The literary era since 1979

Chapter 242 Popular Literature at the Table
At the end of December, the Redology Society held a symposium at Prince Gong’s Mansion.

As soon as Fang Yan entered the room, he immediately felt countless eyes cast towards him. After all, he was a prominent figure in the literary world recently, with mixed reviews and constant controversies. He was even called a "literary monster."

"Xiao Fang!"

Wan Jiabao was sitting in the first row and waved.

"gentlemen."

Fang Yan walked over and saw that sitting next to him were Li Yaotang, Zhang Guangnian and others who were specially invited to attend the event.

Bend slightly and greet everyone one by one.

"Don't forget about Mr. Mao's former residence."

Li Yaotang glanced at Zhang Guangnian.

Fangyan couldn't help but understand and nodded.

The teacher's former residence is one of the first batch of immovable revolutionary cultural relics in Yenching. Grandma Yihao wrote a plaque on it personally. The day after tomorrow, an unveiling ceremony will be held at the house in Houyuanensi Hutong, and then the courtyard will be turned into an exhibition hall and open to the public.

"You are not a worry at all."

Zhang Guangnian narrowed his eyes and said, "We just praised you for winning the literature award, and now you've caused such a big fuss. Do you know what others are saying about you in the newspapers now?"

"I know. The demon of the literary world."

The dialect doesn't take it seriously.

"Fear of the general leads to feudalism, while literary evil confuses right and wrong."

Li Yaotang said slowly: "Do you think you are a demon?"

Fangyan shook his head and laughed: "'Literary demon' doesn't sound nice. Since everyone says I'm possessed by a demon, why not call me 'Literary Demon'? At least I can get a little bit of the fame of 'Poetry Demon' Bai Juyi."

"Haha, you have a nice idea!"

Wan Jiabao and Li Yaotang looked at each other.

"To be honest, whether they are called 'literary demons' or 'literary monsters', I don't really care. Those people can't present facts or make sense."

Fang Yan said: "The more anxious they are, the happier I am."

"So, you don't think you're wrong?"

Zhang Guangnian gave a playful smile.

"I am not wrong. If I am wrong, it is that I insist that literature should let a hundred flowers bloom." Fang Yan said, "Shouldn't literature be rooted in the culture of various ethnic groups and regions and bloom different flowers? Let Shanghai bloom white magnolias, let eastern Guangdong bloom kapok flowers, let Jiangsu and Zhejiang..."

"What about popular literature?"

Li Yaotang cast a meaningful look.

Fang Yan smiled and said, "It's the same logic. We can't just allow serious literature and pure literature to flourish and not allow popular literature to bloom, right? Otherwise, how can we say that a hundred flowers bloom!"

Wan Jiabao was quite pleased and said, "You have such a big mouth. No wonder they can't convince you and call you a 'literary monster'."

"Hey, that's all thanks to the teachers."

"Hahaha, there's something behind your words."

Instantly, everyone burst into laughter.

Li Yaotang took off his deliberately serious face and praised the dialect with a kind look, which clearly showed that he supported the revival of popular literature.

"As you said, there is a clear distinction between serious literature and popular literature, but there is no clear boundary. Serious literature can be popular, and popular literature can be serious. There is the possibility of mutual transformation between the two, just like Dream of the Red Chamber."

"What Mr. Ba said is absolutely right."

Zhang Guangnian said: "In the eyes of ancient scholars, "Dream of the Red Chamber", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" were all popular literature, but now, such popular novels are classics of Chinese literature."

If you suddenly say something in dialect, maybe your own "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" or even Jin Yong's martial arts works will be included in textbooks in the future and become a literary classic in a sense.

"You know how to climb up the ladder."

Wan Jiabao cursed with a smile.

Fang Yan smiled, and then saw Zhang Guangnian asking Li Yaotang, Wan Jiabao and others how to end the situation.

Wan Jiabao asked back: "What does the Writers Association think about this?"

Zhang Guangnian said: "After our research and discussion, we found that the people need popular literature and we should give it more room for development."

Li Yaotang said with satisfaction: "I wonder if you have read Comrade Sha Luxu's "The Life of a Painter?"

Fang Yan and Zhang Guangnian looked at each other and shook their heads.

Li Yaotang then explained that "A Life of Powder and Ink" describes the struggle between opera artists and warlord forces, and is also a popular literature and a martial arts novel.

In the first half of this year, the Xinmin Evening News serialized this martial arts novel, which received a warm response due to its fluent writing style and appeal to both the elite and the masses. For this reason, the Shanghai Writers Association and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles jointly held a "Shaluxu Popular Literature Works Seminar".

"What Mr. Ba meant is that the Writers Association should take the lead in organizing a similar 'Popular Literature Works Seminar'?"

Zhang Guangnian understood what he meant.

