Zhou Hongxiang: Record the portraits of contemporary workplace beings

China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Xie Wanfei

When he was in college, young writer Zhou Hongxiang began to write blogs, keeping the habit of recording his life. "I think the essence of recording life is to prevent yourself from missing some interesting details in life, and there are a lot of things that occasionally trigger that are unexpected and cannot be predicted in advance." Interesting chats with friends, reading an interesting book, having a whim... Preventing forgetting and accumulating materials is his original intention.

Photography, videography, writing, Zhou Hongxiang believes that although the creative methods are different, the creative process will make him excited. "The excitement of writing a novel is that I can paint a story and then tell more people about that good story, and there will be some contingencies in the video of a trip or a move, which is very interesting." Stories of accidental collisions, stories that bring sharing, are the commonalities he records.

Even though he tried to record in various forms, Zhou Hongxiang was always an old friend. "I used to be a time when I wasn't writing, and I felt as if I had missed this friend or gone far with this friend. But when I pick up my pen again to write, I feel as if I've found this friend again. Zhou Hongxiang believes that writing inspiration should be taken from life, connected into works, and then restored to more people.

In daily life, Zhou Hongxiang also thinks about how they take each road when observing the appearance of the characters. "How did he become this moment? What choice will he make at this moment? Where is he going? It was the question he often asked. Combing through the ins and outs of the characters, the mission of the characters is naturally highlighted in the portrayal.

The characters are three-dimensional, the environment is real, and the reader can substitute for it. In Zhou Hongxiang's view, the authenticity of workplace novels stems from the professional content of the industry, and the design, production, competition, etc. of the clothing industry can be presented in the story, and readers can understand the process of a clothing production and the operation of a company. "Behind a piece of clothing seen on a daily shopping day contains the efforts of many people. What I want to show in my novel is that everything is hard-won, and behind a small object that we have at our fingertips contains the efforts of thousands of people. Zhou Hongxiang said.

The "Minglichang" trilogy focuses on the vertical growth of women in the workplace, and while truly reflecting the workplace, it completely describes the growth status of a newcomer in the workplace. Entanglement, balance and freedom are Zhou Hongxiang's summary of the trilogy, "The integration and adaptation of newcomers entering the workplace, staying or mediating; then it is the trade-off of their position as the backbone of the workplace, going up, changing the environment or charging; and finally, independent freedom." He explained that three books, three themes, portray the state of the new people in the workplace at different stages.

The story of "Minglichang" lasts for 6 years and is more than 600,000 words. The creation of the novel has a certain time difference, and the details are inevitably forgotten, and he needs to rearrange. The later the writing, the more characters there are, how to let each character have a final destination, how to gather these characters together are the problems facing Zhou Hongxiang. "I'll try to play the characters in the story myself, and if I were he, he would make the choices and expect the ending."

"What I want to tell you is that life is not easy, but the light is in your own hands. In the current situation of each of our lives, the ultimate salvation is ourselves. When we are anxious to move forward, we always have light in our hands, and this light will definitely carry us down. Zhou Hongxiang said.

Source: China Youth Daily client