Chapter 8

  In your eyes...?

  A beauty in the eyes

  Qiong Yao's lyrics are okay, but her mistake is treating writing as songwriting. It's unbearable. Qiong Yao's early works have a strong innocent girl flavor. Like "The Person Outside the Window" which is one of many teacher-student romance representative works. This has something to do with her personal experiences.

  Qiong Yao is a woman, and it's normal for her to be a bit sentimental. However, being overly sentimental is like pulling noodles - if they're pulled too thin, they'll be popular with the masses, but if they're as thin as hair, they'll set a new Guinness World Record in Shanghai, and that's just unacceptable when eating.

  Qiong Yao's "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", you can't force me to understand what's funny about it, even with a cannon. The dialogue is so cheesy and clichéd, it's hard to find something that stands out in China. Yet the ratings are so high, which just goes to show how common the audience's taste is. There are two kinds of vulgarity: one is like Stephen Chow's style, which is vulgar but has a certain level of sophistication; the other is Qiong Yao's style, which is not even sophisticated in its vulgarity. As for the sequel to "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", although it hasn't received as much praise as the first installment, we can't call it a dog's tail attached to a fox's fur, but rather just another dog's tail growing from the original dog's tail.

  A friend advised me not to speak ill of Qiong Yao, because Qiong Yao has many readers and is afraid of offending them, which would affect book sales. In fact, this is what I hope for the most. If my books fall into the hands of Qiong Yao fans or Huan Zhu Lou fans, I will be thrilled to death.

  Wishing you a smooth journey and good luck!

  In Zhu Yong's "Rewriting Memories", it is said that philosophical works should not be bestsellers, but Zhou Guoping's are. Here, Zhu Yong's brain is like a train and can't turn around. Who says Zhou Guoping's work is a philosophical work? Is it just because Zhou Guoping's work makes sense that it can't be considered a literary work? Does literature not have logic? So what does Mr. Zhu Yong write, literary criticism or philosophical criticism? Isn't literary criticism also a literary work? Then doesn't Zhu Yong's own work lack logic?

  The most embarrassing thing in life is when you punch yourself in the face.

  "Golden King's Battle of Wits in the Eyes"?

  The so-called "Wang-King Debate" was the most boring thing in the literary world of 1999. Outsiders hearing about it thought it would be a lively exchange between Wang Shuo and Jin Yong, with each side writing an article. But in reality, Wang Shuo and Jin Yong only wrote one article each, totaling two articles, which were far from being as brilliant as the debate between Lu Xun and Liang Shiqiu back in the day.

  "The Golden King's War of Words" sounds quite lively on the surface, but in reality, no one knows what it's actually about. It's just Wang Shuo hyping himself up. In fact, Jin Yong was also scolded until he was "eight winds in turmoil", with a look of seeking refuge in Buddhism, showing off his broad-mindedness and being at peace with the world.

  But in my opinion, this is more like a conspiracy between editors and journalists. Wang Shuo's original article was not even a debate. In order to make it convenient for hype, let Jin Yong also write an article, so that they can go back and forth and get to the point. For example, if one person beats another person to death without fighting back, it cannot be called a fight, and the fun is much less.

  The evidence for this inference is that Wang Shuo's "Fearless Ignorance" also included "My View on Lao She", unfortunately Lao She had passed away, and his address in heaven was unknown, so it was impossible to invite Lao She's manuscript, this time Lao She was really "unmoved by the eight winds". Therefore, there wasn't even a hint of wind about this article outside, let alone any "Lao Wang debate" being stirred up.

  But Wang Shuo is praiseworthy, criticizing whoever he doesn't like. These days, literary criticism is written like a student's moral evaluation comments. Like last year, my ideological and moral character was "needs improvement", at first glance it seems to be the case, as if it's just one step away from "excellent". Who knows that "needs improvement" actually means "failing grade". Literary criticism isn't literary romance, why speak so ambiguously? Moreover, this isn't a discussion of study results on "The Doctrine of the Mean", criticizing or not makes no difference. So-called literary criticism is to criticize and then evaluate, otherwise how can it be called literary criticism?

  What's in your eyes, Jiang Hao?

