"May someone accompany you upside down, and if not, may you be your own sun."
This is a classic sentence in Lu Sihao's work "May Someone Accompany You upside down and drift away", and I don't know how many times it has been carefully written into the excerpt, as if it were a treasure.
He is a million-selling author of the post-90s generation, known as the "male god of healing", and soothes the lonely walking souls with his small stories.
But it is often complained about, the text blindly emphasizes positive energy, too hot blood, logic does not make sense, it is simply a disease-free groan.
Not only that, he and Sun Yuchen, Zhang Haochen, Yuan Ziwen, Yuan Zihao and other Internet celebrity writers became popular, making many literary critics directly call out: "Post-90s writers" This species does not exist!
In the face of all kinds of doubts, Lu Sihao did not care, laughing: "Writing is a very selfish thing, I only want to be responsible for myself." ”
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At the age of 17, Lu Sihao went to Australia to study.
The unfamiliar culture and environment suddenly shattered his fantasy of a foreign life, and with it came endless loneliness and wandering.
At that time, he could only rely on contacting old friends to chat for comfort, often staying in front of the computer for several hours, just to wait for domestic friends to chat online.
However, due to time and distance, it is inevitable that he will gradually drift away from his friends, and Lu Sihao, who is struggling to find an exit, reopens his long-cherished books.
He read Haruki Murakami and Zhou Guoping, and gradually understood that some things can only be done by one person.
Lu Sihao, who found a resonance in the book, began to record his mood in words on the Internet.
With the popularity of several essays on renren's network, he was originally confused and gained more and more recognition, and he also firmly believed in the idea of taking the road of writing.
In his junior year, Lu Sihao wanted to publish his first book, and naively thought that he would have to give money to publish the book, so he invested all his savings in it.
Later, I found out that it was a shell company, with one or two thousand copies of the book printed, and finally only 200 copies were sold, and the money was lost.
When he was most depressed, he was penniless, sleeping on the subway during the day and going to a convenience store at night, afraid to go home, and did not want to go to find friends.
At this time, his friend came to him from all over the world, took him to the park for a run, lay on the ground and gasped for breath, and said a lot of comforting words, but there was a sentence he still remembered:
"You see, you still have to breathe, you still have to live, as long as you are alive, there will be a tomorrow."
So, later there was a second work, "You have to believe, there is no tomorrow that cannot be reached.".
Lu Sihao said, "Writing is the only effective way for me to fight against life. Even if no one reads, I have to write even if it is sad. ”
Many times, the first inspiration for his writings is himself.
Someone left a message for the book on Douban, "This kind of chicken soup book is something that hits a chicken blood when you are in a bad mood and throws it away as soon as you are in a good mood." ”
Turning it over when you are low, enjoying the momentary touch, then drying your tears, putting away your frustration, and returning to reality to continue moving forward, probably this is the meaning of "chicken soup text".
Once, when Lu Sihao signed a sale in Tianjin, a reader cried to him: "Lu Sihao, my friend said that your book is not worth reading." ”
At that time, his mood was very complicated, and he could only comfort the reader, not to be wronged, if he could get some answers from the book, if he could get a page of words when he was sad and powerless, it was enough.
In his opinion, if his words can help others, even if they are considered chicken soup for the soul, he does not matter.
Lu Sihao loved to watch "Slam Dunk Master", so he vowed to live like that, no matter what happened, he would not back down.
Maintaining positive energy, living with enthusiasm and kindness is lu Sihao's normal state.
Trivial daily routines, trivial emotions, trivial collapses, are also the norm in most people's adolescence.
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After 2009, with the rise of social platforms such as Renren and Weibo, more and more people shared emotions that were inconvenient in real life on the Internet in the form of words.
For many netizens, such sharing is often uncontentious, it is easy to satisfy their curiosity, and can resonate from it.
At this time, those authors who have unique and mature views on life have gained a large number of fans and have a strong appeal online and offline.
At the same time, with the acceleration of the pace of life, people are more and more fond of fragmented reading, small stories that imply the truth of life, short and concise, easy to understand, and more in line with the tastes of most people.
As a result, after guo Jingming, Rao Xueman and other traditional paper book writers, a group of Internet celebrity "idol writers" rose rapidly, and "healing youth literature" began to sweep the market.
In 2012, Liu Tong published "Whose Youth Is Not Confused", which sold more than one million in just half a year, and the royalty was as high as 7 million, and it was on the 2013 Rich List of Chinese Writers.
In 2014, Zhang Jiajia's "Passing Through Your World" won the sales championship of major book platforms and won the top spot in the list of Chinese writers' richest people with 19.5 million royalties.
