wenting-like figures in all walks of life, so it resonated with intellectuals. ”

After Chen Rong spoke, Zhang Jie, a female writer sitting next to her, continued to speak. Zhang Jie and I are also familiar with each other, when we visited West Germany in 1985, we were in different groups, but we met on a cruise ship on the Spelly River in Berlin, and I worked as a translator for her (it was a Cantonese translator, because one of the foreign reporters who interviewed her only knew English and Cantonese), and I was also an old acquaintance. She said, "What's good about it?" I said, "Let's talk about Heavy Wings!" She said: "I didn't write novels, I worked in a state agency. Since the beginning of reform and opening up, I have encountered many problems in reform every day. I think reform is a great cause, and with this great reform, China can take off. However, there were also many complex problems in the reform, so I wrote Heavy Wings. The problem I mentioned in my work may have hit the nail on the head, so among those involved in the reform, it provoked a great response. ”

When the topic came to the issue of reform, the atmosphere of the meeting hall became active, and the tongue could not stop. I asked Jiang Zilong to talk about how to write about the reformer Qiao Factory. Before Jiang Zilong spoke, everyone made a joke about him, which made this joking writer a little embarrassed. He diverged from the topic, turned sharply, and said, "Let's talk about reform." After I wrote "The Story of Qiao Guangpu's Appointment", many friends said to me half-jokingly, do you know many factory directors like Qiao Guangpu? Can you introduce a Qiao Guangpu to us as a factory director? Everyone laughed, not because they didn't understand that Qiao Guangpu was a character in Jiang Zilong's pen, but because everyone expected that there would be reformers like Qiao Guangpu everywhere. Then, Jiang Zilong told many Qiao Guangpu characters, telling the stories of various characters he met when he was the director of the workshop. Jiang Zilong can speak, and his speech is also very funny and vivid, and everyone warmly applauds him.

On the second day of the PEN conference, Ye Zhicheng from Jiangsu hosted. No need to introduce, everyone knows this kind-eyed, kind-eyed, kind-hearted old writer. He has written novels, essays, and scripts, and is a famous veteran editor, "no one in the world knows the king." This honest man wanted to introduce himself, he smiled and said, "My name is Ye Zhicheng, but I have different names for different meetings." For example, when I attend a meeting with more elderly people, I will introduce that I am the son of so-and-so, and it seems that this can increase my popularity. When I attended an art group meeting, I was introduced, and I was the husband of so-and-so. Because my wife is a well-known actor in Suzhou, it seems that this introduction can make more people know about me. When I attended a meeting of young people, I introduced that I was the father of so-and-so, because my son also began to write, and the style of writing was a bit of a Ye family style, so the introduction seemed to say that I had a good godchild. In short, I am a common name such as 'son', 'husband', and 'father', and I do not have the independent personality and style of 'Ye Zhicheng'. But it's called anything, anyway. ”

After Ye Zhicheng's humorous introduction, Lu Wenfu got up to speak. Since the reform and opening up, he has published a series of works that write the story of alley characters, such as "The Depths of the Alley", "Hawker Family", "The Wall", "Gourmet", etc., which are self-marked as "Alley Characters" series. Some critics have labeled these works that depict alley characters and explore the soil in which their personalities are born, labeling them as "root-seeking novels" and even referring to him as "pioneers of root-seeking novels". Lu Wenfu modestly introduced the creative process of these characters, saying that these characters were all friends he had contacted, and even very familiar, and he only visualized and typicalized them and raised them to the height of art. There is no experience, no experience to talk about. Since becoming vice chairman of the China Writers Association, Lu Wenfu has not moved to Beijing, or even to Nanjing. The relevant departments chose a house in Suzhou and let him live in Suzhou. He himself was willing to live in Suzhou, saying that it would be more conducive to his creation.

During the meeting, a comrade said: "Old Lu, I heard that you live well, how about going to your house?" Lu Wenfu said, "Everyone is welcome!" "The next day, Zhou Tonggan took us on foot to Lao Lu's house. We entered the alley and saw a small independent building, which was the old Lu family. Going upstairs, Lao Lu treated him with tea. Everyone began to talk about it. Some people said: "Lao Lu's living conditions are really good, much better than the units living in high-rise buildings in Beijing and Nanjing." Lao Lu said: "Living in this alley building, there is no one to disturb, far from Nanjing, you can also avoid some unnecessary meetings, which is more conducive to concentrating on creation." Everyone applauded.

These are some of the episodes of the first Suzhou PEN meeting I can remember, not any memories, just remembrances of those friends who have passed away, and thoughts of those who were old and old who were neglected to contact. I wish the surviving friends well!

January 2020 in Beijing

Author: Miao Junjie