[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rising-in-1979":3,"chapter-rising-in-1979-rising-in-1979-chapter-30":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rising in 1979",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2260738,4412,"Chapter 30: A Different Kind of Sent-Down Youth Literature","rising-in-1979-chapter-30",30,"\u003Cp>Chen Rong didn’t truly enter the literary world until she was forty, but she was best known for her children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had two sons and one daughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eldest son, Liang Zuo, was a famous screenwriter; her second son, Liang Tian, was a famous actor; her youngest daughter, Liang Huan, was a screenwriter and also the third wife of the renowned director Ying Da.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Wei Ming was on duty, both Liang Zuo and Ying Da had seen him—he was from the Chinese Department of ’77, and they from the Psychology Department of ’79.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly, during his years at the People’s Art Theatre, he was close to Song Dandan and had heard her curse Ying Da and his wife many times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My apologies, I’ve read your ‘Ten Thousand Green,’ let me call you Teacher Chen.” Since Chen Rong was also a middle school teacher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, no, no, just call me Big Sister—I entered the field late, everyone calls me a young writer,” Chen Rong smiled, studying Wei Ming curiously: “Can I call you Little Wei?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did you just arrive today?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, how long have you been here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A week already, and I haven’t finished revising yet.” She sighed, feeling a pang of homesickness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then I must be too optimistic—I thought I could finish in five days.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe I’m just overly meticulous. By the way, where are you from?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hebei, from Yanjing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m from Yanjing too,” Chen Rong felt a sudden warmth, and asked, “Are you a college student?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, I guard the gate at university.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Really?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Guess my demeanor really is off—everyone’s first reaction is to doubt my identity,” Wei Ming said helplessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since he said that, Chen Rong had no choice but to believe him and asked, “Then which university do you work at?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Peking University.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Peking University! My son is at Peking University too!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Which department? Maybe I know him,” Wei Ming asked knowingly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Chinese Department, class of ’77, named Liang Zuo—not tall, a bit fat, wears glasses, always smiles when he sees someone, very good-natured,” Chen Rong described her son, then added, “Not good-looking.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming smiled: “I remember him—I think I’ve seen him, but not well. I’ve only been on duty for a bit over half a month and am still a temporary worker.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re about to publish a novel in ‘Shouhuo’—no need to worry about your future career; you’ve got a bright future ahead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Haha, then I’ll take Big Sister’s good wishes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing her meal, Chen Rong exchanged room numbers with Wei Ming and agreed to call out if they ran into trouble—they both lived on the second floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After eating, Wei Ming went upstairs, slept for a while, then visited the ‘Shouhuo’ editorial office again around four in the afternoon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaolin pulled out Wei Ming’s original manuscript and her list of over ten revision suggestions, the first being the novel’s title.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“‘Donkey Five, Donkey Six’—you’re mocking the sent-down youth who act all high and mighty, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly—why can’t I mock them?” He had deliberately changed the original donkeys’ names from Hei Liu and Hei Qi to Hei Wu and Hei Liu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time, sent-down youth literature mostly portrayed the group’s miserable rural lives from their own perspective; with so many such voices, Wei Ming wanted to write something different—about sent-down youth who stole chickens and dug up vegetables, loathed by everyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both kinds of life existed, both had countless real-life examples, but those who could write novels were mostly returned sent-down youth, whose voices were loud enough to dominate, so naturally they wrote only of their own suffering—hence stories like ‘Donkey Five, Donkey Six’ were extremely rare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaolin immediately spotted this novel, one key reason being its fresh perspective, distinct from the popular sent-down youth literature of the time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, she didn’t recommend directly insulting in the title: “It could escalate conflict—many young writers in today’s literary scene rose to fame through traditional sent-down youth literature.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming humbly accepted the suggestion and reverted the title to the original, ‘The Tale of Two Donkeys.’ Then came the sexual descriptions—the donkeys, the men and women.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming, perhaps influenced by writers like Jia Pingwa and Chen Zhongshi from the northwest school, portrayed sex in a wild, primal way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe in a few years it would be acceptable, but now, with reform just beginning, Wei Ming was moving too fast—ordinary readers couldn’t keep up, so some parts had to be toned down; several revision notes were precisely because of this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After arguing his case, he cut back some of the human sexual scenes but kept the donkey ones—these were his precious life experiences, rural knowledge city folks would never encounter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Have you ever seen the thing used to drag the floor!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conversation then turned to deeper themes in ‘The Tale of Two Donkeys’—systemic oppression of the individual, and the individual’s resistance to the system.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From this angle, whether the sent-down youth Ma Jie or the donkey brothers Hei Wu and Hei Liu, they were all beasts of burden, all worthy of sympathy; the true evil came from Team Leader Dalian.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This character carried strong symbolic weight—Wei Ming modeled him after Zhao Chunlai, the team leader of Gouzi Village, even more autocratic and tyrannical than the film version.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaolin hoped Wei Ming would hide his intentions deeper, not reveal them so obviously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rest of the revisions were minor issues—this was what Li Xiaolin truly wanted to emphasize: don’t erase the author’s ideas, but protect them as much as possible, seek a balanced solution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming pondered: “Hmm, I’ll think about it carefully when I get back.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After listing the revisions, Li Xiaolin began praising: “Your novel is brilliantly darkly humorous, with a uniquely distinctive style—some might say it’s like Lao She, but it’s even more accessible to the masses; this Beijing-style, rough-and-tumble prose is incredibly compelling—someone might even imitate your style later.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming merely smiled at the praise, still lost in thought about how to revise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No rush—you’re probably here for the first time, take some time to relax, maybe new inspiration will come.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Better to get to work first, Editor Li—if I revise quickly, can you schedule it for the November issue?” Wei Ming asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you in a hurry for money?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s one reason—I don’t have a single representative work yet, so I feel embarrassed asking for higher fees from other magazines; ‘Yanjing Literature’ has also accepted one of my novellas, but I don’t know if it’ll be published next month—really frustrating.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“‘Yanjing Literature’ is a monthly, and it’s published at the start of the month—its publication date will definitely come before ours.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaolin added, then suddenly realized: “You mean, when ‘The Tale of Two Donkeys’ is published, you won’t be a newcomer anymore, so your fee shouldn’t be set at the newcomer rate, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming smiled innocently: “I don’t really understand these things—you decide what’s fair.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaolin laughed—since the moment she first met him, when he accepted those two yuan in the bet without hesitation, she knew this kid wasn’t one who treated money like dirt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming thought to himself: If I had more money than I could spend, I’d treat money like dirt too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As she saw Wei Ming off downstairs, Li Xiaolin said: “I’ll argue with the chief editor to get you a price worthy of this manuscript.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And try to publish it as soon as possible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Got it, got it—go back and revise quickly,” Li Xiaolin said, half-laughing, half-exasperated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back at the guesthouse, Wei Ming immediately spread out paper and began writing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two hours later, someone knocked on the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He opened it to find Professor Qu, there to collect her luggage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve finally returned—here’s the key, room 205 next door.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Professor Qu saw the papers already laid out on Wei Ming’s desk and asked: “Already revising?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, I wrote a short story,” Wei Ming said, “only two thousand words—could you submit it to ‘Story Weekly’ for me? See how much I can get for it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1344,"2026-06-19T16:30:57.111Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","6f5075ef06287cd16d88beb8994b9c4ee2f9d2c0945ba5b767e6d1d5f1f01d6b","rising-in-1979-chapter-31","rising-in-1979-chapter-29",509,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frising-in-1979-cover.jpg"]