Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 727 Literary Foundation Sponsorship

Borrow money?

Of course Chen Zhongshi would not lend money privately.

The royalties he earned from "White Deer Plain" were enough to allow him to live a better life than most people in Xijing City.

"Is there a shortage of funds for the office building?" Fang Minghua asked keenly.

"Yes, to be honest, the money allocated from above is not enough, and our Writers Association does not have any industry. We still owe part of the project fee, and we haven't received a penny for the renovation. Just after the Chinese New Year, the renovation boss came to our door to collect the debt."

"My idea is that Lu Yao, Ping Wa, and I all have royalties, so we can help to advance part of it. The two of them will pay 3, and I will pay 4. You can borrow 10 from the foundation. In this way, we can collect 20 and give part of it to the decoration boss. It's not easy to do business these days."

After listening to Chen Zhongshi's idea, Fang Minghua pondered for a moment and asked, "How much do you owe to the outside world for the construction of this building?"

"The total cost of the project and decoration is about 42 yuan. I will find a way to pay it back slowly in the future." Chen Zhongshi replied.

"In that case, none of you three will have to advance the money. The 42 will be paid entirely by the foundation, and you don't have to pay it back. It's considered a sponsorship from the foundation." Fang Minghua made the decision immediately.

"sponsor?"

"Yes, I plan to sponsor 60 yuan, and use the remaining 18 yuan to purchase office equipment. To be honest, the desks and chairs that have been used in our unit for decades should have been replaced long ago. We should also buy some computers, printers, copiers, fax machines and the like. This will help improve work efficiency." Fang Minghua expressed his opinion.

"Thank you so much, Minghua!" Chen Zhongshi was a little excited.

What had been bothering me for so many days and making me miserable for years was solved so easily.

"Thank you for what? I'm also a member of the Writers Association. You were the one who took care of the building renovation, and I didn't help much." Fang Minghua said with a smile, "But I have a small request."

"any request?"

"Give the foundation and the literary jury a few more offices."

"That's no problem. How many rooms do you want? Are ten rooms enough?" Chen Zhongshi said immediately.

"We don't need so many. Five rooms are enough. More would be a waste. There are so many people in the office building." Fang Minghua said.

"Then we'll give you five rooms, put them on the third floor, next to your office!" Chen Zhongshi immediately decided that as the chairman of the Qin Province Writers Association, he still had some power.

After finishing this task, Chen Zhongshi's mood immediately became relaxed. He drank two sips of tea and was about to leave when Fang Minghua stopped him.

"Don't worry, Mr. Chen, I have something else to discuss with you."

"What's the matter?"

"The third World Chinese Literature Award is about to be launched, so I want to adjust the organizational structure. The World Chinese Literature Award Foundation has a Chinese Literature Award Organizing Committee and an office, and the office is a permanent institution."

"I will serve as the chairman of the foundation, and Bai Miao will serve as the chairman of the organizing committee and director of the office, who will be responsible for the specific organization of this literary award. What do you think?" Fang Minghua said.

"Minghua, it seems that you have completely left the competition to Bai Miao." Chen Zhongshi immediately understood.

"Hey, you know I'm a lazy person, and Bai Miao did a good job last time, so let him continue to do it."

"Okay, although the Chinese Literature Award is under the name of our Writers Association, it is actually run by you privately. You can do whatever you think is appropriate." Chen Zhongshi agreed immediately: "If you need any assistance in hosting the competition, just let me know. I'm leaving first."

Chen Zhongshi stood up after he finished speaking. Fang Minghua sent him to the gate and went back to the yard to continue drinking tea.

Bai Miao is the most suitable person to do this job. Of course, we won’t let him work for nothing. We will pay him an extra salary.

Among the leaders of the Writers Association who had a good relationship with Fang Minghua, including Chen Zhongshi, the copyright income from the novels greatly increased their income, which was considered a considerable amount of money in Xijing City.

But Bai Miao is only the vice chairman of the Writers Association. Although he has written some articles, he has not published any best-selling novels and lives on that meager salary.

The Writers Association is not a lucrative organization, so he is happy to receive another salary, and he also likes this job very much.

By the beginning of March, the staff of the Writers Association happily moved into the newly built building of the Writers Association, and at the same time, the third World Chinese Literature Award was officially launched.

Bai Miao, chairman of the organizing committee and director of the office, was in charge, and Fang Minghua just sat back and did nothing - of course, he still had to participate in the review work.

Today he was sitting in his office on the third floor of the Writers Association, reading a magazine, which was "Tianya" published by Han Shaogong.

The columns are very rich, including writers' standpoints, folk language, special reports, literature, art, research and criticism, etc.

The Writer's Standpoint published the cultural essay "The Testament Betrayed" (excerpt) written by the writer Milan Kundera, as well as "Inside and Outside Football" written by Shi Tiesheng.

For those who don’t know Shi Tiesheng, it is hard to imagine that a person who has been sitting in a wheelchair for a long time can watch this sport with great interest and even publish articles to discuss it in depth.

"Among the many ideologies in football and on earth, nationalism is the oldest and most solid, and the most easily aroused passion."

This is a sentence from the article.

Wow, what a farsighted person.

In the column of literary research and criticism, an article about poetry written by the poet Yu Jian was published, entitled "Stepping Back from 'Metaphor' - My View on Poetry as a Method."

Why does poetry writing need to “step back from metaphor”? Simply put, it is to make personal experience “clear”.

After reading it, Fang Minghua couldn't help but sigh.

What do you mean?
I just advocate writing in plain language.

Yu Jian, who became famous in the 80s, is a representative figure of the "third generation of poetry" and emphasizes the importance of oral writing.

The publication of this article in Tianya magazine naturally has its background.

In the field of literature, the "great discussion on humanistic spirit" has been going on for a long time and has attracted much attention. At the same time, arguments in the field of poetry have also attracted people's attention from time to time. The core of what was later called the "poetry split of the 1990s" was the long-lasting debate between "folk writing" and "intellectual writing".

Poets Yu Jian, Yi Sha, etc. who hold the position of "folk writing" and poets Tang Xiaodu, Xichuan, Cheng, etc. who are called "intellectual writing" engaged in debates in academic discussions in newspapers and magazines.

The two sides held different views on issues such as the current status of poetry, poetics, and writing positions, with clear barriers:
People in the folk writing camp accuse intellectuals of having a cultural aristocratic mentality in their writing, basing their writing on knowledge and using translated poetry as a resource, which makes poetry increasingly bookish and far away from life and readers.
The intellectual camp refuted the other side: advocating writing about the so-called vivid "daily life" and taking the path of "hype" is tantamount to reducing poetry to a jester of the consumer era.
They were having a lot of fun arguing.

Fang Minghua read some of their arguments and sighed in his heart.

Poetry is already in a terminal state, so what is the point of arguing about it all day long?

(End of this chapter)