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Young writers blooming on campus
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Peng Zhaoxia
SINCE the family planning policy was introduced in the mainland two decades ago, the majority of school age students are the only child of their parents. What's their life like? What kind of aspirations and pursuits do they have? These are questions many adults, especially many parents, are curious about.
The teenagers in Shenzhen are privileged with easy access to many things that are found in modern cities. However, they have to face, albeit reluctantly, clashes between Eastern and Western cultures, and moreover, the effects, either positive or negative, stemming from the market economy. Modern life's quick rhythm, competition and pressures of all kinds make it possible that worries about their studying, their future career, going abroad, self-cultivation and so on, are all brought to the forefront of their lives.
Flower Season Rainy Season, a novel, by a 16-year-old local girl---Yu Xiu, was the book that first reflected the life of middle school students living in the special economic zone, giving a chance for its readers to penetrate into the spiritual world of these youngsters.
It proved to be a big success: The novel was first published in SZ in 1996 and soon after, copies started appearing in the whole of the mainland. Filmmakers, TV directors, cartoon authors, magazine editors and so on, all wanted to publicize the novel. In fact, present figures show that over 1.7 million copies have been printed and that doesn't include the two or three million pirated copies.
Flower Season Rainy Season brought about an increase in the writing and publication of middle school students' works in the late 1990s, which some described as the Phenomenon of Flower Season Rainy Season.
"Under the influential effect of Flower Season Rainy Season, there are now more than 100 different kinds of novels written by middle school students, amongst which local writers account for eight kinds," Kuang Xin, chief editor of the Sea-Sky Publishing House---SZ's only publishing house, told Shenzhen Daily, adding that many of these books came in the spirit of Flower Season Rainy Season, and so were given names to reflect this phenomenon.
"At that time, thousands of teenagers tried to write novels, and every day I would receive numerous letters and phone calls," Kuang Xin said, adding that the number of writings which could actually be used was quite small.
Yu Xiu and her novel
Flower Season Rainy Season describes the colourful life of local middle school students while pondering on social life. We can see her parents and teachers through the eyes of a teenager, and more importantly, it depicts this young generation's flowery but rainy world.
Yu Xiu, at that time the youngest writer in China, started to write her novel in 1993 when she was 16 and still at middle school. She didn't tell her parents until two years later, when she finally finished writing. Understanding that this task must have been a painstaking effort, with his daughter sacrificing almost two years of her spare time, her father, Yu Longyu, a professor of Chinese language at Shenzhen University, decided to have it published.
When asked how he feels about his daughter writing and being able to get it published, Yu Longyu told Shenzhen Daily: "As her father, of course I'm glad and proud that she succeeded. It felt like a miracle. It's not that easy for a teeanage girl."
However, he expressed his worries that middle school students should first concentrate their efforts on schoolwork and that writing probably will take up too much of their time. "Middle school students, especially primary school students, should not be encouraged to write novels unless he or she has a very special talent," he added.
Yu Xiu has just graduated from an American university. With the experience of studying abroad, she has now decided to stay in America and write, her father told Shenzhen Daily.
A two-girl effort
Judging from their childish looks you could never tell that these two girls---Lei Ni and Li Ying--- are the writers of a saga about ancient Chinese knights---Love Story of Knights--- published in SZ last June.
Inspired by Flower Season Rainy Season, and because both of them are interested in history and the stories created by the famous Hong Kong writers---Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng, they began at the ages of 12 and 13 to first conceive their novel. They quickly decided to divide the workload between them, each writing different chapters. Two years later, Love Story of Knights came into being.
Love Story of Knights tells a story of two ancient Chinese knights, one male, the other female. The book has everything, love, hate, revenge and finally justice.
According to them, the two friends are complementary in character. Li Ying is an extrovert and somewhat laddish, Lei Ni is introvertive and more girly. Neither of them likes pop music, but they have wider interests in music and fine art.
"We very much enjoyed the whole process of writing, and we learned a lot," Li Ying earnestly told Shenzhen Daily .
According to Xue Ming, the novel's managing editor at Sea-Sky Publishing House, Lei Ni and Li Ying took a crash course in the poems of the Tang and Song dynasties in their spare time so that they could make the language more vivid and conform better to their novel's background. As a result, their Chinese language ability has improved considerably, and this was noted at school.
"We feel like a minority among our contemporaries," they concluded for themselves.
A weird genius
We cannot discuss local teenage writers without mentioning Qiqige, a young woman who is said to be a descendant of the renowned Mongolian hero, Tiemuzhen. With only four years of Chinese primary school education behind her, she moved to Turkey with her family. When she was 15, she came back to China and settled down in SZ with her family, an ordinary family, with her parents both retired and a brother who knows a bit about martial arts but whose job is nothing special. Her family background, apart from her famous ancestor, doesn't seem to give us any clue to her future. However, this girl shocked us with her special talents.
Starting writing in 1996 at the age of 12, Qiqige finished her first novel about ancient Chinese knights---Falling Down to Earth---in 1999 and it was duly published in two parts. In the same year, she finished her second novel also about knights---Tolerant Sword, which won third place at the 1999 Chinese Knights Novel Competition held in Hong Kong. What's worth mentioning is that this was the first time that a mainland writer won an award at this type of competition. Tolerant Sword was published last January in SZ.
Romance Of A Princess, the third saga by Qiqige was published in SZ this year. The novel is a beautiful love story about a princess and a people's knight in the Qing Dynasty.
According to Kuang Xin, Qiqige makes a clear distinction between right and wrong, love and hate and advocates poetic justice in her novels.
It is said that at the age of 12, Qiqige started to read a novel by Gu Long---History of Martial World--- and was so affected that all she could do was to conceive stories about knights one after another, until finally a whole novel had been shaped out.
"She's simply a weird genius," concluded Zhou Haiyan, an editor for her novels.
There are still many local teenagers who go to school but are devoted to writing. With concise thinking, exuberant imagination, and a strong desire for knowledge, these young writers love to explore fresh and unknown fields, revealing to their readers their strong independent spirit and productivity, providing us with the access to the world in their heads. Whether we like their writings or not, we should cherish them just like we cherish our own eyes, because they are our future.
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