China News Service, Beijing, September 13 (Reporter Gao Kai) A symposium to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Liu Shaotang’s birth was recently held in Beijing under the guidance of the Chinese Writers Association and hosted by the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Museum of Modern Literature of China.
Liu Shaotang is a famous native literature writer, known as the "Son of the Grand Canal", a representative writer of the "Lotus Lake School" and the founder of the "Grand Canal Native Literature System".
Writer and "People's Artist" Wang Meng, member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, Qiu Huadong, Director of the Museum of Modern Literature of China, and Wang Cheng, member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Chairman of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, attended and delivered speeches.
Wang Meng said that day that Liu Shaotang was the earliest writer he knew who wrote about New China, the new countryside, and the new atmosphere. He is passionate about creation and is also a leader. He cares very much about literature lovers among young people and farmers. Writers such as Haoran and Cong Weixi have been influenced by him. Liu Shaotang's works deserve attention, review, and study, and his life experience is valuable.
Qiu Huadong said that Liu Shaotang is an outstanding writer with a unique style in the history of contemporary Chinese literature and an important representative of the "Lotus Lake School". With his clear and vivid language and pastoral style of writing, he left a uniquely identifiable rural picture for contemporary Chinese literature. Liu Shaotang is a literary master with a high degree of cultural consciousness who adheres to national style and local character. He clearly advocated that literary creation should have "Chinese style, national style, local characteristics, and local themes", emphasized the inheritance of the fine traditions of Chinese classical novels and folk rap art, and pursued storytelling, legend, and vivid language. The human fireworks in his works are warm, kind and interesting, with deep affection and respect for ordinary people flowing everywhere.
Wang Cheng said that Liu Shaotang had been rooted in the hometown of Jingdong all his life, based on his hometown of the canal, and wrote classic chapters such as "Puliu Family", "Jingmen Face" and "Guapengliu Alley", vividly describing the fireworks and local customs on both sides of the canal with 7 million words of literary works. He used literary methods to establish a biography of Beijing's regional culture. His works are not only an important achievement of Chinese local literature, but also a precious spiritual resource in Beijing's literary treasure house.
At the meeting, experts and scholars such as Zheng Enbo, Zeng Zhennan, Liu Qingbang, Li Er, Han Jingqun, He Shaojun, Bai Ye, Li Linrong, Rao Xiang, etc. spoke successively. They believe that Liu Shaotang is a representative of contemporary local literature and he has a conscious awareness of local literature. His works inherit the excellent traditions of Chinese classical literature, May Fourth New Literature, and Liberated Area Literature. They combine the clear beauty of the "Lotus Lake School" with the vigorous beauty of the "Yanzhao Culture" and are full of the unique local flavor of the Grand Canal. His works praise the changes in rural areas after the founding of New China. Based on the Beiyun Canal, he completely transplants the local ethics, canal transportation relics, market folk customs, and folk morals of the Jingdong area into the narrative of the novel, expanding the regional boundaries of the "Lotus Lake School" and building a world of Grand Canal local literature. He intertwined the beauty of nature, human feelings and life to form a unique style. He inspired today's writers and literary theorists to form a close relationship of flesh and blood and a harmonious relationship with the fiery reality of social development.
