Chapter 266 Gifts brought back from the United States
The two returned home to Xijing at noon the next day. Zhang Fenglan, the mother, was very happy when her son came back. Pile of delicious food.
"No, don't do anything, just make me noodles. Tomorrow morning Tangtang and I will go eat Lao Sun's spicy soup."
Fang Minghua stayed at home. It took me three days to go to work, reversing the jet lag.
After going to work, Fang Minghua naturally had to go to the leadership office first, report on his experience of studying abroad, and give away the American ginseng he brought back from the United States.
Of course, most colleagues also wanted to go over and have a chat, but they were given fruit-striped chewing gum, which is also a rare item in China. Everyone ate it very fresh, but Fang Minghua had to keep telling him that it was for freshening the mouth and should not be swallowed. Go down
I spent the whole morning talking and laughing, and then went to work in the afternoon before Fang Minghua returned to his office.
Zhao Muchun has been temporarily in charge of the work of the poetry group since he left. When I came back and asked about it, he was doing well.
Now make yourself a cup of tea and think about one thing: Lawrence Ferlinghetti was willing to publish Chinese avant-garde novels at the City Lights Bookstore in old San Francisco.
At this moment, the door was knocked open and a middle-aged man walked in.
Jia Pingwa.
"I just had something to do with your President Huang. I heard that you came back from abroad, so I came over to sit down." Jia Pingwa said.
"It just so happens, Brother Jia, you like drinking. I brought you a bottle of foreign wine when I came back from the United States." Fang Minghua said, smiling and taking out a bottle of golden wine from the desk cabinet.
“This is called bourbon whiskey, which is a liquor that Americans like to drink. It is fermented and distilled from corn grains. It is said that it must be aged for 4 to 8 years in new white oak barrels with roasted inner walls before it can be sold. You can’t bring too many gadgets, and you can’t bring more than two liters into the airport duty-free shop. Brother Jia, try it. How does this foreign wine taste compared to our Xifeng wine?”
“Thank you, I’ve already seen it. I know you will definitely bring something good when you return to China." Jia Pingwa took it over without any courtesy and looked at it from left to right. It was very fresh.
"Minghua, when you have free time, I'll treat you to a treat and let everyone try the bottle of foreign wine you brought back!" Jia Pingwa said.
"Is Lu Yao still in Tongchuan?" Fang Minghua asked again.
"He's still there, but he'll probably be back soon. The first part of his long novel has been written and is being revised."
Fang Minghua nodded after hearing this, and then said: "I I brought him a bucket of instant coffee, not Nescafe but Blue Mountain coffee. It is said that the coffee beans are produced in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and taste much better than Nescafe coffee."
"Ha! After drinking your Blue Mountain coffee, you probably dislike the Nescafe coffee he is drinking now. He is so used to it," Jia Pingwa joked.
Fang Minghua also laughed.
It was the winter of 1980. Zhao Hongjun gave him a box of Nescafe coffee that his father brought back from abroad. Fang Minghua didn’t like drinking it very much, so he gave it to Lu Yao. Unexpectedly, he became addicted to it.
I don’t drink tea anymore, I drink this exclusively.
Fortunately, with the reform and opening up, coffee is not a rare commodity. It is available in big cities such as Yanjing and Shanghai, so he asked his friends to bring some back.
"Hey, you brought gifts for me and Lu Yao. You won't miss the time, right?" Jia Pingwa said with a smile.
"Of course not. Teacher Chen's gift is easy to bring, just a box of Cuban cigars! Churchill, Castro, and the American writer Hemingway are all their favorites!"
"Oh, really? Let me smoke one and try it. Forget it, I’ll ask him for it when you give it to Zhongshi!”
The two chatted for a while and then turned to literature: “Minghua, go out!” After a few months, what do you think of the American literary world? "Fang Minghua knew that Jia Pingwa had never been abroad, so he was very curious about the outside world.
Fang Minghua pondered for a moment and said: "American novels are generally very primitive and wild, and lack a sense of history. Although we often talk about British and American novels, in fact, the literary differences between Britain and the United States are still Very big.”
"British novels are more powerful. Like Kazuo Ishiguro or Agatha Christie, the works have a strong sense of class, bringing conflicts and dilemmas, as well as the accompanying prejudices. But it is precisely because of prejudices that the stories Come on, this is somewhat similar to our Chinese literature."
Jia Pingwa lit a cigarette, nodded, and said: "It's not difficult to understand, the United States has a short history, and the United Kingdom is known as Japan. The empire has a much longer history.”
“Also, we really like to read translated works from Europe and the United States, but when I talked with local college students, I found that they have almost no interest in Chinese works, especially modern novels. Nothing." Fang Minghua said.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. Now the domestic translation industry only translates English works into Chinese, and rarely translates Chinese works into English for foreigners to read—oh, except for your science fiction novel. , that Yan University student named Li Li is pretty good.”
“He is mainly taught by Professor Xu Yuanchong from Yan University. Professor Xu is very good at translating our ancient poems,” Fang Minghua said with a smile.
"I've heard about Xu Yuanchong. He seems to have published an English translation of Tang poetry in our Qin Province Publishing House, but my English is not good enough so I can't tell whether it's good or bad."
"The translation is very good. This time when I went to the United States, I taught about ancient Chinese poetry and participated in a recital. It was very popular among local college students. "
"That shows that Professor Xu is a good translator. You also know how beautiful ancient Chinese poetry is. Beautiful, but difficult to translate.”
Fang Minghua said: “Yes, I met a poet named Lawrence Ferlinghetti in San Francisco, who is also the head of San Francisco City Lights Publishing House. I am very interested in avant-garde works. After talking with me, I was asked to recommend some avant-garde novels in our country. They can be translated into English and published in the United States. I will start preparing this after I come back."
"This is. The good thing is that it’s just a avant-garde work, so forget about my novels, and they can’t be considered avant-garde,” Jia Pingwa said.
"Hey, Brother Jia, didn't you write that book "Impossible"? It can also be published in the United States." Fang Minghua said with a smile.
“Do you think it’s feasible?” Jia Pingwa cheered up.
The manuscript of my book "Impotence" has been completed and handed over to Yanjing October Literature and Art Publishing House for publication. Of course, I am still communicating with the editor for revisions, and it is expected to be published next year at the latest.
It would be great if it could be published in the United States.
Fang Minghua said with a smile: "You can give it a try. After your Chinese version is officially published, I will contact Professor Nie Hualing in the United States, who organized the international writer exchange program. She is very keen to introduce the writer industry in our country When the work arrives in the United States, how about sending her the Chinese version and listening to her suggestions?”
"Sure! I'll listen to you!" Jia Pingwa was overjoyed: "Minghua, you have learned a lot from this trip."
"That's right. I think our things, not only literature, must be If you don’t like it, there are always people who like it, right?”
“You’re right! I want to go out and have a look if I have the chance!”
Jia Pingwa rushed away happily.
Fang Minghua looked at his leaving back with a smile on his face.
He didn't mean to be complimentary.
This novel by Jia Pingwa won the Mobil Pegasus Literary Award in the United States!
(End of this chapter)