Many writers today interpret their latest creative ideas and realistic depictions in short and medium-length stories, which will find their way into books many years later, but it is still literary journals that first take on these stories. The new column of "Journal Micro" opened by this newspaper starts from the short stories in the recently launched literary journals to interpret the new works and the changing trends of literary creation for readers.
This issue focuses on the new short and medium-length novels published by four writers, namely Niu Lili's novella "Glorious Years", Saul's novella "September Typhoon", Dean's novella "Land of Joy", and Ah Yi's short story "Transfer Payment".
Sighs and hopes under the moon
Niu Lili's novella "Glorious Years" was published in People's Literature, Issue 4, 2024
Text / Yin Yilu
From the Loess Plateau to the Qinba Mountains, to the crackling coals to the canopy of walnut trees perched by birds, the characters and the environment are intertwined in this deeply realistic novella, A story that is both philosophical and humanistic. It explores the difficulties and challenges of rural revitalization, personal growth and self-exploration, social responsibility and moral determination, the profound differences between urban and rural areas, and the interaction between the natural and human environment. Through a series of vivid and realistic details, the author Niu Lili has constructed a fascinating story world, in which the theme of rural revitalization is not only the call of the times, but also the destination of the characters' inner pursuits.
The novel unfolds from the perspective of an intellectual and first secretary, Secretary Ye, and depicts his various experiences and efforts in Yuancun, as well as the confusion and exploration of the villagers in the wave of modernization. As the protagonist, Secretary Ye is an intellectual with a sense of responsibility and mission, he is eager to contribute to the development of the countryside, and in the face of difficulties and challenges, he always remains calm and rational, and strives to resolve conflicts and promote harmony. Secretary Shi is a pragmatic village leader who knows the affairs of the village inside out, and although he is outspoken, he is also a key figure in solving problems. Lao Tian is an experienced veteran comrade who has a deep understanding of rural life and often gives valuable advice to Secretary Ye. Xiaoyun is a young task force member who is curious about rural life, but also faces family pressures. The novel mentions that "the worst economic conditions are the Wen Jun family, Zhang Yueyin's family, and Yang Deli's family." The three families are all poverty alleviation households, each with its own name: lazy in the east, wilting in the north, and unlucky in the west". Secretary Ye's main work also revolves around these three.
For the protagonist, while revitalizing the countryside, this journey of helping is also a journey of character growth and self-discovery. In the communication with the villagers and the common work, Secretary Ye experienced self-growth and discovery. From the initial strangeness to the gradual integration into this big family, his changes are subtle and profound. Through such a sentence: "While wiping off the dust, the strangeness seems to be eliminated", we can see that Secretary Ye not only learned how to get along with the villagers in the process, but more importantly, learned how to love this land and the people here. In the novel, Secretary Ye's interaction with the villagers is an important part of his self-discovery. Through communication and joint efforts with the villagers, Secretary Ye gradually understood and integrated into rural life, and at the same time reflected on his own values.
"Glorious Years" is a novel that profoundly depicts rural revitalization, personal growth, social responsibility, cultural conflict and harmony with nature. It is not only the story of Secretary Ye and Yuan Village, but also a vivid picture of contemporary Chinese countryside in the context of the new era. This work reminds us that in these glorious years, everyone can find their own sigh and hope under the moon.
When the "New Land" Becomes the "Native Land"
Saul's novella "September Typhoon" was published in Harvest No. 3, 2024
Text / Yang Jie
Cantonese writer Suo Er's novella "September Typhoon" features Zhang Fangbo, a lame and sensitive Chinese businessman from Nanyang, who looks around the city of Penang Island in the 20s and 40s of the last century. The author focuses on southern literati, old men, coolies, boat people, women, pirates, and borns, and leads readers to understand the life of Chinese people in foreign lands.
