Source: trendy Meditations (id:xinchaochensi)
Author: Tianshu
In recent days, one of the “four talents” in Hong Kong, writer Ni Kuang passed away, which, as you can see, triggered a lot of discussion on the Internet.
Just like many post-00s don’t know Jin Yong now, as a writer whose popularity is oneortwo levels lower than that of Jin Yong, most of those who have read Ni Kuang’s works in the mainland are post-80s and post-90s who, like me, wandered in the 50:01 book rental house when I was a child. The upper and lower generations may only hear about him. The Wesley series, Ni Kuang’s representative works, is indeed the most suitable type for renting a bookstore in those years. There are a large number of copies, attractive themes, low reading threshold, and each book is relatively thin. The boss doesn’t care too much if it is lost or damaged in the process of borrowing.
Ni Kuang was once praised by many as the representative of Chinese science fiction. In fact, this is the “status” obtained by taking advantage of the comparative advantage of the entire Hong Kong Cultural Industry in those years. Before Liu Cixin’s popularity, before the Internet was widely popularized, the audience of science fiction literature in the mainland was very small. Although science fiction world magazine was published in 1979, the highest circulation in the whole history was only 400000 copies. You know, when the circulation of pure literature magazine harvest was millions in the 1980s, it can be said that the audience of science fiction literature in China has been less than that of mainstream pure literature for a long time.
Otherwise, science fiction often appears as a relative of children’s literature in the list of extracurricular reading in primary and secondary schools. For example, many people contact Jules Verne in primary and secondary schools because it is an extracurricular reading designated by the education system. Wang Jinkang, one of the four great kings of science fiction in China, once said: in China, science fiction has almost no place in the literary corridor. I hope the literary world will ‘recruit’ us.
In this case, thanks to the huge number of book rental houses in every county in the country, Wesley series has become the “science fiction enlightenment” of many people, which is a phenomenon caused by the special period of cross-strait history and culture. After growing up, with the popularity of the Internet and the growth of reading, most people will laugh when they recall Wesley series, but this is indeed the cultural memory of that generation.
This time Ni Kuang passed away. In the face of a lot of reminiscence and praise in the media, many netizens pointed out that Ni Kuang fled to Hong Kong after committing crimes in the mainland in his early years, and later was a firm anti Communist and pro Hong Kong separatist. His experience was indeed the same. The relevant experience in the mainland was also told by Ni Kuang in his program “no defense tonight”. Those who have seen the Wesley series well should be aware of Ni Kuang’s attitude towards the mainland and the Communist Party. After arriving in Hong Kong, his first work, burying alive, also gained market by smearing black soil. During the Hong Kong Independence riots in 2019, Ni Kuang was still on the side of the Hong Kong Independence elements. This position is naturally to be criticized and liquidated at a time when Hong Kong urgently needs a “second return”.
However, it is also because of the disgust with Ni Kuang’s position and the inherent impression of Wesley series. There are many views on the Internet that Ni Kuang is not worthy of the title of “four talents” in Hong Kong. Most of the reasons are that except for the three outlook problems, the Wesley series has crude writing and repeated patterns, and most of the suspense is solved by aliens.
This understanding is somewhat one-sided. Obviously, relying solely on Wesley series or some other novels of Ni Kuang, he can not catch up with Liang Yusheng and later Huang Yi in the height of popular literature. Ni Kuang’s really important contribution to Hong Kong’s cultural industry is the various film scripts he wrote. Talking about the early development of Hong Kong’s film industry, Ni Kuang can’t get around it.
In addition to the film and television adaptation of his own works, such as Wesley and the six finger harp demon, Ni Kuang wrote more than 300 screenplays for Shao and other film companies, many of which played an important role in shaping the national narrative view and martial arts world view in the early Hong Kong film industry. For example, Bruce Lee’s “big brother of Tangshan” and “Jingwu gate” were written by Ni Kuang. The role of Chen Zhen was invented by Ni Kuang, who synthesized many historical characters, and became an important image in Hong Kong’s national narrative in later film and television films.
Most of the representative works of Cheung Che, the founder of Hong Kong martial arts films, are also written by Ni Kuang. Such as “one armed knife”, “mayongzhen”, “revenge”, “bayonet”, “Thirteen Taibao”, etc., after the 1970s, they began to rewrite the themes dominated by the traditional martial arts industry in Guangdong, such as Zhang Che’s “Fang Shiyu and Hong Xiguan”, Liu Jialiang’s “Shenda”, “Lu Achei and Huang Feihong”, “Shaolin 36 rooms”, etc., the first zombie film in Hong Kong to wear the image of the Qing Dynasty official uniform, and Liu Jialiang’s “Maoshan zombie boxing”, The screenwriter is also Ni Kuang. Although Ni Kuang gradually stopped writing scripts after the new wave movement in the Hong Kong film industry in the 1980s, it can be seen from the types of scripts that Ni Kuang has a pioneering position in several representative narrative models in the Hong Kong film industry – national heroes defeating foreigners Hercules, Shao style kung fu films, folk tales, beach gangs and other types.
