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 Excellent Poetry Award are: "Great Village Words" by Li Guowen, "Mountain Residence Notes" by Yu Qiujiu, "The Destination of the Spirit" by Zhu Tiezhi, "The West Wind Blew Green Trees Last Night" by Xu Guangyao, and "Zhang Kangkang's Prose" by Zhang Kangkang.
Editor's Note: The evaluation activities for various literary awards of the Second Lu Xun Literature Prize, organized by the Chinese Writers' Association, were launched in April of this year and, after nearly half a year of planning and operation, were successively announced on the eve of the 120th anniversary of the birth of the cultural giant Lu Xun. This was a review of literary achievements from 1997 to 2000, a rich harvest of literary workers' efforts to carry forward Lu Xun's spirit and adhere to the direction of serving the people and socialism through literature and art, and a major event in the literary world. The National Excellent Prose and Essay Award of the Lu Xun Literature Prize was specifically organized by "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 conducted a review of 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 composed of experienced editors and critics familiar with creative conditions was organized to review and screen over 100 works, proposing a number of shortlisted entries for the evaluation committee to review and select. According to the evaluation rules, the evaluation committee added several more entries to the shortlisted list provided by the initial selection group. After thorough consultation and discussion, with a serious, responsible, and fair attitude, the committee ultimately selected 5 winning works through secret ballot. They are Li Guowen's "Great Village Words," Yu Qiujiu's "Mountain Residence Notes," Zhu Tiezhi's "The Destination of the Spirit," Xu Guangyao's "The West Wind Blew Green Trees Last Night," and Zhang Kangkang's "Zhang Kangkang's Prose."
The evaluation committee, while reviewing the submitted works, deeply felt the vibrancy and prosperity of prose, essay, and writing in recent years, with a growing number of creators, broader perspectives, diverse literary forms, and a continuous stream of outstanding works, which was truly exciting. Due to the limited number of winning works, the judges deeply felt the "regret of missed gems." However, the five winning works are well-deserved, and they are also diverse in style. There are insightful historical essays, heart-wrenching personal narratives, sharp and incisive essays, grand cultural prose, and traditional emotional prose. Reading them, you will surely feel the joy of reading. Each of the five winning works is tens of thousands of words long, and we have selected some of the finest 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: The Maid's Talk Sometimes, when I stroll through the streets and alleys of Beijing, especially in small alleys densely populated by the urban class, I can witness authentic "old Beijing" quarrels. In the eyes of the petty bourgeoisie, the language they use when cursing can be surprisingly versatile, combining nationally expressions like "damn it," "fuck," and even more vulgar and indecent insults; there are also unique colloquialisms with distinct Beijing characteristics that outsiders cannot understand, such as "hit you, bitch," or "look at you, you dare?" This "bitch" or "you bitch" is a twisted way of cursing, and upon closer inspection, it is even more damaging than other insults. However, this kind of curse related to "maid" or "maid" is only popular within a radius of dozens of miles in Beijing. Once you step outside this circle, people no longer understand the meaning, and the curse loses its force. It is not like the petty-bourgeois slang created by Beijingers, such as "big spender," "little mistress," or "picking up girls," which became fashionable and spread nationwide. If people judge all Beijingers as uncouth based on these linguistic phenomena, that would be a great misunderstanding. I once read an article in a newspaper that expressed regret, believing that the ancient capital, the original homeland of the authentic Mandarin, had been ravaged by such petty-bourgeois slang or other slang resembling underworld or secret gangster talk, which was a sign of the decline of the capital's culture. In fact, what is called "capital culture" has never been entirely the same as what is referred to as "Beijing flavor," which is essentially petty-bourgeois culture. The so-called "Beijing-flavored novels" of today, whether by predecessors, peers, or successors, should, to be honest, be labeled "Beijing-flavored novels of the petty-bourgeois class" for accuracy. Some people compare "Dream of the Red Chamber" to contemporary works seen as Beijing-flavored novels, but that is to conflate capital culture with the petty-bourgeois 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 things like making fun, "you bitch," small alleys, big courtyard compounds, Beijingers, zhajiangmian (sauce), Qianmen Tower, and the Eight Wonders of Tianqiao are considered authentic capital culture. In fact, without careful examination, it is known that the cultural heritage of the ancient capital, both past and present, is far more than just these fragments represented by a bowl of lu Zhouhuo (stewed meat). Such biased views of critics are very misleading to readers. Therefore, as soon as someone opens their mouth to say "bitch," you can tell they are probably from the petty-bourgeois class. At least half or two-thirds of the people in Beijing do not use this word to curse. "Bitch" is a shortened form of "you bitch." I once asked an educated "old Beijing" to explain to me what "bitch" meant. He shook his head and explained: "What is 'bitch'?" "'Bitch' refers to 'maid'." "'You bitch' refers to 'the child of a maid.'" Generally speaking, cursing someone as a "mudblood" or a "son of a bitch" is an insult to their character, but the focus is on their "mud" or the impurity of their "snake," without a clear feudal class disdain. But cursing someone as a "bitch" reveals the petty-bourgeois venom. Because 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" was the child of a concubine, and this third young lady even participated in the administrative leadership of the Grand View Garden! But the child of a maid did not even qualify for the title of "illegitimate," and cursing someone to such a degree of disrespect was also very merciless. However, the low status of maids was a fact. Because maids were a special kind of female slave in feudal China, they were practically allowed to be the unofficial concubines of male masters, as exemplified by the sexual relationship between Xiren and Jia Baoyu. If the maid was serving a female master, such as a young lady, she was also considered the unofficial concubine of the husband of the young lady she served, as evidenced by Xue Pan's relationship with Baochan, the maid of Xia Jingu. 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 maids and the petty-bourgeois class that provided maids. Therefore, I believe that the cursing method of "bitch" or "you bitch" is the lingering echo of the historical "attitude of maids" in Beijing's petty-bourgeois class, which has been around for a long time. Because