Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 715 Do you want Doraemon?
Upon hearing He Qingsheng mention this, Chen Fan put down his chopsticks, turned to look at him, and, feeling somewhat curious, said, "I saw this news on TV the day before yesterday, but it was just a few sentences long and quickly glossed over. You said they returned with honors, is there some other exciting development?"

A few days ago in Shanghai, I stayed at home except for picking people up and dropping them off every day. I didn't even go with Zhou Zhengdong and his daughter when they were busy setting up an office and contacting the telephone exchange. Otherwise, if I had gone to see Ba ​​Jin, he would definitely have told me about this. Since I didn't go, I naturally don't know the details.

At this moment, Tan Yong also put down his chopsticks, chuckled, and said, "I don't know if it's considered lively, but this delegation's trip to Japan has certainly yielded considerable results."

As he spoke, he started counting on his fingers, “The General Association arranged for 5 people, and you were originally supposed to be the team leader, but you didn’t want to go. Since the other members of the council weren’t in charge of this, we decided to have Director Duan from the External Relations Department take the lead.”

It just so happened that he had previously managed the Asia-Africa branch, so he was asked to bring four writers who had published books in the small book, along with two people each from the cultural and propaganda departments, forming a 14-person delegation to visit the country.

Upon their arrival in Japan, they were warmly received. Hideo Takahashi invited leaders from the Japan Artists Association, the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs, and the Japan Art Institute to attend. Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sent representatives to receive them; the reception was of a very high standard.

Xu Qizhen added from the side, laughing, "Actually, since the establishment of diplomatic relations, there have been several cultural exchanges. But as you know, the main participants in the previous exchanges were government officials, and there were almost no exchanges with well-known writers."

This author-led exchange activity was taken very seriously by them and attracted widespread attention within the small-blog literary community.

As soon as she finished speaking, He Qingsheng pointed at Chen Fan and laughed, "The literary world is most looking forward to you going there. I heard that after they got the list of visiting groups, they didn't see your name on it and sent out invitations repeatedly. But Ba Jin knew what you were thinking and had someone directly refuse."

Chen Fan picked up his wine glass and chuckled, "I did say that to Mr. Ba, that I won't be going abroad for the next few years, and we'll talk about it when the time is right."

He Qingsheng and the other two didn't ask when exactly the time would be right.

There's no standard for this kind of thing; it all depends on Chen Fan's own subjective will. Who knows, he might want to leave someday.

He Qingsheng continued, “The writers’ association in the UK is different from that in China. They have a special writers’ association called the ‘Literary and Art Association’. It was formed in 1926 by the merger of the Novelists’ Association and the Playwrights’ Association. So this Literary and Art Association is equivalent to our Writers’ Association.”

In addition, they have a mystery writers' association, which is a separate organization of mystery novelists, but this has little to do with us. They are not affiliated with the literary and artistic association, so we were not invited.

This exchange meeting was mainly organized by Takahashi Publishing House, providing a platform for our delegation to exchange ideas with writers from the Small Writers Association.

What I meant by "returning home with honors" was that the Artists Association recognized the work of us visiting writers and even awarded us an honorary prize. That's the gist of it.

Chen Fan blinked. "Oh, I see."

Is an honorary award all it takes to go home with such accolades?
He thought it was the Akutagawa Prize or the Naoki Prize.

The literary awards for novels are mostly named after well-known novel authors from the past, with the Akutagawa Prize for Ryunosuke Akutagawa and the Naoki Prize for Soichi Uemura under the pen name Naoki Sanjugo.

These two are the earliest, both established in 1935. There are also some awards established in modern times.

Moreover, this award is open to authors from abroad, and some authors from my country have also received related awards.

But that's all for the future; at this point in time, there isn't one.

After discussing the so-called honors, He Qingsheng then introduced the relevant details of the exchange.

He picked up his glass and took a sip, then took out a cigarette and offered it to everyone, including Xu Qizhen.

After lighting four cigarettes, he continued, "There is an old author in the delegation who studied in Japan when he was young. He had the deepest feelings about it and was very insightful after returning."

According to him, after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese literary community's research on Chinese literature mainly focused on classical literature, seeking a sense of belonging, cohesion, and spiritual nourishment from it. They looked down on our modern literature.

