Chapter 931 Beyond Nobel
The news that Lin Weimin won the Nobel Prize in Literature was like a nuclear bomb dropped into a calm sea. It not only set off huge waves, but also turned the Nobel Prize, which seemed unfathomable in the eyes of the Chinese, upside down.
For several consecutive days, many domestic media outlets competed to report on the event, and coupled with interviews given by Lin Weimin himself, an unprecedented Nobel trend was formed in the country, with almost everyone discussing the Nobel Prize.
In addition to discussing Lin Weimin, the new Nobel Prize winner in Literature, some people are also concerned about who will be the next Chinese to win the Nobel Prize.
There is an old Chinese saying: All things are difficult at the beginning.
Achieving a breakthrough from zero is not an easy task in any industry or field, but once some curses are broken, people's fear of difficulties will also be broken. Looking back at the awards that were once regarded as insurmountable, that feeling of being unattainable is now a thing of the past.
Of course, this does not prevent people from highly recognizing and being proud of Lin Weimin winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Among all sectors of society, the response from the literary and art circles was undoubtedly the most enthusiastic. Lin Weimin is now one of the leading figures in the domestic literary and art circles.
On October 16, after several authoritative media published congratulatory letters to Lin Weimin, an article entitled "Lin Weimin in the Global Literary Perspective" was published in the Shanghai-based Wenhui Daily.
"Lin Weimin's award is a milestone, but not just for him, because Lin Weimin has already proven himself in the world literary world. The milestone significance of this award is more for the Chinese literary world and Chinese writers.
It marks a turning point for the Nobel Prize. This award, which has been established for more than a hundred years and has a huge influence worldwide, has finally turned to Chinese writers.
This year's Nobel Prize not only recognizes the extraordinary literary value of Lin Weimin's works, but also recognizes Chinese literature. This is good news for Chinese literature and even world literature.
But then again, does Lin Weimin's winning of the award mean that our literature has succeeded once and for all, and that Western prejudices and tinted glasses will no longer exist?
The author believes that this is not the case.
Lin Weimin's success is certainly a success for Chinese literature, but it is also his personal success. If we arbitrarily assume that Chinese literature will go global because of this award, we are totally wrong.
..."
As one of the representatives of southern media, Wenhui Daily has always highly praised the West. Its comment on Lin Weimin's winning of the Nobel Prize this time showed its vision in a rare way.
It not only affirmed Lin Weimin's literary achievements, but also offered good advice for the future development of Chinese literature.
It is not difficult to see from the attitude of Wenhui Daily that many groups who admire the West in this era are more inclined to admire the strong.
Before he won the Nobel Prize, he thought it was out of his reach. Now that he has won it, he has become picky, like a scumbag who has successfully conquered a goddess.
In addition to letters from various official agencies and comments from authoritative figures in the media, people familiar to Lin Weimin also spoke up for him through the media. The most active among them was the flatterer Yu Hua.
But unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy the popularity this time and was overtaken by Mo Yan.
On October 20, the Literary Gazette published an article written by Mo Yan on Lin Weimin's winning of the Nobel Prize titled "The Multiple Meanings of Lin Weimin's Nobel Prize."
"…Lin Weimin's award has multiple meanings. On the one hand, it has narrowed the distance between Chinese literature and readers from all over the world. China has a group of excellent writers and excellent works. Due to language barriers and differences in values, Chinese literature has not been widely disseminated internationally, and some foreign readers know little about Chinese literature.
On the other hand, the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Chinese writer Lin Weimin will also make foreign readers pay more attention to Chinese literature and Chinese writers, and arouse their interest in Chinese literature. This interest will in turn inspire foreign sinologists to translate more Chinese literary works and introduce them to the world. "
Therefore, in recent days, Yu Hua was dissatisfied with everything about Mo Yan. Whenever they met, he was critical and sarcastic.
No wonder Yu Hua was so angry. He had always been on guard against Tong Zhonggui, the man with thick eyebrows and big eyes. Who could have expected that Mo Yan, the man with a small nose and bumpy eyes, could do such a thing?
But what made him even more angry was yet to come, just two days after Mo Yan posted the article.
When interviewed by NHK TV reporter, Lin Weimin asked, "Who do you think is the next Chinese writer most likely to win the Nobel Prize in Literature?"
Lin Weimin hesitated for a moment, then said in a firm tone: "I think it should be Mo Yan!"
The news that Lin Weimin won the Nobel Prize in Literature not only had a strong impact in China, but countries in Asia and the world were also paying close attention to the news.
NHK TV is the earliest public television station established in Japan and also the only public broadcasting organization in Japan. It has a wide influence in Japan.
For many years, Lin Weimin's works have been very popular in China. This time, he was interviewed by NHK TV because of his winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He said that Mo Yan was the Chinese writer who might eventually win the next Nobel Prize in Literature. Naturally, this caused a heated discussion in the Chinese literary circles and readers.
However, Lin Weimin's remarks caused greater heated discussion in China.
Less than two days after NHK TV's interview with Lin Weimin was broadcast, the report was reprinted by domestic media, quickly sparking a heated discussion in the country.
It happens that many people in China have discussed this issue in the past few days. Now the main person has actually responded in a media interview, which is in line with the trend of public opinion. People have taken the opportunity to discuss whether Mo Yan has the potential to become China's next Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
There was a lot of discussion in the outside world, and Mo Yan was pushed to the forefront. The one who was most unhappy was Yu Hua.
At this moment, he was thinking in his mind: If my article was published in the "Wenyi Bao", then wouldn't I be the person being discussed by everyone at this moment?
Of course, he also thought that his idea was superficial. What kind of person did he think Teacher Lin was?
But what if?