Li Yaotang nodded and said that the Writers Association would take the lead, and cooperate with the Yenching Writers Association, Shanghai Writers Association, China Contemporary Literature Research Association and other units to jointly organize a national "Popular Literature Works Seminar", focusing on discussing martial arts works such as "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong", "Heroine Women", "The Soul-Breaking Spear", and "A Life in Paint".

Then the media will make it public.

By defining and promoting popular literature, the entire debate was put to an end.

Fangyan raised his eyebrows. He could already foresee the booming sales of popular novels such as martial arts, romance, suspense, and science fiction.

Now, popular literature is about to be revived!

…………

The Redology symposium was held on time. Dai Linfeng, deputy director of CCTV, and director Wang Fulin proposed at the meeting the establishment of an advisory committee, especially since the crew was in urgent need of a screenwriter team.

The previously confirmed screenwriter Jiang Hesen, although he has the rigor of a scholar, is not suitable for writing TV drama scripts.

Dialects suddenly became one of the most popular substitutes.

Fortunately, Li Yaotang, Wan Jiabao, Wu Zuxiang and others fought back for them. Finally, after a heated discussion, three new screenwriters were determined.

Liu Genglu, who wrote the film script of "Tan Sitong", Zhou Lei, a researcher at Yenching Academy of Social Sciences, and Zhou Ling, a young teacher at Huaibei Normal University.

Afterwards, the three of them made the following division of labor.

Zhou Lei, who had studied "Dream of the Red Chamber" but lacked creative experience, was responsible for adapting the first forty chapters. Liu Genglu was responsible for adapting the middle forty chapters full of contradictions. The last forty chapters were adapted by Zhou Ling, a staunch supporter of the "Zhi Pi School".

The original screenwriter Jiang Hesen served as the literary consultant for the TV series "Dream of Red Mansions" and guided the three people in their script writing work.

Looking at the lively scene in the conference room, Fangyan finally understood why the 87 version of "Dream of Red Mansions" looked so awkward.

Sometimes they "honor Chai and belittle Dai", sometimes they "praise Dai and suppress Chai". It seems that the screenwriters come from different schools and their ideas are not unified!
But all this has nothing to do with dialect. He was invited by Wang Fulin to be the performance consultant for the TV series and only focus on performance matters.

By then, all the Twelve Beauties of Jinling will be well trained!

.........

The results of the meeting were reported by the Literary Gazette the next day, and a Red Mansion Advisory Group consisting of 21 experts was formed.

Wang Chaowen, Wang Kunlun, Wan Jiabao, Shen Congwen, Zhu Jiaqi, Jiang Hesen, Qi Gong, Wu Shichang, Zhou Ruchang, Deng Yunxiang...

Dialects are ranked last on the advisory group.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately attracted questions from conservative literary critics, editors, writers, and even Redology researchers. How could such a literary monster participate in the adaptation of "Dream of Red Mansions"? Isn't he afraid of ruining the classic?

Translation: The water here is too deep.

How can one master the dialect when one is so young!

The literati, who were already angry about the dialect, became even more angry and criticized him fiercely, cursing him profusely.

Before Fangyan had time to respond, many writers, editors and critics spontaneously took up the cause of his writing and fought back.

Mr. Ding Ling even rolled up his sleeves and took part in the action himself.

Isn’t Dream of the Red Chamber popular literature? !
"Since the birth of Dream of the Red Chamber, there have been hundreds of sequels, from commentaries to dramas, poems, paintings, New Year pictures, translations, and even now, including Supplement to Dream of the Red Chamber and Shadow of Dream of the Red Chamber, which has finally become an insurmountable classic.

It can be seen that there is no absolute distinction between popular literature and serious literature. Popularity and elegance can be transformed into each other. Serious literature can be written in a more popular way, and popular literature can also become a classic. "

“The fusion of popularity and artistry is the ideal state of literature. If we only pursue the profound and ignore the popular, literature will be out of touch with the masses!”

Afterwards, Wan Jiabao, Li Yaotang and others publicly supported popular literature in the Literary Newspaper and Wenhui Daily.

Lu Guomao, Ba Laocao, Ai Ding Zhao...

In today's Chinese literary world, these giants are the most famous. They are equivalent to the Three Pure Ones, Tathagata, Guanyin and other gods and Buddhas who support Fangyan, the "Monkey King". Just ask, who else is there!
It instantly attracted the attention of countless progressive writers and editors, and "popular literature" was also widely discussed among young literary people.

In just a few days, he was left speechless.

The news of the "National Popular Literature Symposium" being organized was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Who is right and who is wrong will be determined at the last moment.

Amid such public opinion, the sales of "The Grandmaster Huang Feihong" skyrocketed, and it was almost impossible to find a copy.

At the same time, in the courtyard of Houyuanensi Hutong.

Fangyan stood at the door, looking at the words "Mao Dun's Former Residence" engraved in gold letters on a black marble background, without saying a word or moving a muscle.

After a while, he murmured, "I dare not forget it for even a moment..."

(End of this chapter)