Chapter 603: The pinnacle of contemporary Chinese satirical fiction

Since studying at the Institute of Literature, Lin Weimin felt that Qu Xiaowei had some ideas about squandering money.

Lin Weimin had certainly read some of the comments in the newspapers. Apart from his advantage as a prophet, even if he had some knowledge of economics, he would not have dared to publicize such views.

What is the most fatal point about the argument that it is better to rent than to buy?

Inflation and currency depreciation are not taken into account!

Bank deposit interest rates are high now, but they were even higher in previous years. The annual interest rate was 18%. Can you believe it after 30 years?

What about now? The annualized interest rate for a three-year long-term deposit is only 9%, and the current trend is that the interest rate is falling every year.

But as China is an emerging economy, rising housing prices are a general trend.

As one thing grows, the other shrinks. To say that it is better to rent than to buy is, at least at this stage, completely ridiculous.

"You, please stop listening to that kid's nonsense!"

Lin Weimin gave everyone a penetrating analysis of the housing prices, and then gave Yao Shuzhi a serious warning.

Everyone expressed their conviction in his remarks.

"No wonder you have been hoarding houses in recent years." Yao Shuzhi muttered.

"I just can't spend the money I earned from writing. I can't just let it depreciate in the bank!"

Everyone felt a pang of pain when they heard his words. It's because you get more money for your articles, right? It's because you get more money for your articles, right?

A few days later, Zhang Yimou returned to China from Italy, which caused another wave of media reports.

This time, the award won by "Raise the Red Lantern" in Venice did not have as great an impact as the one in 1987, and there is no need for Zhang Yimou to take the film around the world to participate in film festivals.

He returned to Yanjing and accepted interviews for a few days, and made an appointment with Tong Zhonggui to visit Lin Weimin's home.

"The big director is here!" Lin Weimin joked with a smile when he saw Zhang Yimou.

Zhang Yimou smiled shyly, "Teacher Lin, please stop joking with me."

"As a great director, you really deserve the Golden Bear and Silver Lion!" Lin Weimin said sincerely.

Zhang Yimou waved his hand to show his modesty.

The novel "Wives and Concubines" was recommended to Zhang Yimou by Lin Weimin. Now that the movie has won an award, Zhang Yimou must of course express his gratitude to Lin Weimin.

"No need to thank me. I am happy to see you and Xiao Tong complement each other." Lin Weimin said with a smile.

After expressing his gratitude, Zhang Yimou talked about his participation in the Venice Film Festival.

"Raise the Red Lantern" was in post-production at the end of last year. In fact, it had the opportunity to participate in the Berlin Film Festival in February and the Cannes Film Festival in May, but Zhang Yimou waited for half a year and participated in the Venice Film Festival. There must be a reason for this.

In 1988, Guo Feng invested in Hou Hsiao-hsien's "A City of Sadness", and the film was shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival that year. The chairman of the jury of that Venice Film Festival was the famous domestic director Xie Jin.

After the opening of the film festival, Guo Feng and Hou Hsiao-hsien came to Venice to participate in the film festival. When Guo Feng met Xie Jin, he expressed his feelings for his country and family, and Xie Jin was deceived into tears. As expected, "A City of Sadness" won the Venice Golden Lion Award that year, becoming the first Chinese-language film to win this award.

Xie Jin felt that he owed Venice a favor, so this year Zhang Yimou brought "Raise the Red Lantern" to Venice.

With the foundation laid by "Red Sorghum", Zhang Yimou is treated as a VIP at major film festivals around the world.

It's a pity that it only won the Silver Lion Award this time, which is still a bit lacking, but Zhang Yimou doesn't care much about it.

After several years of experience, he has developed a temperament that allows him to remain calm in the face of both praise and criticism.

During the more than half a year of waiting to attend the Venice Film Festival, he was not idle and had been working on his next movie.

As a director, Zhang Yimou is a very hardworking person. Over the past year, he has collected the copyrights of several novels. In addition to thanking Lin Weimin for helping to recommend "Wives and Concubines", he also wanted to ask Lin Weimin for his opinions on several of his shortlisted works.

One of the scripts Zhang Yimou took out was actually Wang Shuo's "I Am Your Father". He said he bought it from Wang Shuo for 10,000 yuan.

"Don't even think about 'I Am Your Father'. It will be a huge disadvantage for you to shoot something with this kind of subject matter." Lin Weimin said, pointing to the script.

Lin Weimin also saw Liu Zhenyun's "A Pile of Feathers" among a pile of scripts. This novel was published in "Contemporary".

"Are you planning to shoot 'A Pile of Feathers'?" Lin Weimin asked.

Zhang Yimou pondered and said, "We originally planned to shoot it. We changed the background of the story from Yanjing to Chongqing. I went to the film festival before, but I still couldn't find the feeling. So I am a little hesitant now..."

He then took out a copy of Chinese Writers from among several scripts and said, "Teacher Lin, there is a good novella in this issue of Chinese Writers. It is very vivid and I think it has the potential for adaptation."

Lin Weimin flipped through the copy of Chinese Writers, glanced at it, and said, "Is it the Wan Family Lawsuit?"

Zhang Yimou was delighted when he heard this, and felt like he had met a bosom friend. "I knew you would understand my thoughts!"

Lin Weimin smiled and said: "The content of "The Wan Family Lawsuit" is good, and the story contains many elements that can be expanded. A novel-adapted movie not only requires the adapted novel to have high-quality content, but also requires room for the adaptation to be developed."

