China Daily Global Edition (USA)
FINE HARVEST FOR FARMERS OF FICTION An unprecedented year for burgeoning literary talent has yielded a profitable harvest for publishers. Mei Jia reports.
The story was inspired by his job as a grass-roots official in Shandong province, who dealt with complaints.
“We judge works by their value, and not by their form or length,” Wang says, adding that works that echoed the simplicity of the Chinese philosophy exemplified by Wang Zengqi’s (1920-97) works, were exactly what the committee was looking for.
Su says he voted for a winner whose name he hadn’t heard before. His short story, about a child named Mo Xiang Jing (sperm whale) who loses his life after the arrival of an unexpected guest, was penned by Fan Jianjun, a writer from Xiushui county in Jiangxi province.
Su also praised Shuang Xuetao’s keen mind and writing skills. Born in Liaoning province in 1983, Shuang’s winning short story about a writer looks at an unsolved murder case and impressed the judge immensely.
“Shuang has already mastered the skill of setting ‘traps’ in his work, to extend the breadth and depth of his writing,” Su says.
Wang, also deputy director of the Selected Stories magazine, is seeking to widen the appeal of Chinese literature with the award.
“We hope the winners will follow in the footsteps of Wang Zengqi and tell stories about Chinese tradition and cultural spirit,” Wang says.
To him, the works offer a slice of contemporary Chinese writing. They talk about reality, reveal people’s struggles under the pressures of modern life and depict the ordinary yet vivid daily lives of Chinese people.
“They are about the creative transformation of Chinese culture, set against the backdrop of accelerating social development,” he adds.
More critics noticed the recurring theme of social reality in the novels published throughout the year.
Four out of five of the winning novels explored the motif of reality observed from a different perspective, critic Bai Ye says at a forum arranged by Selected Novels magazine in November. “This interest from the writers echoes what was highlighted by the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on culture.
“It’s not only about drawing attention to the theme. It’s about how to think, how to process and to really understand the times we are living in,” Bai says. “So, I’m concerned if writers pass off ‘secondhand news’ as reality, or if they’re really writing from their own experience.”
In the realm of so-called serious literature, Chinese
Wang Gan,
deputy head, judging committee of the 2017 Wang Zengqi Award for Chinese Stories writers publish more than 5,000 novels a year, Bai says.
Bai noticed more works of maturity and depth coming through from writers born in the 1970s last year, whereas works by writers born in the 1980s seem to have made less progress. To that peer critic Meng Fanhua says the ’70s group has self-consciously begun to examine social conflict and spiritual struggle as major topics for discussion.
“It’s not easy, but they’re willing to try, which means they’re becoming mature,” Meng says.
Meng has strengthened the ties between past and present: “People view history based on their opinion of the present. So, sometimes we say historical novels are about reality, too.”
The Wang Zengqi Awardwinning novel, The Lost Town, written by Zhao Benfu, is a double-lined story about a professor discovering a mysterious village and two heroes from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
And from a publishers’ viewpoint, 2017 yielded a bumper harvest for publishers of fiction.
Song Qiang, from the People’s
You Touched Me. We judge works by their value, and not by their form or length.”
Literature Publishing House, tells China Daily it will be the first year that the publisher will exceed total raw earnings of 1 billion yuan, based on book prices.
“Novels’ set prices play an important role in generating sales. We will boost our numbers of original titles by contemporary writers,” Song says.
The novel You Touched Me, written by Yan Geling and published by the People’s Literature Publishing House in April, sold 600,000 copies and was turned into the hit movie Youth, directed by Feng Xiaogang.
Also influenced by TV presentations, books like In the Name of the People by Zhou Meisen, published in January, have become best-sellers.
China Publishing and Media Journal published a list of literary best-sellers by sales, which showed several titles having sold more than 1 million copies.
Sina.com’s Asian Best Books List, as well as sales statistics from Xinhua Bookstore chains, offer more proof of the strength of this growing trend.
At the same time, Song says classics remain popular, as the press continues to sell 600,000 sets of The Four Ancient Classics every year.
Critic Lei Da affirms that the year bore witness to the prosperity of literal creations and publishing, and points out the Chinese novelists seem to have accelerated their creative output. Yet, he says we will still have to wait for a top work of the highest quality to cast a truly global influence. Fang Aiqing contributed to the story.