The Paper's reporter Luo Xin intern Huang Jingjing
On September 17th, the "Grand Tour in the Same Boat - Xiang Jing's "Qing Song" and Ye Yangli's "Lian Zhi Yuan" Short Story Collection Seminar" was held at East China Normal University.
The seminar was hosted by the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University and the China Creative Writing Research Institute of East China Normal University, and was also the first in a series of activities of the "Sun Ganlu Famous Teacher Studio" seminar series.
Fang Yan, Mu Ye, Lü Yonglin, Li Weichang, Zhang Dinghao, Chen Yanjing, Jin Li, Zhao Song, Huang Dehai and other well-known novelists and critics in Shanghai, as well as Professors Wen Guiliang, Luo Gang, and Tang Yonghua of the department of Chinese of China Normal University participated in the discussion, and the meeting was presided over by Professor Huang Ping of the department of Chinese of China Normal University.
Seminar site. Photography by Gao Wenyue
Countryside and city, history and present
Xiang Jing and Ye Yangli are both young teachers at the China Creative Writing Institute at East China Normal University. "Qing Ge" is a collection of novels created by Xiang Jing based on the scenes of her life in fu village, her hometown, and her second collection of novels, which has just been launched by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House. In eight novels, Xiang Jing writes about village doctors, old people, sacrificial veterans, film projectionists, rural teachers, and other characters. She said: "I think it is difficult for everyone who has experienced local life to forget, and it is difficult to get rid of the traces that space gives to themselves." I wanted to write this trace, the seemingly silent undercurrent of the place, the underlying spiritual space of people. ”
Item Jing
Her writing evokes memories and resonances with those present who also have experience in rural life. Participants believe that Xiang Jing's novel breaks the dullness of "either Taoyuan or ruin" in the previous rural writing, and has its own vitality. Her narrative has developed its own grammar and tone, as clear as the title, and maintains a close distance from the reader, as if speaking in a human ear, a little tired, and a little sad. At the same time, everyone had a more in-depth discussion on the completeness of the character sketching in the novel, the power point and support point of the novel, and the non-fiction brushwork in the novel text.
"Qing Song" is newly published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House.
In contrast, Ye Yangli's works focus more on the urban life of young people in the "present tense". Her first collection of novels, which will be published by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, includes both her recent works, such as "The Same Boat", as well as works written by her as a student, such as "LianZhiyuan". In the two novels, the participants saw Ye Yangli's progress, which not only affirmed her sensitivity and courage in facing such a heavy and realistic problem as urban living space, but also put forward more suggestions on how to present the complexity of the novel's characters, control the narrative perspective of the novel, and promote the transition between plot and scene.
Ye Yangli
Novelists have to find their own special voices
Starting with the writing of two young writers, Sun Ganlu also thought of his favorite writer Naipaul. Naipaul's father, who was also a short story writer, had been writing about the poverty and struggles of the underclass, and had been very unsuccessful. It was only later that Naipaul realized that there had been so much struggle in history in Port of Spain that talking about personal suffering like his father would be seen as undignified. But in another culture, such as black spiritual songs, there is a tradition of complaining, "So, also writing about life, I think the writer must be sensitive to the environment, the characters, the relationship itself, but also see the dominant force behind it." 」 Sun Ganlu said.
In his view, novelist writing is like a singer singing, pavarotti sings those songs at every concert, but people still want to hear, listen to his voice. "In this sense, the novelist is to find his own special voice." He admired some of Xiang Jing's statements, such as: "Short-sleeved T-shirts become long-sleeved shirts, from jackets and coats to cotton robes and leather coats, the body is a little thinner in summer, and a little bloated after autumn." The oleanders in the courtyard blossom and wither, turning into stunned branches, and the green tea in the teacup becomes black tea, except for a few yawns, as if everything is quiet, day after day. "It's like a sudden transposition on the basis of major key, incorporating the harmony of minor keys and changing moods." The timbre seems to be dull, but it hints at an improvement in meaning.
For Ye Yangli, a "post-90s" writer who is full of vigor, he also suggested that you must write what you really care about: "If what you really care about is exactly the same as what the public cares about, it is also very good, not that you have to avoid things that people are familiar with." But the key is that you have to start from your own point of view, even if what you write now is not fully recognized by others, or even understood, it does not matter. The most frightening thing is that people think, 'You write the same thing as I thought', if that's the case, then in art, the writer needs to be vigilant. ”
Ye Yangli", "In the Same Boat"
East China Normal University Writers Group "Re-departure"
The department of Chinese of East China Normal University has a long tradition of "writers' groups", which not only has emerged the "group of writers of East China Normal University" represented by famous writers such as Dai Houying, Wang Xiaoyu, Zhao Lihong, Wang Xiaoying, Sun Yong, Chen Danyan, Song Lin, Ge Fei, Li Er, and Mao Jian, and the phenomenon of "new generation writers of East China Normal University" formed by Xu Jia, Su De, Lin Yao, Liu Tao, Ge Shengjie, Xiao Di, and so on. In 2018, the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University issued a call for "East China Normal University Writers Group 'Start Again'", and since then the China Creative Writing Research Institute has been established. Xiang Jing and Ye Yangli are both teachers at the China Creative Writing Research Institute.
Wen Guiliang, head of the Chinese Department of East China Normal University, told the surging news reporter that on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the department of Chinese of East China Normal University, xiang jing and Ye Yangli published new works one after another, which is the continuation and development of the tradition of "East China Normal University Writers Group". In his view, "campus literature" with teachers and students as the main creative body has experienced several brilliant eras in the history of modern literature: the "May Fourth" period, the Kunming Southwest United University period, and the 1980s. In the 1980s, the head of the Department of Chinese at East China Normal University was Mr. Xu Zhongyu, who encouraged students to create, saying that literary works could replace undergraduate graduation theses. Therefore, in the 1980s, the "campus literature" of East China Normal University was avant-garde in the country. ”
"In recent years, 'campus literature' has developed again. Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, Fudan University, Chinese University and other universities have opened up their own writing teaching positions, and we also established the China Creative Writing Research Institute three years ago, inviting Teacher Sun Ganlu to sit in the town. "He revealed that after the works of Xiang Jing and Ye Yangli, the annual portfolio of creative writing students will also be launched." We hope that the 'campus literature' with teachers and students as the main body of creation will be rekindled in East China Normal University. ”
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Shi Gong