Chapter 582: Stars Shining
The day before the third Yanbing Literature Award ceremony, March 28, 1991, was the 40th anniversary of the founding of the National Literature Publishing House.
Long before the Chinese New Year, the Guowen Society had already started preparing for this event.
On the afternoon of March 30, the National Literature Publishing House held a grand "Tea Party to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the National Literature Publishing House" at the Yanjing Hotel.
In front of the podium, there were flower baskets presented by individuals and organizations such as Ba Lao, the Chinese Writers Association, People's Publishing House, and Writers Publishing House. Hanging around the venue were more than ninety paintings and calligraphy works and inscriptions created for the anniversary by famous writers and artists such as Ba Lao and Mr. Wan.
For today's tea party, Guowen Publishing House invited many leaders who are still alive after retirement, meritorious editors, literary elders, and many writers cultivated by Guowen Publishing House over the years. The scale of the event was even grander than yesterday's Yanbing Literature Award ceremony.
Many of the guests attending the conference also attended yesterday's Yanbing Literature Award ceremony.
When the president Cheng Zaochun expressed his gratitude to the guests on behalf of all the comrades in the society, many people's eyes were fixed on Lin Weimin, who was sitting in the row with the leaders of the Guowen Society. Among the group of gray-haired people, his young face full of collagen was particularly eye-catching.
Mr. Wan was sitting next to Lin Weimin. He noticed that many eyes were focused on Lin Weimin and whispered to him, "It seems that everyone is very concerned about this debate!"
"It's fun to watch. Who doesn't like it?" Lin Weimin said.
After thanking the guests on the stage, Cheng Zaochun began to report on the efforts and achievements made by the Guowen Publishing House in publishing over the past forty years, while the teacher and student continued to chat in low voices below.
This kind of formal occasion is boring. There is no way to speak freely. You either stand on the stage and speak, or sit down and listen to the speech.
As the tea party came to an end, the atmosphere finally relaxed and acquaintances began to walk around and chat.
Among the hundreds of guests, retired leaders and meritorious editors of the National Literature Publishing House accounted for a certain proportion. These people gathered together to chat. There was also a group headed by past and current leaders of the Writers Association, and there were many people around them.
These two groups of people have one thing in common: few of them are under 70 years old, and they are all highly respected in the Chinese literary world.
Another group of people gathered around Lin Weimin. Upon careful identification, it was found that the average age of this group of people was much younger than the other two groups, and there were very few who were over 50 years old.
Moreover, they are all young and middle-aged writers who have become famous in the domestic literary world in recent years. Their works almost occupy half of the classic works in the domestic literary world in recent years.
Lu Yao, who just won the third Yanbing Literature Award yesterday; Cheng Zhongshi, who has firmly secured the fourth Yanbing Literature Award; Wang Shuo, who sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his collection and is the first Chinese to receive royalties; Yu Hua and Su Tong, pioneering literary masters; and Jiang Zilong, the founder of reform literature...
Those who were interested took a few casual glances and couldn't help but be shocked.
The stars are shining!
Almost all the representative works of this group of writers were published through "Contemporary", and Lin Weimin was the editor-in-charge of many of them.
Seeing this group of people gathered around Lin Weimin and chatting enthusiastically, many people on the periphery sighed.
These are the mainstays of Chinese literary world in the next thirty years!
Some people couldn't help but think of the feud between Lin Weimin and Liu Feiyu. The feud between the two is nothing new in the domestic literary world.
When Lin Weimin's "Lover" was published, Liu Feiyu called for his death. When he heard that Lin Weimin had been suspended from his post for several months, Lin Weimin wrote a book "The Story of Stealing an Official Position" to curse all those who attacked him, including Liu Feiyu.
This time, Lin Weimin did not win the Yanbing Literature Award. Instead, Liu Feiyu, a judge, won the award. Due to previous grudges, the two of them had completely fallen out.
But what is strange is that the Cultural Association, one of the parties in the conflict, is the guest of honor of the National Literature Society today.
This is the circle. No matter how big the conflict is, fighting without breaking up is the basic principle.
But through the scenes we saw today, it is not difficult to see that in this conflict, neither the Cultural Association nor Liu Feiyu could do anything to Lin Weimin.
In his job, he is the editor-in-chief of Guowen Publishing House, who is in his early thirties. This kind of thing only happened in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
If he works for another thirty years, even if he remains in the same place, how many of his disciples would he have in the Chinese literary world?
In terms of writing achievements, both the quantity and quality of his works have reached the top level in the Chinese literary world.
Two Yanbing Literature Awards, two U.S. National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Naoki Prize from Nihonga, and the Prix Goncourt from France. Among domestic writers, it seems that no one has been able to receive so many overseas literary awards, and across the East and the West.
In terms of social reputation, Lin Weimin has won a series of prestigious awards overseas not only in the field of literature, but also in the field of drama. The public's recognition of him is extremely high.
Moreover, he has been enthusiastic about charity work in recent years and has donated to the Chinese Literature Foundation and the China Youth Education Development Foundation many times. He can be regarded as the number one philanthropist in the Chinese literary world.
Looking back eight years ago, when Liu Feiyu first fired at Lin Weimin, he was just a young writer emerging in the domestic literary world and an ordinary editor of the Guowen Publishing House, alone and powerless.
Now, eight years have passed, and with all kinds of positions, titles, and awards, Liu Feiyu has almost no chance of winning against Shang Lin Weimin except in terms of qualifications. One can't help but sigh at the unpredictable nature of the world.
