There are too many words in the full text to fit; The full text is in http://bbs.vclub.org/read.php? (including Han Han's response) TID = 561&; fpage= 1

Bai Ye: Present Situation and Future of "Post-80s"

"Post-80s" has been a hot topic in recent years since it appeared a few years ago. The sudden appearance of this phenomenon is very unexpected, and its continuous fire storm is even more unexpected. However, how this phenomenon happened, what it predicted and what it brought have not been paid attention to and studied. After I came into contact with this phenomenon, I deeply feel that we can neither turn a blind eye nor be indifferent. It is actually a literary image and cultural projection of our social and cultural life in a certain period of development, and its occurrence and development are linked with all aspects of our social and cultural life. Below, I will talk about my understanding of the "post-80s" and their preliminary thoughts on their present situation and future in four small questions.

First of all, the "post-80s" quietly rose.

The post-80s generation refers to student writers born between 1980- 1989, and sometimes they are used interchangeably with other concepts, such as "youth writing" and "new concept writing". The concept of "post-80s" is not very accurate now, even the author of "post-80s" is not satisfied, but there is no better concept to replace it at present, because "post-80s" is more of a cultural phenomenon, and can not be said to be a literary tendency with the characteristics of literary trends or literary schools, and can only be summarized by such a concept of age and age.

My understanding of "post-80 s" has also gone through a process, and I didn't know what it was at first. Actually, I came into contact with post-80s writers earlier. 1998, I was hired by Feng Chun Literature and Art Publishing House as the director of Beijing editorial department of Cloth Tiger Series. In the past two years, I have published some influential literary books, including A Woman in the Bath by Tie Ning, Like a Woman by Pipi, and Ignorance and Fearlessness by Wang Shuo. During this period, I once wrote a book "I Love Sunshine" by JOE, a female middle school student in Shanghai. She belongs to the post-80s generation. At that time, I also paid attention to Han Han, but there was no concept at that time. As a concept, the post-80s generation was recognized in 2003, when my son Bai Liang worked as an editor in Sina Reading Channel after graduating from university. One of his classmates wrote a book and tried to find me through him. His classmate's name is Fion Sun, and the book's name is Time flies. At that time, on the one hand, I was busy, on the other hand, I was a little disdainful. I didn't read it for half a year. Bai Liang gave me some advice, saying that I had a problem with my concept and looked down on the post-80s generation. In fact, I am afraid that new people will grow up and replace us. These words touched my heart very much, so I took time to read his classmate's book, which was not bad after reading it. Although in my opinion, this book is not very literary, it shows some interesting things, such as the boring and lazy life of college students now. Because I didn't have any impression and expectation of "post-80s" at that time, that's how I felt.

Soon after, Beijing Open Book Research Institute approached me and said that a seminar on "Youth Writing" would be held at the book fair in 2003. Most of the participants were editors of publishing houses. I hoped I could attend, and I agreed. Then I invited Jing M. Guo, Zhang Yueran and Han Han to read their books, including How many flowers fall in a dream, Fantasy City, Sunflower Lost in 1890, Triple Gate and so on. Because after reading their works, I feel confident. At the meeting, I said: I can understand why middle school students and college students like Jing M. Guo's novels, and they really think they are smart and have beautiful language. His language has the flavor of Wang Shuo, and he often uses grand words to describe a small thing. At first, it felt very big and useless, but it was wonderful to think about it carefully. My impression is that he wrote a beautiful female classmate in his works, which many boys like, but she ignored anyone. When Jing M.Guo wrote this, he wrote this sentence: "A soldier fell, and hordes rushed up.". In this way, the reserve of girls and the pursuit of many boys are written. This extravagant and exaggerated language has his unique feeling in it. Zhang Yueran gave me a good impression, too. I read her Sunflower Lost in 1890, and several other short stories, and I also found them exquisite, the language was in place, and there was a literary flavor seen from the weak. Han Han's works have little to do with literature after the triple door. His works mainly express some rebellious thoughts, such as a series of criticisms on the current education and the current school system.

