Telephone interview with Professor Chen Xuanbo from Huaqiao University College of Literature
Q: Hello, are you Professor Chen Xuanbo?
A: Yes.
Q: We are students in Class One, Grade Three, Nanyang Girls' Middle School in Singapore. We want to interview you about the phenomenon of fast food in literature.
A: OK.
Q: Can we start the interview now?
Yes, no problem.
Q: Members of our group feel that people's understanding of the concept of literature in modern society is becoming more and more vague. Our first question is, what is literature?
A: I think there are dozens of definitions of literature. In fact, literature has never had a definition that everyone agrees with in the history of literature. It is generally believed that literature refers to the art of emotional language.
Q: So does it need plain text?
A: Of course, literature depends on words.
Q: However, in modern society, literature has become more and more inclined to rely on images and audio-visual methods to adapt to the arrival of the "era of reading pictures" in modern society. Do you think this changing trend violates the definition of literature?
A: I think that although the era of reading pictures marks the progress of society, images can never replace words.
Q: There is a general saying that literature has become fast food. In other words, the original starting point of writers and businessmen has changed. Nowadays, the mass production of literature shows to some extent that some writers write books purely for fame, or some famous writers continue to publish books by virtue of their fame. Professor, what do you think of this phenomenon?
A: I think literature is an eternal career. As long as human nature and people's views on the universe, the world and life continue to exist, then literature will certainly exist. But I don't rule out or deny some problems brought by the current commodity society. But it should be affirmed that there are still many writers who continue their lonely careers.
Q: So do you think this kind of fast food literature is a departure from literature?
A: I think fast food should be divided into two situations. One is purely for utility, for a certain market need, or for our own interests, then it violates the proper meaning of literature. However, literature cannot be separated from the influence of commodity society and the law of social development. In other words, advertisements and other commercial factors may be involved in literature, but they cannot have a fundamental impact on literature, that is, some literature may contain some commercial factors, but it is still real literature.
Q: In other words, the intervention of commercial factors such as advertising does not affect the essence of literature, does it?
A: It may, but I think there are some other things that will not change.
Q: So what won't be affected by these factors?
A: For example, for some works and writers who pay attention to and discuss human destiny, human future, complexity and richness of human nature, commercial intervention is not their original intention. Or, they may resort to commercial promotion, but this does not affect the meaning of their works. For example, China writers, I personally think that some works like Yu Hua's (Note: Yu Hua, one of the representatives of China's avant-garde novels, the film "Alive" enjoyed by students in the first English literature class is adapted from Yu Hua's novel of the same name. His works are famous for their exquisiteness. Most of them are true and hard-written, and the narration is pure and meticulous, which breaks the daily language order, organizes a self-sufficient discourse system, and on this basis, constructs a strange, grotesque, secret and cruel text world and text truth independent of the outside world. Despite some business intervention, his works are still very good.
Q: There is a very prominent phenomenon now, that is, the phenomenon of "post-80 s" has attracted more and more attention. What do you think of this phenomenon, professor?
A: An era has an era of literature. What about "post-80s"? Their appearance is influenced by the times. Their own social environment, outlook on life and literature are different from other generations. That's why some people lament (meaning that some people lament that the post-80s phenomenon is threatening the future of literature). I think "post-80s" can also produce very serious literature (only some post-80s writers lack a serious understanding of creation).
Q: There is still a phenomenon that many teenagers are not interested in orthodox literary classics, and some even read them only because of school education. Without these requirements, they will not take the initiative to read the so-called orthodox literature. What do you think is the reason behind this phenomenon?
A: I think there must be a reason for this. The first is the arrival of the image era. From the perspective of human aesthetic psychology or aesthetic physiology, images are more likely to have a huge visual impact than words, including television and media. Secondly, most of the classical masterpieces were created in ancient times, so the pace is relatively slow, and now the pace of life in this era is relatively fast, so I think this (rhythm contradiction) is the second reason. But great classics will never go out of date. The key lies in the guidance of the whole society and some literary and art workers. Under the great waves of literary history, good literary works will appear.
Q: So what do you think of the literary atmosphere in modern society?
A: I think China's literary world is now a noisy era, which should produce great literary works. Because the times have provided it with many opportunities.
Q: Do you think there will still be real literary masters after the 80s?
A: that's definitely no problem.
Q: For example, writers like Han Han and Jing M.Guo are very popular now. Do you think they have this potential?
Q: I'm not sure that the two writers mentioned just now will be classic writers. Classical writers are not in charge of one person, but need to be proved by literary history. But I think Han Han's works are really selling well. He is a bestseller, but that doesn't mean he is a classic writer.
Q: So do you think there is a contradiction between popular literature and orthodox literature? Because there is a phenomenon now, that is, some fast food literature headed by "post-80 s" is crowding out the position of orthodox literature among our teenagers. Does this contradiction exist?
A: It does exist.
Q: So will the existence of this phenomenon have a negative impact on the literary world?