Of course, screenwriting is only a part of the film industry. The glorious era of Hong Kong films supported by these films is the result of the joint efforts of all practitioners, but objectively speaking, Ni Kuang’s assembly line high-speed creative ability really matches the Hong Kong film production mode of that era. And this assembly line writing method reflected in his novels is the various defects of Wesley series that were roast.
In fact, the so-called “four talents” is a legacy of old China. After all, “talent” is a too broad concept. Just like the so-called “master”, there are good people who invent, and there are good people who publicize. Not only the Hong Kong media, but also the mainland media are happy with such names as “talent” and “master”.
There is specialization in the field of technology. What kind of ability and status a person has in the specialized field can have a more accurate measurement system in modern society. Such as “talents” and “masters” are often suspected of fooling and flattering. However, Ni Kuang and Cai Lan also modestly expressed in the interview that they did not agree with the concept of the four talents, and felt that it was a shame to put themselves together with Jin Yong.
It’s true that among the “four talents”, Ni Kuang, Huang Kai and Cai Lan played an important role in shaping the unique temperament of Hong Kong’s cultural industry with film as the core. We can reject the title of “four talents”, but we also need to have an objective evaluation of their position in the cultural history. After all, it is more reliable to call these people “talents” than to call Gao Xiaosong and others “talents”. There are still too many “talents” like Gao Xiaosong at present.
People with anti Communist positions like Ni Kuang have existed in Hong Kong for a long time, which is not only his personal problem, but also a microcosm of history. Since 1840, all levels of the Chinese nation have been trying to save the nation from subjugation to survival. But although they are all under the great goal of saving the nation from subjugation and striving for survival, in fact, the class positions and interests of all people are different. Finally, the Communist Party of China proved that only a new road can completely save China, and this new road not only safeguarded the subject concept and scope of old China to the greatest extent, but also was incompatible with too many things in old China in essence.
After the founding of new China, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Chinese circles, not only gathered a lot of elite classes in old China, but also concentrated on retaining various feudal residual historical cancer in old China. The Ni Kuang family is very typical. 49 years later, his parents took his siblings to Hong Kong. He stayed in the mainland with his brother. Later, he defected to Hong Kong, and his brother Ni Yifang has been working and contributing in the mainland and has become a famous chemical expert in China. In such a family, the two different values are the epitome of the times in the process of transformation from old China to new China.
In the era of Hong Kong British rule, Hong Kong people have always been in a dominant position. Most of the middle and upper managers are sent by Britain, so ordinary people have no channels to participate in politics. Instead, unlike today, while various political forces are in chaos, they are obsessed with the status and freedom of Hong Kong people in the colonial era. In fact, from the 1950s and 1960s to the 1980s, the national narrative view in the film and television industry in Hong Kong was prosperous, on the one hand, because many old Chinese elites brought the pre-modern concept of family and nation to Hong Kong, on the other hand, it was the expression of the rebellious mentality of the colonized and oppressed. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hong Kong was not rich. The living standard of ordinary people was very poor, not to mention their status. Readers who have read Wang Jing’s chasing the dragon will feel it. Even after Hong Kong’s economy took off in the 1970s, the essential status of Chinese has not changed much. It is just that there are more rich people and more decent people. In addition, we mentioned that ordinary Hong Kong people enjoyed the comparative dividend advantage over the mainland at that time.
In short, at that time, there were not many people like Ni Kuang who were anti Communist and engaged in national narration at the same time. Whatever else, after all, the national narrative occupied the mainstream market at that time. Ni Kuang was a businessman who wrote and took money. He could write whatever the market needed, which also created a situation in which he did participate in this historical process subjectively and objectively, no matter what he thought.
As we mentioned earlier, the system of “one country, two systems” has failed to shape the identity of the two places in the 25 years since Hong Kong’s return. Over the past 25 years, it is hard to say how much the recognition of Hong Kong people for new China has increased. At least from the political level, it was still a failure before the national security law was enacted. Over the past 25 years, in the new generation of Hong Kong, the traditional concept of nation and country has also been seriously diluted.