Zhang Yimou nodded excitedly and said, "You are absolutely right. This is exactly the advantage of this novel that I like."

“Then let’s shoot this one!”

"good."

Tong Zhonggui couldn't help but sigh as he watched Zhang Yimou decide on his next work under the influence of Lin Weimin's few words.

Teacher Lin’s influence on Yimou is really huge!

Once the work to be filmed was confirmed, Zhang Yimou was eager to try it out.

"Has the screenwriter been decided?" Lin Weimin asked.

"No."

"Let me recommend someone to you, right? You know Ben Ming Nian, right?"

Zhang Yimou nodded, "I know. Director Xie Fei's film even won an award abroad."

"The original novel of Benmingnian is called Black Snow, written by Liu Heng, who writes good scripts."

Zhang Yimou thought that since Teacher Lin said that the script was well written, his creative ability must be beyond doubt, and said, "Okay, I will contact him later."

In later life, Liu Heng became Zhang Yimou's literary consultant and wrote the screenplay for him when he was working on the work "Ju Dou". However, in this life, because of Lin Weimin, Zhang Yimou did not shoot "Codename Jaguar" or "Ju Dou", so he had no intersection with Liu Heng.

Previously, Liu Heng recommended Han Zhuangzhuang to star in "Benmingnian". This time, Lin Weimin recommended him to be the screenwriter of "Wanjia Suits", which can be regarded as repaying his favor.

Zhang Yimou and Tong Zhonggui stayed at Lin Weimin's home for more than two hours and left only after lunch. Zhang Yimou was very satisfied when he left.

A visit to Teacher Lin’s house helped me solve a problem for a work.

"Yimou!" Tong Zhonggui called him.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you think..." Tong Zhonggui's tone was a little hesitant.

"Do you feel anything?" Zhang Yimou asked.

"Do you feel that you are a little dependent on Teacher Lin now?"

Tong Zhonggui was not trying to sow discord, but because he was looking at the issue from the perspective of a third party other than Lin Weimin and Zhang Yimou, he could clearly see Zhang Yimou's current mentality and the reasons why he took this series of actions.

Tong Zhonggui’s words left Zhang Yimou stunned.

He stood there for a long while, and scenes of his interactions with Lin Weimin over the past few years kept flashing through his mind, all of which were Lin Weimin's selfless help.

He couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "Teacher Lin has really helped me too much. I have unknowingly developed this dependence on him."

Tong Zhonggui felt a little touched when he heard his words.

It is indeed as Zhang Yimou said, Teacher Lin helped him a lot. He supported him in making movies, finding investments, choosing scripts, and selecting screenwriters. Teacher Lin helped with all the most important work in the film production process.

No matter who it is, no one would be able to refuse this kind of help, right?

Tong Zhonggui thought so in his heart, and felt that his words were a bit redundant. "Forget it, I was the one who said too much."

Zhang Yimou laughed and said, "What's wrong with this kind of dependence? Others want to rely on you but can't!"

Tong Zhonggui nodded, this point is quite true.

The next day, the first thing Lin Weimin did when he got to work was to sign the publishing contract for "Promotion Records".

It has been more than five months since "Promotion" was published in "Contemporary" in May. At that time, the aftermath of the third Yanbing Literature Award had not yet subsided.

With the success of "The Story of Stealing an Official" and the award ceremony that had just taken place, Lin Weimin's purpose in releasing this novel at that time was self-evident, so the novel caused a sensation in the domestic literary world as soon as it was published.

Not to mention the various social phenomena and objects satirized by Lin Weimin in the novel, just from the work itself, the quality of the completion of "The Promotion" is very high.

When later generations mention Chinese satirical novels, the first things that come to mind are always the classic works from the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, such as "The Travels of Lao Can", "The Scholars", "Strange Events Witnessed in the Last Twenty Years", and "Flowers of Sin".

In modern times, there are also works by famous writers such as Mr. Lu Xun, Mr. Lao She, and Mr. Zhao Shuli.

But in the years of reform and opening up, satirical novels seem to have fallen into decline.

It’s not that there are no writers writing this kind of novels. On the contrary, there are still some writers who insist on writing novels of this type, but there is a problem in the works in recent years.

The words are expressive and the writing is sharp.

This evaluation is also a common term used by many critics when commenting on satirical and condemnatory novels of the late Qing Dynasty. To put it simply, it is too straightforward and exaggerated, not subtle enough, and lacks the tact and insight of literati.

This is also the most difficult problem to avoid when writing satirical novels or condemnatory novels.

If you want to expose, satirize and condemn, you will inevitably be too straightforward and too exaggerated.

In "Promotion", Lin Weimin exposes and satirizes many strange phenomena in this society, and is extremely naked when writing about the calculations and struggles between characters.

However, when dealing with these plots, the author is very rational and objective, without mixing in personal emotions. This avoids plot distortion in the novel to the greatest extent and makes the atmosphere of the novel more real and peaceful.

No matter how fiercely the characters fight in the story, it will not affect the reader's reading experience, nor will it make the reader feel that the novel is exaggerated or untrue.

Lei Da, a famous domestic literary critic, wrote an article in the Literary Gazette in July, praising "Official Promotion" as "the pinnacle of contemporary Chinese satirical novels."

Such high praise shifted many people's focus on the novel "Official Promotion" from "literary grudges" to the novel itself, and also made many people truly realize the true value and significance of the novel "Official Promotion".

(End of this chapter)