Compared with these experienced post-80s writers, post-90s writers are better at starting from the small things in life, describing trivial emotions, summarizing extremely delicate feelings, and writing to the hearts of readers.
Lu Sihao said that he did not deliberately create chicken soup, he wrote about his own life, and could not control what information readers received and what kind of reaction they made.
Some people say that the pain point of the post-90s generation is the confusion brought about by excessive freedom.
"We are a very pretentious generation, and we are the generation most anxious."
This is Lu Sihao's interpretation of the collective confusion of the post-90s.
He believes that the post-90s generation experienced loneliness and depression earlier than the previous generation, and wanted to find themselves in the collective, but they were also affected by the network environment and constantly impacted by the myth of "overnight fame".
It is difficult to think quietly, the ability can not support ambition, too want to take shortcuts, struggling in the gap between reality and ideals, so anxiety, panic, decadence followed.
Self, and longing for companionship and love, this is the contradiction of the post-90s.
When they are lonely and helpless, full of emotions but no one to tell, then pick up a book of "healing department", through the text, it is like talking to a friend.
As Lu Sihao wrote in "You Have Gone a Long Way":
"You're going to go, to the lights."
"You have to become what you imagine, this thing, you can't let go of a single step."
Maybe it's a bit pretentious, but there are people who have supported a period of time with a paragraph.
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In 2015, Lu Sihao published "Please Wake Me Up Before Leaving" and was selected for the 10th Rich List of Chinese Writers with more than 4 million royalties.
In the following years, Lu Sihao gradually unlocked his identity as a screenwriter and radio anchor, and also wrote lyrics for the movie theme song "Still Here" sung by Liu Yifei.
In 2019, Lu Sihao published his first novel, The Answer to Time.
Prior to this, many young literary writers have transformed into novels, Liu Tong published "I Am Waiting for You in the Future" in 2017, and Zhang Jiajia launched "There is a Commissary by the Cloud" the following year.
When deciding to transform, a friend advised Lu Sihao that the novel might not be easy to sell.
He thought that no matter what era, there are iconic writers, such as Mo Yan after the 50s, Bi Feiyu after the 60s, Xu Zechen after the 70s, Han Han after the 80s, etc., who will write their lives into novels, so that the world can glimpse the spiritual outlook of that era through words.
But most of the life of the post-90s is not great joy and sorrow, and because the network is too developed, no one is willing to sink down to write a story about the life of the post-90s, so he wants to write a book that can macroscopically show the post-90s era.
He firmly believes that even if only 5% of people are willing to see it, then a good work will be slowly discovered.
In order to obtain materials, Lu Sihao traveled everywhere, often running to remote places such as Xinjiang and Mohe, hoping to find the most real part of the individuals who were wrapped up in the times and the Internet.
The protagonist in "The Answer to Time", while growing and losing, has a complex and sensitive heart, perhaps this is what Lu Sihao expects, and everyone can find their own shadow from it.
There are not a few loyal fans accumulated over the years, so when the new book is sold, the scene is still hot.
Comments on Douban were mixed, with some people complaining about "no disease moaning" and "even worse than the original chicken soup text".
Others say, "I read myself, I read loneliness, I read my struggle, I read my hope." ”
Behind the transformation of many young literary writers, in addition to trying to prove themselves and take off the much-ridiculed "chicken soup writer" label, more importantly, chicken soup books have gradually become cold in the market.
The data shows that in the 2016 China book sales list, the psychological inspirational category far surpassed other types of books, and even in the top 10 best-seller lists of some platforms, chicken soup books accounted for half.
However, with the increase of information acceptance channels and the popularity of language variety shows such as "Strange Story", chicken soup texts with serious content homogenization, large logical loopholes, and shallow stories can no longer satisfy young people's desire for deep content.
By 2018, fast food texts such as chicken soup books have been significantly reduced, and most of the classic books such as "Ordinary World" and "The Moon and Sixpence" have been listed.
For healing literature, power novels such as "The Man Who Stole the Shadow" and "Relief Grocery Store" are more favored by young people.
Using one or more short stories to derive life insights and convert negative energy into positive energy is the biggest highlight of Chicken Soup Text.
But all chicken soup for the soul is only a temporary comfort, and what can really solve the problem is calmness and rationality.
Chicken soup is no longer popular because young people are more rational?
Not necessarily, in this era, people who can think independently are still a minority.
As Lu Sihao said, "What I am worried about is not that young people do not read, but that young people do not think." ”
No matter what type of book, it can only give the reader a direction and light a lamp.
But the road, or to go by yourself.
Author 丨 look at chai
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