Football games make people love and hate them. What would a novel about football be like? Recently, a sharing session for the new book "Fighting for the Country" was held. Writer, critic, and ink artist Xing'an, director, screenwriter, and actor Wan Hongjie, and the book's author Yu Geng and others visited dt51's rendez-vous bookstore to share various past events related to football.
The scene of the new book sharing meeting for "Fighting for the Country" (photo provided by the organizer).
's novel "Fighting for the Country" is set in the 1930s and 1940s. It recreates China through the experiences of two main characters, Xiaobei, who has grown from a beggar to a genius player, and Yu Boyong, a team manager with a mysterious identity who is only interested in profit. The football team's past. At the event, Xing'an, who works as a screenwriter, started from the drama of the novel and talked about the rhythm of the story. Xing'an said that the characters in "Fighting for the Country" are open-ended. For example, the protagonist Xiaobei grew up from a beggar to a national hero. From having no name, he named himself Chen Zhenbei in memory of his teammates who were both teachers and friends. , these arrangements are very clever. Another protagonist, Yu Boyong, gives the impression that he is not a good person in the traditional sense, but after the final reversal, you will find that he hides deeply, has his own code of conduct, and has his own moral principles, "Yu Geng In this work, the characters are complex and multi-faceted. "
" Fighting for the Country", written by Yu Geng, July 2024 edition by Writers Publishing House.
""Fighting for the Country" is not only about football. In each exciting game, various characters interpret the most real society and an unforgettable era." Wan Hongjie believes that every character who appears in the novel "Fighting for the Country" The characters are all vivid and vivid. Xiaobei and Yu Boyong, as the protagonists, will definitely attract readers' attention, but the brilliance of other characters is not overshadowed by them. The image and destiny of each person are enough to affect people's hearts. Especially in the novel, most of the members of the Chinese football team are real people, and their experiences and fates are consistent with the available historical information, which makes the shock even stronger. People can't help but sigh that in that turbulent era of war, there was such a group of people who fought against all odds for the sports they loved, demonstrating the national style and national spirit. In addition, the female characters appearing in the novel, such as Yimei, are elegant, physically strong, and determined. Facing the grief of losing her lover, she also does not forget to raise funds for the country and contribute to the country and the nation in her own way, which is heart-warming. I admire you.
Regarding this, Yu Geng bluntly said that he wrote three football matches in this novel: the first two of the three matches actually happened, and the first one took place in the 10th Far Eastern Games in 1934, Chinese Football The Chinese football team defeated the Japanese team; in the second game of the 11th Berlin Olympics in 1936, the Chinese football team faced the British team and lost. The third game is fictional, but combined with the real historical event "Dongjiang Rescue".
Yu Geng is no stranger to these sports past events. He was engaged in professional basketball training in his early years, and later worked as a sports reporter in Beijing for more than ten years. Yu Geng said that these three football games run through the whole book, related to personal destiny, and also connected with the pulse of the times. The characters in the novel grew up and tempered in this process. The prototypes of some characters in the novel were in the era at that time, allowing the world to see Chinese football. strength, as well as the potential of our Chinese people in competitive sports. "The situation in the book that the team raised its own funds to compete is true. Under the circumstances at that time, they did not give up and overcame all difficulties to show China's sportsmanship to the world. It’s shocking and admirable, so I want to tell the story of this group of people.”
reporter/He Anan
editor/Zhang Jin
proofreader/Zhao Lin
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