After speaking at this symposium, many people knew that I was concerned about the writing of the post-80s generation, so people began to look for me. At the beginning of 2004, the apple tree website with the post-80s as the main body compiled the post-80s collection "We, We-The Feast of the Post-80s", and asked me to write a preface. The printed manuscript has more than 6,543,800 words, including the works of 76 authors. It took me more than two months to finish reading it. These authors themselves have different levels, and the editors may not have selected the most representative works of the authors. However, it can be said that this anthology almost wiped out all the outstanding writers born in 1980s. After the book came out, we made a program with CCTV's Reading Time channel, and invited twenty or thirty writers born in 1980s from all over the country to meet in Beijing for almost a week. I have much contact with them, and I think this phenomenon is worthy of attention. However, mainstream literary circles and traditional literary circles have not really paid attention to it. But in the actual book market, their influence is growing. A book research institute in Beijing conducted a market survey in 2003-2004. Generally speaking, China's modern and contemporary literary works account for 10% of the literary book market, while the works of post-80s authors, together with a few similar youth writing works imported from Japan and South Korea, also account for 10% of the literary book market. I was very surprised to see this statistic at that time. At least as a market phenomenon or cultural phenomenon, "post-80s" cannot but be concerned and studied. Then I began to mention "post-80s" on some occasions, including an interview with Wen Wei Po. I said that the "post-80s" went to the market, but not to the literary world. Many people think that judgment is more objective and accurate. In fact, many of them publish their works directly through publishing houses, without a gradual literary exercise, so the literary world knows little or nothing about them. Some media, including some critics, criticize the works and authors of the post-80s only through some information spread in the media, which is the most dissatisfied with the post-80s authors. Therefore, I advocate approaching them through reading to understand and understand the post-80s generation. Last June, 5438+065438+ 10, our Chinese Contemporary Literature Research Association and beijing language and culture university jointly held a seminar on approaching the post-80s generation. At the meeting, some scholars and authors such as Cao Wenxuan and Liang were invited, and 12 post-80s authors were invited to exchange and talk with them. Before the meeting, we asked the participants to carefully read some works of "post-80 s" and make preparations; After reading their works, some people think that "post-80s generation" is not an imaginary "pediatrics", but has their more serious pursuit and distinctive characteristics.

The post-80s writers should go to the society around 1998, and new people emerge every year. On 1999, I chatted with JOE, the author of I Love Sunshine. She is very disgusted with the extraordinary political enthusiasm of our generation in the past and thinks it is too illusory. I told her: at that time, there was no other future, only such a way out. The political enthusiasm that seems ridiculous to you actually shows the sincerity of our generation. But obviously, their values are very different. In fact, in terms of creation, the differences between several different eras are also obvious. Writers born in the 1960s are different from those born in the 1950s. The tendency of personalized writing is more prominent. Social and historical things are fading, while personal and individual things are rising. People in the 1970s have gone further than people in the 1960s. A group of writers, such as Wei Hui and Mianmian, spent their adolescence in a market economy environment, and they are bound to show their values, outlook on life and love in their works, which has brought considerable impact on literature. But in comparison, there are differences between "50 people" and "60 people" and "60 people" and "70 people", but the gap is not very big, but in the generation of "80 people", the difference is particularly big, which is simply a gap.

I have a hunch that if post-80s writers really set foot in the literary world, the changes they brought may be unexpected. Last year, in Xidan Book Building, several post-80s writers signed books for sale. A reporter asked them: there is always an insurmountable contradiction between literature and market. How do you view and overcome this contradiction in your writing? Almost all of these authors looked up and asked: Is there a contradiction? We think there is no contradiction. Then a reporter asked me what I thought of it, and I said their answer was beyond my expectation. There are three possible situations to make this answer. The first is a master of literature, with great fame and high level, which has transcended the contradiction between literature and market; The second is that it is still cruising outside and has not been deeply exposed to this contradiction. The third is to expose certain contradictions, but I really think so. They should not be the first case. I hope they are the second rather than the third, but it seems likely to be the third. For example, Jing M. Guo, in my opinion, it is difficult for him to get out of the market now. Almost all publishing houses and publishers are staring at him, trying to get the manuscript from him, and some even spend a lot of money. For an author who is still a college student, it is difficult to get out of this temptation. But if he is always trapped by the magic trap of the market, his literary talent will be difficult to really play. Except Jing M.Guo, post-80s writers generally have market awareness. Compared with their predecessors, they are almost half booksellers. This overall situation is unprecedented.