  I received a letter today, saying that my writing style is similar to Jiang Hao's, which gave me quite a shock. The first time I read Jiang Hao's article was in the 1999 issue of "Sprouts". His "Traveling with Poachers" had many stiff and awkward sentences. However, overall, his writing style is still quite readable among many authors, including his newly published "Tibet, A Visit at the End of the Century", which has a humor that is often lacking in most travelogues.

  However, Jiang He's writing is too full of nostalgia. Nostalgia isn't a bad thing, but Jiang He's nostalgia is different from Su Tong's. Su Tong's writing is nostalgic about his life, while Jiang He's is nostalgic about his past glories. At first glance, it seems impressive that he has written so many novels that no one has ever heard of, but after reading more, it becomes tiresome. In Chapter 13 of "Walking with Poachers", Jiang He writes about how he has become indifferent to fame and fortune, including a newspaper article that mentions "until now, there are still illegal bookstores pirating Wang Meng, Jia Pingwa, and Jiang He's books". He claims to be unmoved, putting on an air of detachment. In reality, people who have truly transcended worldly desires wouldn't say they've done so; only those who have only partially let go would put on a show of trampling the world underfoot. Jiang He's failure lies in his claim to be unaffected by fame or shame, yet he can't even convincingly pretend to be above it all, revealing his flaws at a glance.

  Kong Qingdong in the eyes of others?

  I first saw Kong Qingdong's "47th Floor, 207" in the magazine "Youth Digest". As soon as I read it, my heart cried out that I was done for. At the time, I was writing an article called "Those Things, Those People" at the invitation of Yuwen Jun from "Girlfriends", and had written half of it. The style and tone were almost identical to Kong's "47th Floor, 207". He had beaten me to it with his quick publication, which made my own work seem pointless if I were to publish it afterwards. This caused me to put down my pen for half a year on that article.

  Later, I subscribed to the "47th Floor 207" in the Prairie Tribal Series at Zhongshu Bookstore and only understood what Kong Qingdong was all about after finishing it. Some people say that Kong Qingdong is the true humorist of Peking University after Qian Zhongshu, but that's too much praise for him. His humor is far from being as profound as Qian Zhongshu's, and it only belongs to the kind that is obvious on the surface, whereas Qian Zhongshu's humor is deep underwater and you have to dive in to understand it.

  In Kong Qingdong's book, there are a few articles worth reading, such as "47th Floor 207", "Peking University Love Story", "Distant High School 38" and "Idle Chatter about the Morning Star". These are quite funny. As for his academic work, it is obviously not as good as his humorous writing. At least from my point of view, Kong Qingdong is not suitable to be a literary critic because he has a strong sense of love and hate, which makes him tend to judge people rather than their works. He thinks that good things are always good and bad things are always bad. This is not like playing Saint Seiya, where good and evil are clearly distinguished. A good writer can also produce bad works, and vice versa. Just like when I was criticizing Qiong Yao, I also acknowledged her "Window Outside". Kong Qingdong's worship of Jin Yong has reached a blind level.

  Liu Xiang's eyes were red and swollen

  If Mo Xiaoming's articles are considered "small women" articles, then Liu Ying's majority of articles can be called "small men" articles. This type of article is equivalent to writing a prose and then summarizing the meaning inside and writing it at the end, nagging and dragging on.

  I've read some of Liu Yian's articles, the title is already very pretentious, and the content is mostly written in a pretentious tone. Some articles could have ended earlier but they still try to squeeze out more words, it's like they're trying to use every trick in the book. Recently, his new book "Grasping the Tremors of the Soul" was heavily advertised on "Girlfriend", with just 200-300 words, using a pretentious tone to recommend a pretentious book. Liu Yian is worshipped by some inexperienced young men and women as if he's a god, but in fact, his so-called insightful articles about life are very shallow.

  I used to think that Mo Xiaoming's articles were rich in philosophy, and I even imitated a few of them. When I wrote the fifth one, I suddenly realized that the so-called "philosophy" inside was actually something that everyone understood without needing to be told, but when you say it out loud, nobody understands it anymore. From my personal experience, I'm telling you all that if an author writes this kind of article, such as "life insights", once a year, then that piece is definitely going to be a good work. But if they come up with some insight every now and then - choking on food and coming up with a life philosophy, farting loudly and coming up with another life philosophy - then that writer is done for.

