Reborn in 1977

Hearing He Qingsheng mention this, Chen Fan put down his chopsticks, turned to look at him, and said with some curiosity, "I saw this news on TV the day before yesterday, but the news was just a few words, and it was simply skipped over. You said they returned with honors, is there anything else exciting about it?"

A few days ago in Shanghai, apart from picking people up every day, I stayed at home the rest of the time. I didn't even follow Zhou Zhengdong and his daughter when they were busy setting up the office and contacting the telephone bureau. Otherwise, if I had gone to see Old Ba, he would definitely have told me about the situation. Since I didn't go, I naturally don't know the details.

At this time, Tan Yong also put down his chopsticks and said with a chuckle, "I don't know if it counts as exciting, but this time the delegation went to Little Japan, and the gains were indeed not small."

As he spoke, he counted on his fingers, "The General Association arranged five people, and then our side was originally supposed to have you as the leader, but you didn't want to go. The other members of the council weren't in charge of this area, so we decided to let Director Duan of the External Liaison Department come forward.

It just so happened that he used to be in charge of the Asia-Africa branch, so he took four writers who had published books in Little Japan with him, plus two people sent by the cultural and propaganda departments, forming a 14-member delegation to go abroad.

After they arrived in Little Japan, they were warmly received. Takahashi Hideo invited relevant leaders from the Little Japan Literary Artists Association, the Cultural Affairs Agency, and the Little Japan Academy of Arts to attend. Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sent people to receive them, and the specifications were very high."

Xu Qizhen added from the side, smiling, "Actually, since the establishment of diplomatic relations, there have been several cultural exchanges. But as you know, the main body of previous exchanges was mainly government personnel, and there were almost no exchanges of well-known writers.

This exchange activity, with authors as the main body, made them very重视 and also aroused widespread attention in the literary world of Little Japan."

As soon as she finished speaking, He Qingsheng pointed at Chen Fan and said with a smile, "What the literary world of Little Japan is most looking forward to is your visit. I heard that after they got the list of the visiting delegation, they didn't see your name on it, and repeatedly issued invitations. However, Old Ba knew your thoughts and asked people to directly reject them."

Chen Fan raised his wine glass and said with a chuckle, "I did say this to Old Ba, that I won't go out in the next few years, and I'll talk about it when the time is right."

He Qingsheng and the other two didn't ask when the time would be right.

There is no standard for this kind of thing. It all depends on Chen Fan's own subjective will. Maybe one day he will want to go out.

He Qingsheng continued, "Little Japan is different from China. Their specialized writers association is called the 'Literary Artists Association'. It was formed in 1926 by the merger of the Novelists Association and the Playwrights Association, so this Literary Artists Association is equivalent to our Writers Association.

In addition, they also have a Mystery Writers Association, which is composed of mystery novel authors alone, but this has little to do with us. They have no subordinate relationship with the Literary Artists Association, so they were not invited.

This exchange meeting was mainly organized by Takahashi Publishing House to provide a platform for our visiting delegation to exchange with writers from the Little Japan Literary Artists Association.

What I just said about returning with honors refers to this Literary Artists Association, which affirmed the works of our visiting writers and gave them an honorary award. That's what it means."

Chen Fan blinked, "Oh, so that's how it is."

The literary awards in Little Japan are basically named after famous writers from Little Japan in the past. The first are the Akutagawa Prize of Ryunosuke Akutagawa and the Naoki Prize of Murayama Soichi's pen name Sanjugo Naoki.

These two were the earliest and were established in 1935. There are also some awards established in modern times.

Moreover, this award is also open to foreign authors, and our country has also had authors who have won relevant awards.

However, that's all in the future. At this point in time, there are none.

After talking about the so-called honor, He Qingsheng introduced the relevant situation of the exchange.

He picked up his wine glass and took a sip, then took out a cigarette and passed it around, even Xu Qizhen didn't miss out.

With four cigarettes burning, he continued, "There is an old author in the delegation who studied in Little Japan when he was young. His feelings are the most profound, and he has a lot of feelings after returning.

According to him, after the Meiji Restoration, the Little Japan literary world's research on our country's literature mainly focused on classical literature, and sought a sense of belonging, cohesion, and spiritual nourishment from it. They looked down on our modern literature.

