[Chongde Shangyi Tree New Style ⑧] Literary creation returns to realism
At the beginning of this year, CCTV's New Year's drama "The World" became popular.
The struggle, growth, kindness, integrity, and perseverance of ordinary people in the play moved hundreds of millions of viewers.
The popularity of the TV series has driven the continuous sales of the original novel "The World", and has also brought Liang Xiaosheng, a literary legend who has worked silently for many years, back into the public eye.
The success of "The World" can be described as a "great victory of realism". Wang Yichuan, vice chairman of the Chinese Literature and Art Critics Association, commented that "The World" has embarked on a Chinese-style realist artistic path, which can be beneficial to the current artistic creation. inspiration.
In recent years' literary creation, the prosperity of realistic writing and the strong return of the spirit of realism have become a dazzling scene in the literary world.
A group of well-known writers have explored innovative expressions of realistic themes
The success of "The World" is not accidental, it is the reward that Liang Xiaosheng has won by cultivating the fertile soil of realism for many years.
In 2019, "The World" won the Mao Dun Literature Award.
When the news of the award came, Liang Xiaosheng said firmly to the reporter: "The world" won the award, I believe it will change many people's views on realism: realism is not an outdated writing, it tests our understanding of reality. Objective and comprehensive."
During his six-year life as an educated youth in the Heilongjiang Production and Construction Corps, many people gave Liang Xiaosheng selfless help, and he also helped many people.
These experiences made him feel the power of good people, the power of goodness, and he was convinced that the power of goodness was the power to promote social progress.
"Writers should not only write about what reality is like, but also what it should be like." In Liang Xiaosheng's view, the eyes of faith can see the warmth of human nature through reality.
Not only Liang Xiaosheng, but now, a group of well-known writers have collectively launched new novels, exploring innovative expressions of realistic themes, and writing ordinary people's strong and resilient life struggles, which has attracted widespread attention.
As a representative writer of contemporary Chinese avant-garde literature, Sun Ganlu, vice chairman of the Shanghai Writers Association, returned to reality and actively transformed in the newly released novel "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", and wrote a little-known story that happened in Shanghai in the 1930s. The thrilling and true revolutionary historical story makes the reader's eyes shine.
In order to tell this red story well, Sun Ganlu consulted a large number of documents and historical materials such as maps and newspapers at that time, and tried to recreate the social environment, street architecture, food customs and cultural entertainment of Shanghai in that era. He used historical materials and life as his pen. , depicting a "a thousand miles of rivers and mountains" of Shanghai.
Sun Ganlu said that the restoration of these real details benefited from the experience and observation of living and living in Shanghai for a long time.
On April 23, World Book Day, the 2021 "China Good Books" were announced.
Among the 14 shortlisted literary and art books, works with realistic themes account for the majority.
Among them, Fan Wen's "The Sun Turns", Dongxi's "Echoing", Chen Jiming's "Peace Critic", Zhu Xiuhai's "The White Horse Far Away", Chen Fumin's "Forty Degrees North Latitude", etc. Fruitful achievements in literary creation.
The articles are written for the occasion, and the poems are written for the events.
Realistic literature has a long and glorious history in China.
Today, this fine tradition is being carried forward, and Chinese stories rooted in the ground and serving the people are being told enthusiastically by writers; even in the field of online literature, which once pursued the pleasure of reading, there has also been a fading trend of overhead and fantasy themes, and the return of reality and historical themes the trend of.
According to Liu Daxian, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnic Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, all these indicate that the creative atmosphere of literary and art workers has become more stable, and the realistic literary creation is returning forcefully.
Realism is becoming a literary spirit that actively reflects the new era
June is the most beautiful season in Xihaigu. Thousands of mountains and valleys are emerald green, and the flower fields are full of flowers, colorful and fragrant.
When Ji Dongliang, the vice chairman of the Ningxia Writers Association and the "son of Xihaigu" who completed the writing of the non-fiction literature "Xihaigu Notes", once again wandered this land, he was filled with emotion.
In the past, Xihaigu was "barren as the best in the world", but after poverty alleviation, all the Xihaigu area has been lifted out of poverty, showing vigorous vitality in rural revitalization.
The once "Xihaigu literature" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with "suffering narrative", but today's Xihaigu is changing with each passing day, reborn, and suffering has become history.
"Therefore, writing Xi Haigu must change the literary narrative tone of the previous suffering, otherwise it will be divorced from reality, and it will not be 'realism'." Ji Dongliang said.
In "Xihaigu Notes", Ji Dongliang did not want to miss any of the latest and most passionate changes in his hometown that he saw. With more than 300,000 words, he reproduced the great history of China's great cause of poverty alleviation in the new era.
"Realist literature must be concerned with social change and development, pay attention to major issues of the times, and express the writer's understanding, discovery and thinking about the times and reality." Ji Dongliang said.
Writers are everywhere in the decisive victory in a well-off society in an all-round way and in the decisive battle against poverty.