  I'll tell you how to write these insightful articles. First, determine a general principle, such as "If you don't work hard when you're young, you'll regret it when you're old" or "As long as you put in the effort, even iron can be ground into a needle". Then, wrap some story like "My friend XXXX" around it. See if the word count is about right and then conclude. Anyone can do this.

  Haruki Murakami in the eyes of the village

  The first book of Haruki Murakami I came into contact with was sent by Gu Su, a writer for the magazine "Youth Literature" in Nanjing. Gu Su seemed to have grasped the essence of Murakami's writing style, and the letters he included with the book were almost as if they were written by Murakami himself.

  The book is his best-selling "Norwegian Wood", the advertisement says "This is a 100% gentle and pure love story". This sentence can be added or not, but if it's not added, many readers who judge books by their covers will think this is some serious literary work, especially in China where it would sell even less. Murakami later said with satisfaction that if he knew "Norwegian Wood" could sell so much, he wouldn't have added the sentence. My point is, without adding the sentence, the book wouldn't have sold as much. Many readers buy books like this: once they hear a book has already sold many copies, it's trendy, and if you don't take a look, you'll be left behind by the trend. If Murakami didn't use this to attract people, he probably couldn't guarantee his initial readership.

  Fortunately, people still prefer the village's. There are also many comments. If the public's attention to a writer has already exceeded his works, then this writer doesn't need to write anything, and going to make an MTV might be more suitable.

  However, Haruki Murakami's books have a major drawback - too much sexual description. I'm not feudal, if I were feudal then no one would be open-minded. It's just that I think excessive sexual descriptions are unnecessary. A writer doesn't need to rely on this to attract readers, writers who use sex to attract readers are all third-rate (meaning both obscene and inferior).

  Murakami's "Dance Dance Dance", "The World's End and Hard-Boiled Wonderland" are just as readable as "Norwegian Wood", but not particularly valuable. The language doesn't have any of Lin Shaohua's so-called "humor", the metaphors aren't as good as Lin Shaohua said, the connections between the physical and metaphorical bodies are stiff, far inferior to Qian Zhongshu by several orders of magnitude.

  Is Chow Yun-fat in your eyes?

  Some newspaper comments say that Chow Sing Chi's movies are popular and elegant, reaching a realm of grandeur and elegance. I don't understand what this so-called "grandeur and elegance" realm is. Although the structure of "grandeur and elegance" is similar to "great enlightenment" and "great kindness", they are completely different things. "Grandeur and elegance" is like "very good or very bad", "big boy, big girl", it's impossible. Chow Sing Chi's movies are just popular, but they have reached an international level of popularity.

  But this is about Stephen Chow's costume dramas, his modern theme movies are not worth watching at all (_Cuisine God_ is barely passable). However, among his films, the best ones are _A Chinese Odyssey_, followed by _Royal Tramp_ and _Flirting Scholar_. The success of _A Chinese Odyssey_ mainly lies in the addition of a romantic storyline, Stephen Chow's comedic value is equivalent to a bucket of tears. This is precisely where it should be, if it were replaced with Zhu Yin's comedic nonsense being equivalent to Stephen Chow's one tear, then the flavor would greatly decline. The two people found their best positions in _A Chinese Odyssey_.

  When it comes to "Journey to the West", I think of the recent TV series that is a continuation of the old "Journey to the West". It's purely a waste of time, with rough production and dragging plot, not worth mentioning. Even the theme song is unpleasant to listen to. So production and screenwriting are also very important things. I dare say that if Chow Sing Chi's good scripts were given to some so-called traditional directors, they might not even pass the test.

  Lo Ta-yu in the eyes?

  Lo Ta-yu is called the "godfather of music", and there has never been a "mother of music" in Taiwan's music history, which proves Lo Ta-yu's special status. There have always been one or two people with such status, today there's a new Jin You, tomorrow another Yu Nu appears, and if it becomes too common, it won't be valuable anymore.

  Lo Ta-yu is a songwriter like Jonathan Lee, both are popular song production lines and have lyrics with depth. Jonathan Lee's recognition is that a good song depends on whether the lyrics are good or not, and the lyrics are more important than the melody. Lo Ta-yu has written many great lyrics, such as "Love Song 1990", "Childhood", "Queen's Road East", "Rolling Red Dust", "Your Face", "The Story of Time" and so on. He also wrote a song with strong political flavor, "Pearl of the Orient", in a very moving way, indeed his skills are not shallow. However, Lo Ta-yu's melodies started to become repetitive later on, and the most repetitive ones are "Childhood" and "The Story of Time".