Through the unique perspective of the protagonist Zhang Fangbo's "half of Baba ", Sol reproduced the "ukiyo-e" presented by the Nanyang Chinese community. Chang Gong's great-grandfather was from southern Fujian and married a second-generation wealthy Nyonya, and to this day, Penang is no longer a "new land" but a "homeland" for him. It is not difficult to see from his contacts with the literati from the south that he has "quickly forgotten his homeland". Because of his lame leg and "unspeakable deviant love", he didn't dare to hope to have a "home". Zhang Gong was a coward, and when the Japanese bombed Penang, he was the first to surrender. But he was also a philanthropist, and he always helped those who begged and sold flowers. He also generously funded the running of Chinese schools and donated a large amount of money to the anti-Japanese resistance. The author uses the complex character of Zhang Gong to reveal the inner struggle of the Chinese community rooted in Nanyang. Compared with Lin Chenyuan, a "newcomer to the future", Zhang Gong has more calmness when he encounters; Compared with Li Cimaid, Chen Shaosu and other Chinese who were persecuted by anti-Japanese activities, Zhang Gong has less family and country feelings. The story abandons the omniscient perspective and focuses on Zhang Gong's third-person perspective, although it does not present all of Zhang Gong's inner activities, but the reader can also carefully figure out his psychological state.
"September Typhoon" is not only a fictional story, but also closely follows the historical background, and carefully connects events such as the Northern Expedition, the Jinan Massacre in 1928, the world economic crisis that began in 1929, Japan's full-scale war of aggression against China, and the occupation of most of Southeast Asia after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In addition to the real historical background, real characters also make frequent cameos in the novel, Wu Liande organized plague prevention and control in Harbin, and Yu Dafu traveled to Nanyang with his wife and children to get rid of the marital crisis...... The life trajectories of these real-life characters are naturally integrated into the novel.
The language style of the novel is also very Nanyang, which gives readers a surprise to read. Soer's native language is the Hokkien dialect of Leizhou, and he also speaks Cantonese, and he uses Cantonese Min dialects in the middle of "September Typhoon", such as "wet and slippery", "Jin Shuoshuo" and "Flashing Eyes", etc., these authentic dialect words are integrated with the daily life of the Chinese in Nanyang.
Saul has always been interested in global history, mobile history, and regional history, and he tries to unravel the complex minds of characters and reshape history. In "September Typhoon", the "new land" becomes the "homeland", and the people's complex feelings about the homeland are vividly expressed. The Nanyang Chinese, represented by Zhang Gong, blended different cultures and created a new history that belonged to this group.
Have a dream of returning home
Dean's novella "The Land of Joy" was published in Hibiscus Issue 3, 2024
Sentence / Zhang Zi Ye
Dean's new work, "Land of Joy", uses a blend of reality and memory to tell the story of a widow whose husband was killed living in Beijing, but who has always been immersed in the memories of her hometown. She uses a familiar first-person narrative technique to bring the reader into the real city of Beijing, and explore the complex and emotional heart of a foreigner living in Beijing.
"Land of Joy" inherits Dean's overall writing style well, and at the same time, it also further transforms and deepens the system of "urban nostalgia". At the beginning of the novel, the dialogue between "I" and "I" in my childhood suddenly catches the reader's eye. The realistic description of the words of boys and girls and the right grasp of childlike innocence seem to lead us back to the naïve era when we had to lick the popsicles clean when we ate ice cream. In the novel, the girl Sun Tangnan became a widow who had just been widowed in a blink of an eye. She can only place her emotions in the memories of her hometown and the people and things in her hometown. Therefore, when she gradually equated Luo Bin with Qi Lian in her heart in many contacts, she fell into it and couldn't extricate herself. Even though she knew that it might just be a scam by an advertising agency, she still chose to believe Robin as if by magic. Ironically, even though she fell into a double deception of emotions and money, she managed to be redeemed.
Dean vividly describes the state of mind of a woman who is alone and has lost everything she relies on. After losing the reliance of love, friendship, and family affection, she can only choose to place her emotions completely on the almost symbolized hometown that has become a distant memory. It is precisely because she pinned her emotions on the important childhood memories of "Qi Lian" that she was deceived and found her own redemption in the ironic ending. She was willing to be deceived because she had to find her sustenance in a foreign city, and that sustenance could only be a series of symbolic nostalgia represented by Qi Lian.