A: There will be negative effects, but I think we also need objective analysis in the face of popular literature. Some popular literature does have high literary value, and the understanding of human nature has reached a certain depth. These literatures can often lead people to serious literature. Of course, we should abandon those works that become dross.
Q: Do you think we should continue to carry forward orthodox literature?
A: Of course.
Q: What is its charm?
A: Orthodox literature is actually super-national and super-contemporary. Pure literature is the language expression of human life experience, emotional experience and some life values, so its existence is eternal.
Q: What measures do you think are effective if you want to promote orthodox literature to young people?
I think literature education is very important. Let young people know what good literature is. Their reading now can be limited to popular literature, so they think it is good literature. But when literature education introduces them into better literature, their identification standards and aesthetic ability are improved. Secondly, what I think is literary criticism, and writers should pay more attention to "post-80s" writers (literary criticism).
Q: But now there are many young people in the literary world who don't believe in literary criticism.
A: We can't totally deny literary criticism. Because literary criticism contains many serious writers, they have made serious advocacy for the development of literature, which can not be ignored.
Q: Is there any shortage in the current education mode in emphasizing orthodox literature?
A: At least the literature education system is lacking.
Q: But according to my experience in studying in China, most of our textbooks emphasize literature, and the books recommended by teachers every year are orthodox literature. However, many students' reading is limited to this range, and few students read other orthodox literary books out of their own interests.
A: The main reason is that the education system in China does not provide practical space for orthodox literature education.
Q: What you just mentioned is the role of literary education and literary criticism. Is there any way to improve the literary atmosphere of the whole society?
A: I think with the development of economy, literature has indeed been marginalized. On the surface, some works are no longer centered on literature. From the literary point of view of pure text form, literature is indeed marginalized. This is a fact. However, when the economy develops to a certain extent, people's pursuit has gone beyond material life and present existence, so when people's spiritual needs are higher, literature will inevitably become the center.
Q: When material civilization develops to a certain extent, the importance of spiritual civilization naturally comes out, right?
A: Yes, but it can't be absolutely said that there will be spiritual civilization when material civilization develops to a certain extent. In the history of world development, many times and many periods, many countries have also experienced an era when the spiritual world is very developed and prosperous, but their material civilization is not necessarily the whole society.
Q: As teenagers, what can we do to promote literature?
A: I think it is to actively accept the excellent literature of mankind for thousands of years.
Q: How to cultivate interest in orthodox literature?
A: We should start with appreciation. Is literary appreciation.
Q: When we are faced with a literary masterpiece, what aspects should we appreciate?
A: This is a very academic question. There are many ways to appreciate literature, and one theory is called reception aesthetics. Everyone has a different background when accepting literature. Everyone's life experience, emotional experience, family background, knowledge level are different, as well as their own talent, understanding and other very complex factors, so everyone appreciates from different angles and ways. Of course, we can also analyze it theoretically. There are many levels to appreciate literature, and the most basic level can talk about social and historical issues. That is, what problems the works reflect, what spirit of the times and what social problems are reflected, that is, to explore from a real perspective. What knowledge does this job provide? There is another angle, that is, the angle of goodness, that is to say, works teach us how to be a man and what morality and ethics to learn. Then this is from the perspective of goodness.
Q: Is it true, good and beautiful?
A: Yes, there is another one from the perspective of beauty. That is, how the emotion in this work is expressed, what is its form and so on. Of course, you can also look at it from the angles of religion, architecture and history, so there are many angles of literature appreciation.
Q: But many teenagers think that orthodox literature originated in the past, which is not in line with the present era and there is no need to read it.
A: As I said just now, literature transcends the times and is a written expression of universal human experience. They (teenagers) should be aware of this. For example, we now read Tang poetry and Song poetry, and many Tang poetry and Song poetry provide some kind of life experience that modern people are experiencing.
Q: In other words, literature is ahead of the times. Even if we read Tang poetry and Song poetry now, we can still find many useful places.
A: Yes, we are reading ancient scientific papers, which may be meaningless to ordinary people, but the poems of Tang and Song Dynasties are different.
Q: So, our modern life is very busy and the pace of life is very fast. Many people think that reading real literary works must be appreciated word for word. And this kind of rhythm is something that we modern people can no longer adapt to.
A: It should be cultivated. Because people are relaxed, it is impossible to live a fast-paced life every day. In this era, people should surpass themselves from the fast pace. People's rhythm should be self-regulating.
Q: I learned to get used to it in my daily reading.
A: It's not adaptation but need. Modern people's daily life is very tired, and they need a slow pace and literary pursuit.
Q: In other words, literature can also provide us with this rare slow pace, right?
A: There is a part of literature.
Q: Finally, Professor, do you have any good suggestions for promoting orthodox literature to young people?
I think the golden age of China literature is coming. China is a country with a rich literary tradition, so many teenagers like you are trying to revive our literature.
Q: OK, thank you very much.
A: You're welcome.
Professor, thank you for your time. Goodbye.