Since 1988, the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award has been held for three sessions, and each prize of 100,000 yuan will be awarded to three works (parts) every year, which can be regarded as the prize ceiling for the selection of Chinese literature awards.

With its generous prize, the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award has increased its influence in recent years, and it has become the number one literary award in China.

However, the status and influence of the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award in the literary world are not just because of the prize.

"Home" magazine also held the "Tianjia Literature Award", which is also a bonus of 100,000 yuan, but it was just a moment of excitement and did not form a big influence in the future.

Obviously, it is obviously not feasible to judge awards just by relying on high bonuses.

There are often discussions in the literary world. Why, as various literary awards are gradually disappearing and even the Mao Dun Literature Awards are often delayed, the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award can still be held as scheduled and will be awarded works that are more recognized by the literary world?

After discussing and discussing, I feel that in the final analysis, Lin Chaoyang laid a good foundation for the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award back then.

Among the many awards in China, the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award is unique in terms of its award system and organizational structure.

The primary judges who adopted college students as awards also caused widespread controversy in the literary world that year, and many writers and critics were not interested in this practice.

They generally believe that college students' literary knowledge reserves and experience are far from comparable to professional reviews, and are not enough to support them in completing the review of a national literary award.

But it turns out that these people have made mistakes of empiricism and superstitious authority.

Many college students may not have enough reading depth and have little rich life experience, but their average literary literacy can almost be said to be at the peak of this country.

In this country with a population of 1.1 billion, you can hardly find a group with an average literary literacy higher than that of college students, even those college teachers and middle- and senior officials are unlikely to be.

Professional literary practitioners such as writers, editors, and critics can be better than college students if they pick up a small group of top groups.

But the problem is that as long as you are in the circle, you will definitely have a tendency to judge awards, which will naturally easily affect the fairness of awards.

So overall, it was absolutely correct that Lin Chaoyang insisted on using the college student group as the preliminary review committee member of the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award.

This organization method ensures the level of the award-winning works, truly selects the best from the best, and greatly avoids the situation of leaving behind pearls in the primary election stage.

After all, college students are very energetic and are very motivated to "hold chicken feathers as command arrows". Even if they can find the works of the men with the horns on the chair, they can search for them.

The Zhuang Chongwen Literature Awards focus on novels, the most important literary genre in the literary field. In addition to the active responsibilities of college students, it is of course inseparable from the efforts of the jury.

According to the evaluation system, the jury of the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award will be composed of writers, editors, critics, and filmmakers,

Dramatists, scholars and other backbone forces in the literary and artistic circles are formed. In addition, a small number of ordinary readers join as judges every year.

The rich allocation of judges also allows the selection of Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award to listen to the public's voice.

In early June, the weather in Yanjing gradually changed from the mild spring to the hot summer. Early in the morning, the sun was high, and Xiaoliubukou Hutong was very lively inside and outside.

In a blink of an eye, the awards for the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award have reached the fourth session. As one of the most important literary awards in China, this year's award list has attracted widespread attention from many media as soon as it was announced.

"Yu Hua! Yu Hua!"

A reporter from "Literature and Art Daily" caught Yu Hua, who had just gotten off the car at the entrance of the alley and asked him about his mood for winning the award.

As early as a week ago, the results of the fourth Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award had been announced. Yu Hua won the Best Novella Award for this year for his novel "Living".

In addition, the movie adaptation of the same name of "Living" is directed by Zhang Yimou and has just won the award at the Cannes International Film Festival. Yu Hua's award suddenly became the focus of journalists' attention.

"I never dreamed of winning the banker award!"

Yu Hua's words made the reporter amused, and he chatted for a few words before letting him go.

While speaking, a few more people walked into the alley. Fortunately, the reporters from the Literature Daily went to various symposiums.

There are many literary conferences, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to recognize them.

Cheng Zhongshi, Jingfu, Gao Jianqun—some of them are representative figures of the "Literature Shaanxi Army" that have been popular in the domestic literary world in the past two years.

Cheng Zhongshi walked among the crowd and was full of energy. This year's Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award was awarded the "White Deer Plain".

After this novel was published, it was praised by the literary community. It also achieved excellent sales after it was published in June last year, and it sold sixty or seventy books in just three or four months.

The reporter stopped the few people and chatted for a while before walking with them into the west courtyard of Xiaoliubukou Hutong.

The brand "Author's House" at the entrance of the courtyard is a bit old compared to a few years ago, but it looks particularly shining today.

Half an hour before the award ceremony, many people have gathered in the yard.

This includes members of the jury committee, several officials in the field of cultural publicity, some comrades from the National Association for Literature and Provincial Associations, as well as writers, editors and critics invited to attend.

These people gathered together in groups of three or three, either standing under the pomegranate trees in the yard, standing under the eaves, or sitting on the railings on both sides of the corridor. Some people also ran to the wing room and sat comfortably chatting.

In addition to greetings, the topics that everyone talks about are the most popular works.

After the list of awards this year was announced, it was widely expected. The novella award was won by Cheng Zhongshi's "White Deer Plain". The novella award was a bit special because Hua's "Living" won the short story award. It was not awarded to one, but to a series of works, Feng Jicai's "The Strange Man of the World" series.

