Chapter 233 The Preacher

The success rate of the 1980 acting class at the Central Academy of Drama was quite high. At least from Lin Weimin's point of view, there were many familiar faces, and even some successful stars like Jiang Wen.

Lin Weimin came to support the students today, which made Jiang Wen famous in the school. The school leaders and teachers were also very happy. When they invited Lin Weimin to dinner in the afternoon, they specially called a few students, including Jiang Wen.

There was no so-called chaos of getting resources by drinking at drinking parties in later generations. The teachers just introduced a few students they thought had potential to Lin Weimin so that they could get to know him.

As a disciple of Mr. Wan, a leading figure in the Chinese theatre world, Lin Weimin has also made outstanding achievements in drama creation. It will definitely be beneficial for these students to get to know him.

Among these students, there is Jiang Wen from the Department of Acting, as well as several students from the Class of 1979 from the Department of Directing.

People in later generations often mention the fifth generation of directors who graduated from the Directing Department of Yenching Film Academy in 1978, but few people mention the Directing Department of the Central Academy of Drama in 1979.

This class also has a high success rate, but most of these people are active within the system and on the drama stage, so they are not well-known among the general public.

For example, in the skit "Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren" that Lin Weimin plagiarized, the director role in the skit was originally played by Lou Naiming, a student of the directing department of the class of 1979. She was a guest star at the time and was the director herself.

There is also Wang Xiaoying, whose name is very similar to Wang Xiaoying, a classmate from the Institute of Literature Research, and who is also a heavyweight figure in the domestic theater industry in later generations.

After having a peaceful meal, Lin Weimin finally left the campus of the Central Academy of Drama.

Another weekend, Lin Weimin came to Yenching Normal University as promised.

Yenching Normal University is located in Beitaipingzhuang. In the early 1980s, there was no Third Ring Road.

The Yuanwanglou Hotel not far away is considered a tall building, standing isolated there. Further north is a vegetable field.

Zhang Jianjun and two classmates specially stood at the door to pick up Lin Weimin. They entered the campus. Compared with the campus of the Central Academy of Drama located in the alley, the campus of Yenching Normal University was much wider. Students were coming and going on the road, full of vitality.

"Teacher Lin, we originally invited you to give a speech to our Chinese Department. Unexpectedly, the news spread more and more, and not only our students, but also many students from other schools came, so we temporarily changed the venue of the speech to the school auditorium."

Zhang Jianjun explained to Lin Weimin on the way.

Zhang Jianjun and his colleagues are students of the Chinese Department of Yenching Normal University. They had previously invited Lin Weimin to give a speech in the name of the Chinese Department.

After making an appointment with Lin Weimin, I must say hello to the department when I return to school and also promote it to my classmates.

At that time, the connections between the major universities in Yenching were very close. When someone heard that Lin Weimin was going to give a speech at Yenching Normal University, they immediately called their friends and ran here in groups of three or five.

In addition, students from other departments in the school heard the news and packed the tiered classroom that Zhang Jianjun and his classmates had borrowed early in the morning, leaving no room to stand in the classroom.

Seeing that the classroom was full but more and more people came, Zhang Jianjun and his colleagues had to find a temporary solution and borrow the school auditorium.

The auditorium of the Normal University is about the same size as the Capital Theatre, but its decoration is not as good as that of the theatre. With the auditorium, students who come to attend lectures finally have a place to stay.

As soon as Lin Weimin walked into the auditorium, he was enveloped by a huge sound field.

"How many people are here?" he couldn't help but ask Zhang Jianjun.

Zhang Jianjun shook his head and said, "I haven't counted. But our school auditorium can accommodate 1,500 people. Judging from the current situation, there must be more than 1,000 people."

Lin Weimin looked at the auditorium and saw that people were still entering. There were more than a thousand people entering. This scene was quite big!

The group of literature lovers in this era is really too large.

Walking towards the podium, a classmate who was familiar with Zhang Jianjun saw them leading a tall man with an outstanding temperament, but he didn't look like a student.

He immediately shouted to Zhang Jianjun: "Jianjun, is that Teacher Lin next to you?"

"yes!"

Zhang Jianjun only answered once, and the students around Wu Yang seemed to be in an uproar.

After a moment, Lin Weimin only felt the wave of people in front of him rushing towards him.

