Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 663 Going to Italy to attend the Literature Award Ceremony

Fang Minghua certainly knew about the Italian Strega Prize.

This is one of the three major European literary awards, on par with the British Booker Prize and the French Prix Goncourt. It is held annually to recognize outstanding novels published in Italy in the previous year. It is not limited to local Italian writers, but also includes works by experts, scholars and translators recommended by Italian cultural offices abroad.

only?

When was Skywalker translated into Italian and published in Italy?

When Fang Minghua asked this question, Song Tangtang glared at him and said angrily:

"Have you forgotten? When Lili came back from the Chinese New Year two years ago, she said that she would translate your novels into Italian and try to publish them in Italy."

is it?

After Fang Minghua entrusted all the overseas publishing and distribution rights of his works to Li Li, he no longer worried about this matter.

Besides, when did she learn Italian?

"When did Lili learn Italian? I remember she only knows English, French and Russian, right?" Fang Minghua asked as he started the car.

"I already knew it a long time ago, and now I'm learning Japanese."

"Really? So amazing?" Fang Minghua praised.

"My cousin is a learning genius!" Song Tangtang looked proud when she said this.

"But...ah." Song Tangtang thought of something again and suddenly sighed.

"Mom, my aunt is so powerful, why are you sighing?" Ruirui, the daughter sitting in the back, asked curiously.

"Don't ask too many questions, kid! Let Dou Miao sit still and don't move!" Song Tangtang scolded.

Fang Minghua drove to Fengyukou, where there were already some tourists. Song Tangtang took her two children to play in the water by the Feng River. The water was very clear and the two children were having a lot of fun.

Fang Minghua set up his fishing rod and found a shallow backwater bay to go fishing.

Fengyukou has not yet become a tourist attraction and is not strictly managed, so fishermen can be seen everywhere.

It's just that his fishing skills are not very good. He didn't catch any fish after fishing for a long time. But he was not in a hurry. He just came here to kill time.

At this time, Song Tangtang came over barefoot with shoes in her hands.

"Where is the baby?" Fang Minghua asked.

"Here, there, I'm watching." Fang Minghua saw the child digging sand with his butt sticking up by the river. He immediately felt relieved and focused his attention on fishing again.

"Minghua, are you going?" Song Tangtang asked again.

"Where to?" Fang Minghua asked subconsciously.

"Go to Italy to attend the awards ceremony. Lili said that the jury has sent you a formal invitation letter and hopes that you can attend the awards ceremony." Song Tangtang said.

"Going to Italy? Isn't that too far? Let Lili go for me."

"Don't you want to go to Italy? It's an art paradise! It's the birthplace of the Renaissance, and the Venice Film Festival is about to open. I want to go there too."

"Then let's go together and take the kids with us to travel abroad," Fang Minghua suggested.

"I don't have the time. The equipment of the two new studios is being debugged intensively and I have to keep an eye on it."

"Hongjun also asked me to go to Shanghai at the end of the month to attend the opening ceremony of Shengshi Building, saying that as the vice chairman, I have to go. It just so happens that Zhang Yimou is leading a crew to film in Shanghai, so I might as well go and take a look. How can I find the time?"

Song Tangtang sighed after finishing speaking. "You can't handle all the company's affairs by yourself, otherwise you will be exhausted!" Fang Minghua reminded.

"I know this is not good, but I can't do it. Well, let's not talk about this. You go, and Lili should go too. She's in summer vacation in San Francisco and she's too lonely. You can go to Italy and keep her company."

"I accompany her?"

"Is it not possible? Don't let your imagination run wild."

"Okay then, but I still need to apply for a visa. I don't know if I'll be in time." Fang Minghua was a little worried.

"You were invited by the Italian cultural community. This type of visa is easy to get." Song Tangtang said
"Aren't you going to Yanjing to attend the In the Name of the People seminar soon? Stay a few more days to get your visa. The Red Army has set up a Shengshi Group office in Yanjing. I called and asked the staff to help you go to the embassy for consultation."

"Okay, then I'll go this time to explore the way for you, and next time our whole family will go together!" Fang Minghua said with a smile.

The symposium on the work "In the Name of People" is still held in the west courtyard of Wanshou Temple on West Third Ring Road of the China Modern Literature Museum.

When Fang Minghua came out of Yanjing Station with his travel bag, he saw a man in his thirties walking towards him and introduced himself respectfully: "Hello, Chairman Fang, I am Liao Yawei from the Beijing Office of Shengshi Group. Chairman Song arranged for me to pick you up."

"Hard."

"You're so polite. Please follow me." Liao Yawei took the travel bag from Fang Minghua and took him to the parking lot and got into a black Audi 100.

This was specially equipped by Zhao Hongjun for the office, mainly for reception purposes.

The car is your face for doing things. How can you have the nerve to enter those departments with a broken Santana?

Fang Minghua had to admit that Zhao Hongjun, a second-generation official, was very shrewd when dealing with officials. He also listened to Zhao Hongjun's opinions when writing certain plots in In the Name of People.

"Chairman Fang, we have arranged a room for you at the Kunlun Hotel. I'll take you there now." Liao Yawei, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned around and said to Fang Minghua in the back seat with a smile.

"Okay, just arrange it."

In the past, when Fang Minghua came to Yanjing, he always stayed at Song Tangtang’s grandparents’ home in the General Political Department compound. However, the two elderly people were old and needed some quiet time. It would not be nice to disturb them, so he would just go and visit them after he was done with his work.

The car soon arrived at the Kunlun Hotel on Xinyuan South Road, Chaoyang District. After checking in at the front desk, Fang Minghua checked into a suite on the 21st floor.

"Chairman Fang, I will arrange dinner for you. What would you like to eat? The Shanghai cuisine here is very famous." Liao Yawei said.

"You're welcome. I'll do it myself." Fang Minghua said with a smile, "Mr. Song probably told you that I like to be free."

"Okay then." Liao Yawei no longer insisted: "Chairman Fang, I will pick you up at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning to go to the Museum of Modern Literature."

"OK, thanks."

After Liao Yawei left, Fang Minghua went to the bathroom to take a shower and immediately felt much better. Seeing that there was still some time before dinner, he turned on TV to watch something since he had nothing to do.

He had been to Kunlun Hotel once, in May 88. After the Writers Association's board meeting, Fang Minghua went to attend Shen Congwen's funeral and met Wang Shuo by chance.

Wang Shuo invited him to dinner at Kunlun Hotel, where Wang Shuo's friend Hai Yan was the general manager. Also dining together were Liu Zhenyun, Ma Weidu, Hai Yan and Feng Xiaogang. Afterwards they went to the hotel's ballroom to dance for a while.

Naturally, Hai Yan treated us all.

After all, he is the vice president of the hotel. Where is the money from these people?
However, from then on, Fang Minghua never saw Hai Yan again. After all, they had no intersection and only knew each other through Wang Shuo. Moreover, she and Wang Shuo had almost no contact now.

They are from different circles. They are from Beijing circle and are all from big courtyards.

But what Fang Minghua didn't expect was that not long after he moved into the Kunlun Hotel, his disciples from the Beijing circle came to visit him.

He was half lying on the bed, watching TV boredly, when he heard a knock on the door.

(End of this chapter)