Literary Master 1978

When Lin Chaoyang took the manuscript from Tao Yushu and saw the title of the novel on the first page of the manuscript, he already knew what the manuscript was about.

"You Have No Choice" is a novella written by the writer Liu Sola.

The novel is about the colorful life of a group of students of various personalities in a music college. The overall atmosphere is relaxed and lively, but the background is tragic.

It should be said that this novel reflects the psychological and emotional world of young artists in the 1980s to a large extent. The world in the novel is full of restlessness, fanaticism, and even grotesque, but it is also very real, full of wildness and vitality.

The work draws on and absorbs Western modernism in art. There is black humor everywhere. It uses a lot of exaggeration, deformation, jokes, farce, symbols and other techniques to mock reality, full of a lawless rebellious spirit.

After the publication of this novel in later generations, it caused a great response in the literary world and the reader group, and also made Liu Sola, a young woman engaged in music, one of the most popular female writers in the Chinese literary world in the 1980s.

The reason why Tao Yushu showed this novel to Lin Chaoyang and asked him for his opinion was because this novel was a work that completely learned from Western modernism in terms of writing techniques, creative style, ideological connotation and aesthetic standards.

And its "modern" attribute also has a strong avant-garde color, which can be said to be completely at the opposite end of the spectrum from the "root-seeking literature" advocated by Lin Chaoyang.

Lin Chaoyang thought for a long time before slowly opening his mouth.

"If many old comrades read this novel, they will inevitably give it the evaluation of 'whining without illness' and 'pretentiousness', and this novel does have such shortcomings.

However, we cannot only look at the shortcomings, but also the advantages. I think the advantages of this novel obviously outweigh its shortcomings.

Its modernist approach, open structure, absurd characters, unique narrative angle... these are actually in the service of the novel itself.

Such a mixture determines the outstanding style of the novel. I can't say that it is definitely the best, but such creation does have its own unique aesthetics.

The stream of consciousness and non-plot-based treatment methods in the novel seem a bit awkward, but the flaws do not cover the merits. On the contrary, they are in line with the overall style and have a flowing beauty..."

After talking for a while, Lin Chaoyang stopped, "I can't stop talking about it. This novel is still quite good as a whole, and it should be loved by quite a number of readers."

When he spoke, Tao Yushu listened very carefully. Every time at this time, she always felt that Lin Chaoyang was full of charm.

After Lin Chaoyang stopped, she asked, "If you were an editor, would you publish this kind of novel that advocates modernism?"

"Why not?" Lin Chaoyang looked at Tao Yushu in confusion.

"It is two extremes from root-seeking literature. When I read this novel, my biggest feeling is that it is anti-traditional.

No, it cannot be said to be anti-traditional, it should be abandoning tradition."

Lin Chaoyang said with a relaxed look: "If young people are not anti-traditional, will they be conservative? Besides, root-seeking literature is not about restoration. Don't just focus on inheriting excellent traditional culture. Root-seeking literature has more dross to abandon."

"It's not that I'm focusing on it, but that's the trend."

Since Lin Chaoyang proposed the concept of "root-seeking literature" in Zhuo County, Hebei in March, root-seeking literature has become the most fashionable literary trend in the Chinese literary world in the past six months, and everyone wants to join in the fun.

For a while, root-seeking literature was all over the pages of major literary magazines, especially in the second half of the year, as the term root-seeking literature became more and more popular, there were more creators and magazines trying to join in the fun.

As a result, it is inevitable that there will be a mixture of good and bad.

At the beginning, many people classified Jia Pingwa's "Shangzhou Chulu" published in 1982 as root-seeking literature, and then A Cheng's "Chess King".

Then Li Hangyu began to publish "Gechuanjiang Novels", and in the second half of this year, Zheng Wanlong ambitiously devoted himself to the creation of the "Yixiang Yiwen" series of novels...

These works are considered by the fans of root-seeking literature to be the first important achievements of root-seeking literature. It should be said that the beginning of root-seeking literature was still very smooth, gathering a large number of excellent literary works and arousing considerable momentum.

But starting from the second half of the year, as the influence of this trend became greater and greater, the quality of works published under the banner of "root-seeking literature" began to vary.

The most important thing is that the value orientation of some of these works does not actually conform to the core values ​​of root-seeking literature.

Lin Chaoyang proposed that root-seeking literature is to explore the excellent parts of our national culture for inheritance and development, rather than to use traditional culture without distinction.

Lin Chaoyang sighed helplessly, "When scar literature is popular, write about scars; when reflective literature is popular, write about reflective; when root-seeking literature is popular, write about root-seeking."

Tao Yushu has been an editor for several years and is no longer surprised by such situations.

"It's their business if they want to write. How many of them can write?

The writers who are truly remembered are those who can lead the trend and whose works can stand the test of time."

She said this and added, "Like you!"

After saying this, Lin Chaoyang felt as comfortable as drinking a sip of iced soda in the dog days of summer. He put his arm around her shoulders and whispered to her.

Before I knew it, New Year's Day of 1985 had arrived.

It snowed in Yanjing City, and it also snowed in Tokyo thousands of miles away.

"It's snowing!"

Naoko Kondo opened the curtains and sighed as she looked at the falling snow outside the window. Her eyes were filled with joy. This was the first snow of the new year.

With a "bang", Naoko Kondo turned her head and looked over, scolding: "Chocolate, don't be naughty!"

It turned out that the cat at home knocked over the vase. Naoko Kondo went to help the vase up, then fed Chocolate some cat food and rubbed the top of his head while he was eating.

