Professional pure literary journals, the spiritual home of a group of poets, these are the two deep impressions that many people have made of The Enclave. Among the many independent publications in recent years, the Enclave series founded in Shenzhen in 2012 is "not old", but it is "not small", and its pursuit of personality and ideas has attracted more and more attention, and has been widely praised by poetry and critics. "Shenzhen is not easy to live in", but this journal dedicated to the combination of poetry and contemporary art has published 13 issues so far, not only the quality is durable, but also the sales channels are constantly developing, which has to be said to be a kind of "miracle". Recently, Zhang Er, editor-in-chief of the "Enclave" series, introduced the survival path of the pure literary journal "Enclave" in an interview with this reporter.
<b>The inaugural issue launched the Shenzhen Poetry Group</b>
"Brodsky once said that once a person is young and tainted with poetry, it is likely that he will have a hard time putting it down for the rest of his life." As editor-in-chief of the Enclave series, Zhang Er is also a poet. He began to read some Western works in high school and began to try to learn to write new poems. During his university years, he participated in the founding of poetry newspapers and interacted with poets from all over the country through poetry, which was an important way for poets to get to know each other in the 1990s and even today. In 1998, Zhang Er, together with Poets such as An Shiliu, Pan Mozi, Xie Xiangnan, and Hei Guang, founded the "Affair" poetry newspaper in Shenzhen. In 2009, in cooperation with Harbin Magazine, the bi-monthly issue of "Shilin" was introduced to Shenzhen, and it continued to run "Enclave", which was founded in 2012.
Zhang Er's enthusiasm for running poetry journals has never diminished. In the spring of 2012, Enclave was officially launched, with quarterly issues. The slogan put forward at the time was: "In a cultural and spiritual enclave, poetry is looking forward to meeting the insightful you." In this regard, Zhang Er explained that when writing poetry makes people face the world, there will be two sides of the problem and even more possibilities for looking at and thinking about the problem, and running a journal brings the problem to a more complex level, which is not only related to love, but also forms an intertwined relationship and humanistic genealogy with the entire era and society, the present and history, culture and tradition." We need to establish an independent and unique cultural landscape for the self and the other, in order to identify the complex relationship between man and reality and the world. Among them, poetry may become an important reference. ”
What should be paid special attention to is that at that time, the first series of "Enclave" launched the Shenzhen Poetry Group in an all-round and large-scale manner with the theme of "There is Poetry as Zhen", and sorted out the poetry context of the city, which was a collective voice of Shenzhen poets. I have lived in Shenzhen for nearly 20 years, and I have a deep experience of the delicate relationship between people and immigrant cities, especially for a city without history, Shenzhen is more urgent to build its culture, culture is inseparable from poetry in a broad sense, and as a poetry writer, I can realize that I have a certain mission on my shoulders, which contains my more and more complex and profound feelings about the city of Shenzhen with the passage of time." Zhang Er said.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to making a staged judgment and sorting out the overall appearance of contemporary new poetry, "Enclave" is also actively trying to juxtapose the contemporaries, that is, the current Chinese poets and foreign language poets. Enclave has a magazine column called "Vision", and each issue distributes 4 poets' Chinese and English comparative poems, two Chinese poets and two foreign language poets. International editors are invited to compile the works of contemporary foreign young poets, and young translators at home are invited to translate them into Chinese, and the works of Chinese poets are also translated into English by overseas sinologists or translators. In this way, we no longer publish only the works of western classic poets as in the past, but bring the currentity of poetry writing into the journal. On the one hand, this comparative reading enhances the mutual understanding of contemporary poets in the East and the West, and at the same time, it also makes our vision and position more inclined to the present and the overall meaning. ”
<b>Bucking the trend opens up a new situation</b>
It is understood that in the past decade or so, poetry publications have been facing a gradually decreasing cruel reality. Statistics have shown that in the 1980s, when the "poetry fever" was held, there were 18 kinds of poetry newspapers and periodicals registered nationwide. However, in the 1990s, China's poetry journals shrank to 9, and after 2000, the situation improved slightly, increasing by 3, but the living environment has not been fundamentally changed. How to run pure literary publications well, attract more readers, and enhance their ability to survive and develop is also a difficult problem that Zhang Er has to face and think about.
