1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 221 Huge Controversy

As a temporary short-term overseas traveler, Jiang Xian was given 200 yuan for clothing expenses and 30 US dollars in pocket money.

He and Zhu Lin went to Dongjiaomin Lane together and went into the famous and mysterious Hongdu Clothing Store to get their clothes tailored.

I heard that a few years ago, when George H.W. Bush was still the director of the U.S. Liaison Office in China, he and his wife often rode their bicycles to the Hongdu Clothing Store to make clothes.

Later, when he visited China after taking office, Bush Sr. lifted his shirt and revealed a red heart underneath. Ugh, it was the Red Capital trademark. He excitedly shouted, "Red Capital, Red Capital, Red Capital!"

It can be said that it is one of George H.W. Bush's favorites, along with Beijing roast duck.

The service attitude in the store is excellent. The master was very careful when taking measurements and cutting clothes. His face was full of seriousness. He even made an appointment with Jiang Xian to come over for a try-on.

"How long will you be gone this time?" Zhu Lin asked him.

"It won't take long. The plan is for more than a week."

Visiting abroad is a serious matter. After a few days of preparation, Jiang Xian, as a member of the delegation, was called to concentrate on study.

The entire visiting delegation was there, a total of seventeen people, led by Ba Jin, and deputy leaders: Cao Yu and Bing Xin. All the other members were well-known, including Cao Yu's wife Li Yuru, and the others were also veterans of the Writers Association and the Dramatists Association.

Jiang Xian basically knew the people from the Writers Association. When he asked around at the Dramatists Association, he found out that one was the vice president of the Experimental Theater, that one was the president of the Children's Theater, or it was a veteran actor from the Beijing People's Art Theater, Zhu Lin, who was known as the "No. 1 Qingyi" of the Beijing People's Art Theater and had the same name as His Majesty.

These are the members of the delegation, and the rest are the staff accompanying the delegation, that is, the young people, including Ba Jin's daughter Li Xiaolin, Bing Xin's daughter Wu Qing, Cao Yu's daughter Wan Fang, and Jiang Xian, the little Karami.

Someone from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came over to introduce foreign affairs discipline. As they were talking, someone came over and whispered something to him. The comrade from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs coughed lightly and said with a smile:
"Mr. Xia is here."

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to the door, and an old man in simple clothes and black-framed glasses walked in. Mr. Xia was already eighty years old this year, but he was still energetic and full of revolutionary enthusiasm.

Xia Gong happily shook hands with Ba Jin, talked to them about the situation in Japan, and waved to the young people.

Jiang Xian hurried over, with a kind look on his face, "Mr. Xia, do you have any instructions?"

Mr. Xia smiled and said, "You young people, your main task is to take care of the elderly. They are national treasures and there can be no mistakes. You have to enforce them and keep them under control."

As he spoke, he pointed to Ba Jin, Bing Xin and Cao Yu.

"Old people have a problem, which is that they refuse to admit that they are old. I once accompanied Mr. Shen Junru, and he refused to admit that he was old. If he walked fast, you would say that he was in good health, and he would walk even faster. If he walked slowly, you would say that he should walk slower, and he would think that you disliked his slow pace and would immediately speed up.

When people reach this age, they become like children, competitive, naive and willful. This is what is called "rejuvenation."

Everyone laughed.

Mr. Xia is already eighty years old, but when he said this, he didn't seem to feel old at all.

When Bing Xin's daughter Wu Qing heard this, she immediately winked at them and said, "Now that we have Lord Xia's imperial sword, we must strictly discipline them."

"Hehehe." Jiang Xian smiled perfunctorily.

While applying for a passport and visa, Xu Dexia came to Jiang Xian and delivered many letters from young and adult readers.

Jiang Xian looked relieved. He opened a few letters. The children's handwriting on the letter paper was crooked and looked like that written by Liu Xinwu.

"How come there are still people calling me grandpa?" Jiang Xian read several letters in a row, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Teacher Jiang, there are quite a few review articles on The Grass House now, and the response in the literary community is very good!" Xu Dexia said happily.

"The Grass House" has only been published for a month, but both readers' sentiment and critics' opinions have reached very high levels. Readers' evaluations and critics' comments have been pouring in in the past few days.

For a piece of children's literature, it is incredible to achieve such an achievement.

Just as the children's literature "The Grass House" was attracting much attention, the October issue of "Harvest", which is the fifth issue of this year, was released.

Nearly a quarter of the length is devoted to the novel "Glass Moon Shining on Copper Coin Street".

