The literary era since 1979

The co-writing of "Farewell My Concubine" was finalized, but the specific details of the cooperation can only be discussed after Fang Yan returns from the United States.

Gong Xing, Bai Ruoxue and others took a flight to San Francisco and arrived at the airport in the afternoon of July 7st.

In addition to Mike, Pan Yaoming and Li Zhi were also there to pick them up. She was wearing a yellow suit and a black and yellow top hat.

Fang Yan introduced the two parties to each other. When it was Bai Ruoxue's turn, "This is the international student who will be attending the Berkeley Business School in California soon. She will work in the foundation just like you, Li Zhi..."

Bai Ruoxue extended her hand generously, "Hello, I'm glad we can be colleagues in the future, and I hope you can give me your guidance."

Li Zhi responded with a smile and even invited her to move in and be her roommate so that they could take care of each other.

After all, San Francisco and Berkeley are not far apart, and both majors are business.

"This is my sister, Fang Yan. You can call her 'Swallow'."

Fang Yan touched Xiao Mei's head and looked at Gong Xing again. "She is my wife, a very famous actress in China."

Li Zhi's smile froze. Although she had heard from Mike that Teacher Fang was getting married and had prepared herself mentally, she was still stunned when she saw the real person with her own eyes. Her eyes were dull, as if her thinking had stopped.

Gong Xing just felt it was strange, but his attention was soon drawn away by Pan Yaoming, and he put his doubts behind him when he heard "congratulations".

As Fang Yan walked, he said regretfully, "Originally, I had planned to mobilize the whole family to come and watch the Olympics, but unfortunately, things did not go as planned."

"Who said it wasn't? I thought so too!"

Pan Yaoming shook his head and laughed, "After all, this is the first time that China has returned to the Olympic family after 32 years."

Fang Yan asked, "When will the tickets go on sale? We must buy them, otherwise our trip will be in vain."

"Don't worry, Teacher Fang, I'm here for you!"

Mike patted his chest and assured that there would be tickets.

Fangyan thanked him, then carried his luggage and walked into the Volkswagen Beetle bus rented by Pan Yaoming.

"I should be the one thanking you!"

As soon as Mike got in the car, he couldn't wait to take out a stack of old newspapers from his bag.

The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Herald, the San Francisco Times, etc., each newspaper is dated June, and they all publish news about "Saving Private Ryan". Obviously, the promotion of the movie has begun.

The dialect was translated again and again.

Some used the "million-dollar script fee" as a gimmick, some used "adapted from the National Book Award novel" as a selling point, and some used "Spielberg" as the focus. In short, with the publicity machine running at full capacity, the sales of "Saving Private Ryan" continued to rise.

The novel was about to fall off the New York Times bestseller list, but now it has returned to the bestseller list and ranked sixth.

Once the movie is officially released, it will probably try to make another attempt to top the best-selling list.

After making this wave of money, the next wave will have to wait until next year's Oscars.

"If Saving Private Ryan gets an Oscar nomination..."

Mike's eyes lit up.

Fangyan quipped, "Are you satisfied with just one nomination?"

"Hehe, it would be great if I could win the Best Adapted Screenplay Award."

When Mike thought about his signature on the script of "Saving Private Ryan", his heart couldn't help but be moved.

"It's too small, the scale is too small." Fang Yan laughed and said, "This is Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie. If it doesn't win four or five Oscars, it will be considered a failure."

Mike gasped. If it was really as Teacher Fang said, then they would be rich!

Seeing them mentioning "sales", "box office" and "awards" all the time, Gong Xian felt a little strange and asked in a low voice:

"Ruoxue, is American literature and film all like this?"

"Yes, cultural industries like Hollywood are highly commercialized, and profit is everything. It's quite different from our country." Bai Ruoxue smiled, "Sister Gong Xian, I was not used to it at first, but you will get used to it slowly after seeing it more."

Gong Xing flipped through the newspaper and muttered to himself, "So this is what the commercialization of movies looks like."

Fang Yan said: "You can't experience it just by reading the newspaper. You can experience it in person when the movie is released."

"Brother, when are we going to watch the movie?" Fang Yan's tone was full of anticipation.

"Your brain is like that of a fish, you can only remember things in three seconds."

Fang Yan rolled his eyes, "Didn't I tell you a long time ago? It's the 24th, it's still early."

"Ah?" Fang Yan was stunned. "Then what should we do now?"

"Of course, we should go to the University of Iowa first." Fang Yan cast an inquiring look at Pan Yaoming and the others.

Li Zhi forced a smile, "Teacher Fang, we have already arranged everything. This is your next schedule."

Fangyan took it and took a look. The movie will be released on the 24th, and the Olympic Games will open on the 28th. Before that, he will give lectures at major prestigious universities.

The University of Iowa did a lot of promotion for "Guns, Viruses, and Steel" and arranged everything in advance.

First, I gave a lecture at the University of Northern Iowa to try my hand at it and gain experience, and then I went to the University of California, San Diego...

In fact, publishing a book, like publishing a novel, requires holding reading clubs, book fan clubs and offline lectures of a certain scale, just like many professors give lectures in schools. The ultimate goal is either to sell books or to sell courses, and to increase their own popularity at the same time.

In the next two weeks, Fang will give lectures at six universities, with Columbia University being the last.

The final stop was chosen as Columbia University because its School of Journalism is the Pulitzer Prize awarding institution.

"Guns, Viruses, and Steel" may not win a journalism award or a literature award, but it may win the only exception of the history award.

"Ms. Nie and the others are expecting us to arrive soon."

Pan Yaoming said: "There is also Jason Epstein from Random House. He also hopes that you can come to the United States as soon as possible."

Fangyan was surprised and suspicious, "Why?"

"I'm sorry, Teacher Fang!"

Mike raised his hand embarrassedly, because he gave Jason Epstein the English translation of the first part of "The Ring".

After reading it, Random House wanted to acquire the publishing rights for this science fiction novel in the United States, especially after hearing that the sales of "The Ring" in Japan had exceeded 255 million copies, a result that is getting closer and closer to "Japan Sinks", which is currently number one on the Japanese novel bestseller list.

"No need to say sorry."

Fang Yan raised his hand and said, "This is a good thing. It shows that science fiction novels of the Eastern horror genre are also popular in Europe and America."

With the laughter in the car, Gong Xing, who was going abroad for the first time, felt relieved and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. (End of this chapter)