Zhang Er told reporters that the three years from 2009 to 2011 were the bi-monthly stage of "Shilin", that is, the predecessor of "Enclave". It was an unusually difficult time. "At the time, we relied on the meager profits the team made from advertising planning and design projects for commercial clients to support the magazine's survival. Frankly speaking, although our requirements for our own production are very high, we have no advantage in business expansion, so the pattern has been small, and the operating pressure we face is larger. ”
In fact, Zhang Er also tried to obtain financial support from the government, but because "Shilin" is a foreign publication, it has not been able to put it on the agenda of applying for funding. Although the Shenzhen Writers Association and other units have also given them a little subsidy, they have always been in a small amount of money, so that it is difficult to sustain. In 2012, they talked with Yin Changlong, general manager of Shenzhen Publishing and Distribution Group, about co-founding the enclave with books, which quickly received recognition and support. "In the first year, my philosophy was to continue the past method of running the journal, relying on our own strength to raise funds to maintain the publication, despite the difficulties, we still spared no effort and cost, in the quality of the magazine, and strive for refinement." The following year, we began to apply to the government for funding, perhaps because such a high-quality book that was carefully planned and edited impressed by the judges, and we finally got the recognition, even if the amount of funding obtained was not much, but it obviously opened up a situation, and it was a great encouragement and encouragement to the team. ”
<b>Establish a poetic dialogue pattern for the enduring and future</b>
Today, the Enclave series is getting wider and wider, with 5,000 copies currently circulating per issue, does this mean that a mature way of operation has been found? Zhang Er said that on the one hand, the recognition and support of the government allowed him to further establish his belief that Shenzhen is indeed a city that can truly bring possibilities for projects with excellent quality, and it illuminates the future of "Enclave" with warmth; On the other hand, his efforts and persistence with the team also impressed his friend Sun Qi. Through Sun Qi's affectionate dissemination and inspiration, more and more people began to pay attention to and care about "Enclave". "In business, we have gradually gained more recognition and opportunities, and engaged in more and more planning services; In the distribution and promotion of the magazine, we began to enter the banking, capital, securities and other financial VIP systems and airports and many other fields, the audience is getting wider and wider; Nationwide, we have sold more than 30 cultural bookstores in various provinces and cities, such as Fangsuo in Guangzhou, Pioneer in Nanjing, All Saints Book Park in Beijing, Kubrick, etc.; At the end of 2015, "Enclave" was fully launched in all Starbucks stores in South China, and it became a hot cultural book for a while. ”
In addition, Zhang Er and his team planned the "Voice of enclave" public education lectures, which are held once a month at the Old Paradise Bookstore. They self-financed and invited a group of well-known Chinese and foreign poets, scholars and critics to tell poetry for readers and citizens, provide a platform for learning and exchange, and make painstaking efforts to build a public poetry culture in Shenzhen. This also makes the popularization and promotion of poetry culture truly implemented in the folk and close to the general public.
Literary critics and poets such as Yin Changlong and Zang Di have repeatedly talked about the naming of "enclaves". In their view, the "enclave" is an ideal enclave, a cultural enclave, which in essence coincides with the geographical characteristics and spiritual temperament of Shenzhen, which symbolizes people's belief and pursuit of culture, and the persistence and reflection on civilization.
Speaking about the future "enclave", Zhang Er said that the enclave all-media plan is their future direction, and it can be seen as a comprehensive system based on the premise of emphasizing paper reading. "The enclave will build a poetic dialogue pattern for the enduring and future based on a global vision and pattern, with an independent and forward-looking attitude and mission." Moreover, it will reflect, to some extent, the most vivid aspect of the contemporary international poetry scene. This is also the spirit of Shenzhen, based on the Shenzhen enclave, poetry towards the future, which is our common ideal and destiny as a generation of Shenzhen people. ”