Many cultural celebrities in Hong Kong had more or less two sides in their words and deeds in their early years, such as supporting reunification and opposing the Communist Party at the same time. In essence, after new China and old China parted ways, due to historical and cultural, political and economic, international situation and other reasons, it takes a long historical process to form a unified identity. The development and political strength of the mainland itself is only the external condition to accelerate this process, The resolution of internal contradictions is only the beginning today. The incident that Jacky Cheung was forced to declare his position these days has aroused the disgust of many people. In fact, this is a microcosm of the spontaneous overreaction of public opinion to the widespread two-sided behavior in those years. In this process, there will be people who will be injured by mistake, which will cause disgust.
In fact, long before the return, Jacky Cheung expressed his position. And even others, such as the Internet public opinion’s questioning of Jacky Cheung, obviously this is not a good way to deal with similar things. As long as there is no obvious Hong Kong Independence field, it should not force people to prove their innocence, but should pay more attention to and treat people with firm positions. The issue of Hong Kong Independence is different from that of Taiwan independence. In the final analysis, Hong Kong has returned. No matter how noisy, there is essentially no room for practical operation, but it needs the process of assimilation. On the contrary, for Taiwanese artists, in view of the current situation on both sides of the Taiwan Straits and the current historical nodes, it is necessary for those who want to come to the mainland to make money to clearly deny the positions of “Taiwan independence”, “the Republic of China” and so on.
In fact, this is not something that netizens can solve. In essence, it is the lack of functions of the cultural propaganda department and the Hong Kong Department. Among the Hong Kong stars, such as Tony Leung Ka Fai and Wang Mingquan are very hard-working. Compared with other artists with general enthusiasm, have they received more resources and preferential treatment, and have they received the recognition they deserve? Whether the publicity department can play a more active and effective role in the work of artists in the united front of Hong Kong and Taiwan? These works are obviously not enough.
Although the mainland currently has the world’s largest commercial and cultural market, it is still driven by low-quality and inefficient entertainment and flow capital. Many resources are arranged only considering the attributes of capital and flow. Except for the theme film, there are few national level activities to integrate the resources of the three places on both sides of the Taiwan Straits to create advantageous projects. In the past two days, the mainland variety show representative Langjie No. 3 middle school and the operation of Wang Xinling group to modify the lyrics of “stars light up” are another proof that the level of mainland cultural and entertainment publicity is still low. In the case of copyright, it is not that it cannot be changed, but that the level of change is really not very good. Compared with the reinterpretation of “a piece of red cloth” by Sun Nan and Lao Zai in “I’m a singer”, which were both Hunan TV, it can only be said that at present, many aspects of mainland entertainment are indeed going backwards.
Back to Ni Kuang, even if we only watch his most well-known Wesley series, it is not completely useless. At that time, the ideas in some of his stories still had bright spots. First of all, not all of Wesley’s series are “suspense, and finally aliens”. In fact, the theme range is relatively wide, including urban anecdotes, the past of the Republic of China, strange people, looting and tomb theft. Like the golden story, I think it can be regarded as an excellent novella of the Republic of China. Later, the mainland also had writers who continued to deepen these types, such as Naduo, whose subject range was very close to Wesley. In the Jianghu literature of the Republic of China, there were such integrators as Tianxia Basong, such as the tomb robbing notes of the third uncle of the Southern Sect, in which some settings have the shadow of Wesley series.
Even if it is related to aliens, there are some works with highlights. His first novel about aliens, blue blood man, written in 64, also conceived a very rough story of Saturn’s visitors. By 66, there had been no small evolution in atomic space. In atomic space, an astronaut from 2064 who was sent to the Martian colony connected with the spacecraft because of the cosmic oscillation and crossed back a hundred years ago, found that he had overwhelming power compared with human beings a hundred years ago, so he became ambitious to manipulate several big countries to achieve domination over all mankind. Later, under the influence of the protagonist, he gave up his ambition and embarked on the journey back to his own era. At the same time, another astronaut who crossed over 400 years later due to accident said that after 400 years, mankind has no distinction between countries and nations, and has achieved world harmony. Then, the protagonists encountered cosmic shock and space drift, not only witnessing the end of the earth, but also seeing the eternal Starman who has evolved into a pure radio form of biology. (I saw it too long ago, and I can’t remember any more plots)
Even for the works of the golden sci-fi era in the United States at the same time, these ideas still have some desirable places, but the space and style are limited, which is far from reaching the standard of becoming a masterpiece. Later, “hair” and “eyes” are also works worth reading on the idea of aliens.