Zheng Yuanjie heard this from his editor You Cen when he was revising the manuscript for Children's Literature.

You Cen was Zheng Yuanjie's mentor. After she died in the United States, Zheng Yuanjie called her husband and said that he wanted to buy a cemetery for her in Beijing. He also wrote the inscription himself: Zheng Yuanjie brings Pippi Lu and Lu Xixi to pay tribute.

"It's a long novel, completely different from The Grass House." An editor who has read it joked, "Many critics are still saying that Jiang Xian wrote The Grass House to show his maturity and restraint, but Jiang Xian turned around and wrote something so amazing. Haha, I was saying that his Monkey King Sun is not so easy to be recruited."

"You forget that he is a writer who writes rogue literature."

The editors were talking at once, and Zheng Yuanjie was stunned.

The last article "The Grass House" in "Children's Literature" had already given Zheng Yuanjie a great shock. Now when he heard that Jiang Xian had published another novel in "Harvest", he immediately became curious. As soon as he left the Zhongshao Publishing House, he went to a nearby newspaper stand and bought a copy of the October issue of "Harvest".

It took him an entire afternoon to finish reading the book of more than 100,000 words.

Zheng Yuanjie could not describe the shock he felt after reading it.

“Who can write such a good work?”

Li Lande, this name is likely to become popular in the cultural circle along with controversy.

An artistic pilgrim.

An extreme idealist!
Nortel.

Xie Yuan was also holding a copy of "Harvest" and reading the article "Glass Moon Shining on Copper Coin Street".

He felt that the article was particularly unfriendly to him, especially when he read the paragraph about Mr. Dai, he felt terrible.

Everyone has read the story of the farmer and the snakes. Mr. Dai is just like a farmer surrounded by snakes.

Despite his wife's objection, he brought the nearly starving Li Lande to his home.

Mrs. Dai was very resistant to him bringing this stranger into the house, and it took Mr. Dai a long time to convince him, hoping that Mrs. Dai's compassionate heart could be shared with Li Lande.

As a result, Mrs. Dai not only shared her compassionate heart with Li Land, she dedicated her entire being to Li Land and climbed directly into Li Land's bed.

When Mr. Dai found out that she was having an affair with Li Lande, he not only did not blame her at all, but he immediately pleaded, "Can you please not leave me? How can I live without you?"

Mrs. Dai did not feel the slightest bit of guilt for her infidelity, and even said: Putting everything aside, aren't you at fault?

"Isn't it because you insisted on bringing him home?"

The performances of the two men, Li Lande and Mr. Dai, at this time were at two extremes.

Li Lande's eyes were full of disgust, and he was unwilling to pay any attention to Mrs. Dai. She could do whatever she wanted, and he only treated her as a tool.

What about Mr. Dai? He did all the things that would disgust a woman who no longer loved him: first crying, second kneeling, and third hanging himself.

Mrs. Dai's indifference towards him turned into anger and even disgust. Finally, she took action in front of everyone and slapped Mr. Dai on the face as he begged and pestered her.

Li Lande added coldly at this time:
"You clown." Xie Yuan felt that Li Lande was not only scolding Mr. Dai, but also scolding himself.

In order to make Fang Shu smile, he racked his brains every day. As long as Fang Shu smiled, he felt that the sky was brighter and his mood became better.

As a result, Fang Shu was more enthusiastic towards Zhang Tielin than towards him.

Xie Yuan then looked back.

Mr. Dai also revealed how he married Mrs. Dai.

When Mrs. Dai was young, she was pursued by a rich young man. She thought she had found love, so she gave her heart to him and even got pregnant.

It turned out that the other party was just playing with her and never thought of marrying her. Mrs. Dai, who was kicked out of the house, was so sad that she wanted to jump into the river. At this time, Mr. Dai met her, fell in love with her, then tolerated her mistakes and married her.

On the other hand, Mrs. Dai was soon abandoned by Li Lande. She took poison out of grief and was sent to the hospital. Mr. Dai rushed to the hospital as soon as he heard the news. He said affectionately: "Dear, come back to me. No matter what you did, I forgive you."

Mrs. Dai said, "Go away, go away and die outside. I want to vomit when I see you." Then she continued to cry for Li Lande and did not allow Mr. Dai to see her even once before she died.

Jiang Xian wrote in the article: A woman is more cruel than anyone else to a man she doesn't love. Not only is she without mercy and tolerance, she also humiliates him crazily.

Mrs. Dai said: "A woman can forgive a man for hurting her, but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he made for her."

