Moderator's remarks
Literature is not only about the spiritual journey of loneliness, but also about the pure, trendy and warm life scene. As one of the most important positions of literary communication, the current attention of literary journals to literary hotspots, the exploration of service functions, and the expansion of social influence have shown an unprecedented trend. Combined with the development path and exploration experience in recent years, this issue of "Attitude" column invites "Flower City", "Novel Monthly", "Tianya" and "Xinghuo", from the perspectives of literary live broadcast, new columns, professional and personalized social account operation, innovative activity forms, and visual design that reflects literary systematization, to share their "self-transcendence" and "poetic creation". In the final analysis, the efforts of literary journals to occupy a place in the midst of all kinds of things also provide a possibility to show a "different attitude to life" in addition to real existence.
——Column host: Du Jia
Issue 5: "Self-transcendence" and "Poetic Creation" in Literary Journals
"City of Flowers" in the Digital Age: Innovation is the Future Narrative of Literature
Du Xiaoye is the deputy editor-in-chief of Huacheng magazine. His works have won the special award of the "Five One Project", the China Outstanding Publication Award, the "China Good Book" and other honors, and have been selected for many national projects such as the National Publishing Fund and the "Outstanding Literary Publishing Project on Realistic Themes".
Literary periodicals are a special form of media, not only as a platform for the display of literary works, but also as a disseminator of cultural values. It focuses on the deep cultivation of the field of literature, and each work carefully selected and launched carries the love and pursuit of literature and art. Literary periodicals that have been in operation for decades carry a sense of history, record the development of literature, and leave a valuable literary imprint.
The logo of the 45th anniversary of the founding of "Flower City" magazine
The ordinary life of ordinary people, ordinary people have extraordinary ideals. Lu Yao's "Ordinary World" was widely welcomed by the public, and the first part was "Flower City", which was first published in the 6th issue of 1986.
A year after Haizi's death, Huacheng magazine (No. 4, 1990) published Haizi's poem "The Last Psalms". The poems immediately resonated violently, and Haizi gained more attention.
Wang Xiaobo is one of China's most creative writers. His works are imaginative and rational. "Silver Age", "Love in the Revolutionary Era", "2015", "Green Haired Water Monster" and other works were first published in "Flower City" magazine.
As a long-established literary journal in China, Huacheng was born in the national literary journal boom in the early days of reform and opening up, and will celebrate her 45th birthday in 2024. Since its inception in 1979, "Flower City" has been working hand in hand with the diverse forces of the literary field, providing a relatively free communication environment for literary works, and constantly carving and shaping the unique style of literature and the trend of the times. In the past, the audience of literary journals was mainly readers, writers and researchers who had a deep affection for literature, so the content planning and presentation of literary journals were closely aligned with the interests and needs of these groups. In recent years, with the changes in the media environment, "Flower City" has also carried out new experiments with the times, including the exploration and innovation of new literary forms and contents, as well as the iterative update of communication methods, through digital communication and the establishment of an interactive and immediate community ecology, enhancing readers' sense of participation, bringing more attention and influence to literary journals, and forming a more colorful literary landscape.
Artificial intelligence is coming, and do literary journals still encourage human writing?
As the main driving force and symbol of knowledge "acceleration", artificial intelligence has changed the way human knowledge is produced and disseminated, and at the same time, it has also made "originality" more difficult. Just because it's getting harder and harder doesn't mean we don't need to create, but because of this, we need to do more and more – humanity today and humanity in the future need to deeply reflect on the old patterns of traditional civilization and emancipate their minds to adapt to this new pluralistic and fragmented world dominated by technology. In the past, literary journals emphasized textual skills such as originality, artistry, exploration, imagination and expressiveness, but artificial intelligence has brought new thinking - we should pay more attention to the interactivity of writing in the future, and establish a link between writers and readers, and between writing and the cultural industry.
In the regular column of each issue of "Flower City" magazine, there is a neat lineup of famous writers and young and middle-aged writers. From 2023 to 2024, in addition to adding columns by famous writers such as Mai Jia and Li Xiuwen, we will also continue to pay attention to the creation and growth of young writers, and through multi-level and multi-dimensional thematic planning such as "Magazine-Book-Network-Activity", we will penetrate the circles of different literatures, break down barriers, and present youth culture in a literary form. In recent years, "Huacheng Concern" (opened in 2016, hosted by He Ping) and "New Women's Writing" (opened in 2024, hosted by Zhang Li) and other special columns have invited well-known critics to serve as column hosts, with the help of critics' professional vision and macro vision to plan different themes for each issue. "Huacheng" magazine also pays attention to the outstanding student works of creative writing majors offered by major universities, and the book topics of Huacheng Publishing House linked with it are also presented by many young writers. Huacheng magazine hopes to create an open and experimental platform to explore the boundaries and possibilities of contemporary Chinese literary creation, to find more youthful characteristics and creative attitudes to write, to discover new forces outside the traditional vision, and to be a "messenger" of Chinese literature.