At that time, they only recognized a handful of writers, such as Lu Xun and Mr. Guo. Even so, their recognition was tainted by distortion and misinterpretation.

After the 1950s, works such as *Four Generations Under One Roof*, *The Hurricane*, *Changes in Lijiazhuang*, and *The Story of Xiaqiu* were successively translated and introduced to Japan, promoting reflection among Japanese scholars and the general public on the war of aggression and prompting the Japanese literary world to begin to take modern Chinese literature seriously.

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan suddenly widened his eyes, "Hey, so it turns out that Xiaobenzi has a history of liking to read and write in his notebook."

The works that He Qingsheng just mentioned are basically all about the changes in the world during that era, and of course, they include the War of Resistance against Japan.

It was only at that time that a wave of postwar reflection arose within the Japanese government; otherwise, it would have been virtually impossible to push this forward within the government.

Hearing Chen Fan's words, He Qingsheng and the other two couldn't help but laugh.

Tan Yong took a sip of wine, a bite of food, and a puff of cigarette before saying seriously, "This is the power of literature! Through literary works, more people can understand us and achieve emotional resonance."

He paused for a moment, flicked off his cigarette ash, and chuckled, "Of course, only good works will do. Substandard or fabricated works will only have the opposite effect."

Chen Fan nodded slightly, then turned to look at He Qingsheng, "Let's not talk about the past. Ever since you established diplomatic relations with Japan, have you stopped translating any of our books?"

He Qingsheng understood what he meant, shook his head slightly, and said, "Besides our Jiangnan branch, there are actually some that have been translated into the booklets, but the number is very small, only four."

Chen Fan clicked his tongue; this number was indeed very small.

He Qingsheng continued, "However, at this exchange meeting, we reached a cooperation agreement with them, which is to select several outstanding works each year for translation and publication."

At this point, He Qingsheng suddenly grinned and looked at Chen Fan, saying, "Do you know why you only came back today, and why we came to find you today?"

Chen Fan pondered for a moment, then looked at him and asked, "The notebook won't specifically request my work, will it?"

He spread his hands and laughed, "Anyway, all my works have been signed to Takahashi Publishing House, and our translators here are working hard to translate them. If they can't wait, they can find someone to translate them themselves, which saves us a lot of trouble."

Xu Qizhen turned to face him and said with a smile, "Commissioning manuscripts is one thing, but they also know that all your published works have been signed with Takahashi Publishing House."

However, the president of the Small Writers Association said that he had read most of your works and was very impressed by the ever-changing style of your works, which is very different from the consistent style of other writers. Therefore, he believes that your potential is not limited to this.

Therefore, he hopes to commission articles from you, regardless of the subject matter, and he is willing to pay the highest possible fee.

Chen Fan's lips twitched slightly. "Not limited to any subject matter?"

Hehe, how about writing a Doraemon story?
Oh, Doraemon already existed, and it started serializing in elementary school magazines in 1970.

So, do you want Naruto or One Piece? Neither? What kind of "not limited by genre" is that?!
If he remembers correctly, the current president of the Otaku Writers Association is Fumio Niwa, who is regarded by the Otaku literary world as a representative of "genre novels".

Well, this writer's early writing style was indeed very narrow. Due to his own family circumstances, he used this as his subject matter, mainly depicting the miserable lives of women in small feudal families, and also writing about the romantic affairs of some female bosses.

It wasn't until later, after the 50s, that he began to seek a transformation, writing novels that reflected social issues, as well as other themes.

It's no wonder he would make such a strange request of himself.

Chen Fan's works are diverse and varied. Aside from his unpublished Western fantasy works, his works published in China cover a wide range of themes, including rural life, the War of Resistance against Japan, anti-war themes, romance, and espionage.

Another unpublished work is the realist novel "Small Town People," which is currently in the process of being written.

Perhaps he wanted to see just how much he could change?

Chen Fan pondered for a moment, then looked up and saw three pairs of eyes. He immediately grinned and said, "No problem. Once I finish writing the novel I'm currently working on, I'll write what he wants."

He Qingsheng stared intently at him and asked, "What about the time? Is there a specific time?"

