"I am nearly 50 years old, and I have spent half my life in Shanghai. This is my hometown for me." This is Shanghai in the eyes of online writer Xiang Juan. "This is a very lively city, which can be described as’ moving around for a change’. With the change of my age, work and place of residence, every step I take, the scenery I see is completely different, but every step is a scenery, which is the reason why I like Shanghai. "
Just after the Millennium, Xiang Juan and her husband gave up their jobs in Xuzhou state-owned enterprises for the sake of their children’s education, and came to Shanghai with their children over one year old in their arms. At that time, she never thought that she would embark on the road of online literature creation in Shanghai. "I am not young, but I entered the business late. When I started writing online articles in 2011, I have been working for more than ten years and have been in charge of the human resources department." On April 26th, when she was interviewed by a journalist from Jiefang Daily Shangguan, she couldn’t help feeling the contingency of writing this experience.
Idle listening to falling flowers
"I am the first batch of chicken blood mothers." Xiang Juan said that letting children receive a better education in Shanghai was the only reason for their family to move. At that time, people around them invested heavily in their children’s education. And she started writing on the Internet, which was also accidentally related to the "Chicken Baby" incident. "Children’s junior high school is the most important test to teach their parents. I look for training or all kinds of information from major forums, and I have posted a few posts in order to mix my face, all of which are hot posts. Many people say that I write well, so why not try to write a novel? " On impulse, she wrote more than 3,000 words in qidian, but she didn’t expect to sign the contract the next day and officially entered the business.
On the website, Xiang Juan writes under the pseudonym "Idle Listening to Flowers". Compared with many authors, she was lucky. She became an instant hit when she wrote her debut novel "Nine Holies and Ten Beauties". Since then, she has successively created more than ten works, such as Jin Tong, Sheng Hua, Mo Sang, Hello, New Time, My Home Auntie and so on. "Writing is actually a process of reverse thinking and self-analysis. From the first novel" Nine Holies and Ten Beauties "to later works, the style and core have changed a lot. I think it is a step-by-step growth."
Idle listening to falling flowers
Among them, "My Home Auntie" was selected as the key works of online literature supported by the Chinese Writers Association in 2022 (excellent historical and traditional theme). This work focuses on traditional weaving, dyeing and embroidery techniques, and takes the outstanding women in the history of cotton textile in old Suzhou and Shanghai as the prototype, and tells the story that the heroine Li Xiaodong bravely grew up and changed the family status quo through her intelligence and perseverance. The creative process and inspiration of this novel have something to do with Songjiang, Shanghai, where Xiang Juan lives.
"The development of the whole Songjiang cotton textile industry is driven by women. When I read local chronicles or literati notes, I will see many great women. In addition, I especially like embroidery, weaving and dyeing, which is particularly easy to see in ancient towns and museums in the south of the Yangtze River, and even has a display of the production process. " Every time she sees these wonderful embroideries in the museum, she has the urge to write. "Chinese culture has a long history. It is very natural to write about our culture in such a splendid treasure house of history and culture."
Two years before she officially started writing My Home Auntie, she had begun to collect information consciously, such as the principle and atlas of traditional textile machinery, the differences between traditional machinery in different places, the development history of textile industry, and the collection of essays and pictures of China’s embroidered clothing. In terms of specific character conception, Xiang Juan remembers that she once saw the confession of a Shanghai weaver, telling her pride and self-esteem as a professional woman, and the three-dimensional vivid image of embroidered mother gradually took shape. "These odds and ends add up, and I want to write about this group of people who are engaged in the textile industry in Songjiang."
Idle listening to falling flowers
For Xiang Juan, Li Xiaodong is certainly the heroine in an ancient romance novel, and she undertakes the task of "dreaming" for readers; But the supporting roles around her are the group images that the author has spent a lot of effort to portray. "For me, the hostess is a clue. Following this clue, one potato will be pulled down. These are the so-called supporting roles. What I want to show readers is how good the potatoes I grow are. But we must have a rope. Without it, these potatoes can’t be pulled down. " Xiang Juan said that the real protagonists in the book are all kinds of women, and the characters she really wants to express are all in supporting roles. "There are many female characters in My Home, such as Li Xiaodong’s eldest sister, who is a very independent woman, and women who dress up as men as escorts. They are the people who really bring about changes in the society or industry in the book. Through the social beings they outline, people will see real life. "
Xiang Juan has the characteristics of the post-70 s generation. She loves her work, especially reading and writing. When she is not updating, she will read a lot, and the books in the study are piled everywhere. The content field of reading spans a lot and the subject matter is diversified. Recently, she has read many books about vagrant culture and is reading Wang Xuetai’s "Vagrant Culture and China Society". She also read Shimizu Reiko’s comic books, science fiction Dune, fantasy novel fire and ice, or Du Fengzhi’s Diary written by officials in the late Qing Dynasty. "The post-70 s generation is a very hard-working generation. For me, leisure after work is the most enjoyable. Just like on weekends, I get up in the morning to wash clothes and clean up. After all the housework is done, I still have half an hour of free time. At this time, my home was in good order and my clothes were hanging out. I made a cup of tea and sat on the balcony to blow. At this moment, I was in a very good mood. "
Idle listening to falling flowers
For the characters in her works, Xiang Juan expects to be "independent and able to make her own decisions", and she also expects to convey the theme of "women’s strength has never been absent in the process of history" to readers through various works. "In the future, I want to write a love story. It is not classified by male frequency or female frequency, nor is it limited to Zhai Men and Gong Dou. It is the life in a certain era. But no matter what the background is, I write stories around me. "
Author profile:
Laihua, whose real name is Xiang Juan, is a writer of Reading Group and a director of Shanghai Network Writers Association. Since I started writing in 2010, I have created more than ten works, such as Nine Holies and Ten Beauties, Flowers Bloom in Spring, Brocade, Shenghua, Nuan Jun, Mosang, Hello, New Time, My Home Auntie, etc. Their words are beautiful and exquisite, and their contents are fresh, interesting and unconventional, which are deeply loved by many readers.
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