Xie Yuan held the book in his hand and pondered for a long time. In an instant, he seemed to have suddenly realized a lot of things.

Late October, Capital International Airport.

Jiang Xian was wearing a grey Zhongshan suit specially made for Hongdu, and he looked particularly upright.

"Is this the painting?"

He followed the delegation and came to visit the most popular mural in the waiting hall of Beijing Capital International Airport, "Water Splashing Festival - Ode to Life", the painter of which is Yuan Yunsheng.

He boldly painted bathing nudes and depicted scenes of revelry and blessings during the traditional Songkran Festival.

At that time, overseas media exclaimed: "For the first time, a female body appeared in a mural in a public place in China, demonstrating the true meaning of China's reform and opening up."

The relevant departments thought it was immoral and approached the painter Yuan Yunsheng: "Can you modify it? At least let the girls wear shorts."

Yuan Yunsheng didn't want to change it, but he had no choice, so he added a line above the girl's chest to make the reviewer think it was a skirt. After the mural was completed, he quietly removed the line.

As soon as this painting came out, it immediately caused a sensation. The masses were so outraged that they demanded that the public security department send Yuan Yunsheng to prison for "hooliganism". The Artists Association also organized an on-site criticism meeting.

Finally, the man heard about it and came over to take a look. He smiled and said, "What's so controversial about this? It's normal for artistic expression. I think there's nothing wrong with it. We should print more and sell them to foreigners."

Carpenter Li nodded and said, "Some people in China are just surprised by things they don't see."

Unfortunately, even if they both agree, they still cannot get the approval of critics. Some people say: Do we have to continue to regard the appreciation of buttocks and breasts as the goal of modernization?

Jiang Xian and his friends arrived early.

The airport was afraid of criticism and its officials wanted to make progress, so in order to calm public anger, they later covered the mural with a thin gauze curtain. Later, they simply built a fake wall with plywood. It was covered for ten years until the Asian Games in 90, when the mural was revealed again, as bright as new.

By that time, no one criticized the mural anymore.

Get a glimpse of the whole leopard.

Over the past decade or so, the reform and opening up has changed not only the economy but also the thinking of the Chinese people.

From misunderstanding to appreciation, Chinese people are becoming more and more open and tolerant.

Huo Yingdong once recalled: "At that time, when investing in the mainland, I was afraid of sudden policy changes. Every time I went to Beijing, I would first check whether the painting was still there. If it was, I would feel more at ease."

The delegation discussed the painting.

Some people think it is a heinous crime, while others think it is no big deal.

Old Master Ba Jin suddenly laughed, "Come to think of it, didn't Jiang Xian also have an article like this?"

What he was talking about was naturally "Copper Coin Street" published in "Harvest" this month.

"Harvest" has inherent advantages in the literary world and can be said to have attracted much attention in the literary world.

During the period when "Bronze Coin Street" was published, this article, like this mural, caused a huge sensation. Just like this mural, it was constantly controversial. While some people praised it, there were also fierce voices of opposition, and the two sides were deadlocked.

Ba Jin knew the most about it, and many letters with harsh words were sent to the editorial office of Harvest.

Everyone looked at Jiang Xian, waiting for him to say something.

Jiang Xian just said calmly: "No matter how controversial it is, everyone can't deny the beauty of this painting. If I could meet Mr. Yuan, I would like to recite a poem to him: Surfing in the midst of the great changes, I am neither happy nor afraid. I should do what I should do, and stop worrying about it alone."

"it is good."

Ba Jin nodded with satisfaction, and was very happy that Jiang Xian could have the same open-minded state of mind as Tao Yuanming and was not disturbed by external public opinion.

"In my opinion, Comrade Jiang Xian's article and Mr. Yuan's painting are both landmark milestones of reform and opening up, and both are artistic symbols of China's reform and opening up!"

Jiang Xian was somewhat touched.

He knew that Ba Jin was willing to say these words to endorse him and to protect him.

Board a plane to Japan.

"Look at my mother." Wu Qing winked.

Little Karamijiang and the two Hakimi's, Li and Wan, immediately looked towards Bing Xin, only to see that she was already drinking champagne.

"Let's have a drink too," Wu Qing suggested.

Wan Fang nodded in agreement.

Li Xiaolin glanced at Jiang Xian and said, "Jiang Xian, don't you want to drink? Maotai is free on the plane, drink as much as you want."

"No, no." Jiang Xian waved his hand and did not join in.

When can't I drink Moutai? Why do I have to drink it now?

It’s about the national system!

He sat upright, took out a notebook from his bag, and started writing quickly with a pen.