How Faith is Forged---Reenacting the Long March of the Red Army

Author: Cultural Long March
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features:
That was in 1995. That year, I was serving as the Deputy Director of the Policy Research Office under the county committee. This position required me to work day and night, writing materials for the county committee. Just as the year-end work was in full swing, I received a meeting notice from the Changde Writers' Association, on behalf of the Hunan Provincial Writers' Association, congratulating me on being honorably elected as a representative of the "Fourth Hunan Provincial Youth Writers' Congress" and asking me to attend on time without absence. I was delighted and naturally wanted to attend this honorable event, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to take time off during the busy year-end. I tiptoed into the office of the Director of the County Committee Office, took out the notice from the envelope, and laid it flat, pushing it to Director Chen Hehuan, who was immersed in work at a curved black office desk. Director Chen first read the notice, then looked at me, and smiled brightly. The wrinkles around his mouth and cheeks radiated a beautiful glow, and I felt relieved.
"Go, it’s a good thing! The year-end work is busy, but you can arrange it well." he said. After signing "Agree to Attend," he handed the notice back to me. Even as he worked, his lips still had a gentle smile. While I was happy, I also worried whether this slender person could handle the "mountain of literature" pushed upon him. Given this frail scholar’s body, he had still managed to achieve fifteen years of success in Tibet! I took the notice and attended this honorable conference with honor. Five young writers from Changde attended (with the age limit set at 38, I was 36 at the time), and I was one of the least accomplished among them. Although I had published a small book titled Winter Planting, Spring Harvest with Lixiang Publishing House two years ago, I didn’t feel it was a work of true talent. It was like a raw block, as I warned in the postscript Life in the Forge: I firmly believe that life must be hammered and refined; I am still a lump of ore, raw iron, but there are plenty of hammers and furnaces in front of me: I must refine myself. I also invited friends and colleagues who understand my life’s refining process to join me in refining, in order to forge the "golden elixir of life" for the common ideal of humanity! Therefore, I told the team leader, President Chen Dizhong: I came here on the support of others, and I’m not yet worthy of "honor."
The conference report and representative introductions told me that the "Hunan army" had many talented writers. Seeing how everyone looked full of ambition and youthful vitality, I really regretted coming. The year-end was busy at the unit, and I often found myself unable to resist getting involved in conflicts: when I received good news, I couldn’t wait to come for "honor," but when it was my turn to give honor, I felt that I shouldn’t deserve it.
The conference was held at the Junkai Hotel in Changsha, the capital, and it was the first time in my life that I attended a high-level literary conference at the provincial level. Among the attendees, in addition to a few from Changde who I knew, I only recognized the older generation, including Teacher Xie Pu, who had written the preface for my book. Teacher Xie greeted me with "What a pleasure to meet you!" and his repeatedly nodding hat gave me courage. Of course, I had to attend this "pleasure"—this amateur writer who had worked as a film projectionist in the countryside for eight years. Today, I finally met the writer Tan Tan, author of the film Winding Mountain Road, and the writer Shui Yunxian, author of Calamity from the Inner Court, as well as Peng Jianming, the writer of the nationally awarded novel That Mountain, That Person, That Dog, among others. During the reception, these writers were invited into the dance hall one after another by beautiful women. We, who were like raw blocks freshly dug from the mountains, had to stay in the corner, unable to even cheer loudly. Later, we stopped clapping altogether, our hands clenched into fists.
After the conference schedule was completed, the host, Liang Rui, called out the names of 36 writers, including me. It turned out that the Hunan Provincial Writers' Association had accepted the task of writing the "Giant Biographies Series" for young readers, planned by the "China, International Biographical Literature Research Association." Writing biographies of famous figures who had already been written about was time-consuming, laborious, and difficult to please. Generally, writers with high reputation and talent would not be willing to do this tedious work. Changde selected Zhang Shicheng and me.
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