Chapter 933: The Sacred Flame of Literature (Two chapters in one)
On the morning of December 8, 2000, a large group of people appeared in the terminal hall of the Capital Airport.
There is a six-hour time difference between Yenching and Stockholm, and there are less than three days left until this year's Nobel Prize ceremony.
Lin Weimin is about to go to Stockholm, Sweden to receive the award, but this time he is not going to Stockholm alone. In addition to his wife and daughter, he will be accompanied by a large team, including reporters, editors, critics, translators and WS staff.
If it was according to his own wishes, he could just go and receive the award.
Unfortunately, as the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Lin Weimin's participation in the Nobel Prize ceremony received high attention from the domestic political, cultural and journalistic circles, and it would be unacceptable for him not to bring a delegation to receive the award.
There were still 40 minutes before boarding time. Lin Weimin was chatting with his companions. Everyone in the team was wearing a suit, except him.
He was wearing a black Zhongshan suit, which was custom-made for Lin Weimin by Tao Huimin at Hongdu Clothing. Originally, Tao Huimin wanted to make a suit, but Lin Weimin insisted on making a Zhongshan suit.
Time passed as everyone chatted, and when it was time to board the flight, everyone got on the plane.
At that time, Yanjing had not yet opened a direct flight to Stockholm, Sweden, and the plane had to transfer in Frankfurt, Germany. The flight was supposed to take about 7 hours, but it took 12 hours.
After the plane landed, the group arrived in Stockholm. Lin Weimin and his family were taken to a pre-arranged hotel by the Nobel Prize Organizing Committee. The other people were not within the scope of the organizing committee's jurisdiction, and they had already contacted the hotel in advance.
After a short rest, Lin Weimin attended his first press conference after arriving in Stockholm. He still appeared in a Zhongshan suit, but in a different outfit.
He asked Tao Huimin to order five sets of the same clothes in different colors, enough for him to wear during the award ceremony.
All the Nobel Prize winners of this year attended the press conference and each answered reporters' questions for more than ten minutes. It seemed not a long time, but because three of the five awards this year had three winners and one had two winners, the total number of winners was as many as 12 people, so the press conference took quite a long time.
After the long journey, Lin Weimin and his family slept for more than ten hours in the hotel before they adjusted to the time difference. Another day passed, and finally it was the Nobel Prize award day.
In the afternoon of December 10, Lin Weimin and his family of three were taken to the Stockholm Concert Hall after a rest.
Built in 1920, this concert hall has ten Greek stone columns solemnly standing at the entrance. It is known as "the Greek temple closest to the Arctic Circle."
The usually bustling fruit and flower market in front of the concert hall was closed today. Reporters from radio and television stations from all over the world and plainclothes police officers in charge of security were waiting outside the door early.
Lin Weimin got off the car and saw the scene in front of the concert hall. It was the first time he saw such a lively scene at a literary award ceremony, which was like an entertainment event. The Nobel Prize has such a huge influence worldwide, and there is really something about it.
In Stockholm in winter, the sun sets and night falls before 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
The blue Stockholm Concert Hall shines brightly under the black curtain, magnificent and majestic. The Nobel Prize ceremony has been held here since 1926.
The Stockholm Concert Hall is decorated with warm-colored flowers, gradually changing from cherry and orange to light colors. The front of the podium is decorated with small light pink and dark pink roses. It is conservatively estimated that at least 10,000 to 20,000 flowers were used, and the hall is decorated with colorful flowers.
Those attending the award ceremony today included members of the Swedish royal family, government officials, this year's Nobel Prize winners and their families, diplomatic envoys from the countries of origin of this year's Nobel Prize winners, and important guests invited by the Nobel Foundation. There were more than a thousand people participating, filling the concert hall.
But tonight, this year's Nobel Prize winners and their families are undoubtedly the protagonists.
Today's award ceremony will be broadcast live in full by television media in many countries, but only in developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan. Because Lin Weimin won the award, China will broadcast this year's Nobel Prize ceremony for the first time this year.
At 4:25 p.m. local time in Stockholm, the Swedish royal anthem "The King's Song" was played in the Stockholm Concert Hall. The atmosphere in the concert hall was solemn and dignified.