As a whole, the post-80s generation attracted worldwide attention, which should be in 2003. There are more than a dozen representatives, the most dazzling of which is Jing M Guo. This year, Jing M Guo's "How many flowers fall in a dream" and "Fantasy City" both won the first and second place in this year's literary bestseller list with more than one million copies, but the number of copies of the books behind them is far from these two books. This year, writers like Zhang Yueran and Li Shasha began to attract people's attention. In terms of methods, books are also used to hit the market first, and then the influence is continuously expanded.

Second, the reasons for the rise of "post-80s"

As literary researchers, we must think about the reasons behind the rise of the post-80s generation. Are the works of Jing M. Guo and others really so beautiful and attractive? This kind of thinking is not that simple, nor is it caused and formed by accidental or individual reasons. After preliminary thinking, I think there are about three reasons.

The first reason is that the "new concept" composition contest has produced a group of literary writers.

The "new concept" composition contest has greatly promoted Chinese education in primary and secondary schools in China. Before this competition, in the world of "mathematics and physics" in universities and middle schools, liberal arts seemed to have no bright future. However, the "new concept" contest has helped students who love and pursue literature find a way out, satisfied their hobbies and pursuits through this contest, and been known by more people through winning the prize. Participating in competitions, especially winning prizes, can make them satisfy many wishes. One is to satisfy the desire of literary writing and achieve a certain sense of accomplishment after winning the prize. Moreover, in the first and second games, the winner of the first place is exempted from the test, which has great incentives and temptations for the contestants. This competition also interacted with Chinese education in our middle school. Both schools and teachers want their students to win prizes, so they will guide students to write better compositions in teaching. Han Han, Jing M.Guo and Zhang Yueran. They are all winners of the first prize in the new concept competition. Therefore, the "new concept" contest produced a group of post-80s writers. It can be said that this competition is a booster rocket for many post-80 s writers to stand out.

The second reason is the promotion of the market.

In recent years, book publishing has been continuously marketized, especially the publication of long works has moved towards a more systematic marketization. Previous novels were written by famous writers, serialized in magazines and published by publishing houses. The publication of novels at that time had nothing to do with ordinary anonymous authors. Before the early 1990s, there were only about 300 novels every year. By the late 1990s, the number of novels had reached 700, almost twice that of 1993. After 1999, the number of novels created each year basically remained at around 1000. Today's literary world can be divided into three parts: one is pure literary writing based on periodicals and literary magazines, the other is novel writing based on commercial or market publishing, and the other is online writing based on online media. The novel is the unity of the three realms, which was unexpected before. Novels have advantages in operation. Many novels are made by booksellers, and the books made by booksellers are more in line with market rules. The "post-80 s" authors encountered such an environment as soon as they came up, and naturally embarked on the market. At present, Jing M.Guo's books are printed in hundreds of thousands and millions, Zhang Yueran's books are printed in hundreds of thousands, and many of our famous writers, especially powerful writers, only print tens of thousands of copies. Some may be as many as 10 thousand copies. Compared with the two, the contrast is great.

The third reason is that the works of post-80s writers meet the needs of students and readers.

The post-80s writers are mainly student writers, and their works reflect students' life, express their emotions and meet their needs, which is the main reason. Nowadays, student readers, including junior high school students, college students and graduate students, are a huge group of readers. Not long ago, I went to Xi 'an and listened to one of my students who worked in the provincial education department. Due to the concentration of colleges and universities in Xi 'an, there are nearly one million Everbright students, and almost a quarter of Xi's citizens are college students. The same is true in other cities, where students account for almost half of the urban population. In the stage of seeking knowledge, they often have to read a lot of works; And because they are all only children, they are all only children, so they have the most desire and purchasing power. In this group, junior high school students and senior high school students are the largest, most loyal and most important groups. Last year, I participated in an interactive talk show between Jing M.Guo and middle school students on CCTV Children's Channel. Those students talked about Jing M. Guo's novels, no matter the story, characters, narrative and language, they were all in good order, and their familiarity and love were amazing. Also at the end of last year, teachers from the College of Literature of Capital Normal University conducted a reading survey of China's modern and contemporary literary works among junior high school students, senior high school students and college students. Although it is only a sample survey, the information provided is shocking. In the ranking of middle school students' favorite modern and contemporary writers, Jin Yong ranks first, Jing M.Guo ranks second, Han Han ranks third and Lu Xun ranks fourth. This reflects some tendencies and problems in literature reading and Chinese education, and shows that students now prefer to read works that are close to their own lives and close to their own expressions, rather than those that are far away from their own lives and have a didactic meaning.

