Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 558 Book Fair and Miss Hong Kong

The few of them ate and chatted, and the topic they talked about was naturally the literary world and martial arts novels.

I only heard Ni Kuang say: "Minghua, if you write the next "Snow Swordsman" and then stop writing martial arts novels, it will be a great loss to the martial arts novel world."

Before Fang Minghua could answer, his sister Yi Shu, who was sitting next to Ni Kuang, teased him, "Second brother, didn't you say in private that if Minghua didn't write martial arts novels, you would have less pressure?"

what?
This?
Ni Kuang felt quite embarrassed after hearing this.

Fang Minghua smiled cheerfully: "Although I don't write, there are many people who write martial arts novels. The older generation includes Liu Canyang, Zhuge Qingyun and others, and the new generation includes Wen Ruian and Huang Yi who are present here. They are like the younger generation catching up with the older generation."

At this point, Fang Minghua suddenly asked, "Hey, I remember there's another young man among you who also writes martial arts novels, that's Huang Ying, who I met once. How is he doing now?"

When the name Huang Ying was mentioned, the expressions of several people became complicated.

Finally, it was Ni Kuang who spoke up: "He's dead."

"Dead, how did you die?"

"Cerebral hemorrhage".

"Cerebral hemorrhage? Huang Ying is not very old, how could he have a cerebral hemorrhage?" Fang Minghua looked surprised.

A few people looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.

Finally, Ni Kuang said: "Well, to be honest, I told the outside world that he died of a cerebral hemorrhage, but in fact he borrowed money from loan sharks to make a movie, and ended up being beaten severely by the debt collectors, and finally died tragically at home."

As Ni Kuang spoke, the others also sighed. It seemed that the cause of Huang Ying's death was already an open secret.

"Minghua, Huang Ying is a proud and arrogant person who won't listen to you. In 86, you asked me to pass a message to him, asking him to concentrate on writing martial arts novels and not make zombie movies, but he wouldn't listen! If he had listened to you, how could we be in this miserable situation today? Alas." At the end, Ni Kuang sighed deeply.

Fang Minghua shook his head repeatedly after hearing this.

Some people and some things are destined and no one can change them.

After a party, Fang Minghua politely declined Ni Kuang's invitation to sing in a karaoke bar, as he had other important things to do the next day.

The next morning, Fang Minghua had breakfast alone in the hotel restaurant. Liu Jiawei, the deputy manager of Joint Publishing Company, whom she had met yesterday, brought people to the hotel to pick up Fang Minghua to attend this year's Hong Kong Book Fair.

The Hong Kong Book Fair is organized by the Hong Kong Economic Development Bureau and has been held since 1990. It is held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in July every year. This year is the second session.

Fang Minghua followed Liu Jiawei to the convention and exhibition center by car and found that the audience was queuing up to buy tickets to enter.

He only now realized that he had to buy tickets to attend the book fair, which cost HK$10 each.

So I couldn't help but ask Liu Jiawei: "Manager Liu, do you have to pay for buying books? Why are there so many people coming in? Do people in Hong Kong love reading so much?"

Liu Jiawei smiled mysteriously after hearing this: "Not exactly, Mr. Minghua, you will know when you go in."

Fang Minghua followed Liu Jiawei into the venue - of course he didn't need to pay ten Hong Kong dollars, as Liu Jiawei arranged for him to use the VIP channel.

When he went in and took a look, Fang Minghua couldn't help but be surprised.

What the hell!

This is a book fair?!
Fang Minghua has participated in several book fairs in the mainland. For example, Xijing itself has held a book fair in Lianhu Park. Major publishing houses across the country gathered in Xijing and each of them temporarily built an exhibition tent with plastic cloth. Various books published by their own publishing houses were displayed inside, and outside were crowded with readers. It was crowded.

But today, at the Hong Kong Book Fair, it seems that there are more Hong Kong audiences who come to see the stars rather than readers!
On a stage built in the middle, there stood a very beautiful girl wearing a silver crown and holding a silver scepter in her hand.

Miss Xiangjiang?!
Fang Minghua took a few steps forward out of curiosity but couldn't get through. The stage was already surrounded by the audience. Although it was far away, Fang Minghua could still see the beautiful female star standing on the stage.

"Aimee Kuo?!" Fang Minghua blurted out.