Chen Fan stretched and chuckled, "Within this year, I guess."

A year is enough to easily gather enough; it won't take too long.

Hearing this, He Qingsheng and the other two exchanged smiles and relaxed.

They came to see Chen Fan today to discuss quite a few important matters. Unfortunately, this young man is rather lazy, so they were prepared for things to be less than satisfactory, but things went surprisingly smoothly.

In his excitement, He Qingsheng decided to press his advantage and said to him with a smile, "Xiao Fan, we've put together a list of books for our collaboration with your cousin's publishing house. Could you take a look at it? If there aren't any major problems, how about we find a time to sign the contract?"

After saying that, he took out a piece of paper, unfolded it, and handed it over.

Xu Qizhen quickly added, "Your cousin doesn't need to worry about the translation. We can refer to our collaboration with Takahashi and provide the translation directly."

Chen Fan didn't speak at first, but took the paper, glanced at it, and then squinted his eyes in thought.

They said to choose two books, but there were actually ten on this paper.

They're really something else, with so many books covering almost all the major well-known authors in the association, they really manage to offend no one.

If it weren't for the fact that there were no works by members of the presidium such as He Qingsheng and Tan Yong, Chen Fan would have preferred to just randomly draw a prize.

Let's make a selection since they haven't used their positions for personal gain.

Two minutes later, Chen Fan placed the paper on the table and spread his hand, "Pen."

He Qingsheng immediately pulled out the fountain pen from his upper pocket, removed the cap, and handed it over.

Chen Fan took the pen, ticked the list twice, and then handed it back along with the paper.

She added, "I talked to my cousin about what kind of literary works are more popular in the United States. Her opinion is that they are either the kind of works about lone heroes, or those full of humanistic care, or comedies, horrors, or mystery."

Seeing He Qingsheng take the paper and look at it, Chen Fan continued, "The works you selected are not bad, but they are too distinctive. We Chinese can understand and like them, but Americans may not be able to understand their meaning."

The only two works I selected are about family ethics. Although they're unlikely to be bestsellers, they have a loyal readership who enjoy this type of story, so they should at least achieve a decent result.

He Qingsheng listened to his words, his brows furrowed in thought.

After he finished speaking, he pondered for a few seconds before raising his head and saying seriously, "What you said makes sense. Most of the other works are anti-Japanese war literature, and the suffering described in them is something that Chinese people can understand. But Americans have not experienced these things, so the possibility of them forming an emotional resonance is very low."

On the contrary, kinship and family relationships, which are universal human traits, are easier to understand and accept.

He folded the paper and put it in his pocket, grinning as he said, "Don't worry, only a few of us know about this, so no one will blame you."

Chen Fan shrugged, raised his glass and swirled it. "Although I really dislike trouble, only mediocre people are not envied, let alone a great talent like me... Hey, what's with those expressions?"

After glancing at the group, Chen Fan wondered to himself, "Am I bragging?"
no!
Which word isn't true?!
After muttering a couple of things to himself, Chen Fan continued, "Anyway, as long as things are done well, nothing else matters. As long as they don't openly provoke me, I'll let them do as they please."

Xu Qizhen looked at him curiously, "What if someone openly provokes you?"

Chen Fan glanced over and said, "I'm petty."

Xu Qizhen took a deep breath and nodded slightly, "I can see that."

The dinner wasn't over yet; the group continued eating and drinking.

But we've covered all the important business; the rest is just casual conversation.

He Qingsheng picked up a piece of fish from the pot, took a delicious bite, and said while breathing out hot air, "Xiao Fan, what do you think of the meeting last month?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Qizhen stopped eating her fish, stubbed out her cigarette, and turned to Chen Fan, "Everyone's talking about this reform now, but nobody knows how to implement it. Do you have any ideas?"

Chen Fan turned his head and looked around. Even Tan Yong, who called himself a lazy bum, was staring at him expectantly. He couldn't help but smile and said, "Actually, it's simple. As long as the law and politics are the bottom line, you can change the rest however you want."

He Qingsheng frowned slightly. "The problem is, we don't know where this bottom line is."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Then let's ignore this bottom line and do things that everyone knows will not cross the line, that's all."

(End of this chapter)