At that time, they only recognized a few writers, such as Lu Xun and Mr. Guo. Even so, their recognition was distorted and misinterpreted.

In the 1950s, works such as 'Four Generations Under One Roof', 'The Hurricane', 'The Changes in Li Village', and 'The Story of Shrimp Ball' were successively translated and introduced to Little Japan, which promoted the reflection of Little Japan scholars and the public on the war of aggression, and also prompted the Little Japan literary world to begin to face up to our country's modern literary works."

Hearing this, Chen Fan suddenly widened his eyes, "Hey, so Little Japan likes to see stories about beating Little Japan. There's a precedent for that."

The works that He Qingsheng just mentioned basically describe the changes of the times in that era, and of course, there are many anti-Japanese war plots.

That is, at that time, Little Japan saw a rise in the post-war reflection wave, otherwise, it would be basically impossible to promote it within Little Japan.

Hearing Chen Fan's words, He Qingsheng and the other two couldn't help but laugh.

Tan Yong took a sip of wine, a bite of food, and then took a puff of cigarette, and said solemnly, "This is the power of literature! Through literary works, more people can understand us, understand us, and then achieve emotional resonance."

After a pause, he flicked the ashes of his cigarette and said with a smile, "Of course, it has to be good works. Shoddy works, or even fabricated ones, will only have the opposite effect."

Chen Fan nodded slightly, then turned to look at He Qingsheng, "Let's not talk about the previous ones. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations with Little Japan, haven't any more books from our side been translated?"

He Qingsheng understood what he meant and shook his head gently, saying, "Apart from our Jiangnan branch, there have been some that have been translated to Little Japan, but the number is very small, only four.

Chen Fan smacked his lips. This number is indeed very small.

He Qingsheng continued, "However, at this exchange meeting, we reached a cooperation intention with them, that is, we will select several excellent works for translation and publication every year."

Speaking of this, He Qingsheng suddenly grinned and looked at Chen Fan and said, "Do you know why you only came back today, and we came to you today?"

Chen Fan pondered for a while, looked at him and asked, "Could it be that Little Japan specifically wants my work?"

He spread his hands and smiled, "Anyway, the rights to my works are all signed over to Takahashi Publishing. Your translators here are also working hard on the translations. If they can't wait, they can find someone to translate it themselves, which would save us a lot of trouble."

Xu Qizhen turned to face him, smiling as she said, "Commissioning manuscripts is one aspect. They all know that the rights to your published works are signed over to Takahashi Publishing.

However, the chairman of the Little Japan Literary Association said that he has read most of your works and is very impressed by the ever-changing style of your writing, which is very different from the consistent style of other writers. Therefore, he believes that your potential is limitless.

So, he hopes to commission a manuscript from you, regardless of the subject matter. He is willing to pay the highest fees."

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly. Regardless of the subject matter?

Heh heh, should I write a Doraemon story?

Oh, Doraemon already exists, and it has been serialized in elementary school magazines since 1970.

Then does he want Naruto or One Piece?

He doesn't want either? Then what does 'regardless of subject matter' mean?!

If he remembers correctly, the current chairman of the Little Japan Literary Association is Fumio Niwa, who is regarded as the representative of "customs novels" in the Little Japan literary world.

Well, this writer's early writing style was indeed very narrow. Due to his own family reasons, he used this as the subject matter, mainly depicting the miserable lives of women under Little Japan's feudal families, and also wrote some romantic affairs of female bosses.

It was not until the later period, that is, after the 1950s, that he began to seek transformation, writing novels reflecting social problems, as well as other subjects.

No wonder he would make such a strange request to himself.

Chen Fan's writing style is ever-changing. Aside from the unreleased Western fantasy, the works published domestically include various genres such as rural, war of resistance, anti-war, love, and espionage.

There is also a realistic work, "Small Town Family," that has not been published and is currently being written.

Perhaps he wants to see how much I can change?

Chen Fan pondered for a moment, then raised his head and saw three pairs of eyes. He immediately grinned and said, "No problem, after I finish writing the novel I'm currently working on, I'll write what he wants."

He Qingsheng stared at him intently and asked, "What about the time? Is there a specific time?"

Chen Fan stretched and smiled, "Within this year."

A year is enough time to put something together casually, and there's no need to delay for too long.

