Chapter 103: Award Receipt
This telegram from Heita Mibu was written as a letter. He listed detailed data to prove the greatness of "Showa American Story".
In the history of Japan, the best-selling book is Murasaki Shikibu's "The Tale of Genji", which tells the various aspects of court life in the Heian period. It is the source of inspiration for Japanese literature and the pinnacle of Japanese classical realism literature.
Since its birth, anyone who can read will buy it. The cumulative sales over the years cannot be verified, but it is definitely an astronomical figure.
Since entering modern times, the top-selling works include "I Am a Cat" by Natsume Soseki, "Rashomon" by Akutagawa Ryunosuke, "The Little Girl at the Window" by Kuroteru Ryuko, "Japan Sinks" by Komatsu Sakyo, "Xiang Yu and Liu Bang" by Shiba Ryotaro, etc.
"Japan Sinks" has sold over 4.4 million copies in total, "Xiang Yu and Liu Bang" has sold over 2.3 million copies in total, and "Little Girl at the Window" has achieved sales of over 5 million copies in more than five years. "I Am a Cat" and "Rashomon" have even higher sales, with the former having sold over 10 million copies.
These books have accumulated astonishing sales over a long period of time, and Gao Jialin's "Showa American Story" has sold nearly two million copies just over a week after it was released on the market. Such a rapid speed cannot be achieved even if Natsume Soseki, Akutagawa Ryunosuke and others were resurrected.
This achievement allowed "Showa American Story" to break numerous Japanese book sales records: sales record on the first day of release, sales record within three days, and sales record in one week. Although only half of the year has passed, Heita Mibu also firmly concluded in the telegram that "Showa American Story" will inevitably become the top of Japan's 1986 book sales list. It has now occupied this position, and will only leave other pursuers further and further behind in the future.
Moreover, at the current sales rate, "Showa American Story" will break the Japanese science fiction book sales record set by Sakyo Komatsu's "Japan Sinks" by the end of this month at the latest, and push this record to a number that will make latecomers despair.
There is a very good chance that he will surpass "Rashomon" by the end of this year and "I Am a Cat" next year. By then, Gao Jialin will become the sales champion of a single book in modern Japan.
It is unprecedented for a foreigner to achieve such an achievement in xenophobic Japan, and it will probably be difficult for anyone to surpass him in the future. They are not as lucky as Gao Jialin to live in such an era and produce such a book.
Finally, Heita Mibu once again invited Gao Jialin to make time to go to Japan for book signings. Tens of millions of readers are eagerly looking forward to his early arrival to tell them how he created "Showa American Story".
In addition, Tokuma Shoten, Weekly Shonen Jump, and Japan's four major TV stations all wanted to talk to him about adapting their works. Tokuma Shoten already had a film shooting department, and now that they had encountered such a good subject, they would definitely not let it go.
The same goes for "Weekly Shonen Jump". The elements of friendship, hard work, victory, etc. reflected in "Showa Umekoku Monogatari" perfectly fit the definition of a hot-blooded youth manga, and they can't wait to adapt it into a comic and start serializing it.
If this comes true, "Weekly Shonen Jump" will have a second trump card besides "Dragon Ball", and will completely secure its position as the overlord of Japanese comics. If it is snatched away by other comic magazines, the position of "Weekly Shonen Jump" will be in danger.
Needless to say, the four major TV stations are definitely here for the rights to adapt the drama into a TV series. Anyone with a brain knows that once "Showa American Story" is made into a TV series, it will definitely occupy the top spot in the annual TV series ratings. Anyone who doesn't understand this might as well commit seppuku. It's a waste of food for such a person to be alive.
So many people are eager to give me money? It seems that I really need to go to Japan again. After receiving the award, I will apply to the relevant departments.
Gao Jialin took the telegram to report to the school leaders. Not long after, Gao Jialin's name appeared again on the radio of Pujiang College. "Good news, good news. The book "Showa American Story" written by Gao Jialin, a student of our school, broke many book sales records in Japan."
Gao Jialin's dormitory became bustling again. Seeing this, he quickly packed up his things and moved to the big villa on Tai'an Road. Anyway, he had already asked for leave from the school and would go to Beijing to receive an award tomorrow, so it wouldn't matter if he left a night earlier.
The next morning, Gao Jialin took his luggage and boarded the train. This time, since he was going to Beijing to receive the award, the organizer bought him a train ticket. As most of the other award-winning writers were older, the organizer specially booked a soft sleeper carriage. Gao Jialin also had the opportunity to sleep in a soft sleeper carriage for the first time.
Lying in the car, Gao Jialin put the earphones into his ears and turned on his Walkman. Then a familiar music sounded, "Young man, there's no need to feel down; I said young man pick yourself off the ground."
This Walkman is a gift from Tokuma Shoten to Gao Jialin. They also gave him many Japanese, European and American music tapes. Gao Jialin felt that this song best suited his current mood. He was about to go on stage, so what song could be more suitable than this one?
The train arrived in Beijing smoothly. Gao Jialin did not rush to report to the hotel designated by the organizer. Instead, he made a phone call and asked Zhang Lifeng to have a meal with him. He came in a hurry last time and did not have a good chat with him, so this time he just made up for it.
After eating and drinking, we checked into the hotel. The award ceremony was held on time the next day. It was called an award ceremony, but in fact it was similar to a commendation meeting. There was no red carpet or performances. More than a dozen writers, leaders, and reporters gathered in a small auditorium. The leader went on stage to speak first, and then whoever was called went on stage to receive the award. Finally, a group photo was taken.
Although the ceremony was simple, the weight of the award was extraordinary. Gao Jialin saw that several major media outlets had sent reporters. This news would appear in the evening paper and the hourly news as early as tonight, and those heavyweight media outlets would also publish reports early tomorrow morning.
Holding the award certificate in his hand and posing for photos with a smile on his face, Gao Jialin was looked at curiously by other award-winning authors. In fact, they had some small opinions about Gao Jialin winning the award together with them. Many people believed that "Spring Breeze in Meilong Town" took shortcuts and won the award by relying on political correctness, and they even complained about it when chatting with other authors.
But when the news came that "Showa American Story" was a best-seller in Japan, they all fell silent. No matter how great they were, they had only gained recognition from domestic readers. Gao Jialin not only conquered domestic readers, but also conquered Japanese readers, which they could not do.
After the brief award ceremony, several writers wanted to talk to Gao Jialin. After taking two steps, they saw a leader holding Gao Jialin's hand and saying, "Mr. Gao Jialin, we need to talk to you about something."
(End of this chapter)
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