Since the late 1970s, a strange phenomenon has appeared in contemporary Chinese literature, that is, short stories that pay attention to and explore reality have frequently had a significant influence in society.

Of course, this cannot be separated from scar literature, reflective literature, and root-seeking literature's prosperity and popularity.

A large number of short stories such as "Scars", "Class Teacher", and "The Wrangler" have been widely read and familiar.

Looking at the international literary world, the extraordinary prosperity of such short stories is not common.

Entering the late 1980s, as the literary wave gradually passed, short stories also fell into loneliness.

In recent years, there has been no influential short stories in the domestic literary world for a long time.

Feng Jicai's seven short stories in "The Strange Man in the World" series were published in "Harvest" on the first day of this year.

It has been highly praised by the literary community and has gained countless loves among readers.

The three works (parts) have not only won a high reputation in the literary world, but also have a good mass base.

After the list of winners was announced, it naturally gained everyone's recognition.

But as long as it is a prize evaluation, some people always feel regretful, and this year's Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award is the same.

Some people think that Jia Pingwa's "Abandoned City" should win the award, while others think that Wang Anyi's "Documentary and Fiction"

If it weren't for the encounter with "White Deer Plain", it would actually be worth an award.

Someone also talked about Wang Xiaobo's "Golden Age" and believed that this novel should be qualified to be awarded. If this novel can be evaluated, he might win the Best Novella Award.

Wang Xiaobo, who was famous in later generations, is not well-known in the domestic literary world now. One of his representative works, "The Golden Age", was serialized by Wandao's United Daily News two years ago.

Later, it was published in Wandao and Xiangjiang one after another, but it was not published in the mainland until this year, and it did not cause much response.

Since it was published in the mainland this year, it is not qualified to participate in the evaluation.

There were many people talking, and there were also many reporters pulling people to interview, such as the "Wenyi Daily", "People's Daily", "Yanjing Youth Daily", "Wenhui Daily", and "Mingpao" and other media sent people today, and the courtyard was very lively for a while.

Seeing that the award ceremony was getting closer, three award-winning writers including Yu Hua, Cheng Zhongshi and Feng Jicai couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

At this time, Meng Weizai, chairman of the jury of this Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award, Secretary of Group D of the National Association for Literature and Lin Chaoyang walked from the Chuihuamen to the courtyard.

The three of them talked and laughed when they entered the yard, which attracted everyone's attention.

"Hello, comrades!" Ma Feng took the lead and waved to everyone and greeted everyone, and applause immediately sounded in the courtyard.

Immediately afterwards, Meng Weizai also greeted everyone. When it was Lin Chaoyang's turn, he formally bowed to everyone present to show respect, and the applause on the scene became even more enthusiastic.

Seeing that the award ceremony was about to be held, Meng Weizai walked to the steps at the door of the main room and immediately attracted the attention of everyone present.

"Dear leaders, literary colleagues and journalists present, good morning everyone! Welcome to the 4th Zhuang Chongwen Literature Awards ceremony--."

Meng Weizai is the chairman of the jury, and he was the first to open the awards ceremony to deliver a speech.

When Lin Chaoyang and everyone applauded and supported him, Li Tuo sneaked up to him and asked, "What are you discussing in the East Courtyard just now?"

"nothing."

"You're boring now. What are you doing together? Treat me as a young man who has never seen the world?"

Lin Chaoyang glanced at him speechlessly, "Why are you so gossiping?"

"How can this be called gossip? I care about the development trends of the literary world."

The more Li Tuo asked, the more he refused to say it, and he was so anxious that he was so nervous that he was so sad that he was so sad that he asked for it. For him, this was even more uncomfortable than killing him.

However, Li Tuo felt helpless even though Lin Chaoyang was not talking about his life or death. Just as he was asking Lin Chaoyang tirelessly, Meng Weizai's speech ended and the award ceremony began.

Feng Jicai was the first to come forward to receive the award, his face flushed and extremely excited.

Although prices have risen rapidly in recent years, 100,000 yuan is still a figure that cannot be reached by the working class.

What's more, the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award has a greater influence than before.

As both fame and fortune are gained, you will naturally be cheering as a winner.

After Feng Jicai finished his acceptance speech, Lin Chaoyang stepped forward and he was arranged to award the Best Novella Award today.

Yu Hua looked even more excited than Feng Jicai. Feng Jicai became famous in the 1970s and won more than one National Literature Award. Yu Hua is different from him.

Being famous is too late and never gets away from awards.

This time, "Living" won the Zhuang Chongwen Literature Award all at once. There is no need to mention the joy. When I received the award, my hands and feet were trembling with excitement, and my mind was blank.

Seeing him like this, Lin Chaoyang smiled and patted his arm, "Don't be nervous, you are the protagonist today, everyone is waiting for you to speak."

After hearing what he said, Yu Hua took a deep breath and nodded.

But when he looked up, those dozens or hundreds of pairs of eyes, each of whom was an important figure in the domestic literary world, was his unattainable dream.

For some reason, Yu Hua suddenly thought of his first experience in his editing office for "People's Literature".

".-I remember that "People's Literature" was still in Dongsibazhao Hutong. It snowed heavily that day. It was my first time to come to Yanjing. I caught up with the snow again. I felt that it was new everywhere.
To be continued...