This magnificent, classical concert hall has appeared on television screens in many countries around the world.
After the two pieces of music were performed, this year's Nobel Prize winners took their seats.
Lin Weimin and his colleagues had seats on the podium, which housed not only this year's Nobel Prize winners, but also members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Karolinska Institutet's Nobel Assembly and Swedish Academy, members of the Nobel Foundation's board of directors, and previous Nobel Prize winners. There were a total of 95 seats, and Lin Weimin's seat was the seventh from the left in the first row.
This year's Nobel Prize, except for the Literature Prize which was won by Lin Weimin alone, the Physics Prize, Chemistry Prize, Physiology or Medicine Prize, and Economics Prize were all won jointly by two or three people.
After everyone took their seats, Musku Stoich, chairman of the Nobel Foundation, gave a speech, and then Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" was played in the concert hall.
The music played at the Nobel Prize award ceremony is carefully chosen and is closely related to the winner's homeland. One of this year's Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Zoresh Alferov, is from the former Soviet Union.
There are three winners of the Physics Prize, in addition to Zoresh Alferov, there are Herbert Kroemer and Jack Keel. The three of them went on stage together to receive the award.
One of the important reasons why the Nobel Prize has been praised worldwide is its generous prize money. The Nobel Prize is based on the legacy of Alfred Nobel, which is operated by a foundation. The annual prize money is determined by the foundation's income, so the prize money value is not fixed, but it is the highest among all awards in the world.
For example, when the Nobel Prize was awarded for the first time in 1901, the prize money for each award was 150,000 Swedish kronor, which was equivalent to the salary of a Swedish professor for 20 years at the time.
The single prize money for the 2000 Nobel Prize reached 9 million Swedish kronor, equivalent to 1 million Swedish kronor, which is a valuable prize for most winners.
Of course, this does not include Lin Weimin, even though he was the only one to obtain the million-meter sword.
After the awards for Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine were presented, the Literature Award was presented. The famous song "Butterfly Lovers" was played in the concert hall.
After the music ended, the chairperson of the Nobel Literature Committee, Sippa Wastberg, read the award speech for Lin Weimin. This is the traditional awarding procedure of the Nobel Prize.
"Lin Weimin is one of the most important novelists in world literature since the 20th century. His writing style is varied. He is not bound by the traditional Chinese literary writing style. With his unique and distinctive personality, he is at the forefront of Chinese literature.
He is good at using sarcasm and ridicule to attack history and its lies, political hypocrisy, and expose the darkest aspects of human life. He depicts the interactive relationship between man and nature, reality and society with magnificent imagination, and explores the fate of different classes of human beings. Whether writing about people, events, history or realism, he strives for truth, and puts profound humanity and reflective spirit at the top of his creative pursuit.
In his novel Farewell My Concubine, we see the alienation of people in the historical background and social environment, and the distortion and betrayal of human nature under war and turmoil.
His "Burning" profoundly reflects the irreconcilable contradiction between the lower class and the upper ruling class in a materialistic society.
..."
While Schipper Wastberg's voice was resounding in the Stockholm Concert Hall, Mark Mon was sitting in front of the TV with his family in Kansas City, USA, across the ocean.
Now in his forties, he is already a well-known sinologist in the American Sinology community and has a happy family.
Listening to the sound coming from TV, Mark Meng's face turned red and he seemed extremely excited.
He and Lin Weimin met in the early 1980s. After he returned from studying in China in 1982, he did not break off contact with Lin Weimin. Every time Lin Weimin came to the United States, he would take time to meet with him.
Friendship does not become shallow due to the barrier of time and space, but becomes more and more lasting with the brewing of time.
"He did it, and I knew he could do it." Mark Meng muttered to himself while watching TV.
His son Daniel, who was at the age when dogs were disgusted by people, did not like watching boring award ceremonies and was listening to music with his head shaking, twisting his body from time to time. As a result, he accidentally pulled out the headphone cable, and the deafening music filled the living room, completely covering up the sound of the TV.
Mark Meng, who was immersed in the touching memories, flew into a rage, "Daniel, take your music upstairs right now!"
