The literary era since 1979

The discussion about "The Temptation of Gangdise" and avant-garde literature quickly spread throughout the "General's Building".

“I think what is ‘avant-garde’ should not be the form or technique, but the creative concept.”

Fang Yan patted Yu Hua on the shoulder.

"Teacher Fang, I still don't quite understand."

Yu Hua blinked her confused little eyes.

“Take magical realism, for example. The point is not magic, but realism.”

Fang Yan said: "The reason why Latin American literature is magical is because of the cruel public opinion and publishing control in Latin America at that time, which forced it to be unclear and obscure. However, the magical realism imitated in China is purely magical for the sake of magic, without focusing on realism."

“That’s right, many people don’t understand the fundamental reason why magical realism was born.”

Han Shaogong said it more directly: Nowadays, the vast majority of writers, including avant-garde writers, basically do not understand foreign languages.

Our understanding of Western literary genres depends entirely on the work of an older generation of translators such as Xiao Qian. We have figured out some techniques of modern Western novels from their translated novels. However, without sufficient understanding of Western literary genres, how can we avoid taking detours by imitating and borrowing from them?
"Comrade Shao Gong, do you hate those who imitate foreign literature?"

Yu Hua heard a hint of disgust and disdain in his tone.

Han Shaogong shook his head. "I just think that even if we don't imitate those Western translated works, we don't need to use long sentences, frequent paragraphing, boldface, and discard punctuation like them. We can still reform the style of novels by relying entirely on our own Chinese system..."

“That’s the point of having this seminar.”

Fangyan raised his teacup to pay tribute to this pioneer of root-seeking literature.

Yu Hua felt like he was standing at a crossroads, and his intuition told him that what Teacher Fang and Han Shaogong said made sense.

But the other foggy avant-garde literary path is full of temptation for me, because Kafka is magical realism.

"Don't worry about it."

Fangyan smiled and said, "Literary creation is first of all for the individual, and then for the reader."

Yu Hua hesitated, "But..."

“Avant-garde literature has its shortcomings, but it also has its advantages.”

Fang Yan said: "We don't have to fantasize about some kind of high-purity literature, or some kind of switching and replicating civilization change. Civilization is a river. There is always the old in the new and the new in the old, or the old is transformed into the new and the new is transformed into the old, reorganizing and recreating in a complex process. The reason why we discuss Western and Eastern cultural traditions and literary schools is just to use them as resources for creation."

Then he added, "But there is one thing you must pay attention to, that is, 'Chinese learning as the basis, Western learning for practical use'."

"I seem to understand a little bit!"

Yu Hua's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, Teacher Fang is indeed a guiding light in our literary life! It's amazing!

"Remember my invitation? Think about it carefully."

Fangyan smiled and started to prepare the rules for the next meeting. Avant-garde literature was just an incidental episode, and the discussions in the next few days would focus on root-seeking literature and Chinese culture.

Starting from my reading notes of "Farewell My Concubine", the topics kept expanding outwards and became more and more grand.

The seminar lasted for six days, from morning to night, and no one went out for fun during that time.

There were no delicacies entertained, but all the participating representatives were very excited and remained in a state of excitement until the end of the meeting. Although everyone joked that such tiring meetings should not be held anymore, they still continued with great pleasure.

After all, whether it is writers or readers of this era, their love for literature has indeed reached the point of obsession.

To the extent that Shi Tiesheng and others who came to Hangzhou for the first time bought a few souvenirs before leaving to show that they had been there.

Li Xiaolin, Zhang Zhonge, Ru Zhijuan and other editors of literary magazines all agree that root-seeking literature is not enough with just representative literary works, but also needs more literary theory articles. At present, there is only one article in the dialect titled "The Roots of Literature", which is not enough.

As a result, the writers attending the conference expressed their opinions, and a bunch of articles on root-seeking literature came out.

For example, a series of commentary articles such as Zheng Yi's "Crossing the Cultural Fault Zone", Zheng Wanlong's "My Roots", Li Hangyu's "Sort Out Our Roots", and Zhong Acheng's "Culture Constrains Humanity" were all divided up by all major newspapers and magazines present.

"Shanghai Literature", "Contemporary", "People's Literature", "Harvest", "West Lake", etc., everyone has a share.

When these theoretical articles, conference minutes, etc. of root-seeking literature were published one after another, it was like dropping a nuclear bomb into the literary world.

Following the "Beijing School" represented by Shen Congwen and Lin Huiyin, the "Shan Yaodan School" headed by Zhao Shuli, and the "Lotus Pond School" headed by Sun Li and Liu Shaotang, a real, huge and brand-new literary school is about to be born in the field of serious Chinese literature.

Different from scar literature and reflective literature, root-seeking literature has a program, theory, and representative works...

Moreover, the founder of this literary school is also recognized by the members of the school as the "talker" and "leader" -

General Fang!
Do not!
When the root-seeking literary genre was born, the rank and position of dialects were raised to a higher level.

You can't call him 'young general' anymore. From now on you must call him "Commander Fang" or "Marshal Fang"!
This West Lake Conference is not only a small step forward for dialects, but also a big step forward for contemporary Chinese literature!

Dialects, root-seeking literature, and this West Lake Conference will all be recorded in the history of contemporary literature. In works such as the History of Contemporary Chinese Literature published in the 21st century, objective and similar evaluations were made of this root-seeking literature seminar organized by Fangyan:

"The 'Westernization Conference' reflects the very complex state of mind of Chinese writers, editors and critics at the time."

"On the one hand, it accepted the influence of Western modernism, while at the same time trying to fight against "Western-centrism". On the other hand, it emphasized the importance of culture and even national and regional culture, while at the same time rejecting any retroism and conservatism. This is an important event in the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature..."

"However, on the question of 'how to fully grasp the national traditional culture', that is, 'what kind of roots should literature seek', the root-seeking writers fell into disagreement in theoretical texts, and their differences in understanding the 'roots' of literature were reflected in their specific creative practices."

"The 'negative faction' headed by Han Shaogong, Gu Hua and others mainly reflected on the bad roots of Chinese traditional culture."

"The 'positive faction' represented by dialects advocates the good roots of culture and the transformation and progress in modern society."

"There is a conflict between the two. From the perspective of the development of contemporary literature in the 21st century, the direction of dialects is undoubtedly correct. The 'negative school' has gradually declined and disappeared because it violates the original intention of literary root-seeking."

“Therefore, a cognitive illusion has emerged, that ‘root-seeking literature’ is a literary genre that has been brought to glory by the power of dialects alone!” (End of this chapter)