Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 647: Still like the girl who wore a white shirt and a blue suspender skirt and liked to recite poetry more than ten years ago

As soon as this cousin came, she took my seat?

Okay, Fang Minghua had no choice but to go to the guest room.

It was late at night, the north wind was blowing outside, and the room was heated.

Li Li was wearing the cotton pajamas that Song Tangtang prepared for her. The two sisters were half lying on the bed chatting.

"I think my brother-in-law is getting bolder and bolder. He even dares to write a novel about officialdom! He adopts the structuralist narrative method from Tzvetan Todorov, and at the same time adopts binary opposition. More importantly, he does not stereotype the main characters. In literary works, those typical characters are difficult to comment on with labels such as good guys and bad guys.
Seeing her cousin talking endlessly about the novel written by her husband, Song Tangtang couldn't help but interrupt: "Okay, okay, you tell him these things tomorrow morning! Let me ask you, how are you doing in the United States now?"

"I told you as soon as you came back. Everything is fine, still the same as before." Li Li replied.

"same as usual?"

"Yes, I attend classes, read books, translate novels, and occasionally go shopping with Demi. Oh, by the way, this summer, I took a train to Boston and Philadelphia in the United States and stayed at the shore of Walden Lake for a few days."

"When I passed through Iowa, I went to the small town of Winterset in Madison County and saw the Romance Covered Bridge mentioned in my brother-in-law's novel. I even took a photo by the bridge. Now it has become a popular tourist attraction. Many newlyweds go there to hold their weddings. The priest in the town is busier than the farmers."

Seeing her cousin talking happily, Song Tangtang sighed in her heart.

"Lili, are you going to stay like this forever?"

"Yes, it's okay. I think it's good." Li Li acted as if nothing had happened.

"You should divorce Chen Jian. I think his family will know his gay identity sooner or later. You can't keep pretending like this." Song Tangtang advised.

"His parents already know his sexual orientation." Li Li whispered.

"What did his parents say?"

"What can I say? This thing can't be corrected. In September this year, his mother came to me and told me to make my own choice whether to divorce or not."

"Then what are you considering?"

"In fact, sometimes I think it's pretty good. We are both doing well. Although the marriage is in name only, it is also a kind of protection to some extent. There are fewer annoying people harassing us."

"Oh" Song Tangtang couldn't help but sigh after hearing this.

"Okay, cousin." Li Li hugged Song Tangtang's shoulders affectionately: "Don't worry about me. Maybe one day I will figure it out, divorce him, and live alone."

"Ah? You don't want to look for another one? Lili, you are still young." Song Tangtang hurriedly advised.

"Yeah, if I find someone as outstanding as my brother-in-law, I will marry again." Li Li joked.

Song Tangtang looked at her.

"Okay, cousin, let's stop chatting and go to sleep. You have to get up early for work tomorrow."

"Well, go to sleep. Christmas is in two days. Don't forget to come to my house and celebrate the holiday with Lele and Ruirui!" Song Tangtang reminded again.

"I know. Good night."

Soon, the two crawled into their respective beds, and Li Li fell into a deep sleep shortly after the lights were turned off.

Listening to her cousin's even breathing, Song Tangtang stared at the ceiling with wide eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.

The next morning, when Fang Minghua got up, Song Tangtang had already driven the two children to school. He asked the nanny who was cleaning the living room.

"Where's Lili? Is she up yet?"

"Sister Li has already gotten up and is washing upstairs."

Within two minutes, Li Li was seen coming down from upstairs.

"Come on, Lili, let's go outside to eat some spicy soup." Fang Minghua called.

"Okay, I haven't eaten it for a long time." Li Li answered happily.

They each put on their down jackets and went out together.

It was very cold outside, and Li Li couldn't help sneezing as soon as she went out.

"What's wrong? Did you catch a cold?" Fang Minghua asked with concern. "No, the winter in Xijing is colder than in San Francisco. I was a little uncomfortable when I first came back."

"Wear more clothes." Fang Minghua glanced at Li Li, who was wearing a down jacket on top and only black tights and leather boots on the bottom.

"Yeah." Li Li was very obedient.

The two chatted as they walked, and soon the topic turned to the novel written by Fang Minghua.

“Brother-in-law, although this novel has not been completed yet, I think this subject matter will definitely be popular with domestic readers.

Politics, officialdom, anti-corruption. Whether it is domestic or foreign, readers like to read. Take House of Cards for example. The novel is popular, and the BBC adapted it into a TV series, which was also well received. Even Americans like to watch it.