"Hey, Mr. Minghua, you also know Amy Kwok?!" Liu Jiawei was a little surprised. "This is our newly selected Miss Hong Kong champion this year. Isn't she pretty? She is also highly educated, graduating from the University of Southern California with a master's degree in electronic engineering. She is really talented and beautiful."

Hearing Liu Jiawei's sigh, Fang Minghua nodded.

Beautiful indeed.

Fang Minghua first saw how beautiful Guo Aiming was when she watched the movie "New Fong Sai-yuk" directed by Jet Li, where he held Guo Aiming in his arms and fought against the Japanese pirates on the river.

Guo Aiming was wearing a red dress and was simply stunningly beautiful.

Liu Jiawei told Fang Minghua that in order to increase the popularity of the book fair, the organizer invited some popular stars to attend. Miss Hong Kong is of course one of the most popular stars. This year it was Amy Kwok and last year it was Anita Yuen.

"Just last year, after cutting the ribbon, Anita Yuen went to the book stand to stroll around. When she came out, a Hong Kong entertainment reporter asked her if she bought any books and what the atmosphere was like." Anita Yuen said to the reporter, "Ah, I like reading very much." In fact, she didn't buy any books. "

Liu Jiawei finally laughed.

"Of course, Amy Kwok is a master's student from the University of Southern California, so she naturally likes reading. Maybe she will buy a book."

Although the Hong Kong beauty was beautiful, everyone did not forget their business. Fang Minghua followed Liu Jiawei and continued to move forward.

The exhibition hall was very large, filled with various book booths. Fang Minghua walked around and looked around with great interest, and most of the exhibits were popular novels.

Martial arts, science fiction, romance.
Ming Pao Publishing, Luo Bin's Global Publishing, and Hong Kong Literature and Art Publishing House are basically Hong Kong's publishing houses that publish popular fiction. We also saw publishers from Taiwan's Feitian Publishing House and Crescent Moon Publishing House, but none from the mainland.

Maybe it’s because books published by mainland publishers are all in simplified Chinese?
What the hell!

I actually saw an acquaintance!
Wen Ruian and Huang Yi were each sitting at the booth of their respective publishing houses, signing and selling books. When they saw Fang Minghua coming over, they smiled knowingly as a greeting.

It's lively.
There are photo albums! Fang Minghua passed by a book exhibition and saw several books on display. They were all photos of beautiful women, with thin clothes barely visible.

Seeing Fang Minghua stop, Liu Jiawei, who was following behind, explained: "Mr. Minghua, you don't know that Hong Kong law does not restrict the freedom of creation and publication of publications. Any book can be published, but Hong Kong law limits the distribution scope of publications."

"For example, photo albums that do not show nudity can be exhibited at book fairs, but those that do must be covered with black plastic covers and printed with warnings, and can only be displayed and sold to people over 18 years old. They are forbidden to be sold to people under 18 years old. We call it "+."

"It is true that there are beautiful women in books." Fang Minghua also joked.

"Haha, Mr. Minghua, what a witty remark." Liu Jiawei also laughed.

The booth where Sanlian Bookstore was located was on the east side of the exhibition hall. In addition to Sanlian Bookstore, there were also Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book Company, all of which were booths selling serious literary works. Naturally, there were fewer readers than in other areas.

According to Liu Jiawei's request, Fang Minghua also started selling books from behind a table in the Sanlian Bookstore booth.

A poster had already been put up next to the booth, which read: "Signing event for the latest essay collection "Fragments of Civilization" by Mr. Minghua, a famous young writer from the mainland, winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award." The content of the essay collection was also briefly summarized below.

Perhaps this sign still attracts some people, and some people still come to Fang Minghua to buy that collection of essays and ask Fang Minghua to sign it.

Of course, the number of readers who came to sign was much smaller than the number of readers who signed for the two novels "Crossing the Guandong" in the United States and "Skywalker" in the mainland.

How can prose be as interesting as martial arts and romance?
Besides, this place is deserted and there are no celebrities or beauties to see.

At this moment, suddenly a large group of people rushed over here. The accompanying reporters pointed their cameras at a beautiful woman surrounded by bodyguards in the middle. It was the newly elected Miss Hong Kong, Amy Kwok, who Fang Minghua had just seen.

(End of this chapter)