  Moreover, Luo Dayou's lyrics are beautiful to the point of being empty. He seems to be pursuing a sense of grandeur but his wording becomes chaotic, in the pursuit of a sense of scenery. In this regard, Zhang Hongliang's "Please Settle on Luoyang Bridge" is very successful.

  Overall, Luo Dayou is successful. Luo Dayou must not learn from the sports world's famous generals, who retire and then come back out again. Once Luo Dayou makes a comeback, he will definitely fail.

  Who is Zhang Xincheng?

  My buddy once concluded that wherever there are girls screaming, there is Zhang Xin Zhe.

  The first time I came into contact with Chang Shilei was his album "Use of Emotion", which is his last album under EMI. Overall, the feeling is quite good. Later, I collected all his albums since his debut except for "Lie". Don't say what kind of person Zhang Shilei is, he was born with this voice, can't blame him. Many songs only have flavor when sung by him, such as "Don't be Afraid of My Heartache", "Love Like the Tide" and so on are all good combinations of lyrics and music. But overall, there are more failed songs than successful ones. Especially in terms of lyrics, the more you write, the worse it gets. After switching to Sony Music, those who wrote the lyrics didn't know what they were writing about, often inconsistent, and Chang Shilei himself and his company didn't know what they were choosing, always picking the worst.

  This level of regression started from "Intuition" and has been declining all the way to the current "Come Back". The lyrics of almost every song in the album "Come Back" are probably the worst I've ever seen. Zhang Xincheng is probably living too comfortably now, and his bitter love songs can't convey the bitterness anymore, and no longer have the shocking power they used to have.

  Fiona Sit

  As for Fan Xiaoxuan, I don't want to say too much, just that I personally like her appearance in the MTV of "Rain". Although I strongly support people's lives changing a lot, I don't support a singer - especially a successful one - transforming. It's like when you're in love, both sides always hope the other won't change, unless they themselves change faster. Based on Fan Xiaoxuan's image and voice, emotional ballads are most suitable for her up to "Deep Breathing", going further would be unsuitable for her. Can you accept Fan Xiaoxuan singing Zhang Xinzhe's "Dependent Not Reluctant"? It's like you can't accept Zhang Xinzhe singing Fan Xiaoxuan's "Health Song".

  Is Nicholas Tse in your eyes?

  As for Nicholas Tse, I don't want to say anything more. I'm not even sure if I've written his name correctly. Even more incomprehensible is what the so-called "rebellious spirit" that Xu Wei and others have commented on refers to. You can't just call someone rebellious because they have long hair, Liu Huan hasn't been called rebellious yet. The songs that best represent a singer's personality are all very ordinary clichés. It seems that many reporters' and girls' eyesight is beyond cure. The word "rebellious" isn't something that can be casually slandered just because someone has long hair.

  New concept in eyes?

  Today I received a publication from elsewhere, and I was puzzled as to why it was sent to me. Upon opening the catalog, I saw an article criticizing new concepts, which was written with great logic. The first sentence of the article hit the nail on the head - "Is having more early love affairs equivalent to having new concepts?" Fortunately, my three articles did not write about early love affairs, otherwise they would have been criticized together.

  Regarding "falling in love often", my view is that children from poor families in old China couldn't eat their fill, so they thought about eating all day long. I usually eat a lot, so temporarily I don't have this problem.

  It's not possible to avoid having a crush in the early years, let's be realistic. If you still can't open up about your feelings even after entering high school, you'll miss out on many of life's joys and sorrows, which would be regrettable. As we're all young adults now, most of us who have experienced love (often first loves) have deep memories of it. Writing them down can also help you get into college directly, so why not? However, I recommend everyone to take a look at "White Birch Forest" and Han Leshan's series of books, the stories inside are even more wonderful.

  The biggest drawback of the "new concept" is also its most attractive aspect - the joint sponsorship by several universities. This has made some high school students anxious and eager to make their articles stand out, focusing too much on language. That's it.