On July 23, a literary event titled "Famous Writers Arrive at the Literary 'County' Scene" was held in Qinshui county of Jincheng, Shanxi province, organized by the China Writers Association. Qinshui is the hometown of the celebrated "people's writer" Zhao Shuli, whose 120th birth anniversary falls this year.
Zhang Hongsen, chairman and Party group secretary of the association, said at the welcoming ceremony that Qinshui is a spiritual landmark for countless literature enthusiasts. "Literature can only flourish when it is rooted in the people and the land," he said. He noted that when writers visit county towns — home to more than 700 million people in China — they don't just bring something to the people but also take away the richest raw material for their work.
That same day, a segment of the "Literary Masters Dialogue in Qinshui" event brought writers including Chen Jiangong, Mai Jia, and Ma Boyong together with hundreds of local literature enthusiasts.
Chen Jiangong praised the enduring, cross-generational appeal of Zhao Shuli's works. He said he has long written about miners and ordinary citizens because he sees himself as one of them and hopes to convey the authentic taste of everyday life.
Mai Jia, author of The Message, believes that the core creative site for literature is never the study but the vast expanse of reality. After visiting Qinshui's architecturally distinctive Qiu Manor, he remarked, "Had I visited this castle 25 years ago, the Qiu Manor in The Message would have been rendered with even more layers of enclosure and depth." If he writes a sequel, he added, the castle might become a fresh wellspring of inspiration.
Ma Boyong shared his reflections on reading Zhao Shuli: as a teenager, he found Zhao's language simple and straightforward; only as an adult did he come to appreciate the profound literary skill behind that simplicity. By setting foot on the land where Zhao lived and wrote, he hoped to immerse himself in the area's literary heritage.
Chen Shuo contributed to this story.
