The Second Lu Xun Literature Prize Winning Works Series. Essays and Prose

Author: Gao Hongbo / Lin Mang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The Lu Xun Literature Prize is a national high-level literary award, and in the eyes of domestic writers, its status is comparable to the Nobel Prize in Literature. The winning works of the Second Lu Xun Literature Prize National Outstanding Poetry Award are: "Grand Harmony Village Talk" by Li Guowen, "Mountain Residences Notes" by Yu Qiujiu, "The Spiritual Homeland" by Zhu Tiezhi, "The West Wind Blew Yesterday and the Green Trees withered" by Xu Guangyao, and "Zhang Kangkang's Prose" by Zhang Kangkang.
Editor's Note: The evaluation activities for the various literary awards of the Second Lu Xun Literature Prize, organized by the Chinese Writers' Association, were launched in April of this year. After nearly half a year of planning and operation, the awards were announced shortly before the 120th anniversary of the cultural giant Lu Xun. This marked a review of literary achievements between 1997 and 2000, a rich harvest of achievements by literary workers in upholding Lu Xun's spirit and adhering to the direction of serving the people and socialism through art, as well as a major event in the literary world. The National Outstanding Prose and Essay Award in the Lu Xun Literature Prize was specifically organized by the "Literary News." Since the call for entries was issued, over 100 prose and essay works were recommended by writers' associations in various provinces, cities, and autonomous regions, along with relevant publishing houses, in accordance with the evaluation regulations. The evaluation office reviewed the qualifications of each work and formed an 11-member evaluation committee composed of renowned writers, critics, and editors from the literary world. At the same time, an initial selection group made up of experienced editors and critics familiar with creative conditions was organized to read and screen over 100 works, proposing a number of shortlisted entries for the evaluation committee to review and select. In accordance with the evaluation rules, the evaluation committee added several more entries from the shortlisted works provided by the initial selection group. After thorough discussion and deliberation, with a responsible and fair attitude, the committee ultimately selected 5 winning works through secret ballot. They are Li Guowen's "Grand Harmony Village Talk," Yu Qiujiu's "Mountain Residences Notes," Zhu Tiezhi's "The Spiritual Homeland," Xu Guangyao's "The West Wind Blew Yesterday and the Green Trees withered," and Zhang Kangkang's "Zhang Kangkang's Prose."
The evaluation committee was deeply moved by the vibrancy and prosperity of prose, essay, and writing in recent years, with a growing number of writers, broader perspectives, varied styles, and a continuous stream of outstanding works, which is truly exciting. Due to the limited number of winning works, the judges felt a deep sense of "regret for missed gems." However, the five winning works are well-deserved, and they are diverse in style. There are insightful historical essays, heart-wrenching personal accounts, sharp essays like throwing darts and daggers, grand cultural prose, and traditional emotional essays. Reading them will surely bring you joy. Each of the five winning works is tens of thousands of words long, and we have selected some of the best chapters to compile into a collection. We believe readers will be able to appreciate the unique styles of each winner. Yuan Ying, Li Xing, Ye September 2, 2001
Excerpt: Yarou Talk Sometimes, I stroll through the streets and alleys of Beijing, especially in small where the urban class is concentrated. In the large courtyard, you can witness authentic "old Beijing" quarrels. When the petty bourgeoisie curses, their language shows a remarkable capacity for borrowing from various sources, including universally used terms like "damn it," "fuck," and even more vulgar and indecent swear words; there are also unique colloquialisms with distinct Beijing characteristics that outsiders cannot understand, such as "hit you, yarou," or "look at you, daring to?" This "yarou" or "yarou ting de" is a twisted way of cursing, and upon closer inspection, it is even more damaging than other insults. However, this type of curse related to "yarou" or "yarou" is only popular within a radius of tens of miles in Beijing City. Once outside this circle, people cannot understand the meaning, and the curse loses its force. It is unlike the petty slang created by Beijing people, such as "big spender," "little mistress," or "picking up girls," which became fashionable and spread nationwide. If people judge all Beijing people as uncouth based on these linguistic phenomena, they would be greatly mistaken. I once read an article in a newspaper that expressed regret, believing that the ancient capital, the original homeland of authentic Mandarin, had been ravaged by such petty slang or other slang resembling black-market or secret gang talk, representing a decline in the culture of the capital. In reality, what is called "capital culture" has never been entirely the same as what is referred to as "Beijing flavor," which is essentially petty bourgeoisie culture. The so-called "Beijing-flavored novels" of today, whether by predecessors, contemporaries, or successors, should, in my opinion, be accurately labeled as "Beijing-flavored novels of the petty bourgeoisie." Someone compares "Dream of the Red Chamber" to contemporary works considered "Beijing-flavored novels," but that is to conflate capital culture with the petty bourgeoisie culture of the capital. Now, works that describe the past and present living conditions of the petty bourgeoisie in Beijing are generally referred to as "Beijing-flavored novels," which can easily lead to misunderstandings and confusion. It seems that only poverty-stricken talk, "yarou ting de," small, large courtyard, Beijing snobs, fried sauce noodles, Qianmen Tower, and the Eight Wonders of Tianqiao are considered authentic capital culture. In fact, without careful examination, it is clear that the cultural heritage of the ancient capital, both past and present, is far more than just these fragments represented by a bowl of braised pork with wheat noodles. Such biased views by critics are highly misleading to readers. Therefore, as soon as someone says "yarou," you can tell they are likely from the petty bourgeoisie. At least half or two-thirds of the people in Beijing do not use this word to curse others. "Yarou" is a shortened form of "yarou ting de." I once asked an educated "old Beijing" to explain what "yarou" means. He shook his head and explained: "What is 'yarou'?" "Yarou" refers to "a maidservant." "Yarou ting de" refers to "the child of a maidservant." Generally speaking, cursing someone as a "miscegenation" or a "son of a bitch" focuses on their "miscegenation" or the impurity of their "snake" lineage, without a clear feudal hierarchical contempt. But cursing someone as "yarou" reveals the petty bourgeoisie's venom. In the old society, children of maids were even more despised than children of concubines. Concubines at least had the status of a concubine; the children of concubines were called "illegitimate," which was slightly worse than "legitimate," but they still had a place to stand. Tanchun in "Dream of the Red Chamber," who was born to a concubine, even participated in the administrative leadership of the Grand View Garden. But maidservants' children did not even qualify for the title of "illegitimate." Cursing someone to this extent is also very unkind. However, the low status of maidservants is a fact. Because maidservants were a special type of female slave in feudal China, they were practically allowed to be the unofficial concubines of male masters, as exemplified by the relationship between Xiren and Jia Baoyu. If the maidservant served a female master, such as a young lady, she was also considered an unofficial concubine of the husband of the young lady she served, as seen with Xue Pan and Xia Jingu's maidservant Baochan. Reading "Dream of the Red Chamber," one can roughly analyze that the capital at that time was actually composed of the aristocratic class that used maidservants and the petty bourgeoisie that provided them. Therefore, I believe that the method of cursing "yarou" or "yarou ting de" is a lingering echo of the historical "maidservant mentality" in Beijing's petty bourgeoisie, which has been around for a long time. Because