Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 31 Torn Public Opinion
As Zhang Chao published novels and articles with strong implications on both blogs and newspapers, all the media that followed up began to rush towards every interview subject that might provide news value, like hounds smelling blood.

The Southeast Morning Post once again found the justice-loving senior high school student from Changfu No. 3 Middle School who did not want to reveal his name. Based on his revelations, the newspaper continued its offensive against Zhang Chao, unilaterally announcing that Zhang Chao was a political achievement project of the local education department.

"Nanhua Weekly" interviewed a first prize winner of the 6th "New Concept Composition Competition", a girl who burst into tears at the award ceremony when she heard that she would not be admitted. She believed that Zhang Chao's articles destroyed the literary dreams of many people and also changed her own life path.

The Yangtze River Evening News published an article by a special commentator, mainly criticizing Zhang Chaoxin's "Youth Like You", believing that such novels over-exaggerate the dark side of education, which is not only sensational, but also the violent descriptions in them will lead teenagers astray.

……

There are also many media outlets that stand on Zhang Chao's side. For example, China Reading Newspaper invited famous literary critic Wang Binbin to write an article about "Youth Like You". This article praised "Youth Like You" for breaking the old routine of youth campus literature, having a cold and realistic style, and being a truly serious literary creation.

The New Yanjing Newspaper also took action. Li Lie wrote more than 3,000 words, reviewing the entire process of his interview with Zhang Chao, pointing out that concealing the score was not Zhang Chao's request, and that he admired Zhang Chao's frankness in the interview. As for why he did not state it in the final draft, one reason was that the school did have concerns, and the other was that he felt it would blur the focus of the interview.

The most important one was Guangming Daily, which published the full text of Zhang Chao's article "Syndrome of Post-80s Writers - Premature Babies of Early Love, Narcissism and Self-harm" in its literature section, and added an "Editor's Note", saying that this article analyzing "Post-80s" by a "post-80s" was the most in-depth and powerful article on this special group of writers in recent years.

The day after Guangming Daily reprinted the full text, Southern Metropolis Daily published Zhang Chao's latest commentary article in full, titled "The 'Post-80s' Writers Shaped by the 'Young People' Media". The article points out that since the label of "Post-80s" writers was attached to this group of young writers, they have been consciously or unconsciously shaped by the media.

They were born out of the media's hype about them, and their communication significance is greater than their literary significance. The media not only created gods for them, but also created people for them - enemies. When Han Han and Guo Xiaosi occupied most of the spotlight as the "80s twin stars", the media created the concept of "the five powerful 80s tigers" to counter them. This group includes Li Shasha, Hu Jian, Zhang Jiawei, Jiang Feng and others.

In addition, there are Haruki, Jiang Fangzhuo, Zhang Yueran, Zhao Qing... the media has a long list of substitutes.

The article wrote: "If 'kitsch' is a derogatory word, then 'kitsch' certainly cannot be used to compliment people. But unfortunately, almost no 'post-80s' writers realize that they have been dragged too deeply and too far by the 'kitsch' media, and have almost lost their literary consciousness as 'writers'. ..."

On "China Blog", Zhang Chao released a new chapter of "Young Like You" with about 5000 words, and announced that a chapter will be updated every other day.

Since then, public opinion about Zhang Chao has been completely torn into two opposing sides.

On one side are "Nan Guo Press" and "Guang Ming Press", which have close cooperation with Zhang Chao and win in terms of strong cohesion.

The other side is the "scattered troops" headed by the Southeast Morning Post, which has about fifteen or sixteen of them across the country, and their advantage lies in their wide coverage.

The rest of the media are mostly fence-sitters, picking up scraps from both sides and making articles with erratic stances.

Immediately afterwards, his third review article "The Admired and the Forgotten - The Spiritual Blind Spots of Post-80s Writers" was also published, but this time it was not published in Southern Metropolis Daily, but in Southern Weekend.

The influence of Southern Weekend is unquestionable. Once Zhang Chao’s article was published, it immediately pushed the debate to a higher level. The media participating in the debate not only gained huge traffic during the relatively weak sales period during the Chinese New Year, but also saw the editorial department being overwhelmed by all kinds of letters from readers.

This kind of grand occasion often occurred during the heyday of literary magazines in the 80s and 90s, but it became rare in the mid-to-late 90s.

"Nan Guo Weekend" made a special phone call to tell Zhang Chao that the editorial department had sent the reader's letter to him to his school by postal parcel.

Zhang Chao, who had been extremely busy, could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The current situation was actually what he wanted, but it just came a little too early.

He knows very well that a public figure cannot have only positive reviews and no negative reviews. Single-oriented reviews will either be quickly forgotten by the public due to lack of controversial points, or be attacked by the public due to some minor issues.

Besides, he himself was a cracked egg, and his mock exam score was no secret, and he could find it out if he was interested. In this case, of course, he had to make a plan in advance - so although Li Lie's question was sudden, he was not completely unprepared.

This time, he chose to target the entire group of "post-80s" writers instead of Han Han personally, which was also a careful plan. Targeting Han Han would become a personal grudge, and no matter how fierce the attack was, the effect would be limited.

Targeting the group of writers born in the 1980s, not only is his identity as a post-1980s writer attractive enough, but it also makes him more distinctive compared to other young writers.

Of course, all of this requires sufficient excellent literary works to support it. Zhang Chao originally planned to wait until "Youth Like You" was basically completed before launching the debate.

But the unexpected entry of the "mysterious classmate" made him feel like he had to shoot.

But this also has its advantages. On the one hand, during the Chinese New Year period, there is really no news hotspot that can compete with him for popularity. On the other hand, the superposition effect of Han Han and this "mysterious classmate" is so good that most of the print media, except for a few major political newspapers, have participated.

I'm afraid I can't do it at another time.

The only pain was that writing went from being a casual activity to a mandatory task. Between writing novels and reviews, Zhang Chao had an absolutely unforgettable Spring Festival.

But just before the start of the senior year, Zhang Chao received good news. A publisher named Lu Jinbo called Zhang Chao's home through Dongfangxing. He wanted to publish "Youth Like You". Even if the book was not finished yet, he could sign a publishing contract with Zhang Chao in advance and even pay part of the royalties.

Anyone who has read the history of Chinese youth literature in the new century will be familiar with this publisher. Lu Jinbo is his real name, but he also has a more famous online ID called:
Li Xunhuan.

The first generation of Chinese online writers.

(End of this chapter)