How can literary journals be more "good-looking" than good-looking?
In order to establish a distinctive brand image, in addition to conveying the purpose and characteristics of the journal through literary works, literary journals also need to be supported by visual elements such as unique cover design and typography style, so as to improve brand communication and appeal, so that readers can be recognized at a glance in many literary journals. At the beginning of the publication of "Flower City", in addition to attracting a large number of outstanding writers at home and abroad, art masters such as Guan Shanyue, Lin Yong, Zhao Puchu, Li Kuchan and other artists also splashed ink one after another, painting, inscription and illustration for the cover of "Flower City".
With the change of information dissemination methods and the changes in the aesthetic standards of the audience, literary journals should keep pace with the times, and what should be done is not only the design of paper periodicals, but also the cross-platform communication, and the use of new media visual effects to achieve diversified visual expression, so as to make information transmission more intuitive and vivid.
Cover of Flower City Magazine 2024 Issue 1-3
Starting from the first issue of 2023, "Flower City" magazine has undergone a new revision and upgrade, inviting Asia Copper Design Consulting Co., Ltd., which has won the German Red Dot Global Design Award Best of the Best Award, the American Printing Award Benny Gold Award, and "China's Most Beautiful Book", designed by Han Zhanning, a famous designer and curator of "13 famous contemporary Chinese book designers" and "Chinese Design 100", in order to fit the "flowers" of "Flower City", each issue uses flowers as the cover element and "scorching flowers" The warm and unrestrained visual aura uses modern design methods to show the responsibility of "Flower City" as the pioneer of the new era of literary magazines. The second and third covers of each issue display the works of different young artists, and the two-color page design is introduced for the first time in the text layout, and the illustrations on the inner pages are specially drawn by Zheng Zicheng, a contemporary cutting-edge illustrator, to present readers with a different and modern avant-garde, comfortable and clear reading experience.
A series of plans made by the "Huacheng Magazine" Xiaohongshu in combination with literary hotspots have resonated with readers
The multiple new media platforms of "Huacheng Magazine" focus on interacting with readers and choosing younger expressions, which are deeply loved by users. Among them, the Xiaohongshu account of "Huacheng Magazine" was opened on May 30, 2022, and it is one of the first literary journals to enter the platform, and the first note has increased by 2000+ fans. As of June 2024, it has 22,000 followers. In addition to the regular magazine content release, the Xiaohongshu account of "Huacheng Magazine" has planned a number of notes with rich network sense, such as: "The Literature of Migrant Workers" to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kafka's death, Kafka, who does not like to go to work, is invited to go to "Banwei" for migrant workers with Monday work syndrome; Wang Xiaobo's commemorative special "My Strongest Mouth: "Life is a Slow Hammer Process"", cyber reproduces Wang Xiaobo's vigor and sharpness; Dream Core? Strange core? Borges has already written it! , revealing that Borges's poetry is moderately compatible with the nuclear aesthetics that are super-popular among Gen Z...... Images/videos/memes and other rich and diverse new media visual effects provide more possibilities for the innovation and development of literary journals, and emotional visual elements can touch the audience more deeply and deepen brand memory.
Literary ecology is a "circle", which must be established and broken
The gradual development from a single traffic-driven model to a brand-based ecology is also an important trend in the future development of literary journals. In the era of mobile Internet, there is a large amount of information into the user's field of vision, and there are too many new things and vertical content to attract their attention. Therefore, in addition to expanding the readership, literary journals also need to pay attention to the establishment of their own IP image and the extension of their value, increase user stickiness by building a literary ecological community, and use the traffic push mechanism to make the content flow and integration of different circles.
