Literary Master 1983

Chapter 30 Dean of the Department of Literature

The current president of Yanda has just taken office.

Some time before 83, the position of president of Yenching University was vacant, so Yenching University conducted a public opinion poll, in which everyone voted by secret ballot to fill in their own candidate for president. Administrative cadres at or above the deputy division level and teachers at or above the associate professor level could participate.

Ding Leisun was the person with the most votes because of his good performance as the head of the mathematics department. He was elected as the "second Cai Yuanpei" and advocated inclusiveness and tolerance.

Therefore, President Ding came to power through political voting, but after taking office, he launched a heavy blow against his own voting base, vowing to eliminate all professors who were over the age limit, and Ji Xianlin was also within his range of attack.

Fortunately, Ji Xianlin is 72 years old, he feels tired, and is willing to cooperate and step down.

Ji Xianlin has a high academic level, but starting next year, he can no longer serve as the director of the Department of Literature, nor can he participate in the academic committee. Ding Leisun requires that these positions can only be held by "young people" under the age of 65.

Regarding this incident between students, Ding Leisun emphasized, "I came to the stage to target teachers who are slacking off and the current rigid system, not to target a few students who are making trouble. What's more, they are in compliance with the rules. Is Yu Qie a freshman in the economics department? I happen to teach calculus. I will talk to him in person later to see what kind of person he is."

After that, Ding Leisun sighed, "As for the copyright you mentioned? I was a visiting scholar at Harvard before, and I found that Americans really value copyright... The textbooks there are ridiculously expensive, so many students use pirated copies... But once they are caught, they will be expelled from school!"

"I couldn't understand it at first, but later they said that if we didn't pay enough copyright fees, people wouldn't put their heart into compiling textbooks, and the textbooks would get worse and worse... What they said makes sense, copyright is so important, but I really can't do it this way in China, but I also know that what others say makes sense."

"Otherwise, how could it be so developed?"

"Let's leave it at that. I need to focus my energy on other things. There are too many people who are not doing anything right now. I need to make room and promote a group of young people. Yanda lags far behind other schools in the world..."

Obviously Ding Leisun doesn't want to make a fuss.

Ji Xianlin then went to check Yu Qie's other background and files.

Yu Qie was the top scorer in liberal arts in Wanxian and the author of the novel "College Entrance Examination 1977". His family has two generations of intellectuals.

In addition, Ji Xianlin also got "Realism in Latin American Literature", which has not yet been published in "Foreign Literature Research". Why did he get it?
This was quite a coincidence - the article was a huge success, the editorial office of Foreign Literature Studies was shocked when they received it, and it caused great controversy within the small circle of Latin American literature.

Although Yu Qie used a pseudonym "Yu Shi" when submitting his article, anyone with a keen eye can easily tell that Yu Shi is Yu Qie.

Some people have denied Yu Qie's research on Latin American literature, such as Liu Xinwu of People's Literature.

Liu Xinwu believes that since it is called "magical realism" in Europe and the United States, we should follow international practices and not make the Chinese literary world stand out.

There were also people who supported Yu Che. This person happened to be a Spanish professor at Yenching University named Zhao Deming. He was one of the earliest translators of Spanish works in China and he completely agreed with Yu Che's opinion.

Zhao Deming told Ji Xianlin: "I studied in Chile from 64 to 66, and never heard of the 'Big Bang of Latin American Literature'. Later, when I returned to China, I translated The City and the Dog and wrote A History of Latin American Literature. I found that Latin American writers all had similar styles... They absorbed postmodern techniques, combining fragmentation, crossing, jumping, fantasy and reality. I didn't expect that when combined with the absurd historical materials of Latin America, it produced an incredible effect!"

"Then, those Latin American books were hyped by Spanish publishers, and Márquez won the Nobel Prize, so they became popular in China again... Because China copied Europe and the United States, and Europe and the United States copied Latin America for a while, we also followed the Spanish and said it was magical realism..."

"Damn it, Latin Americans themselves have never felt magical, so how can we be qualified to feel magical? I just can't figure it out."

