Literary Master 1983

Chapter 34: Neo-Realism (Part )
It is not just professors who are discussing the work Yu Qie.

When Yu Qie returned to the club, he found that outside the classroom, some students had neatly copied the five words "New Realism" in red paint, using a thin white wooden board as the base.

The sign was nailed outside the classroom.

When he arrived, everyone applauded excitedly. A student from a student organization said:

"A lot of people have signed up for your club, and we've noticed that the original conditions can no longer meet the development of the 'New Realism' club, so we applied to equip you with new tables."

Yes, desks, brand new desks, benches, small blackboards and chalks, as well as a considerable number of literary magazines, such as Contemporary, October, and People's Literature...

Yu Qie asked: "Where did you get so many magazines?"

"These are all donated voluntarily by everyone, classmate Yu."

The October issue of Red Rock, where Yu Qie published his work, was placed at the top of all the magazines. So far, he is still the first author of this society to be published.

Oh...there's also a brand new ping-pong table.

This will cost several dozen dollars.

“Is this also donated?”

"Special approval from the college."

The place of production is the Shuangyu brand in Yangcheng. If you look closely, you can see the English logo of DHS Shuangyu brand for export. This kind of pool table can only be seen in large factories with deep pockets. They are real large factories!

For example, at the People's Printing Factory and Snow Flower Refrigerator Factory in Yanjing, workers would pick up rackets and start playing ball as soon as they finished their work, or even before they finished their work.

- Don't just say that the writer Yu Qie is slacking off. In fact, our current leadership class...that is, the workers in the city are all slacking off.

After Mr. Qiao visited Japan and met with a large number of Japanese business people, Japan sent a large delegation to inspect enterprises across China to find out whether the Chinese were just fishing for fun or were serious about it.

Matsunaga from the Yomiuri Shimbun went to a microelectronics factory in Shanghai, which represented the highest industrial level in China at the time. He found that the factory was like a street factory and most of the products it produced were substandard.

On a production line, eight people were eating melon seeds and chatting, and one person was watching over the production line. Then, the only person watching over the production line also became annoyed.

Then he went to play table tennis.

Matsunaga was dumbfounded. He wrote in his report after returning to China: "The Chinese are indeed capable of reform. They have no choice but to reform. Their efficiency is already shockingly low."

Yu Qie felt that this classmate was very familiar, so he asked, "Who are you?"

"Student Yu, I'm a representative sent by our student organization. I've also watched your movie A Moment of Romance and I really like it. We've also brought students from the Yanda newspaper with us and would like to interview you."

Yu Qie said, "How can we interview this?"

What he meant was that there were more than a hundred people surrounding me now, could I just leave them all out in the cold?

The representative turned around and chatted with the reporter from the school newspaper. He said, "Please tell your classmates the purpose of your founding the club."

They characterized the incident in a very high tone:
"Our Yanda University produced the Weiming Poetry Society, the Misty Poetry School, and the May Fourth Literary Society, which have been passed down from generation to generation..."

"Our Yanda has always been the ideological front and spiritual common pursuit of young people across the country. Now, Yu's New Reality Society may also become a new representative society of Yanda in the future, influencing other universities across the country..."

That's it.

Otherwise, why would I start a club?

I want to use Yanda to radiate to other young creators across the country... Follow me, and stop writing nonsense. The May Fourth Literary Society was also an ordinary student organization many years ago, but because so many writers came out of it, it had a profound impact on the development of Chinese literature, which in turn gave it power far beyond that of a society.

That’s why Yu Qie started a “New Realism” club. I just didn’t expect it to grow so fast.

The layout of this classroom was like a conference hall for a speech. Everyone had seen my work, looked at me expectantly, and surrounded me.

There are many of Yu Qie’s acquaintances, including future bigwigs and newcomers who are preparing to write novels.

Yu Qie hadn't spoken yet. Everyone was chattering and waiting for him. Yu Qie hadn't spoken yet. Everyone lowered their voices. Yu Qi still didn't speak. Everyone looked at each other. There was no sound at all. It was so quiet that even a needle falling to the ground could make an audible sound.

Yu Qie slowly scanned everyone.

Yu Minhong and Wang Qiang were both there, and for the first time they discovered the "power of silence," a usable speaking skill.

Yu Minhong felt hot all over when he saw this. He lowered his voice and said, "One day, I will be like Yu Qie and force everyone else to keep silent by keeping silent!"

Wang Qiang retorted: "Old Yu, if you don't say anything, people will just talk louder."

"why?"

"Because you will never be Yu Qie, remember what I said."

Remember the table tennis racket that Yu Qie used?
Stiga, that's a Swedish brand.

At this moment, Yu Qie suddenly had a crazy idea - one day, I will be on the Nobel Prize in Literature podium, in that place, will I still be wearing this sign, will I still remember the work I wrote when I first became famous?

How did I come here?

How did I get here?

Yu Qie said: "What is neo-realism? This is a name I made up. It is because we are in this era where everything changes in ten or twenty years. People, things and objects are facing unprecedented impacts... the old goes and the new comes."

"As literary creators, we also have a responsibility. We need to bear witness to something. Let alone guide something, at least bear witness to something and write down what we see and hear. I believe that only this kind of thing can be liked by readers."

"For example, there was a novel called "Soul and Flesh", which has now been adapted into the movie "The Shepherd". The hero in the movie gave up his wealth and fame and chose to be with his rural wife... After I came to Yanda, I found that it was not like that. Everyone was actually confused, and it showed in the form of reciting poems, fighting, and having an empty spiritual world."

"Is it wrong to be confused? People in the Spanish department are not confused. They have found paradise. They work hard to study abroad and are willing to pay a great price to start over. But in forty years, will they find that they have done something stupid?"

No one answered Yu Tangent because no one knew.

There are many people here who can study in the United States. Most of them go and never come back. Some go and come back, and some eventually give up the opportunity after repeated dissuasion from school leaders.

Yu Qie nodded and gave everyone time to think.

“So I think, what can most writers actually not guide? We don’t have this kind of foresight, but we can record it, and time will prove the value of these things.”

"And we will live to see that day."

Are you done?

That's it.

When everyone realized this, they all remembered the word "neo-realism" and they spontaneously applauded.

(End of this chapter)