Frightened by his father's power, Daniel quickly put on his headphones and ran away. Mark Meng suppressed his anger and continued to watch TV, feeling excited and happy for his old friend's achievement.
"… His most outstanding work, The Hunt, tells the magical story of a kind-hearted rural teacher who was accused of raping a girl by his students. He eventually died from a cold gunshot and from the gossip of the people. The book explores the ugliness of human nature, which is chilling to read.
Lin Weimin's writings are never dull. He is a natural writer, and his pen is full of all human material and spiritual life. His works cover history and modern times, and his vision is broad. He is the most shocking writer in modern times after Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
He was born in ancient China, a country that once had countless virtues and also the most despicable and cruel wars. He despised meanness and praised nobility, satirized reality and sang praises to ideals. He brought readers heart-stirring literary adventures, shaped people's spiritual pursuits, and presented epic masterpieces to China and the world again and again. In his works, the roar of world literature drowned out the voices of all contemporary writers.
The Swedish Academy congratulates you and invites you to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2000 from the King."
The Nobel Prize in Literature award speech is an affirmation and summary of the winner's past artistic achievements. Because the award is given to the writer, not the work, the Nobel Prize in Literature award speech rarely mentions only one work, but rather lists the excellence of the winner's past representative works.
The Swedish Academy and the Nobel Prize in Literature Committee gave Lin Weimin extremely high praise, which is rare among Nobel Prize winners in Literature over the past 100 years.
This certainly does not mean that Lin Weimin has reached an unprecedented height, but it at least shows that he has stood at a certain height in history, which is enough to make most Nobel Prize winners in literature far behind.
When Shippa Wastberg on the stage read to the end, his tone was passionate.
After he issued the invitation, thunderous applause broke out in the concert hall and lasted for a long time.
Lin Weimin stood up, walked with tall and straight posture and majestic demeanor to the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, who was dressed in formal attire, and received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature certificate and gold medal from him.
After he received the award certificate and medal, the applause from the audience became louder and the atmosphere in the concert hall was unprecedentedly warm.
After receiving the award, it was time for the acceptance speech. Lin Weimin stood in front of the microphone, looking at the guests in the audience, his face relaxed and his heart calm.
“Dear guests: I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Swedish Academy and the Nobel Prize Committee for awarding me this influential prize. I would also like to thank the translators and publishers who have spread my works around the world. Without their creative work, literature would only be literature in various languages, rather than art that is universally accepted.
If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would be on the Nobel Prize podium, I would have scoffed. At that time, I was in Northeast China, undergoing a life experience that lasted for several years..."
Lin Weimin was as gentle and calm as jade on the stage. His acceptance speech started with how he embarked on the path of literature. His gentle and mellow voice spread across the vast space to all parts of the world.
Damn, Tokyo.
It is one of the most developed cities in the world and one of the world's top five financial centers, with tall buildings everywhere, not inferior to New York and London.
Marunouchi is located between Chiyoda Ward and Tokyo Station in Tokyo. Many people know Ginza, but few know Marunouchi.
Tokyo has the largest number of Fortune 500 headquarters in the world. Marunouchi is the heart of Tokyo, gathering almost all the top company headquarters in the world. If we make an analogy, it is equivalent to the Guomao CBD in Yanjing, which is the central business district of Tokyo.
At night, the tall buildings in the Marunouchi area were brightly lit. But now it was already midnight, and the office buildings in this area were all quiet.
But among the office buildings, there was one building whose lights were still on.
There were two security guards on duty downstairs. The tall one yawned and asked, "Aida, it's already this late, isn't Ms. Yoko leaving yet?"
The short security guard looked dissatisfied, "Who knows? Old lady is always so energetic."
"Hey!" The tall security guard looked around, "Don't talk nonsense, be careful that Ms. Yoko hears you."
The short security guard was infected and yawned as well. "If she gets off work early every day, I'll call her Ms. Yoko like you. I really don't know what she eats every day, this old lady!"
"Maybe it's because I'm not married, so I don't have any burden."
"I think you got it the other way around. No one wants her because of this personality. But then again, she's not bad looking. I don't understand why she doesn't get married."
"No one likes girls who are working hard for their careers." said the tall security guard.
