Literary Master 1983

Chapter 67 When the East and Latin America connect

In the early 1980s, if you wanted to make a long-distance call, you had to fill out a form at the telecommunications business hall in the special postal building, pay the call fee in advance, queue up, and wait for the operator to transfer the call.

Transoceanic calls are more troublesome. You need to fill out an application form and provide relevant information, including your name, ID, phone number, destination country and the other party's number, as well as the purpose of your call.

So it's not surprising that the call took more than an hour to go through the process.

But it finally got through, and the person who answered the phone said: "This is the Gabriel García Márquez Memorial Museum. I'm the curator of the memorial museum and Márquez's younger brother. May I ask who you are -"

There was no way to turn on the hands-free mode for this call, nor was there any way for everyone to hear it. The academic research group carefully selected a few people to go to the phone room, and they listened attentively. Yu Qie called, and then every time a conversation took place, they whispered to each other and passed on what they heard to others. There was already a long line there.

All I heard was Yu Qie saying: "We are writers from the Chinese Márquez and Latin American Literature Academic Research Association..."

Before he could finish his words, the person on the other end of the phone excitedly said, "China? What a faraway place!"

Yu Qie thought for a moment and said, "Yes, but literature has made the distance between us disappear. When we read the works of famous Latin American writers such as Mr. Marquez, we seem to be sitting together and having a chat."

Yu Qie said it very naturally and calmly.

But for some reason, he found that some Latin American literature researchers in this small room silently shed tears. They were also very excited. Perhaps they had a premonition that these bizarre things would serve as a pre-reading story for the first introduction of Latin American literature...

In the end, everyone was able to use this form to let later generations know about the arduous journey they had gone through.

Yu Qie said, "Sir, what's your name?"

"My name is Gamel Márquez, and I am also Márquez. Márquez is our last name."

"Okay, Mr. Game, we don't have much time, so we have to make it short. We have two things we want to consult you about..."

"The first is that in 1982, Mr. Márquez held a yellow rose at the Nobel Prize ceremony. Yellow roses also appear in his works. We want to know what this flower means in Colombia?"

"Walking away evil spirits."

"Warning against evil?"

"Yes, because before my brother won the award, several Latin American writers died of illness. He was very worried, so he brought this flower with him. He was even afraid of being shot..."

Huang Jinyan must have been confused, he couldn't have imagined that this could be the meaning.

It’s really a big stage in Latin America, come if you’re brave enough.

This is even worse than the Argentine giant spider!
Yu Qie did not dwell on this matter, but continued to ask: "The second question is, do we have other ways to contact Mr. Marquez himself? I heard that he has moved to another place."

"Yes, he lives in a big house in the city, and this one was originally a rented, shabby one - now it's been repaired. If you want to contact him, he has an external mailing address..."

"Or, you can contact me and I'll let him know for you, since he has to come back once a week."

This brother of Marquez seemed very excited to meet the Chinese, and kept talking about his own affairs. Yu Qi listened patiently for ten seconds, and at an appropriate time, he interrupted and asked, "What time is it over there?"

"Nine in the morning."

"Good morning to you and good morning to your brother. We'll talk next time."

"Ok."

"Snapped!"

After hanging up the phone, the room was silent for a few seconds, and then thunderous applause broke out. "Yu Qie! You speak very well, it is literature... that closes the distance between us!" No matter what words are used to describe this contact, it is not an exaggeration.

We have been studying a Latin American for two years and have invested a lot of emotions in him.

Zhao Zhenjiang explained why he was crying: "I was translating poems from Argentina a few days ago, and then I came into contact with the heroes in the history of Latin American literature. I felt that those epics were materialized before my eyes. They were so ordinary, but they made me so excited."

Zhao Deming was also having a hard time holding back. He told others: "In the developed Western world, the word 'China' has a distant meaning. They use 'chino' (Chinese) and 'Chinito' (little Chinese) to refer to Chinese people. The latter is often used. In certain cultural fields, it implies fragility, poverty and backwardness."

"They also use this affix on Indians and Africans..."

When Marquez's younger brother heard Yu Qie and his friends say they were writers, he used "chino" without hesitation. This gave everyone an inexplicable sense of pride, a sense of honorable professional pride as a literary worker.

They represented post-reform and opening-up China in front of Colombians for the first time.

Unfortunately, Liu Xinwu didn't know Spanish and didn't understand any of this. He didn't know why everyone was excited, nor why everyone was crying.

When he understood everything, he still couldn't figure out the situation: "Even if you know what the yellow rose represents, what can you do?"

Zhao Deming could not bear to read it any more. He retorted: "This represents a key image that affects the entire text. We are almost getting it wrong, let alone the 'Latin American realism' represented by the entire book? Not to mention the historical events and prototypes behind it?"

"Yu Qie is right. As the first researchers to introduce Latin American literature, we should have the obligation to popularize it to readers."

"I'm very glad now!" Zhao Deming swallowed his saliva, as if he was considering his words, but he finally said: "I'm glad that I didn't let you open this Pandora's box. Professional things should be done by professionals - comrades!"

Zhao Deming turned around and said to everyone present: "During these seven days, some stories happened and some research was written, but in the end, what people will remember is this phone call and the fact that we changed the key path... It was indeed Yu Qie who first discovered the anomaly, but now we are also involved."

"We are worthy of our identity and have made our utmost efforts to verify our identity."

Yu Qie said: "From tomorrow on, there will be many emerging writers who will learn skills from this novel, which will leave them dumbfounded and make them feel that they have suddenly become infinitely talented... But no matter how bizarre, magical, imitative and distorted their stories in the future, they can no longer use 'magical realism' as a shield for themselves. This can only be the magic they write themselves."

Liu Xinwu made a final effort. He did not want himself to be recorded in a negative light: "If you think there is a mistake, you should not post it. Just don't post it."

This is speculation. You can issue it or not, it just depends on whether it is beneficial to you.

But this is of course impossible, no one will step on the brakes at this time.

"When a South American butterfly flaps its wings, it will stir up a hurricane in China in the East. Marquez wrote this book in 1967. 17 years later, we have become the magical wind guides - but we should not make it too disorderly."

Yu Qie held the translation in his hand.

“The parchment has been deciphered, but the town of Macondo will still exist because we are the deciphers and the prophet. The memory of the world will never be eradicated. Tonight, we are here, and we have witnessed everything!”

Yu Qie used this sentence to draw a conclusion to the Second Latin American Literature Academic Research Conference. His words were so wonderful that the sentimental people covered their faces and cried again, and recorded these things in detail in their essays.

They created and recorded these things on trains, on planes, in their own guest houses, in their own universities... and ultimately some of them were portrayed as ridiculous speculators in the minds of all those who came after them and wanted to study Latin American literature.

At this moment, Liu Xinwu knew that he was finished. No, not all was finished.

It was just this part of his career as a researcher that was lost forever.

　Chino also means obscure, difficult, and mysterious - I looked it up, but I don't know if that's the case.

　　So it suddenly occurred to me that the term "mysterious China" was often used in early online articles. It was a bit strange, like mysterious Indians, mysterious Zulus, etc.... It's a bit strange for us to use it ourselves.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)