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Love of words keeps literature alive
By Zhao Lihong |
March 5, 2011, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
NO matter how time and tide changes, the love for words never changes and the spread of literature will never stop.
On an autumn day in 1990, I was asked to attend a book signing ceremony for the launch of my prose selection by my Shanghai publisher. It was the first time that I was invited to sign copies of my books for readers in a bookstore.
I didn't want to go because I thought nobody would turn up as hardly anybody seemed interested in reading books those days. I didn't want to be embarrassed, though I couldn't refuse the publisher either.
It was a cold rainy afternoon, and to my surprise, I saw people lining up in front of the bookstore, which was along one of the busiest streets in downtown Shanghai, and I was told some of them had been standing there for hours.
I was deeply, deeply moved at that time. It was more of an expectation of one particular writer, but was also about people's love for words and the future of literature.
Literature shall never die. So long as there are human beings; so long as we humans have dreams, there are reasons for the existence of literature.
The indifference towards literature won't last long. When this economic development reaches its climax, people will find the need for the soul and spirit far more important.
Literature will shine and become ever more powerful. And the changes in Chinese literature in the last 20 years have proved that I couldn't be too wrong.
At the turn of a new century, contemporary Chinese literature began to flourish again. It is become more diversified and complicated in terms of the number of publications and original literary creations.
There are now more than 400 literary journals across the country, in comparison to only a few dozen some 30 years ago. More than that, channels to spread literary works are no longer limited to professional literary journals. Thousands of newspaper supplements, hundreds of publishing houses, and new media of all kinds, such as websites and blogs, are spreading the spirit of writing far and wide.
The number of publications doesn't stand for the real number of literary creations produced by the Chinese writers. If we include the number of blog writings on the Internet, it should be an "astronomical" figure.
The influence of the Internet on Chinese literature cannot be ignored in the new century. There was a time when some people worried that the Internet would change their reading habits and interest in arts of the young generation. There was concern that young people would no longer be able to read or appreciate traditional literature.
However, what we worry about never happens. Young people may not like reading books, but they are all surfing the Internet. More and more classic books are going online and are being read by a new generation of readers.
At the same time, more and more people, reading online, have developed a strong interest in writing themselves.
Through the Internet, writing is no longer mysterious. Everyone can write and create their own blogs to be read by others.
According to a website survey, more than one billion bloggers post their daily writings on the Internet. If there was a national "reading spree" in the 80s last century, I dare say the whole nation has gone on a "writing spree" since the beginning of the 21st century because of the Internet.
The French writer Romain Rolland, while talking about music, said that "music of different times cannot be described by words such as advanced or improved."
It is the same about literature. Literature has always been a critical aspect of human civilization. If I need a word to comment on the Chinese literature, I would say it is developing all the time, changing or transforming.
Some say literature has been marginalized in China. I don't agree.
In fact, the Chinese literature has never been centralized. Today's Chinese literature has just been restored to the position it must have originally occupied.
Today's Chinese literature is reaching out to its readers and moving them in a wider field, with more diversified forms and through richer and faster channels. I, as a Chinese writer, have never and will never lose heart in Chinese literature.
(The author is vice president of Shanghai Writers Association. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.)
On an autumn day in 1990, I was asked to attend a book signing ceremony for the launch of my prose selection by my Shanghai publisher. It was the first time that I was invited to sign copies of my books for readers in a bookstore.
I didn't want to go because I thought nobody would turn up as hardly anybody seemed interested in reading books those days. I didn't want to be embarrassed, though I couldn't refuse the publisher either.
It was a cold rainy afternoon, and to my surprise, I saw people lining up in front of the bookstore, which was along one of the busiest streets in downtown Shanghai, and I was told some of them had been standing there for hours.
I was deeply, deeply moved at that time. It was more of an expectation of one particular writer, but was also about people's love for words and the future of literature.
Literature shall never die. So long as there are human beings; so long as we humans have dreams, there are reasons for the existence of literature.
The indifference towards literature won't last long. When this economic development reaches its climax, people will find the need for the soul and spirit far more important.
Literature will shine and become ever more powerful. And the changes in Chinese literature in the last 20 years have proved that I couldn't be too wrong.
At the turn of a new century, contemporary Chinese literature began to flourish again. It is become more diversified and complicated in terms of the number of publications and original literary creations.
There are now more than 400 literary journals across the country, in comparison to only a few dozen some 30 years ago. More than that, channels to spread literary works are no longer limited to professional literary journals. Thousands of newspaper supplements, hundreds of publishing houses, and new media of all kinds, such as websites and blogs, are spreading the spirit of writing far and wide.
The number of publications doesn't stand for the real number of literary creations produced by the Chinese writers. If we include the number of blog writings on the Internet, it should be an "astronomical" figure.
The influence of the Internet on Chinese literature cannot be ignored in the new century. There was a time when some people worried that the Internet would change their reading habits and interest in arts of the young generation. There was concern that young people would no longer be able to read or appreciate traditional literature.
However, what we worry about never happens. Young people may not like reading books, but they are all surfing the Internet. More and more classic books are going online and are being read by a new generation of readers.
At the same time, more and more people, reading online, have developed a strong interest in writing themselves.
Through the Internet, writing is no longer mysterious. Everyone can write and create their own blogs to be read by others.
According to a website survey, more than one billion bloggers post their daily writings on the Internet. If there was a national "reading spree" in the 80s last century, I dare say the whole nation has gone on a "writing spree" since the beginning of the 21st century because of the Internet.
The French writer Romain Rolland, while talking about music, said that "music of different times cannot be described by words such as advanced or improved."
It is the same about literature. Literature has always been a critical aspect of human civilization. If I need a word to comment on the Chinese literature, I would say it is developing all the time, changing or transforming.
Some say literature has been marginalized in China. I don't agree.
In fact, the Chinese literature has never been centralized. Today's Chinese literature has just been restored to the position it must have originally occupied.
Today's Chinese literature is reaching out to its readers and moving them in a wider field, with more diversified forms and through richer and faster channels. I, as a Chinese writer, have never and will never lose heart in Chinese literature.
(The author is vice president of Shanghai Writers Association. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.)
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