Damn!

Lin Weimin quickly ran towards the podium. Fortunately, he was very close to the podium at that time, and he ran to the podium in two steps.

The human wave formed by the students behind him was also surging and making a lot of noise.

"Everyone, don't push! Don't push!"

Zhang Jianjun and his colleagues tried their best to maintain discipline and used their bodies as a human wall to block the surging crowd.

Seeing that the situation below was becoming increasingly chaotic, Lin Weimin did not have time to take the side steps and climbed directly onto the podium.

He shouted loudly: "Classmates! I am Lin Weimin, everyone calm down! Don't move! Don't move!"

In the auditorium of over a thousand square meters, the noise was deafening. Lin Weimin's voice was not very loud, but he stood on the stage and attracted the attention of many students. Everyone looked at Lin Weimin standing on the podium. Starting from the students near the rostrum, the noise slowly stopped and the surging crowd gradually subsided.

Zhang Jianjun and others hurriedly walked up to the podium and handed the microphone with the wire already attached to it to Lin Weimin.

"Hello, hello!" Lin Weimin tried the microphone. The loud voice spread throughout the auditorium through the amplifier, and the students in the auditorium finally quieted down completely.

"Classmates, hello, I'm Lin Weimin! Haha, I've already felt your enthusiasm. Now please take a seat. Those who don't have a seat can squeeze in with the person next to them. If there's no room, you can sit on their lap. Of course, I mean between people of the same sex."

There was a burst of laughter from the students below, the atmosphere in the auditorium became lively, and the students began to sit down in an orderly manner.

Seeing that the atmosphere was about right, Lin Weimin took away the microphone and said to Zhang Jianjun, "No need for introductions or announcements, I'll just get started."

Zhang Jianjun nodded. What happened just now made him break out in a cold sweat. At this moment, only Teacher Lin could command the surging students below the stage. They should save as much as possible. Safety was the most important thing.

After the communication, Lin Weimin saw that most of the students were seated and the auditorium was quiet again. People came in from time to time. He held the microphone in his hand and said, "Then I will start!"

“This time, I was invited by my classmates from the Chinese Department of Yenching Normal University to come to your school to exchange ideas with you on literary creation.

I didn’t expect so many people to come today. Maybe many of them are not from the Chinese department, so everyone just listens reluctantly. If you have any questions, you can raise your hand and ask after I finish speaking. ”

After Lin Weimin finished speaking, he stopped and looked at the many students below. Everyone's expressions were extremely serious.

"Today I will start my speech with a few articles published in the first issue of Contemporary two months ago. Have you read Ma Yuan's The Temptation of Gangdise and Yu Hua's 18-year-old Going on a Long Journey?"

As Lin Weimin asked questions, the students in the audience raised their arms in unison, and at first glance it looked like a lush forest.

"Okay, everyone, put it down. It seems that everyone is a loyal reader of Contemporary."

The students below laughed.

"Everyone who has read these two novels should have noticed that they are very different from the novels published in various publications today. I once mentioned a concept in the editor's note of this issue - avant-garde literature, which is used to describe their style. Many people may not understand and think that I am being mysterious.

Including the article I published in the Literary Gazette some time ago, everyone should have heard of it. There are both supporters and critics. Among the critics, there is a group of people who hold the view that Ma Yuan and Yu Hua, or to be more precise, Ma Yuan, what he wrote cannot be called novels at all. They are all weird things that I forced out in order to create an authoritative image for Contemporary and myself.

Many of the students present here may also feel annoyed when they first read Ma Yuan’s works because they fell into his narrative trap.

I can understand all of this, and today, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss with you what the so-called avant-garde literature actually means.”

When Lin Weimin said this, there was some noise from the audience.

The most popular article in the first issue of "Contemporary" in 1983 was He Yunlu's "New Star", followed by Ma Yuan's "The Temptation of Gangdise". Young people are always surprisingly receptive to new things, and most people just watch for fun.

However, there are still many people who are disgusted with Ma Yuan's writing style that emphasizes form and structure, believing that he has deviated from the essence of literature and turned it into a word game.

The traditional "view of the novel" is being challenged.

Lin Weimin ignored the noise from the audience. His expression was calm and his tone was neither hurried nor slow.

