"The reason why we like this world is that it is full of vitality. The picture that this novel conjures up is the resurrection of spring, the activities of insects, and the growing greenery." Recently, "The world wakes up like spring - Zhang Chu's "Clouds" "Lost" New Book Sharing Session" was held in Shanghai. Yongxin, the writer and chief programmer of "Harvest", Huang Dehai, the writer and critic, and Zhang Chu, the writer and author of "Clouds Fall", communicated around "Clouds Fall", sharing the various life styles of people in the county and their vitality that grows vigorously like spring. .
A typical sample of Chinese counties
In Zhang Chu's first novel "Yunluo", in this county called "Yunluo", there are all kinds of people living. The protagonist Wan Ying is one of them. She faces many pressures in life. Family and love bring tests to her from different directions. She integrates them into the long river of time with her own wisdom. Her friends are also working hard in different ways and moving forward with enthusiasm in the trend of the times. The combination of everything constitutes a history of the development of counties in northern China and a history of changes in an era.
Looking back on his creative process, Zhang Chu said that his past short stories and short stories often dealt with the topic of "escape": the protagonist longs to escape, especially when his career conflicts with his hobbies, the idea of escape becomes stronger. This is related to Zhang Chu’s own life experience. Before becoming a novelist, he was a civil servant in a Hebei county. Although he got along well with his colleagues, he was unable to communicate with others about literature, and it was inconvenient to talk about writing novels with others. So I feel lonely. After the turn of the millennium, he met friends on the Internet who also wrote novels. At that time, he often went to Beijing to meet friends on Saturday mornings and returned home on Sunday evenings. When he set foot on the county land again, the familiar environment gave Zhang Chu a sense of security. "I'm glad that I didn't run away from the county that I thought was closed. It was that life experience that provided me with a unique perspective for my writing and gave me a deeper understanding of human nature. It seems that fate is pulling my footsteps. , which makes my creative path steady and steady."
Cheng Yongxin believes that Zhang Chu portrayed a typical Chinese county in "Clouds Fall" based on his experience of county life. The county town in the book is like a micro-society, from which readers can get a glimpse of China's subtle ecology, such as how to deal with intricate interpersonal relationships. Cheng Yongxin said that although the main plot of the novel revolves around Wan Ying, due to the large number of characters, "Cloud Falls" narrates the story from everyone's perspective like a polyphonic novel, allowing the characters to get closer to their true life. "The county town in the novel condenses China's customs and customs. Therefore, it provides a sample of a typical county town for the contemporary literary world."
"Different from a single family in a big city, a county town is a big family." There are so many characters because everyone in the county is likely to know each other. "In Huang Dehai's view, such a tight network of people is the source of a sense of escape, and it also means that life is more humane. '. “The prosperity of the country is closely related to the prosperity of the county. Everyone among them enjoys the benefits of the country's prosperity, and even ordinary workers like Wan Ying can live a more decent life. This typical county shows the great vitality and rich humanity of our era. "
Photo by Sui Wen at the event
The world wakes up like spring
In the eyes of media person Luo Xin, Zhang Chu is a meticulous and patient writer. For example, in the second chapter of the novel "Spring Awakening", he is keenly aware of the changes in different seasons. The wind in the county is also different, and the novel begins with the "wind of spring" to describe the gradual awakening of spring, and the whole novel also gives people the same impression of the spring breeze blowing on the face, slowly unfolding, and is full of moving details. Just like the theme of the sharing session - "The world wakes up like spring",
Cheng Yongxin believes that the novel not only writes about the wind of "falling clouds", but also writes about every plant and tree.Zhang Chu depicts "Yunluo" with his sincere love for his hometown, so that every character and detail in it is lifelike and has the atmosphere of the market. "Zhang Chu leaves room for bad people even when he writes about them. When the characters are bad to the end, they will still rebound. This is the approach that a wise and kind writer would take. Zhang Chu is gentle, but he is very ambitious when writing novels. He vividly displays the complexity of human nature." For example, the men around Wan Ying have different personalities, and they are very different from Wan Ying. The cherry blossoms combine to form different magnetic fields. These magnetic fields form the network of the county, and this network is the microscopic reality of China.