"Is it okay now?"

After watching the chocolate for a while, Naoko Kondo went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for herself.

She is a professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Nihon University. She is still unmarried and lives alone in this apartment arranged for her by the school.

After eating, Naoko Kondo went into the study.

Some time ago, she went to Yenching University for a two-month short-term exchange as a visiting scholar. Her research direction is Chinese literature, with an emphasis on contemporary literature, so she benefited a lot from this visit.

In the last few days of the visit, she also met Lin Sang, the most famous writer in China today, and had a friendly and cordial exchange, which made her feel that her trip was worthwhile.

Sitting at the desk, Naoko Kondo couldn't help but touch the manuscript of "Crossing the Guandong" given to her by Lin Chaoyang, with a happy smile on her face.

She never thought that she would receive such a valuable gift when she visited Lin Chaoyang.

These days, Naoko Kondo has been obsessed with reading manuscripts. Although she has read the novel "Enter Guandong" more than once, the feeling of reading the manuscript is completely different from reading the printed matter.

When she read the manuscript, she seemed to be able to feel Lin Chaoyang's brushstrokes when writing, and then feel what he was thinking, which made her feel a huge sense of happiness.

"Amazing Lin Sang!"

Kondo Naoko read a sentence softly, and then opened the manuscript. When she visited Lin Chaoyang's home, she proposed the idea of ​​​​recommending "Enter Guandong" to be published in Japan.

However, Japanese publishing houses did not understand Lin Chaoyang and "Enter Guandong", so in order to let Japanese publishing houses understand this novel, she decided to translate it herself.

She believes that as long as she can translate the Japanese version of "Enter Guandong", those publishing houses will definitely see the excellence of this novel.

"The 'Boxer Rebellion' is mentioned here, so I need to add an annotation."

"How should we translate 'kaixiangtang'?"

…

The task of translation may seem simple, but in fact it tests not only the translator’s language proficiency, but also the translator’s talent.

Many so-called foreign masterpieces with widespread influence in later generations would not be able to retain even one part of their brilliance without the translators' wonderful translations.

It is true that Kondo Naoko has studied many Chinese literary works, but asking her to translate them is another matter.

The translation work took two days, and she only completed less than three pages.

Looking at the results of her two days' work, Kondo Naoko couldn't help but sigh, she still needs Fujii-san's help!

While she was sighing, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Kondo Naoko suddenly became energetic, walked quickly to the door, opened the door, and saw a uniformed deliveryman. What he delivered was a beautifully crafted safe. This was the second day after Kondo Naoko returned to China. Find someone to make it custom-made.

She cherished the manuscript of "Enter Guandong" very much. After returning to China, she first photocopied the manuscript, then put every page of the manuscript in a transparent loose-leaf folder, and finally bought this safe.

However, the original appearance of the safe was too crude. Naoko Kondo couldn't bear to put such a precious manuscript in such a cold and lifeless metal vessel, so she had someone make an exquisite coat for the safe.

Naoko Kondo put the manuscript in the safe and tried it. The size was just right, and she had a satisfied smile on her face.

With a safe, you no longer have to worry about fire.

Suddenly, there was another knock on the door, and the smile on Kondo Naoko's face grew wider.

This answer can’t be wrong!

She went to open the door, and sure enough, there was a middle-aged man with a decent appearance standing at the door.

"Fujii-kun!" Naoko Kondo greeted the middle-aged man enthusiastically.

"Kondo-san, long time no see!"

"Please come in quickly!"

Shozo Fujii holds a PhD in Literature from the University of Tokyo. He is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Letters and the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo.

Kondo Naoko met him at an academic conference. Both of them were researching Chinese literature, and both had a key research subject: Lu Xun, so they became good friends.

After returning to China with the manuscript of "Into the Guandong", Naoko Kondo originally wanted to implement what she said to Lin Chaoyang and translate "Into the Guandong". However, after a few days of progress, she found that this matter was far from easy as she imagined.

He might not be able to complete such a huge work by himself, so she asked Shozo Fujii for help.

After greeting each other after entering, Naoko Kondo and Shozo Fujii shared her experience of visiting Yanjing, focusing on Lin Chaoyang and the novel "Enter Guandong".

Fujii Shozo said, "After you finished talking to me that day, I went to Oriental Bookstore, but unfortunately there was no such book there."

Oriental Bookstore is a bookstore in Japan that specializes in Chinese books.

Naoko Kondo said, "The Oriental Bookstore only received a few books, maybe they are sold out."

She stood up and picked up the book "Crossing Guandong" she bought from the bookshelf, "You can read this first."

"Thank you."

Fujii Shozo took the book and asked, "What should I do if Kondo-san doesn't have the book?"

Naoko Kondo smiled, and there was a bit of pride in her smile, "I haven't told you yet that Lin-san gave me the manuscript of "Crossing Guandong."

Hearing this, Fujii Shozo's face was full of surprise, "Manuscript? That's too precious!"

Naoko Kondo nodded heavily, "That's right! So I must not disappoint Lin-san's expectations."

At this point, she looked at Fujii Shozo solemnly, then bowed and said, "Please, Fujii-kun!"

Fujii Shozo was surprised that Lin Chaoyang actually gave the manuscript of his work to Kondo Naoko, so Kondo Naoko's translation of "Crossing Guandong" also had absolute legitimacy.

He also said solemnly: "I understand. Kondo-san, let's complete this great work together!"