Reborn Bao Guowei, I really didn’t want to be a great writer!

Chapter 306 Who wins this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature?

In Bao Guowei's impression, this lady, whose full name is Agnes Smedley, has historically been an extremely friendly friend to China.

When she first arrived in China, she joined forces with Soong Ching Ling to organize the Civil Rights League.

Because of Smedley's various interview behaviors, even the Kuomintang government and later the Americans suspected that she was a Soviet spy.

After the Japanese invasion, he wrote and exposed countless crimes committed by the Japanese in China.

Therefore, Bao Guowei had a very good impression of this international friend. After receiving the invitation from Xun Ge'er, he accepted it without any hesitation.

Smedley is 38 years old this year. Even though she is dressed simply, you can still see the brightness in her eyes.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Bao. I'm surprised by your youth."

For foreigners, Chinese can be regarded as one of the most difficult languages ​​to learn in the world.

Agnes did a lot of homework before coming to China, but it was still very difficult to master Chinese fluently within two years.

However, her expression was quite fluent, only her accent was a little awkward, but Bao Guowei smiled as he spoke.

"Ms. Smedley, my age should no longer be a secret, right?"

"what!"

Smedley covered her mouth, looked at Bao Guowei in surprise, and said in English: "Mr. Bao, you speak such fluent English."

She shook her head and praised, "You are really a person who can create surprises."

"That's nothing. I just put in a little more effort than the average person."

He just has an extra golden finger in his head than ordinary people, plus the experience of being reborn.

Bao Guowei complained in his heart.

Smedley opened her notebook, not knowing what she had written down, and then said sincerely, "Mr. Bao, you have made me look forward to today's interview even more."

Straight to the point, Smedley first found a few questions in the notebook, which were nothing more than about the creation experience of various works. Bao Guowei had published these in the "Times", such as the creation process of "The Old Man and the Sea" and "Answer".

However, the creation of these works often has its own special background, and Bao Guowei is just talking about insensitive things.

"For me, creation should not be fabricated out of thin air." Bao Guowei answered seriously. "Each work should have its unique background and reason for creation. I have always said that we should grasp the core contradiction. The same is true for creation. If you don't understand why you create and what the core of creation is, or if your core of creation is false, then your work can only be a castle in the air."

Yes, Bao Guowei is indeed a despised "plagiarist", but he is a "plagiarist" with conscience.

For each of his works, he tried his best to make sure it had a legitimate purpose and not bury its place in history.

Bao Guowei thought so in his heart, but in Smedley's eyes, the status of this young man in front of him rose in vain.

She nodded without making any further comments, and simply said, "Mr. Bao's thoughts are very profound."

But her hands never stopped, and she kept recording her true feelings in a notebook. Bao Guowei did not see these words, but they appeared in Smedley's later memoirs.

The two chatted a lot, and Bao Guowei could also feel that the other party was not a simple female reporter. Her language logic and thinking level were much higher than what Bao Guowei had ever encountered.

In particular, Bao Guowei keenly felt that the political inclination of this female reporter was deeply influenced by Marx's works. It is no wonder that the National Government and the Americans were so wary of her. Historically, although she did not become a Bolshevik on the surface, she came into contact with countless Bolsheviks and spoke for the Soviet area and all parts of China.

Bao Guowei had reason to suspect that this female reporter had already secretly joined the Bolsheviks.

This is not surprising. In fact, from a historical perspective, the red country in the north has had a huge influence on the world's cultural and academic circles.

Before her collapse in the 20s, she was once the spiritual sustenance of many cultural figures, and even transmitted information for them in Western countries.

This situation changed after her collapse, and since then Americans have occupied the position of this "beacon".

“I have read many of your works, and I particularly like The Answer and The Old Man and the Sea. The former provides readers around the world with the power to fight. Although the latter has not yet been translated into English, I can feel its extraordinary charm just by reading it in simple Chinese.”

"You've made me more curious about China."

Smedley said sincerely.

Although he was used to hearing compliments, Bao Guowei felt extremely comfortable when he heard them from Smedley's mouth.

For various reasons, he was unable to go to the Soviet area and had little contact with that lovely group of people, but from Smedley's words, he could feel that this group of people recognized him.

For Bao Guowei, this is enough.

Therefore, Bao Guowei smiled and said: "The subsequent translated versions of The Old Man and the Sea will be out soon. I have contacts with some American publishers. It should be published all over the world. I hope readers will like it."

Honestly speaking, Bao Guowei is not optimistic about the overseas sales of "The Old Man and the Sea", even though he has already made a name for himself overseas. However, this kind of work, which takes the Chinese people as the core and presents the history and spirit of the Chinese nation, obviously cannot satisfy the "superior" emotions of many Westerners.

For them, only by writing about the backwardness and ignorance of other nations can they reflect their own civilization and nobility.

This is not only true now, but will also be true a hundred years from now.

But Smedley smiled and shook her head.

"Mr. Bao, you are too modest. Your works have saved countless Westerners, such as Americans and British. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, Answer and To Live gave them hope to keep going. This is indelible. Some people even said that if you don't win the Nobel Prize in Literature at the end of the year, they will go to Sweden and smash the heads of the judges."

"I am already very happy to receive such an evaluation and I dare not expect anything more."

Bao Guowei bowed.

The winner of the 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature was the American writer Lewis, who wrote "Babbitt" and is a representative figure of American critical realism literature in the 20th century.

Can I snatch the Nobel Prize in Literature from him?

This is still an unknown, and of course it also depends on the thoughts of those old Swedish judges.

As for, Smedley mentioned, his works saved countless Westerners.

To be honest, this was not what Bao Guowei meant, he said with a bitter look on his face.

"I can save them, but I can't save my own people."

(End of this chapter)