Chen Chongzheng, born in 1983 in Chaozhou, Guangdong, is a writer and currently the editor of a literary journal.
In the summer of 2014, after resigning and going around Tibet, I was transferred to the editorial office of Huacheng, and since then I have begun the editorial life of literary journals, more specifically the dual model of "young writers + young editors". In addition to age, most of the time it is modest, indicating that he is still an apprentice and is not senior. But I know in my heart that in the eyes of that group of "post-90s" young writers, the "post-80s" are already too old to do it. As early as July 2012, the third national "post-90s" writers exchange meeting was held in Foshan, I and Wang William, Li Silly were invited to participate as representatives of "post-80s" writers (probably because we live close), I obviously felt the sense of distance brought by age, the stage was young, and a few of us sat in the corner and chatted like old cats with no desires.
I don't know how this "post-90s" writers' society was organized, and some of the "post-90s" writers who participated in the conference at that time are still active in the literary scene (such as Li Tang and Wang Suxin), and most of them disappear. At the event site, there were leaders of the Writers Association, screenwriters, reporters, publishing house editors, and some parents who escorted their children to follow, very actively looking for editors to sell their children's works. Parents follow their children to literary events, the same situation I have only seen in the New Concept Essay Contest. This event is the first time I have witnessed "post-90s" writers rush into the literary world in this way, assuming that the "literary world" really exists.
Looking back at the first 20 years of the new century, it can be vaguely seen that before the screen seized the paper, the "post-80s" writers appeared in the form of "genius teenagers" to complete the commercial god-making movement, and then the late "post-70s" and "post-80s" gradually returned the crooked river to the lonely traditional riverbed with specific texts, and in the middle, there was the demise history of youth literature. Youth literature publications, youth literature books, youth literature competitions, and fan groups that read youth literature feverishly on campus are all dying out, and literary clubs have little appeal on campus. Outside of campus, WeChat, Douyin and Glory of kings all exist on the screen. This is an era when the screen expels paper, and the screen can accommodate "ten point reading" and the third uncle of the southern sect, but it probably can't put Lu Xun down. Such a confrontation may not be fair, but literature in the eyes of ordinary people and literature in the eyes of professionals are almost two things, and they are objectively misplaced. After 20 years, the world is noisy, and literature has lost weight, and we have once again discussed young literature and young writers on the skeleton of literature.
In the context of traditional literature becoming niche due to professional subdivision, literary journals have ushered in a wave of rising fees in recent years, and the standard fee of 500 yuan per thousand words has probably become a watershed in the competitiveness of publications. This is undoubtedly a good thing for writers. On the front line of literary production, the writers' association system, the publishing market, university evaluation, media dissemination, large and small awards and literary journals together constitute the growth parameters of this complex ecology. Among them, literary publications may not be the only carriers that assume the function of "discovery" for young writers, but in the past few decades, they have been the main way for young writers to become classic. Although the tastes and styles of various publications are different, no one does not say that they attach great importance to digging up young writers, after all, it is easy to pick peaches, but it is really difficult to plant trees. So after the popularization of social media, it is obviously easier for young writers to debut than before. In the past, the most effective way to submit articles was to send paper prints, the process was long, and now as long as you insist on writing, people who are timid to socialize will know some journal editors on WeChat, and various WeChat groups have increased each other's intersection.
Journal editors are actually more like hunters, going out hunting, for them is not how many manuscripts are returned, but what good manuscripts they have found. Literary journal editors are also a group of people who are suffering, and the more writers they know, the greater the workload. Before I became an editor, I always felt that the editing work was idle, and later I learned that this industry was busy and did not even have time to drink water. After all, literary publications are not as glorious as the era when paper was king, and in addition to handling manuscripts, each editorial department always has a variety of tedious things to deal with and deal with. In the first few years of my arrival at Flower City, I was almost dormant in my writing, and I hardly wrote any decent work in those two or three years. However, writers and editors also have advantages, that is, the authors of the journal also have peers who have grown up together, unlike the previous generation of writers who need to be treated respectfully, young writers communicate more like friends, such as the young writers who have published works by my hands in recent years: Shuang Xuetao, Wang William, Hao Jingfang, Lin Peiyuan, Chen Goodbye, Yuanzi, Hou Lei, Deng Anqing, Xiu Xinyu, Xu Yan, Sansan, Pang Yu, Meng Xiaoshu, Chen Runting, Wang Kanyu, Ye Duan, Liang Baoxing, etc., I also see the problems of their own writing in their works. So communication is very efficient and simple. For example, Shuang Xuetao's "Spacing" and "Mars", Wang William's "Shark in the Dark", when I got it in my hand, I felt very delicate and beautiful, like a delicate and transparent work of art; for example, Xiu Xinyu, when I met her, she was still a college student, gave me several works, and I was not very satisfied, until I read her "First Aid in the North of the City", which I liked very much. The main story line of this novel is the relationship and life of a student couple, there are young people struggling and loving each other in a city, happiness and bitterness, behind the simple life fragments, interspersed with some news events that happened in Beijing, there is a strong sense of the times. The highlight of the whole work is the smoothness of language expression and the control and tension of inner emotions, very restrained and very free, with a wide range of references, and the distance between the story structure and reality is just right, which can see the author's talent in controlling words. This novel was later selected into the list of the Novel Society, and several anthologies were selected, proving that everyone's vision is more consistent.
After all, the skeleton of literature is still there. It is said that young writers are the future of literature, but in fact, the future is only the part that has not been hammered. It's all the same, very hard and then it takes luck, it needs to be illuminated by the beam of the times. Relative to the light of the times, the beam of publications and awards is probably like a flashlight in the night, and writers must always prepare shiny weapons when they are young, and when the light shines, they can see the texture of metal.
More authors I haven't met, just had simple exchanges on email and WeChat, and don't even know the age. I didn't read the manuscript very quickly, I belonged to the more clumsy type of hunter, often apologized for neglecting my friends, and dreamed of being hunted down by a group of authors who did not have time to read the manuscript. The joy of editors comes from in-depth and effective communication, such as the proposed changes can be recognized and accepted by the authors, whether it is young and up-and-coming or famous predecessors, when they can adopt their own proposed changes, there is also some sense of accomplishment that is recognized. Probably whether greasy middle-aged or green teenagers, good authors have one thing in common with their works, that is, they are stubborn and humble: they are particularly stubborn about some things, and they can be particularly humble about some things. The former makes themselves, the latter makes them progress.