Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 30 Zhang Chao's Combination Punch
At 8 o'clock that evening, a blog with a recommendation was pinned on the front page of "Blog China":

The first novel of "Midnight Tide", first published on this site - "Young Like You"

All the onlookers and media following the incident were stunned. They had thought that Zhang Chao would write a sharply worded rebuttal to counter Han Han's insults and the doubts raised by media such as the Southeast Morning Post.

But, how can it be a novel?
Judging from the title, it seems to be the most common youth novel in recent years. Most of them are about campus romance, which have been written to death by writers born in the 1980s.

The most famous one is naturally Han Han's "Sancongmen". Although it contains some criticism of reality under the sharp and humorous writing style, the core of it is still the story of a boy and girl's innocent first love and innocent heartbreak.

Zhang Chao wants to prove his talent by this? Isn't that a bit childish?
Those who originally read reports and watched TV thought that Zhang Chao was a rare mature thinker among the post-80s generation are now a little disappointed.

But since he has already posted it, let's take a look and see what kind of youthful, fashionable, sad and melancholy story this young man has made up for everyone.

On the “Midnight Tide” blog, the first two chapters of the novel were posted consecutively, totaling about 10000 words.

As soon as everyone watched the beginning, they were "a little" shocked by Hu Xiaodie's death.

"Is it so exciting..." Everyone sighed in their hearts. It's not that youth campus novels don't write about death, but most of the deaths are either due to terminal illnesses such as leukemia, lupus erythematosus, and cancer, or a car accident before the happy ending.

How can a novel start with a story about a young girl jumping off a building to commit suicide? How can this novel be lighthearted and carefree?

Some readers, when seeing this, either click their mouse and close the page.

Or you can curse inwardly, "Sure enough, he's just trying to attract attention," and then control your hands, scroll the mouse wheel, and continue reading.

When readers saw Cheng Nian covering his dead friend with his coat to preserve the last bit of dignity for her, they suddenly felt that this novel became interesting.

But the subsequent description became more and more suffocating.

Cruel bullying between girls is everywhere. From social isolation to mental attacks to physical torture... Cheng Nian, an innocent girl, was dragged into the abyss by Wei Lai, a "good student" just because of her sympathy.

The bureaucracy and rigidity of the school, the numbness and even excitement of the onlookers, constitute a "hell for others"...

"…Is this true?" When seeing these plots, some readers' hearts are filled with question marks.

Some readers shed tears. Some even closed and reopened the blog page of "Midnight Tide" several times...

The length of 10000 words is not long, and it takes at least ten minutes to finish reading. The novel ends abruptly when Cheng Nian is pushed down the stairs by Wei Lai and others.

A completely novel subject matter that is completely different from the past, a thrilling plot, and unfathomable malice... The first two chapters of "Better Days Like You" attracted all the readers who finished reading it like a magnet.

"How come it's over? What's next?"

"Is there nothing below?"

There were complaints coming from the ordinary people in front of the computer screen.

The media reporters who read the novel had deeper thoughts - Zhang Chao would definitely not write such a novel for no reason, what was his intention?

Although only the beginning of this novel was released, it shows that Zhang Chao has a completely different writing style from Han Han, Xiao Si, Zhang Yueran, Jiang Feng and others. If the typical post-80s writers have any distinctive writing labels, then "new trend", "popular", "rebellious"... must be firmly attached to their works. They grew up in an environment surrounded by Japanese comics, American movies, and Hong Kong pop songs, and they are never afraid to embrace new things and make new attempts.

For example, Xiao Si wrote a fantasy novel called "Fantasy City" a year ago (2003). This novel is highly commercialized and very suitable for adaptation into other forms, such as comics and animation. It can be said that he wrote it with the intention of adaptation.

Although Zhang Chao's "Youth Like You" is a youth campus novel, it uses a relatively serious and traditional realistic approach with a cold tone. He describes the means of bullying in an almost ruthless manner, exposing the inner thoughts of the abuser and the bullied nakedly to the readers.

Without the makeup of youth, it is more like an unconcealed anatomy lesson.

Thinking deeper, was he hinting at something by writing this? Was he suggesting that the storm he had encountered in the media in the past few days was like a grand, public bullying of a high school student?
Yes, if Cheng Nian did nothing wrong, then what did Zhang Chao do wrong? It seems that all kinds of media have pushed him to where he is today. He himself is impeccable both in front of the camera and in expression.

Even when he got a low score, he didn't use it as a capital to show off like Han Han did, but honestly admitted his failure. As for other "bad deeds", they were just one-sided words from an unnamed student. Other media didn't even verify it.

For young people like this, being treated like this by public opinion is not bullying, but it is worse than bullying.

Media people have a keener intuition than ordinary writers about how to resonate with readers. They feel that the wind is about to change.

On the second day, the Southern Metropolis Daily, which is extremely influential in the entire southern region, published another article entitled "Midnight Tide" -

"Post-80s Writers' Syndrome: Premature Babies of Early Love, Narcissism, and Self-harm"

This article is about 2000 words long and sharply criticizes the overall problems that have arisen in the creative works of a group of post-s writers who have emerged since the New Concept Writing Competition was held.

The article first points out that it is a common phenomenon that writers appear on the stage of history in groups in different eras. But in most cases, the ages of these writers are unevenly distributed.

Just like during the vernacular movement, Lu Xun, Qian Xuantong and others were nearly 40 years old, Hu Shi was only in his twenties, and people like Zong Baihua and Wen Yiduo were even younger.

Because writers mature at different times, and their age has nothing to do with their level of skill.

Most of the post-80s writers who are active now are premature babies born out of the "New Concept Writing Competition" and shaped by the media, forming highly similar creative styles and subject matter tendencies, including:

Extreme narrative style;
excessive depictions of sexual activity;
Intense and unnecessary identity anxiety;

A disorderly and self-centered bizarre imagination;

……

“When the rebellious image itself transforms into a successful attitude, the rebels have been domesticated by public opinion without realizing it. The extremism, weirdness, anger and sharpness they show have become an exciting performance.”

All the media that follow Zhang Chao were dumbfounded. Was this a response? Everyone just wanted to see him and Han Han argue with each other. But Zhang Chao's words were equivalent to criticizing the entire group of writers born in the 1980s.

It seems that he is also a post-80s generation?
In connection with the novel published by Zhang Chao on his blog last night, how to report it has become a difficult problem facing every media.

Writers born in the 1980s are often labeled as rebellious. What about Zhang Chao? A rebellious rebel? But he was obviously not "recruited" by the system, because "Better Days" shows a strong critical realist style.

Others are premature babies? What about you, Zhang Chao? You are a freak!

(End of this chapter)