Since September 2019, the Chinese Writers Association and the State Council Poverty Alleviation Office have cooperated to carry out the "Reporting Literature Creation Project on Poverty Alleviation".
Fan Wen, chairman of the Yunnan Writers Association, came to Yunnan Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture to study and study this multi-ethnic prefecture in the southwest frontier as a new topic for poverty alleviation.
In his view, poverty alleviation in Wenshan Prefecture is of particular significance.
In the mid-1990s, Fan Wen heard that there was a Fengyan Cave Village in Wenshan Prefecture. The entire village lived in the cave, and it lasted for several generations.
The writer's curiosity drove him to visit, and he saw that there were more than 20 families living in a huge cave.
On the slope outside the cave, only a few corn plants can be planted.
When the poverty alleviation battle was won, Fan Wen was delighted to see the earth-shaking changes in the villages along the border: every village was connected to a highway, every household had a new house, the branches of fruit were hanging on the branches, and the roadside was full of flowers.
The people of Beeyan Cave Village have long since moved out of the cave and moved into new homes.
Once "a village without a tile" has become history, a footnote and confirmation of the progress and development of the times.
Fan Wen has benefited a lot from collecting wind and experiencing life in Wenshan, and it has also stimulated his desire to write.
Soon, he wrote the novel "The Sun Turns".
"As a writer, we have the responsibility and obligation to actively devote ourselves to this great era, accept its baptism, and bear witness to it." Fan Wen said.
Realism is not only a set of creative methods, but also a literary spirit that actively reflects the times.
Bai Ye, president of the China Contemporary Literature Research Association, believes: "Only if a writer has a realist spiritual standpoint, can he be rooted in real life in his creation, keep up with the trend of the times, conform to the will of the people, reflect the people's concerns, and make the work belong to this category. Iconic and recognizable of the era.”
Taking deep life and rooting in people as a lifelong lesson
"Great artists are the tentacles of the times." Holding this belief, in November 1954, the writer Zhou Libo returned to his hometown. At this time, a vigorous agricultural cooperative movement was taking place in Yiyang, Hunan, and he devoted himself to it with enthusiasm.
"I wore a gray-blue tunic suit, a pair of Jiefang shoes, and I spoke Yiyang dialect, doing all kinds of farm work." Zhou Zhaomin, Zhou Libo's nephew, recalled.
For 10 years, Zhou Libo took root in his hometown.
During the day, he eats and works with everyone, and is affectionately called "Libo Beard" by everyone.
It was late at night, and he was still pacing back and forth on the wooden floor of the attic, thinking of novels...
During the same period, the writer Liu Qing settled in Huangfu Village, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province in order to deepen the life of farmers, and concentrated on writing "History of Entrepreneurship".
During the 14 years of "deep rooting" in Huangfu Village, Liu Qing, a member of the Communist Party, always wanted to be with the people and worked together.
"Wearing rotten leather shoes on his feet, muddy spots all over his trouser legs, and an asthma nebulizer in his hand, walking around the village and the fields day and night."
Zhou Libo and Liu Qing, one south and one north, echo each other, setting a benchmark for Chinese writers to "go deep into life and take root in the people".
In the midsummer of 2022, the Chinese Writers Association led a team of more than 100 writers to Hunan.
The writers arrived in Hunan as the first stop, Shibadong Village in western Hunan; the second stop, Qingxi Village in Yiyang.
One is the first place for targeted poverty alleviation, a chapter written to the earth in the new era; the other is a classic landmark of contemporary literature, Zhou Libo's hometown and the prototype of his novel "The Great Change in the Mountains and Villages".
On July 30, at the "Precision Ping" in Shibadong Village, the Chinese Writers Association held the awarding ceremony of the new era literature practice point for Chinese writers to "go deep into life and take root in the people".
"This is the sound of the charge!" said Wang Yuewen, chairman of the Hunan Writers Association. "Life in the wilderness is a lifelong university for writers, and going deep into life and taking root in the people is a lifelong course for writers."
Qiu Huadong, secretary of the secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association, said that starting this year, the Chinese Writers Association will select a group of regions with a strong literary atmosphere and a well-organized literary team across the country, and successively establish Chinese writers "deeply live and rooted in the people". The writer adheres to the "people-centered" creative orientation, making in-depth life truly a compulsory course for writing.
On the morning of August 1st, writers who came to Yiyang from Shibadong Village gathered at the Qingxi Theater to witness the launch of the "Creation Plan for Great Changes in Mountains and Villages in the New Era" of the Chinese Writers Association.
"In today's China, people's epics are written everywhere. The mountains and villages of the past have ushered in great changes in the times, and the vast land is radiating new vitality." Tie Ning, chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and chairman of the China Writers Association, called for more writers, Step into the countryside in the new era, truly go deep into life, take root in the people, re-understand the countryside with constantly updated eyesight and brainpower, and write about the great changes.
(Reporter Rao Xiang)