The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves in front of them, and the waves in front of them die on the beach.
Although Liu Feiyu won the Yanbing Literature Award this time, he lost the reputation he had built up in the domestic literary world over the past few decades. It was really not worth it.
Although Lin Weimin was also affected by the conflict this time, he hit the sore spot of Liu Feiyu and the jury, and the outside world's condemnation and criticism against him seemed insignificant.
From an observer's perspective, although Lin Weimin lost the award in this conflict, he completely defeated Liu Feiyu.
The tea party ended in a harmonious and friendly atmosphere and the guests left one after another.
After today's tea party, "New Literature Materials" and "Contemporary" published by Guowen Publishing House will also publish relevant commemorative articles.
Most of the guests had left, but Lu Yao, Yu Hua, Wang Shuo and others did not want to leave and pulled Lin Weimin to have dinner.
It's rare to have such a lively scene today, and they all love lively occasions by nature, so how could it end so abruptly?
A group of people had a lively meal together before dispersing.
The lively anniversary celebration has ended, but the outside world's debate on the Yanbing Literature Award is still going on. Lin Weimin is no longer very concerned about this matter and has focused all his energy on work and writing.
During this period, most of the novel has been completed and it is estimated that it will be finished in a few days.
In early April, the collection of Jin Yong's works was printed and has begun to be sent to bookstores and post offices across the country.
Less than a week later, Lin Weimin appeared again at the Yanjing Hotel, accompanied by an old man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
As soon as the two men appeared, the cameras of the reporters present started clicking. Of course, the reporters were not targeting Lin Weimin, but the old man next to him.
Today, Guowen Publishing House held a publishing conference for Jin Yong's collection of works. More than 30 media outlets of all sizes came to the scene. When the reporters saw Jin Yong, they were very excited and kept clicking their cameras.
Jin Yong was the protagonist today. During the question-and-answer session, reporters in the audience rushed to the stage to answer questions. When the press conference was over, this group of reporters directly surrounded Jin Yong, as if they would not let him leave unless he accepted the interview.
Accompanied by Lin Weimin, Jin Yong accepted a group interview for more than half an hour. He finally broke free from the siege of reporters and was taken into a small room for a private interview.
Dozens of media outlets attended today's press conference, but only a few heavyweight ones were allowed to conduct individual interviews.
There are not only newspapers such as People's Daily and China Youth Daily, but also television media such as CCTV and Yanjing Television.
The last time Liang Fengyi held a grand work launch event, it was thanks to the support of relevant departments, but this time Jin Yong’s collection launch event relied more on his own influence.
From the creation of his first martial arts novel "The Book and the Sword" in the 1950s to the completion of "The Deer and the Cauldron" in the 1970s, Jin Yong's martial arts novels created a myth in the history of Chinese popular literature and greatly expanded the boundaries and influence of this popular literature category.
Starting from the 1970s, Jin Yong's martial arts novels were introduced to the mainland on a small scale. In the 1980s, thanks to the leaders' love for Jin Yong's martial arts novels, his works were completely released in the mainland and became a must-read for countless Chinese people to entertain themselves in their spare time.
Especially after the mid-1980s, TVB introduced martial arts TV series adapted from Jin Yong's works to the mainland, which became popular all over the country and attracted crowds of people. It also contributed to Jin Yong's popularity and the influence of his martial arts novels, making Jin Yong a household name in China.
Just to say one thing, a considerable portion of the works written by many mainland martial arts novelists in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s were based on Jin Yong's martial arts novels.
Not to mention those who used pseudonyms, there are Jin Tong, Jin Kang, Jin Yong Xin, Jin Yong Ju, Jin Yong Xu and a series of other impersonators of famous authors who created a series of works such as "The Golden Eagle with the Magic Arrow", "The Prequel to the Condor Heroes", "The Witch's Rivers and Lakes", "The Sequel to The Book and The Sword", "The Crazy Boy of the Martial Arts World", "The Great Hero Feng Qingyang", "The Nine Yins and Nine Yangs", "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", etc.
In addition, there are pen names and book titles that have nothing to do with Jin Yong, but the content follows the style of Jin Yong's works. This type of fake work is usually a sequel to Jin Yong's original work, imitating Jin Yong's writing style to tell a completely new story. According to later generations, it should belong to the category of fan fiction.
Typical examples include Canglangke's "Record of the Dragon-Shocking Snake", which, judging from the author's name and the title of the book, has nothing to do with Jin Yong's martial arts novels, but is actually the sequel to "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber", "The Remnant Dream of the Universe" is the sequel to "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", and Yanboke's "The Return of the Condor Heroes" is the sequel to "The Return of the Condor Heroes", and so on.
Among the above-mentioned imitations of Jin Yong's works, there are many excellent ones, which are also welcomed by the majority of martial arts novel readers. Sometimes readers know that these are imitations, but when they see stories related to Jin Yong's martial arts novels, they still can't help but buy and read them.
It is no exaggeration to say that the name "Jin Yong" supported half of the martial arts novels in mainland China in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, and also gained a readership numbering in the hundreds of millions.
After a whole day of interviews, Jin Yong looked tired but somewhat excited.
As the landlord, Lin Weimin has been with Jin Yong today. Jin Yong couldn't help but say to him, "Mr. Lin, it's not wrong to give my novel to your Guowen Press!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