When we were students, we could go to see works such as Song of Youth and How Steel was Tempered, and try our best to interpret these adult works with children's eyes. Now these students and readers are unwilling to accommodate us adults, let alone wronged themselves. In our adult or mainstream literature writing, no one can write and write such works as Jing M.Guo, so there is no work that can adapt to the changed tastes of these middle school students. Why Qiong Yao and San Mao were so popular a few years ago has a lot to do with the likes of students and readers. Now and Sanmao have been replaced by Jing M.Guo and Zhang Yueran. Student readers find that Jing M.Guo's works are closer to them, which is exactly what they need. As a result, those alternative reading materials were ruthlessly eliminated. Jing M. Guo's language is more representative of the younger generation in expressing feelings and venting emotions, such as writing about college life, school, society, reading and love, which is dazzling. For example, those stubborn people like the night, and his works are like this: "At night, they are as good as thieves, and their eyes are bright as wolves." Such a picture of life and such a written expression can better meet the needs of teenagers to reflect on themselves and vent their emotions than those serious works. The attraction of his works is closely related to his energetic language. These aspects are exactly what our traditional literature can't provide for today's student readers, and they are the lack of our literary world. Our literary world only has "children's literature", which is for children's readers, that is, for primary school students; Middle school students, especially high school students, really have no correspondence. Jing M.Guo just provided this demand, so in the current relationship between writing and reading, they reached a balance between supply and demand and interacted with students and readers. Therefore, whether we like Jing Ke Guo or not, it doesn't matter whether we read Jing Ke Guo or not. With the support of students and readers, their works still sell well.

Liang once asked me at a seminar that you said that "post-80s" went to the market, but not to the literary world. Perhaps these "post-80s" writers, works and readers have formed another literary world. This also inspired me. They may not be a literary world, but at least they constitute a self-sufficient cultural phenomenon unique to the student class. The quiet rise of "post-80s" is closely related to the above situation, and it can also make us reflect on many things.

The Present Situation and Future of "Post-80s" (Part Two)

Thirdly, the author of "post-80s" is briefly analyzed.

In 2003-2004, there were some controversies about how to treat the post-80s generation and how to treat themselves. Among the well-known "post-80 s" authors, there is a dispute between the best-selling works and the best-selling works. People who don't sell books well say that works that sell well have nothing to do with literature, but are written by idols and by strength. And some are not famous yet, and they look down on those who have become famous, thinking that they are all business stars. Last year, Yangcheng Evening News published a ranking of the post-80s generation, and Jing M.Guo, Han Han, Haruki, Li Shasha and Zhang Yueran all ranked in this way. Different media published different versions of the rankings.

I think these representatives who entered the ranking themselves represent different tendencies within the post-80 s generation. For example, Jing M.Guo represents the tendency of popularization and even commercialization in post-80s writing. This tendency is certainly understandable if you don't ask them for their own ideas. By the way, including many of our comments that their works do not reflect the thickness and sense of responsibility of life, in fact, they have their own pursuit of life and sense of responsibility, and we can't force them to be regulated by values. Han Han roughly represents the rebellious tendency towards some aspects of the mainstream society (such as the stagnant education system and school order). ), and this tendency is becoming more and more extreme in him. I was surprised when I read the Draft of 2004 published by him last year. In it, all the courses he offered in middle schools were greatly derogated, which was extreme. The whole education system and the current situation of the school were described in a dark way, and all the teachers were written as misleading children. This rebellious gesture is a bit excessive, and there is a manifestation of rebellion for the sake of rebellion. He embarked on the wrong road of "knocking everything down" from a possible reasonable starting point, so I'm afraid his current works have only one kind of conceptual significance, which has nothing to do with literature-when he wrote "Triple Gate", the language and feeling were quite literary.