"That's right. Who would like a woman who has no femininity?" The short security guard glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Today is a record. It's almost 1:30 and she hasn't left work yet."
"Poor Miss Chiyo, it must be very stressful to work with a boss like this?" The tall security guard sighed as a beautiful figure flashed through his mind.
At the same time, in the office occupying an entire floor on the top floor of the building, a small office and tea room of more than 20 square meters was separated in front of the elevator lobby. An urban beauty in professional attire made tea in the tea room and knocked on the door of the large office.
In the lounge area of the office, a Chinese voice was heard. It was the sound coming from the TV.
The owner of the building, Ms. Yoko Kohei, was staring intently at the handsome man on TV, her eyes full of fascination and admiration.
"President, your tea."
"Yeah." Without looking at the secretary, Xiao Hei Yoko made a nasal sound to indicate that she understood.
Chiyo Aizawa was not surprised. She glanced at the handsome man who was speaking wittily on TV, then turned and left the office.
Yoko Kuroi graduated from the famous Yokohama City University. In order to gild herself, she chose to study in China.
After returning from studying abroad in 1982, she successfully entered the Ministry of Industry and Economy. With her outstanding ability and her background of studying abroad in China, Yoko Kokuro was able to work in the Ministry of Industry and Economy like a duck in water.
Unfortunately, in this absolutely patriarchal society of Nihong, women who pursue advancement are like outliers and are incompatible with society. Although Xiao Hei Yoko works hard and has outstanding work results, she has missed several promotions.
Eventually, she had to turn her career ambitions elsewhere.
In 1989, after working at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for seven years, she chose to resign and go into business.
She remembered that Lin Weimin once said that China has a complete industrial system, a sound basic education system and a large number of industrial workers. In the future, China will surely become the world's factory and the largest trading partner of most countries in the world.
Xiao Hei Yangzi took Lin Weimin's words as her guiding principle. After resigning, she entered the field of foreign trade. She took advantage of her experience of studying in China and started a trade business between the two countries.
Eleven years have passed now, and the company she runs, Somu International Trading Co., Ltd., has become one of the top 30 trading companies in Japan, with an annual trade volume with China of over 100 billion yen. As a result, Yoko Kohei has become a strong woman in Japan's business world, with a net worth of tens of billions of yen.
But at this moment, when she looked at the man on TV, she had completely lost her former shrewdness and strength. In addition to fascination and admiration, there was more tenderness in her eyes.
"Mr. Lin..."
Time flies, and the world changes dramatically. Twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye.
Lin Weimin in the TV show is still as young as ever. Apart from a more mature temperament, time does not seem to have left any traces on him.
Countless scenes flashed by, connecting into extremely clear memories in Xiao Hei Yangzi's mind, and finally stopped at the falling cherry blossoms on the campus of Yanda University.
The TV screen switched and the camera was behind Lin Weimin who was speaking. A dignified and beautiful woman was holding the hand of a delicate little girl.
There was a flash of sadness in Xiao Hei Yangzi's eyes. Is this Lin Jun's wife?
Just as Goli said, like the beautiful and pure Nadeshiko, he must be very happy, right?
She looked at the woman on TV and felt extremely complicated.
Every night when she worked until midnight, she thought more than once, what would her life be like if she had not chosen to return to Nihong but stayed in China? Would she have the chance to become the woman standing behind Lin Jun today?
There is no "if" in life, just like the water in a river flowing day and night, it never comes back.
Xiao Hei Yoko let go of her obsession and picked up the teacup on the coffee table.
The faint scent of jasmine seems to be still lingering in my nose from many years ago.
“…I don’t want to go on and on about my work and my creative process because that would be tacky and boring.
I have always considered myself a lucky person. From graduating from the Institute of Literature, which is known as the cradle of writers, to entering the National Literature Publishing House, the highest temple of Chinese literature, I have received so much help and support from so many mentors and friends along the way.
When I graduated from the Institute of Literature and had nowhere to go, my teacher Mr. Wan lent me a hand. When I wrote "The Lover", I was criticized for the bold description of love in the novel, and it was my superior who helped me. My friends always bring me spiritual comfort and ideological collision. My family brings me infinite joy and happiness.