The language and structure of this novel are also to a large extent an extension of "urban nostalgia". The unfamiliar language and novel expressions, the interweaving of emotions and the accumulation of fuzzy emotions make the article full of memories. The structure of the essay where memories and reality are intertwined makes people feel like they are in a nostalgic dream, but they are always pulled back to a lucid state by the fragments of reality. Dean uses fantastic metaphors and defamiliarization to create an atmosphere where memories and reality are intertwined.
In "Land of Joy", almost every reader can find some shadows of their own life scattered in it. Whether it is the ups and downs of applying for a Beijing hukou, the pressure of housing loans, or the names of pharmaceutical companies and "pig killing plates", or even the names of convenience stores, we are pulled into real life in an instant. Dean takes reality as the basic structural space of the article, and substitutes a real sense of intimacy in the long-distance novel situation. This kind of formal innovation has deepened her concept of "urban nostalgia" again, and turned it into a daily nostalgia narrative that is closer to daily life.
The law of transfer of the spiritual world
Ah Yi's short story "Transfer Payment" was published in Baihuazhou, Issue 3, 2024
Text / Li Hanqiu
Ah Yi's new short story "Transfer Payment" is as true and sincere as ever, the language is minimalist, and it expresses the subtlety and variation of human nature. This man with as much experience as his name suggests, from a rural teacher to an associate editor of a magazine to a listed company, shows his ambition and ability every step of the way. Whether it is career or love, he is an offensive type, he will seize the only opportunity to sit opposite Mr. Meng with a dinner plate to sell himself, he will confess his love to the high-level "golden branches and jade leaves", this bloody man is full of strength and enthusiasm, but the humility and insignificance lurking in the character are also with him. Unhappiness and grievances, including despised love, are piled up in the explosives arsenal of emotions, constantly stirring, tumbling, and colliding, and the accumulated emotional "ammunition" explodes directly after catching the thief. Forbearance and outburst, bravery and cowardice, justification and suspicion all flow around in a person, and all grievances find an outlet and pour down like a mudslide. This man named Gui Tongzhu at the earliest transferred the bad emotions in his life to the strange thief who passed by him, and in the name of justice, he revealed the cowardly nature in the depths of human nature.
Humanity is still the soul of the article, the language is still Kafkaesque restraint, and the characters laugh or cry in the abyss of fate. From the town with the hill in its back to the skillful cutting of the whole beef, the protagonist has come a long way. The mental journey of the upward youth is not easy, endure loneliness, accept ridicule, even if 300 yuan was stolen by mistake in the thief, after beating the thief, he still woke up in the middle of the night and sweated like pulp. He is not a pure violent person, he is only one link in the biological chain, he is trampled by others, and he tramples on others, but the excuse of others is class, and his reason is justice.
In the crowd, everyone has their own helplessness, which is the confession of urban youth. Ah Yi pierced the warmth and beauty, and approached the subtlety and mutation of human nature. Changes in environment, status, materiality, and encounters will lead to hurricanes in the spiritual world, destroying the sense of balance and order, and the mode of thinking and behavior will also react in tandem. Ah Yi is not a condescending judge, but uses a parallel line of sight to record the life trajectory of ordinary people, thinking about the direction and logic of their fate. The grim tone of his pen is not mixed with personal emotion, he is responsible for telling the story, and the undercurrent under the iceberg is handed over to the reader.
Ah Yi's characters always carry the humidity and coldness of the south, and this seemingly strong man also shows a sense of powerlessness in some aspects. At the end of the article, Ah Yi explains, "The essence is transfer. I have found that there is a fundamental cowardice in us human beings. This cowardice leads us to endure what we can't do and to vent our anger elsewhere." Using self-defense to alleviate inner fragility, and using emotional transfer to iron out a life full of wrinkles, this is the excuse of human beings, and it is also the helplessness of human beings.
New Media Editor: Zheng Zhouming
Pictured: Photo.com
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