Among post-80s writers, I am more optimistic about Zhang Yueran. She is very clever and has been well influenced. Her father is engaged in literary research, and bringing her grandmother (or grandmother) to Christianity has a great influence on her, so she is different from other post-80 s writers and has a sense of compassion in her works. Some of her works describe the subtle emotional feelings between people and small animals and small plants, which are not easy for ordinary people to perceive or despise. Last year, the writers' publishing house published a collection of works "Ten Loves" for her, and I gave it to her.

She wrote a book review entitled "Zhang Yueran Grown Up", saying that she magnified her previous compassion for people and animals, people and nature to her observation and thinking about social life and interpersonal relationships, showing an unprecedented strength. For example, girls' infatuation leads to physical and mental self-harm, parents' indifference to their children after divorce and the resulting estrangement. , are serious problems, and she also showed a good ability to deal with tragic themes. Recently, she published a novel "Narcissus was carried away by carp". After reading it, I think she has stepped out of adolescent writing and entered the realm of adults. She will be a promising person.

Peng Yang, a student of Beiying, has published three novels, one of which is called "It's getting dark, where are we going", which describes the living conditions of "problem of juvenile" in the 1980s. These "problem of juvenile" were either forced to commit crimes because of family breakdown, or their personalities were distorted because of improper educational methods, or they wrote about ten young men and women who wanted to enter the society early to make money, but were induced by bad people to take drugs or sell them [* * *]. The focus of his work is obviously different from the general post-80s works. The average post-80s writer writes more about himself and pays little attention to others. Peng Yang's works focus on the suffering and marginal life of others. This kind of life orientation and humanistic care contained in it are not found in other "post-80s" writers' works. In addition, his writing style is also well grasped, and his theme is so poorly written that it may become an evil exaggeration. However, Peng Yang's moderate grasp and description of juvenile problems make people sympathize with and care about juvenile problems, rather than hate or imitate them. When I recommended this book, I said that these "problem of juvenile" are actually the products of "problem society", and we can see the existence and harm of "problem schools", "problem teachers" and "problem parents" from behind them, thus arousing our reflection and vigilance. I think this positive tendency in his writing is worth popularizing in the writing of "post-80 s"; This also shows that "post-80s" writing has many possibilities, which is itself rich and developing.

Among the post-80s writers, Dong, a little girl from Jilin, is not very famous compared with Jing M.Guo, Zhang Yueran and He, who were well-known two years ago. However, since she wrote the novel I am not a smart girl, she has become one of the favorites of many students and readers. After reading her "I am not a smart girl" and "Don't go, I love you", I also began to look at her with new eyes. I am optimistic about this little girl for two reasons: First, her works. It's a novel about the growth of youth in the true sense. Some youth novels we usually see are mostly confined to campus life, classmates' relationship, love experience and intergenerational contradictions, with relatively narrow pattern and weak connotation; Dong's I'm not a smart girl and Don't go, I love you not only depict the subtle relationship between young men and women through the different pursuits of the protagonists in love, but also extend the artistic tentacles to the depths of fresh and complicated social life through social activities such as going out of school and striving to be a model, opening a vast picture of life in a changing society and an evolutionary era dominated by university campuses. This way. The work describes the emotional experience and life growth of the protagonist and her younger brothers and sisters from two aspects: "self-shaping" and "integration into society", and truly and comprehensively reveals such an important stage theme as "youth growth". Secondly, her writing shows precious and unique literary potential. This literary potential, on the one hand, is manifested in her good at telling stories and writing people's characters with stories. Her stories are vivid and vivid, and the characters are charming because of their naughty wit, which makes her works inherently readable. On the other hand, and more importantly, her language is very interesting and tasteful. Whether it is the author's narrative language or the dialogue between characters in his works, there is a unique charm of banter, irony and sexiness. This almost natural humorous expression has the flavor of Wang Shuo, Xu Kun and some Wei Hui. To be precise, it is the ingenious fusion of the Northeast Errenzhuan and the youth hormones. This kind of language, which taunts people in spontaneous and bitter self-mockery, shows a ubiquitous humor and humor, as well as internal spiritual optimism and philosophy. It makes people laugh and think deeply, because it is not only a catharsis of pleasure, but also a judgment of feelings and a criticism of ideas.

A brief analysis of the post-80s writers shows that this cultural phenomenon is rich in content, including many different tendencies and pursuits, and has different connotations.