They are the driving force behind my love for this world, and they also bring me new perspectives to observe and write about this world. I have written down everything I want to say in the book, and I hope they will exist in the form of words and books until they are immortal.
I also hope that my dear friends, when you have time, you can patiently turn one of the pages and read the work of this lucky guy.
It may not bring you huge changes or rich gains, but I can be sure that you will get to know a creator and enter his heart.
Literature has been endowed with too many meanings since its birth, but standing here today I want to say that literature is expression and confession, and it should not be constrained by rules and regulations.
It can both praise the noble and criticize the darkness. It can be a short story to relieve boredom or a wise saying to clear people's doubts.
The usefulness of literature lies in that it transcends language expression. Don’t place literature on a high altar for worship, and don’t try to let a few people define literature.
Let more people approach it, touch it, and feel it. The sacred fire of literature will burn brightly under the warmth of everyone's fingertips, and it will last forever, illuminating the dark starry sky of human civilization from now on!"
Lin Weimin's speech ended, and deafening applause rang out again in the huge Stockholm Concert Hall.
People were moved by his wonderful speech and congratulated the new Nobel Prize winner in Literature from the bottom of their hearts.
At this time, China, far away on the other side of the Eurasian continent.
Lin Weimin's relatives cheered and his friends hugged each other to celebrate. Countless Chinese people watched by TV and witnessed the whole process of Lin Weimin receiving the award, unable to sleep at night.
China produced its first Nobel Prize winner in Literature, not because this award is so important to the Chinese people, but because after experiencing a century of humiliation and ups and downs in the half century after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese people finally saw the hope of the rise of this country and nation.
We can win the most influential award in the world. We Chinese are no worse than anyone else.
Today's Nobel Prize in Literature is just the beginning. In the future, China will surely make the world take notice of us again and again.
After Lin Weimin stepped down from the stage, only the final Economics Prize ceremony remained. This year's Nobel Prize in Economics winners were James Hekman and Daniel McFadden. When the two of them received the award certificates and gold medals from the King of Sweden, it also meant that today's award ceremony was coming to an end.
At 17:32 Central European Time, the Swedish national anthem "The Old Free North" was played in the Stockholm Concert Hall.
In the splendid old concert hall, a group of Nobel Prize winners were born again. They stood at the pinnacle of their respective fields, overlooking the world and made outstanding contributions to the world.
The grand award ceremony is over, and all those who participated in the award ceremony today moved to the Stockholm City Hall, where a grand reception dinner will be held today.
The dinner was at 7 p.m. In addition to the Swedish royal family members, government officials, Nobel Prize winners and their ambassadors and wives who had participated in the award ceremony, and important guests invited by the Nobel Foundation, 250 students were invited to attend the dinner, bringing the total number of guests to more than 1,300.
After the dinner began, each Nobel Prize winner took the stage again to give a speech, and Lin Weimin gave a sincere acceptance speech.
Around nine o'clock in the evening, Lin Weimin and his wife and daughter returned to the hotel.
After being depressed all night, Xiao Doubao coaxed Lin Weimin to come over with the gold medal he won, and he couldn't let it go.
The Nobel Prize gold medal weighs about half a pound, is about 6.5 cm in diameter, and has a relief statue of Nobel on the front.
"Put down this precious medal quickly! You might drop it again!" Tao Huimin shouted.
Lin Weimin said: "It's okay, it's made of gold, so it's not afraid of falling."
Tao Huimin rolled her eyes at him and said, "Can you please have some common sense? Even a scratch of your finger can leave a mark."
Lin Weimin looked slightly embarrassed, "Girl, stop playing around and dent this old man's face again."
Xiao Doubao looked up at Lin Weimin and said, "Dad, please give me this medal!"
Lin Weimin thought that his daughter asked him for it because she understood that this thing had profound commemorative significance. He happily picked up the little bean bun and kissed her on the face.
"Okay, I'll give it to you!"
The little bean bun smiled with his mouth wide open, hmm, there was a little bit of air leaking out.
A medal made of gold must be very valuable, she thought happily.
This chapter has 7,000 words. This is the only chapter for today. The finale is almost here.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