Hearing this, He Qingsheng and the other two exchanged smiles and relaxed.

They came to Chen Fan today to talk about many things, and all of them were very important. However, this little comrade is a lazy person. They were originally prepared to give a discount, but they didn't expect it to go so smoothly.

In his excitement, He Qingsheng decided to strike while the iron was hot, looking at him cheerfully and saying, "Xiao Fan, regarding the cooperation with your cousin's publishing house, we have selected a book list. Can you take a look and see if there are any major problems? Why don't we find a time to sign the contract?"

After speaking, he took out a piece of paper, unfolded it, and handed it over.

Xu Qizhen continued his words and quickly said, "Your cousin doesn't have to worry about the translation. We can refer to the cooperation method with Takahashi and directly provide the translated manuscript."

Chen Fan didn't speak first, took the paper and glanced at it, then narrowed his eyes and pondered.

They said they would select 2 books, but there were actually 10 books on this paper.

They are really dogs. There are so many books, almost covering the major well-known writers in the association, so they don't offend anyone.

If it weren't for the fact that there were no works by several members of the presidium, such as He Qingsheng and Tan Yong, Chen Fan would have really wanted to draw a lottery at random.

Since they are not using their position for personal gain, let's choose.

Two minutes later, Chen Fan put the paper on the table, spread his hands, "Pen."

He Qingsheng immediately pulled out the fountain pen clipped in his upper pocket, removed the cap, and handed it over.

Chen Fan took the pen, ticked twice on the list, and then handed the paper back.

At the same time, he said, "I talked to my cousin about what kind of literary works would be more popular in the United States. Her opinion is that it should be either the lone hero type, or full of humanistic care, or comedy, horror, or reasoning."

Seeing He Qingsheng take it and look at the paper, Chen Fan continued, "The works you have selected cannot be said to be bad, but they are too characteristic. We ourselves can understand and like them, but Americans may not be able to understand the meaning inside.

Only the two works I selected are about family ethics. Although the possibility of them becoming bestsellers is not high, there is also a group of loyal readers who like this type of work, so they should be able to get a guaranteed score."

He Qingsheng frowned and pondered as he listened to his words.

After he finished speaking, he pondered for a few more seconds before raising his head and saying seriously, "What you said makes sense. Most of the other works are literature about the War of Resistance. The suffering described in them can be understood by Chinese people, but Americans have not experienced these things, so the possibility of forming emotional resonance is very low.

On the contrary, kinship and family relationships have human universality and are more easily understood and recognized."

As he spoke, he folded the paper and put it in his pocket, grinning and saying, "Don't worry, only a few of us know about this matter, and we won't let anyone blame you."

Chen Fan shrugged, raised his glass and shook it, "Although I really don't like trouble, it is mediocrity to not be envied, let alone a great talent like me... Hey, what are your expressions?"

Glancing at a few people, Chen Fan muttered in his heart, am I bragging?

No, right!

Which word is not the truth?!

Muttering a few words in his heart, Chen Fan continued, "Anyway, as long as things are done well, everything else doesn't matter. As long as they don't provoke me openly, they can do whatever they want."

Xu Qizhen looked at him curiously, "What if they provoke you openly?"

Chen Fan glanced over, "I'm very petty."

Xu Qizhen took a deep breath and nodded lightly, "I can see that."

The dinner hadn't ended yet, and the few people continued to eat and drink.

However, all the serious matters had been discussed, and the rest was just small talk.

He Qingsheng picked a piece of fish from the pot, took a delicious bite, and said with hot air, "Xiao Fan, what do you think of the meeting last month?"

Hearing that this was being discussed, Xu Qizhen stopped eating fish, put out her cigarette butt, and turned to look at Chen Fan, "Everyone is talking about this reform now, but no one knows how to reform it. Do you have any ideas?"

Chen Fan turned his head and looked around. Even Tan Yong, who claimed to be a salted fish, was looking at him expectantly. He couldn't help but smile and said, "In fact, it's simple to say it's simple. With law and politics as the bottom line, everything else can be changed as you like."

He Qingsheng frowned slightly, "The problem is, we don't know where this bottom line is?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "Then don't worry about this bottom line, just do something that everyone knows and won't touch the bottom line, wouldn't that be fine."