Founded in 1979 as the magazine "Huacheng" and "Essays", the "Huacheng" literary brand has become a cultural banner in southern China. Huacheng magazine and Huacheng Publishing House form a close publishing chain: literary journals are a resource bank for selecting authors and works; Book publishing cultivates more readers and authors through the in-depth dissemination of literary works. In March 2023, Huacheng College of Literature was established. As an extension of the influence of the "Huacheng" literary brand and an exploration of a new path for the high-quality development of literature, the Huacheng Academy of Literature adopts the model of "government guidance + enterprise operation" to gather the resources of outstanding writers from all over the country, and create a field of literary dissemination and a platform for literary exchange through various forms such as the residency of famous artists, the creation of literary nights, the release of the Huacheng Literature List, the launch of creative projects, the holding of literary forums, and the realization of copyright operation and incubation, which have achieved good repercussions in the industry so far.
In 2024, Huacheng Publishing House, Huacheng Magazine, and Huacheng Academy of Literature will jointly launch the "Huacheng Literature Course", inviting famous scholars to carry out a series of wonderful activities such as lectures, dialogues, and sharing, and will be broadcast live on the official video account of "Huacheng Literature Class" of "Huacheng Magazine". The "Huacheng Literature Course" aims to create an online and offline cultural knowledge sharing platform, and create a connection between literature and the city, the city and writers, and writers and readers in the new era. So far, 6 lectures have been successfully held, with an average of 17,600 online viewers and an average of 19,100 views.
The 45th Anniversary of "Flower City" and the 8th Flower City Literature Award Ceremony will be held in Guangzhou in August. We hope to recommend excellent literary works and authors to more people through a highly literary party, provide a platform for writers to exchange creative experiences, share reading experiences, and discuss literary issues, and at the same time, we also hope to allow readers to participate and pay attention to literary events in real time, so as to improve the exposure and participation of literary activities.
As the magazine celebrates its 45th anniversary, we should not only look back on her achievements in the past years, but also look forward to her new chapter in the future. In the wave of digitalization and artificial intelligence, "Flower City" should not only adhere to the originality and artistry of literature, but also actively embrace change, explore the integration of literature and technology, and constantly broaden the boundaries of literature through innovative column settings, interactive communication of new media, and the construction of literary ecological communities, providing readers and authors with a vibrant and creative platform, and becoming a link connecting the hearts of every literature lover.
Related reading: The fourth issue of the Attitude Column has an attitude | Liu Shiyu: Before criticism, can we correctly understand the "length" of a novel?
There is an attitude | Fu Xiaoping: Let the excess feathers disappear with the wind - the debate of the length of the novel
There is an attitude | Zhou Xuanpu: Only the long can solve the long story and have an attitude| Luo Weizhang: Why should novels be long?
The third issue of the Attitude Column
There is an attitude | Episode 3: When I'm Like You
The second issue of the Attitude Column
There is an attitude | Cai Dong: Ideal writing has given me the hidden joy and peace of mind of creation
There is an attitude | Zhu Jing: The writing of the Academy of Residence still craves dialogue and exchange of various voices
There is an attitude | Zhang Yiwei: Don't give up writing, there is no other way
There is an attitude | Fang Wei: Scholars engaged in creation, but also to write novels "beautifully"
There is an attitude | Deuterium: The ideal writing is one that happens consistently
There is an attitude | Li Haipeng: Compared with the absolute division, writing and research are much more complex and vivid
There is an attitude | Ye Wei: Overlapping multiple identities is exactly the ideal state for creative writing practitioners
There is an attitude | Guo Bingru: College Character and Literary Aesthetics
There is an attitude | Ma Bing: The creations of university scholars must be tested or filtered by their personal academic paths in advance
There is an attitude | Shao Yanjun: "Writing is both an art and a technique"
The first issue of the Attitude Column
There is an attitude | Balji Harano: Lack of literacy and sincerity is the "fatal wound" of many prose
There is an attitude | Wang Bing: The sense of the times is what is missing in current prose writing
There is an attitude | Li Hao: All the words and stories written down must first convince yourself
There is an attitude | Ma Xiaotao: The vitality of literature may be stronger than we think
There is an attitude | Fok Junming: Ideal poetry should point directly to the essential propositions of fate, existence and time
There is an attitude | Huang Fan: Poetry should not only be the standard for elites, but should be one of the tools for ordinary people's spiritual communication
There is an attitude | Li Chaoquan: Reportage rejects second-hand writing and second-class literature
There is an attitude | Liu Daxian: The forms of literary criticism should be uneven and diverse
Editor: Deng Jiexi
Second trial: Zhang Junping
Third trial: Wang Yang