"This undergraduate student of Yu Qie is really amazing. He wrote something that I couldn't write. I was originally going to write a long paper, but since he wrote so well, I have nothing to say. I will support him!"

After understanding the principal's attitude and the professionals' evaluation, Ji Xianlin decided to find Yu Qie for a talk.

You can imagine that the 72-year-old Ji Xianlin already had the idea of ​​cherishing talent at this time.

We have lost too much in the past few years, and we really need young people! Yu Qie has a good background and, judging from his life experience, he is a typical genius.

Ji Xianlin called Yu Qie over. Seeing Yu Qi walking with his head held high, carefully going around the edge of the horsetail lace with his exceptionally good-looking head, and admiring the flowers as if no one was around, Director Ji's idea of ​​"appreciating talent" became even stronger.

"Yu Qie, are the flowers pretty?"

"Teacher Ji, the horsetail flower is very beautiful."

"How do you know this is the horsetail flower? Not many young people know about this kind of flower."

"Teacher Ji, I've read your article 'Horsetail Flower', which says that the tiny leaves densely build a canopy, and above the canopy is a layer of pink silk-like petals. From a distance, it looks like a mass of red mist floating on the green clouds... I especially remember the word red mist, and when I looked at it today, it really is like that."

Yu Qie added, "I also know that when you wrote this article, you felt unhappy and lonely. The red mist of the horsetail flower inspired you to write the article... I don't know why you called me here. I like roses very much. Should I also learn from you and write an article called "Rose"? "

Ji Xianlin couldn't help but grin, "Why are you writing 'Rose'? The school won't punish you. How can they punish you if you are so slick?"

"But I want to know, what are you trying to do?"

Yu Qie said: "I am communicating the cultural differences between China and abroad."

"Bullshit! You are Chinese, what foreign culture are you talking about?"

"Teacher Ji, there were Americans at the scene who really praised me for what I said, I was not talking nonsense."

"Nonsense!" Ji Xianlin said excitedly. "Then tell me about American literature from the 1980s. I want to hear how much you know about it!"

Ji Xianlin studied in Germany for ten years. Fortunately, Yu Qie was not asked to talk about German literature. It was probably because when he was studying abroad (1935 to 1945), Germany was defeated in the war and most of the young generation died. There was no one writing or reading novels, so his literary achievements were not remarkable.

Yu Qie said: "American literature is mainly a mature application of postmodernism, starting to play with narrative structure and criticism of realism... But these are all things that everyone can imagine. What is different now is the rise of immigrant literature and racist literature... This is a wave of black writers who were educated after World War II, and other countries do not have such conditions; there is also a reflection on consumerism..."

Ji Xianlin is a highly qualified researcher. He could tell that Yu Qie's thoughts on American literature were the same as his analytical approach to Latin American literature:

He always likes to consider the material basis of literature, which is a researcher's thinking inertia.

For example, Yu Che believes that the reason why Latin American literature seems "magical" is because Latin America is full of hard work.

The reason why African-American literature rose in the United States is that African-Americans in the United States have enough to eat and even started a "sexual liberation" movement - when they are well fed and warm, they will think about sex.

Black people in other places were still hungry, so how could they write novels? Therefore, only American blacks produced influential literature.

Ji Xianlin said: "You do have something. You like to analyze from a material basis. This is your own methodology. I took the initiative to ask someone to help you read your book "Realism in Latin American Literature". It was very controversial and met with great resistance, but we at Yanda stand on your side."

"In our school, there is a Spanish professor named Zhao Deming who secretly supports you, but he doesn't understand why you want to predict the ending? What if you are wrong? What you said before is enough to support your conclusion."

Yu Qie felt pleasantly surprised. He did not expect that the paper would attract attention so quickly before publication, but it turned out that it had already attracted the attention of the industry.

But unexpectedly, Ji Xianlin was still smiling one second, and his face changed the next second, "You are so good at literary research, why don't you come to our literature department? You think we have nothing to teach you, right?"

(End of this chapter)