Chapter 687: Yu Hua Is in High Spirits

The 2nd World Chinese Literature Award Ceremony was held at the Xijing People's Grand Theater on March 3, 1995.

At the ceremony, the five best works of the Chinese Literature Award were announced, as Fang Minghua expected: the Best Novel Award was won by Yu Hua's "To Live", and the Best Novella Award was awarded to Wang Xiaobo's "The Golden Age".

The Best Short Story Award was won by Su Tong's "Tattoo Age". The Best Prose Award was awarded to Taiwanese writer Bai Xianyong's "The Sixth Hand".

It is worth mentioning that Bai Xianyong's father is the famous Bai Chongxi.

The poetry collection award was actually awarded to the poetry collection "Gazing at the Blue Sky" by the famous Japanese poet Tanikawa Shuntaro!

Tanikawa Shuntaro is a famous contemporary Japanese poet, playwright, and translator. At the age of 21 (1952), he published his first poetry collection "Twenty Billion Light Years of Loneliness", and was called the cosmic poet of the Showa period with this poetry collection.

The name of Shuntaro Tanikawa is not unfamiliar in the Chinese poetry world. After the 1980s, his poems were published in dozens of Chinese magazines such as "Foreign Literature", "Poetry Magazine", "Huacheng", "Da Jia", "Mangyuan", etc., and his poetry albums and research papers on Shuntaro Tanikawa have been published. It has an important influence on contemporary Chinese poets.

Fang Minghua applauded and congratulated the old poet who was over 60 years old on the stage to receive the award, and couldn't help sighing:

Domestic poetry has really declined.

After the ceremony, Fang Minghua privately invited some writers to his home as guests, and Song Tangtang and the nanny personally cooked a table of delicious dishes for everyone.

Yu Hua, Su Tong, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, Liu Zhenyun, these five people are all writers whose works were shortlisted this time. They came to Xijing to attend the award ceremony. Of course, there are also Chen Zhongshi, Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa and Bai Miao.

When it comes to entertaining guests, it has nothing to do with literary achievements but only the closeness of the relationship.

In addition to Qin Sheng, Chen Zhongshi and others, Yu Hua and Fang Minghua have been in contact with each other since the early 1980s. These young literature lovers have now become the backbone of the Chinese literary world.

At the wine table, Yu Hua, who won the best novel, became the focus of everyone's attention, and they kept toasting him in the name of congratulations.

Yu Hua has indeed been in high spirits in the past two years.

After his first novel "Crying in the Drizzle" was shortlisted for the first Chinese Literature Award, the next novel "To Live" directly won the best novel award in the second Chinese Literature Award.

Yu Hua's alcohol tolerance is still quite good, but he can't stand the attacks of these people. He soon got drunk and couldn't even stretch his tongue when speaking.

"Don't congratulate me, he, Su Tong didn't win the award either?" Yu Hua held a wine glass in one hand and pointed at Su Tong sitting next to him with the other hand.

"Didn't his novel "Wives and Concubines" also get made into a movie by Zhang Yimou? You should congratulate him."

Su Tong immediately retorted:

"Yu Hua, although my novel was made into a movie by Zhang Yimou, it was just a novella and it didn't sell like your "To Live". Hey, tell us something, the royalties Shengshi Books gave you are several hundred thousand, right?"

Yu Hua just giggled and didn't answer.

How much royalties he got is a personal secret, probably only Yu Hua himself and the financial department of Shengshi Books know. But what everyone knows is that Yu Hua bought a 120-square-meter house in Fangzhuang Community, Fengtai, Yanjing, where rich people live last year!

After buying a house in Yanjing, marrying a beautiful wife and having a child, Yu Hua can be said to have a double harvest in love and career.

"No, I can't go to Minghua to treat you, Yu Hua, and Su Tong, you two who won the award this year have to treat too!" Liu Zhenyun said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"No problem!" Yu Hua agreed immediately: "Minghua, you arrange a place for dinner."

Besides anything else, the prize money of 100,000 yuan was given this time, of course, he had to treat everyone.

So Fang Minghua and others drank for two consecutive days, and at night they went to the Roman Karaoke Hall in Yaowang Cave, Lianhu Lake to sing.

In the 1990s, dance halls were still in the ascendant, but karaoke halls began to rise. This form with private rooms where you can order songs at will is very suitable for friends to get together.

Of course, the price is not cheap.

Su Tong, Liu Zhenyun, and Wang Anyi sang well, especially Wang Anyi, who sang some female singers' songs softly with a Wu accent, which was quite nice.

Yu Hua's singing was not good. He liked to order some fast songs with a duck-like voice, and ended up singing Liu Hong's "Platform".

"My heart is waiting, waiting forever

My heart is waiting, waiting forever

Ghosts howling.

This reminds Fang Minghua of the summer of 1987, when Yu Hua sang that song in the dormitory of the Luyuan workshop.

It was also so ghostly howling, and there was no improvement after all these years.

Yu Hua sang on the stage, and the others sat on the sofa drinking beer and chatting.

"Sister An Yi, I remember that you went to Nanjing to participate in the seminar on realism works in the winter of the previous year. You said you were writing a long novel. How is it going?" Fang Minghua asked with concern.

"The first draft has been completed, and I am revising it now." Wang Anyi said truthfully.

"Sister An Yi, when you finish writing, let me read it." Fang Minghua said.

"Okay, you can take a look at it and give me some suggestions."

"Sister An Yi, what novel are you writing?" Su Tong, who was sitting next to him, asked curiously.

"The title of the book is "Song of Everlasting Sorrow", but it's not that Bai Juyi wrote about Emperor Minghuang of Tang and Yang Guifei." Wang Anyi explained with a smile: "I just used this name. It's mainly about the emotional story of a beautiful girl named Wang Qiyao in Shanghai in the 1940s, from middle school to old age, for nearly 40 years."

"I accidentally saw a piece of news a few years ago. It was about the girl on the cover of "Meili" brand cigarettes being harassed by a young man, and the young man killed the cover girl out of guilt. I got inspiration from it." Wang Anyi explained.

"Hey, Sister Anyi, I'm also writing a long story based on a group of blood sellers from Henan Province who came to our Haiyan to sell blood."

At some point, Yu Hua interrupted while listening to the singing.

"Xu Sanguan Selling Blood"? !

"Yu Hua, have you finished writing?" Fang Minghua asked, looking up.

"I'll finish it soon and send it to you after I return to Yanjing." Yu Hua said.

Fang Minghua nodded after listening.

"To Live" and "Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" can be said to be Yu Hua's masterpieces.

Su Tong was jealous when he heard that both of them had new novels.

Although he is now very famous in the literary world and writes novels one after another, he has not written a novel so far!

No, go back and write one quickly.

Fang Minghua found that Mo Yan was sitting aside without saying anything, so he smiled and asked: "Mo Yan, what are you writing?"

"I just finished a novel and sent it to Shengshi Books. It's called "Big Breasts and Wide Hips"" Mo Yan said slowly.