At that time, the soft science fiction giants in the United States generally had two problems: one was that they liked to repeat history on the scale of science fiction, such as the “base” series and the decline of the Roman Empire; the other was that they had serious religious plots, such as “dune” and “Hyperion”. To be honest, these historical and religious elements are of little value to science fiction readers who are not European cultural centers.
Wesley’s works involving aliens in the 1960s and 1970s often have several themes, such as where human civilization came from, how humans get along with aliens, the outcome of mankind, and so on. Although the assumption is often naive, at least “the world will be unified in 400 years” is more in line with our thinking than “the Galactic Empire has existed for more than 100000 years”, “colonization and Militarism on alien planets”. Of course, the level of Ni Kuang’s later works did decline significantly. In terms of writing, he was indeed a qualified literary businessman at that time, rather than a literary creator who pursued excellence.
It is the so-called cultural propaganda position. If you don’t occupy it, others will occupy it. The popularity of Wesley was also a reflection of the long-standing problems in China’s cultural field. In fact, science fiction, as a literary form highly related to the level of social and scientific development, together with the developed science fiction film and television, can actually represent the spiritual outlook of a big country. Science fiction in the United States and Japan are very developed. However, for a long time, as Wang Jinkang said, there has been no place for science fiction in the mainstream literature for a long time. As for what was going on in the mainstream literature circle in those days, we certainly know that all kinds of shallow imitation of western “pioneer literature”, then “Scar Literature”, “suffering literature” and others, and then all kinds of demonized Orientalism, pseudo national folk history, pseudo critical realism and so on. If the existence of these works was also a necessary part of the historical process, it would have been better to look up at the sky many years ago.
Not to mention that in those days, until now, there are also many people in the mainstream literary circles and critical circles, all kinds of Cybernetics “western Malaysia postmodern psychoanalytic cultural critics”, who are extremely capable of relegating Liu Cixin’s works, or the whole science fiction. But science fiction writers can’t write well, they don’t understand human nature, science fiction is weak in front of philosophy and sociology, and so on. I won’t list them here.
In fact, the greatest value of science fiction is that it can naturally provide people with a different “paradigm” to carry out social experiments in the field of thinking, which is often excluded by most scholars who conduct philosophical sociology research based on the times themselves. For example, in the sociological research on LGBT, they only pay attention to the deconstruction and reconstruction of the concept of gender power. They do not consider the impact of various issues on the long-term future of human society, and often reject the “grand narrative” to cover up the discourse of this “progressive cause”. But a science fiction fan who cooperates in reading will naturally find all kinds of problems by substituting the scale of time and space to think about the current theories.
Liu Cixin once delivered a speech called “beyond narcissism – opportunities for literature given by science fiction”, which believed that mainstream literature was too “narcissistic”, and only the last two paragraphs are reproduced here:
Literature is moving towards deeper narcissism, grand narratives are disappearing, more and more introverted, more and more homely, the relationship between man and nature naturally fades out of sight, and even the relationship between man and man is becoming impatient, leaving only the relationship between oneself and oneself, and only the murmur of individuals. At the same time, literature that abandoned the times and people complained that it was abandoned by the former.
As a science fiction fan and layman in literature, I really have no intention to blame anything. It’s the same sentence: human beings and literature have the right to narcissism, and what exists is reasonable. Just think: while introverted and curtilage literature exists, can there be an extroverted literature that reflects the relationship between man and nature? Can we use literature to touch something bigger than human nature?
In fact, not only literature, but also contemporary philosophy, sociology, various cultural products, and many things in cultural criticism theory also have this tendency? It’s not that we should exclude these things, but at least it’s a fact that science fiction has been despised in China for a long time. As a big country still developing, as a country that must lead to change the world and achieve self-change, it still needs more science fiction vision.
Whether it’s the “talent” or the prosperity of film and television culture, the era that belongs to Hong Kong has finally passed, and Hong Kong has finally begun the process of “second return”. From the perspective of historical materialism, all kinds of complicated veins and characters in this period of history, what should be affirmed and criticized about the glorious cultural history of Hong Kong, will eventually be objectively and clearly evaluated.
But now, the era of cultural prosperity that belongs to China as a whole has not completely arrived, and we are still on the eve of the explosion of savings. But also from time to time in some areas repeatedly sawing and reversing. Of course, Ni Kuang is far from representing the achievements of Chinese science fiction, but we still need more Liu Cixin.
It is believed that the cultural workers who have grown up in China in the new era will eventually thoroughly integrate and carry forward our excellent and profound cultural resources, develop new cultural imagination and systems, no longer cater to the imagination and affirmation of others, do their own things and tell their own stories.