"First, let's talk about what 'avant-garde literature' is?

Everyone can easily understand the word "avant-garde", but what does it mean when the word "literature" is added to it?

To understand the meaning of this word, we need to analyze Ma Yuan's "The Temptation of Gangdise". If we understand this article, we will understand the characteristics of avant-garde literature and what I call avant-garde literature.

In "The Temptation of Gangdise", it actually narrates several seemingly unrelated stories.

One story tells about the experience of an old writer, another story tells about Lu Gao and Yao Liang watching the sky burial, and the last story tells the story of the Tibetan brothers Dunzhu and Dunyue.

The structure of the novel is very unique. Several stories have no connection with each other. They are independent and yet connected in the same novel. The clues of the story are also unclear, often appearing suddenly and disappearing suddenly. Events often have no definite time or place, or some omissions are made in the process or the result.

Although Ma Yuan uses storytelling to narrate, he does not have the kind of setting off, rendering and structure of a story in a normal novel. This creates a contrast effect between suspense and structure, consciously causing a sense of loss in the reader's expectations.

Ma Yuan's narrative style is also unique. He keeps changing the pronoun, which represents the perspective, the character's behavior and feelings. When narrating the old writer, he used the first-person direct narration; when narrating Qiongbu, he used the second-person indirect retelling; when narrating Lu Gao and Yao Liang's experience of watching the sky burial and the story of the brothers Dunzhu and Dunyue, he used the method of positive narration.

This approach largely avoids purely objective description and subjective expression, while maintaining a close and natural connection with the readers, similar to a sense of mystery from hearsay. "

After analyzing "The Temptation of Gangdise", Lin Weimin saw that many students in the audience had confused looks on their faces.

Although there were many literature lovers in the 1980s, most of them were conformist and superficial hobbies.

Most of the students in the audience actually came to see their literary idols. Shouldn't the idols be like those poets who come to the school to exchange ideas, reciting their own or other people's works with passion and talking about grand topics such as life, ideals, and the world?

Teacher Lin, you came to analyze a novel for us. Do you really treat us as Chinese department students?

Lin Weimin had no intention of showing off in public. He came here at the invitation of the Chinese Department and was speaking about literary creation. He welcomed literary enthusiasts to listen, but there was no need for him to speak about something that seemed lofty but was actually empty and powerless just to please everyone.

In the past two years, he has seen too many so-called writers and poets pretending to be cool on university campuses. Wherever they go, students flock to them and worship them like gods. It may feel good to watch, but it is really unnecessary.

Isn't it pitiful that people who make a living from literature, who put literature on a pedestal, can only rely on others' offerings to make a living?

Come from the masses and go to the masses. Wouldn't it be better to spread the unfamiliar concepts and novel contents widely so that readers can gradually accept and like them? This is the purpose of his coming today.

The concept of avant-garde literature is still unfamiliar to many literature lovers. It will be of great benefit to the vast number of young creators if everyone can understand this style as soon as possible.

As the behind-the-scenes promoter of avant-garde literary writers such as Ma Yuan and Yu Hua to the public, Teacher Lin feels that he has an unshirkable responsibility.

“After analyzing The Temptation of Gangdise, I wonder if you have realized that avant-garde literature actually has several important characteristics.

First, his cultural expressions are mostly a rebellion against and dissolution of old meaningful patterns, and the author's works no longer have clear thematic orientations and social responsibilities.

Second, it subverted the old view of reality in literary concepts. On the one hand, it gave up the pursuit of historical truth and historical essence, and on the other hand, it gave up the true reflection of reality. The text only has the function of self-referentiality.

Third, the text features are reflected in narrative games, which are more flat and more scattered and fragmented in structure. The dissolution of text meaning also leads to the disappearance of the text depth model. The characters tend to be symbolic, abandoning the symbolic meaning model, and can use parody, irony and other writing strategies. "

After Lin Weimin finished this speech, many students in the audience became even more confused.

Many people have watched "The Temptation of Gangdise", but why do they feel that they are watching different things from Teacher Lin?

Teacher Lin, could you please at least consider our feelings?

Most people had confused expressions, but there was still a small number of students who truly loved literature and were willing to study it and understood the concepts that Lin Weimin talked about.

So this is what avant-garde literature is all about!

Third update.

(End of this chapter)