"No, Lili, please don't compare my novel to House of Cards, or I will make a mistake!" Fang Minghua said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"I understand, brother-in-law. I'm just telling you that when you finish writing, I'll translate it into English and publish it in the United States! Who says we can't write about official politics in our country? We can do it just as well!"

"We've arrived at Old Sun's house. Lili, how many vegetable boxes would you like to eat?"

"One is enough. I don't eat much."

Just one.
Fang Minghua suddenly remembered that once the two of them went to Xijing University of Foreign Studies to visit Professor Mi Ruizhe, and when they came back they went to a street snack bar to eat sour soup dumplings. Li Li couldn't even finish twenty dumplings and even put a few in her own bowl.

But that was more than ten years ago.

The two of them ate slowly.

"Brother-in-law." Li Li said suddenly.

"Ok?"

"Although your official novel is well written, I still like to read your warm-style novels, like "The Bridges of Madison County" and "Ghost" you wrote in the United States a few years ago." Li Li said.

"Do you like reading romance novels?"

"Not entirely, right?" Li Li swallowed the food box in her mouth very elegantly, and then said, "It's more warm, healing and poetic. I always feel that the world is beautiful."

Ah?
Fang Minghua looked at Li Li in front of him.

Although she is over 30 years old, Fang Minghua always feels that she is still the girl who wore a white shirt and blue suspender skirt and liked to recite poetry more than ten years ago.

"Okay then, after I finish writing this novel, I will write one for you," said Fang Minghua.

"Ah."

1993 is about to end. If we look at the entire literary and art circles, both in the mainland and in Hong Kong and Taiwan, they are experiencing unprecedented prosperity.

In the music industry, the 1993 Top Ten Golden Songs Awards Ceremony brought together almost all the big names in the Hong Kong music industry. From Sally Yeh to Vivian Chow, from Tony Leung to Nicky Wu, some were superstars of the time, or became popular 20 years later. Huang An became famous for singing "New Mandarin Duck and Butterfly Dream", and a Beijing girl named Wang Jingwen wrote Dou Wei's first masterpiece, "Obsession", for him.

Jacky Cheung's "Kiss Goodbye" sold 400 million copies, pushing Hong Kong pop music to its peak, but unfortunately there are only three new songs in "Kiss Goodbye", and the other seven are all covers of old Cantonese songs, showing the lack of originality. In a sense, Hong Kong music is approaching the end of its days.

Deep in the glory, there is also sadness, including two singers who died young: Wong Ka Kui of Beyond, and Danny Chan who died of brain failure.

In the mainland, in addition to popular songs such as "Seeing Flowers in the Mist", "The Sound of Waves Remains the Same" and "Xiao Fang" competing with Hong Kong and Taiwan music, rock music also ushered in its brightest days. The Magic Rock Trio was established, Dou Wei left Black Panther and began to create the album "Black Dream", and Zhang Chu released his second solo album "A Heart That Refuses to Be Vulgar".

In the literary world, the "Second Eastern Expedition of the Qin Army" impacted the literary world in the first half of the year, and the great discussion on "humanistic spirit" was in full swing in the second half of the year.

It was not until many years later that people realized that this vigorous discussion was actually the best annotation for the end of the short-lived "golden age" of pure literature in the 1980s.

On the contrary, the seemingly inconspicuous academic seminar "Symposium on Social Realism Literature Themes of the Year" held in Nanjing soon set off a storm of realistic novels in the literary world. A large number of excellent literary works focusing on reality appeared one after another, writing in a panoramic way about the process of economic reform and political system reform since the 90s and the problems and conflicts they faced. Later generations called this phenomenon "the shock wave of new realism novels."

In Qin Province, some changes also took place in the literary world. Hu Cai, who had served as the chairman of the Qin Province Writers Association for more than ten years, retired honorably. After the re-election at the fourth congress of the Provincial Writers Association, Chen Zhongshi took over the position.

Originally Fang Minghua was the most popular candidate, but he firmly declined, saying that he was very busy hosting the World Chinese Literature Award in two years.

In fact, I privately told my family, what's so good about being the chairman of the Writers Association? I have to sit in the office every day, read documents, attend meetings, and study. How can I be as carefree as a vice chairman in name only?

Another thing is that Bai Miao, the then president and editor-in-chief of Yanhe, also resigned.

(End of this chapter)