Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 162: The Struggle for Literary Power
Li Juan had never seen a boy bleed from the nose when he saw her, and she panicked immediately, as if she had really done something wrong. She hurriedly looked for a handkerchief or tissue to stop the bleeding.

He kept muttering: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Zhang Chao quickly stopped her, tilted his head back, and pressed his thumb against the bridge of his nose where the nose was bleeding. Then he said in a muffled voice, "It's okay, it's just that the weather is too dry..."

Seeing that some students were paying attention to this side, Zhang Chao quickly whispered to Li Juan: "Teacher Li Juan, right? I'm Zhang Chao. Let's talk somewhere else?"

Li Juan was obviously a little confused, but she still knew the name "Zhang Chao". It looked exactly the same as what she saw on TV and in magazines, so she nodded and followed Zhang Chao out of the School of Literature building.

The two found a tea shop on campus and sat down. Zhang Chao's nosebleed had stopped by then, but there was still a wet blood stain on his scarf.

Zhang Chao said to the frightened Li Juan, "I'm sorry to make you laugh at my southern nose. Did you come to see the venue in advance?"

Li Juan blushed and hesitated for a long time before saying, "...I'm worried that I won't be able to find it tomorrow and cause trouble for others..."

Zhang Chao smiled heartily and said, "I read your "Nine Pieces of Snow", it is really well written. I feel lucky to be able to read such prose. There are almost no writers who can write such things now."

Li Juan said softly, "Can you please not use 'you'... I feel very nervous - all I write are 'small things', I don't deserve your praise. I'm actually not very good at writing articles."

Zhang Chao said seriously: "The problem with most prose writers is that they are too good at writing but not at living. In other words, they are too far away from real life.

But you have always been immersed in life - working as a tailor, selling small sundries, facing the mountains and grasslands alone with gratitude and curiosity for the instinct of survival - so your writing is alive. "

Hearing this, Li Juan raised her head again, and through her thick myopic lenses, she looked at Zhang Chao blankly and movedly, then quickly lowered her head again, still speaking in a low voice: "It's really not that good... Actually, the prose you wrote..."

Suddenly I found that I couldn't continue, because Li Juan really hadn't read Zhang Chao's recent works. And she couldn't be like other slick writers who could talk nonsense with their eyes closed even though they hadn't read them, so I was speechless.

Zhang Chao didn't take it seriously, still smiling and saying, "I have written very few essays, just to suit the occasion. I am here to make up the numbers."

Seeing that Li Juan was indeed quite "socially anxious", Zhang Chao did not force her any more. After chatting with her for a few more minutes, he left tactfully.

Seeing Zhang Chao walk away, Li Juan also breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't dislike Zhang Chao, but she did feel a lot of pressure chatting with strangers.

If she hadn't been invited by teacher Liu Liangcheng, she wouldn't have come to this seminar. But she felt relieved when she thought that among the many strangers she would face tomorrow, there was one person she had already met today and who had such great affirmation and kindness towards her.

On March 3, the "Contemporary Prose Development Seminar" officially kicked off at Northwestern University.

As usual, leaders gave speeches in the morning, and the special discussions that began in the afternoon really got down to business.

Of course, the special discussions were not very interesting either, such as the “Big Times, Big Moves” in which Zhang Chao participated, hosted by Bai Ye.

At this time, Bai Ye was in his 50s, in the prime of his life, and had a great reputation. He was the executive vice president of the Contemporary Literature and Art Research Association and had a huge say in the literary world.

The domestic literary world has actually fallen into a vicious circle since the 90s. With the development of the economy and the popularization of education, serious literature no longer has a wide influence on the public level. Writers like Ma Yuan, Sun Ganlu, Ge Fei, etc. are not much inferior to Moyan, Yu Hua, Su Tong, etc. in terms of strength, but because they "debuted" a few years later or there were no big directors to adapt their works, their popularity is far inferior to Moyan and others.

As a result, the right to speak in the literary world gradually shifted from writers to critics like Bai Ye. Most young writers engaged in serious literary writing find it difficult to obtain sufficient financial support and secular influence from readers.

They can only rely on the favor and recommendation of literary critics to gain professional recognition within the literary world and then obtain the resources to maintain their creation.

This is actually a very distorted ecology.

Zhang Chao looked at Bai Ye at the other end of the big table, and the other veteran writers chatting with him, and felt a little annoyed.

Although he was not involved in the recent wave of praise for "Gone Girl", he did add fuel to the flames when criticizing "Dwelling Narrowness" in a professional literary theory magazine last year.

Although the incident ended abruptly, Zhang Chao still remembered this person's name.

At this moment, Bai Ye was also paying close attention to Zhang Chao. For him, the rise of this young man, Zhang Chao, had indeed impacted the authority of literary critics represented by him.

Unlike Xiao Si, Han Han and others, Zhang Chao really stepped on his territory.

"Youth" has made several young writers who are more inclined towards pure literature famous, Shuang Xuetao, Zhu Yiye and Gong Wanying are among the representatives.

It is said that these people rely on Zhang Chao's marketing tricks and can earn a few thousand yuan every month without publishing any works. This completely overturned his cognition.

How can a writer be so rich? Don't you know that a gentleman is always poor?
Isn’t this the right path for young writers? To work hard for more than ten years, publish a few works in small newspapers and magazines, be discovered by great critics like him, or be recommended by other great writers, and then have the opportunity to publish in pure literature magazines such as Harvest and October...

If everyone is like Zhang Chao and "Youth", the forum will no longer be a forum!
Moreover, more than a dozen critics who had recently become friends with him were all criticized for participating in the distorted praise of "Gone Girl".

Since the 90s, when have literary critics, as a group, ever suffered such a great humiliation?
Bai Ye already felt that his "uniqueness in the literary world" was about to be contained by him... (crossed out) - the right to speak in the literary world was already shaky under the challenge of Zhang Chao.

I heard that under Zhang Chao's suggestion, "New Sprouts" and "Youth" not only expanded the scope of the "New Concept Composition Contest" to the entire Chinese cultural circle, but also postponed the time to July.

One can imagine how grand the scale of this event will be... This is intolerable!
Thinking of this, Bai Ye suddenly lost interest in bragging with his old friends. He coughed, and the people who were discussing heatedly stopped talking.

Bai Ye smiled and said, "I noticed that there are some newcomers in the prose world recently. Their prose style is quite different from the topic we are discussing today.

Let's talk about it. Li Juan, please tell us about your creative experience. "

Li Juan, who was already hiding in the corner, raised her head in panic, like a duck with its neck pinched, with fear in her eyes.

(End of this chapter)