For Huang Dehai, the key to judging whether a novel is attractive or not lies in whether the world it provides makes people willing to enter. The reason why Zhang Chu's novel made him willing to enter is that although the world in "Clouds Fall" is not perfect, it is not tragic either. It is as interesting as real life itself, and characters with different personalities can comfortably interact with each other. Live in it. "What we love about this world is that it is full of life. I describe this novel as a 'riddled spring awakening moment', as if spring has just woken up, and the images it conjures are of resurgent spring and insect activity. , the greenery is getting thicker, just like a poem by Rilke, 'If spring is coming, the earth will make it complete bit by bit.'" Zhang Chu believes that the reason why
can write novels full of affection is related to his mentality when writing. When writing this novel, Zhang Chu was in Tianjin. “When you look back from one city to another, there is a sense of ritual in your heart, as if you have to pass through countless trees, villages, railway tracks, rivers, and factory chimneys to reach yours. Hometown. This sense of distance makes me full of emotions when I write.” Precisely because Zhang Chu has a heartfelt, simple and pure love for the characters in his novels, there are no outright bad guys in the novel, but a group of the most ordinary people. But because he was so familiar with them, he had to carefully consider and select which ones were worthy of recording when imitating them. "The county town is like an elder of mine. I grew up in his arms. He knows all my pain and sweetness, tears and laughter. I trust him unconditionally. He looks at me calmly, and he looks at me with just one look. I knew what was going on, and I knew what he wanted to say just by looking at him. This intertwined relationship was the long-term mentality that ran through the creation of "Yunluo". Zhang Chu has been working in the field of short and medium stories for many years. Zhang Chu admitted frankly that the change in creative length did cause some problems that troubled him, the most difficult of which was the ending. When he finished writing the last sentence of the novel - "When the sun came out, she fell asleep. When she fell asleep, the world became quiet", Zhang Chu felt quiet inside. Including the conception, the creation of the novel spanned seven years, and Zhang Chu spent every day with the characters in his novel. With the end of the relationship between the characters, Zhang Chu inevitably felt a sense of sadness, as if the curtain had fallen and everything was silent.
When asked about his favorite among the hundreds of characters in the novel, Cheng Yongxin said it was difficult to choose. Many of them have their own charms. For example, Luo Xiaojun is a private entrepreneur. His experience coincides with the ups and downs of the county. Only After a series of twists and turns, his final collapse won him more recognition and sympathy. "Zhang Chu writes characters with compassion. Even in failure, there is still a tragic and evocative flavor of life. Except for him, every character makes me feel familiar. They have a little cunning and calculation, and yet Not despicable, they can be seen everywhere in life, just like my compatriots, relatives and friends. It doesn't matter which character you like the most, because he writes about every Chinese."
Zhang Chuze prefers Chang Yunze. "This is a real and complex male image, both good and evil." He has a reckless and fearless side, but also displays romantic and heroic feelings. Like every ordinary person, he adheres to morality and has a simple desire to make life better. When he experiences the disintegration of his original life, he will inevitably have gray thoughts, but he will still make good choices in the fierce conflict of inner order.
And Luo Xin was deeply impressed by the middle-aged women in the novel.Although they are not as innocent and bright as young girls, nor as calm and calm as old women, they have their own charm. "Almost everything about middle-aged women, including career, marriage, family, psychological needs and physical needs, are valued by Zhang Chu."
Among them, Huang Dehai's favorite character is Wan Ying. In his opinion, Wan Ying is similar to the eldest mother in Lu Xun's "Ah Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas". She seems chaotic but full of vitality. Even if she encounters difficulties, she can still live vigorously, naturally showing her desires and need. Huang Dehai believes that the reason why he can write women vividly and vividly is because Zhang Chu is considerate and compassionate towards them. “He is reluctant to make the characters bruised and bruised. Even when dealing with some inappropriate love relationships, he still Make it clean”.
Zhang Chu responded: "Middle age is the most beautiful time in women's life. After experiencing the baptism of family and workplace, time has settled on them, amplifying their understanding of the world and making them more gentle and tolerant. 中文I can observe the complaints, embarrassment, and furry happiness in the lives of young women, because my heart is full of true love for them."
This event was jointly organized by Sinan Reading Club and Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House. .
(Text: Cai Shenghui)