What Yu Hua was jealous of was not the possibility of becoming the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, but what he cared more about was the recognition from Teacher Lin.
He couldn't understand, how was I worse than that guy with small eyes?
Yu Hua’s thoughts were not important. Riding on the favorable conditions of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Mo Yan was pushed to the public through an interview by Lin Weimin and gained exposure that was unimaginable in the past.
But Mo Yan is different from Lin Weimin. His works have always been controversial, and this attention and discussion has brought him mixed reviews.
Mo Yan's fame this time can be regarded as one of the side effects of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. In fact, in addition to domestic public opinion, the news that Lin Weimin won the Nobel Prize in Literature has caused great discussion in countries around the world.
As one of the very few well-known novelists who have emerged in the world literary scene in the past two decades with great reader appeal and wide influence of his works, Lin Weimin is very well-known in countries around the world.
He has also been one of the favorite winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature in the past decade. After being a runner-up for so many years, he finally won the prize this time, which naturally attracted the attention of many in the news media, literary circles and readers.
After the announcement of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature, the well-known American literary quarterly "The Kenyon Review" published an article written by the well-known American sinologist Jonathan Spence titled "Lin Weimin's World Language."
Jonathan Spence is a well-known expert in the study of modern Chinese history in the United States. He is also a special contributor to well-known Western mainstream media such as The New York Times and The New Yorker.
"Chinese is a deep language with strong ideographic expression, while Western languages are shallow languages with strong phonological expression. For Westerners, Chinese language and culture are almost an inaccessible closed structure. It is too difficult to understand and master.
Lin Weimin has made changes in his works that are closer to modern styles, which not only maintains the meaning of traditional China to a certain extent, but also achieves a simplicity that is easy for readers of different cultures to understand. Even if readers do not understand the mystery, it does not affect the overall reading experience.
For example, he abandoned in his works many of the "meanings" and "implications" in Chinese literature that can only be understood but not expressed in words. Chinese readers with a certain depth of reading may find these things very subtle and rich, but for foreign readers who have difficulty adapting to Chinese reading habits, it is undoubtedly extremely difficult.
Even many tireless and hardworking sinologists sometimes find it difficult to deeply understand the meaning of many Chinese literary works. This is one of the important reasons why Chinese literary works have difficulty gaining widespread popularity overseas.
Lin Weimin's works set a good example for Chinese writers in this regard..."
The review article published by Jonathan Spence in The Kenyon Review has a certain academic nature. Compared with his article, the article in The New York Review of Books about Lin Weimin's award is very readable.
The latest issue of The New York Review of Books published an article titled “The Modern Power of Traditional China”, which reads:
“…In this country with thousands of years of history and civilization, intellectuals have always played a role in leading social progress. Now, feudal traditional China has been overthrown in a violent revolution. They have broken away from the shackles of colonialism and capitalism and embarked on a completely different path.
Since the Chinese government implemented the reform and opening-up policy in 1978, China has been embracing the world at an unprecedented speed. But in a world dominated by Western civilization, it is not easy for such efforts to be accepted and recognized.
Lin Weimin's appearance is a wonderful thing for modern China, which is in the process of development. His writing not only builds his own unique and distinctive artistic style, but also shows the modern China that combines the ancient and the young to people all over the world. His works not only retain the full cultural and regional heritage, but also deeply reflect all aspects of modern China.
This has played a very positive role in helping foreign readers, especially those in Western countries, to know and understand China. Needless to say, Lin Weimin has become a business card for China to the world..."
Thanks to the Internet, Lin Weimin saw the various comments from overseas media about his winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature almost without any delay.
A considerable number of them were sent by Roger Strauss, and many were sent by other overseas publishers that had cooperative relations with Lin Weimin.
Because there are so many cooperative relationships, even if each one publishes two or three media reports or commentary articles, the total number gathered for Lin Weimin is a very impressive number.
Looking through the dozens of reports and comments we received from overseas media, they all gave high praise to Lin Weimin's winning of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
After all, he has been famous overseas for many years and has been a runner-up for ten years. If it was a writer who won the award unexpectedly this time, these overseas media would have been making a big fuss.
The annual discussion and dispute about the Nobel Prize winners list is not only a common topic in the Chinese media, but also in overseas countries.
Among the many reports and comments he received, Lin Weimin was most impressed by articles from two French literary magazines.
Perhaps it is because Lin Weimin once won the Goncourt Prize and wrote a novel set in France during World War II, "Life is Beautiful Anyway", so the French literary community and readers always have great goodwill and love for Lin Weimin.
"New Literature" is an independent literary magazine founded in 1953 by Maurice Nadeau, the author of "History of Surrealism". It has always been well-known to European readers for being free from any political tendencies or literary schools, and has a large number of fans in the European intellectual circles.
This publication published an article titled "Beyond the Nobel Prize in Literature". As the name suggests, this article's flattery of Lin Weimin is blatant and has no bottom line.
"The fantastic imagination, rich and delicate feelings, ingenious form, and unrestrained language are all brilliant. There is no doubt that Lin Weimin, who won the Goncourt Prize 13 years ago, is already a world-class novelist. The belated Nobel Prize in Literature is like a servant giving armor to a triumphant knight, which seems so stupid and unaware.
For such an outstanding novelist who is destined to go down in the history of world literature, the Nobel Prize in Literature is not his own honor, but the honor of the Nobel Prize. The Swedish Academy and the jury should be thankful that their award was not given too late, otherwise they will inevitably become a laughing stock in the history of literature..."
This article in "New Literature" not only has a very French name, but also has a very Gallic content.
Looking at the content of the article, even Lin Weimin, who was thick-skinned, could not resist.
This force is too great!
(End of this chapter)
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