The wind in the alley blows the story deeply.
I read Mr. Jin Yucheng's "Flowers".
Text: Li Jian. 
It always starts with a relationship. The series of TV series "Flowers" directed by Wong Kar-wai will be broadcast on ** TV drama channel on December 27, 2023. When I visited the Xinhua Bookstore in Weixian County before, I had seen this book, but I didn't buy it, and I didn't particularly care about it, until the 25th or 26th, when I saw the so-called trailer, I remembered this book again. Originally, I wanted to watch the series, however, the comments on the Internet about this drama are divided into two levels: one is Shanghainese and southerners led by Shanghai, they feel that director Wong Kar-wai has filmed the characteristics of Shanghai in that era, and the other part of the people do not belong to Shanghai, most of them are northerners, they can't accept Wong Kar-wai's sense of lens and those black tones, and think that Shanghai in the nineties has been filmed as the feeling of the thirties and forties. To tell you the truth, I feel this way too, and then I read many comments on the Internet, watched about one episode of the TV series, and then turned to read the original book of this **.
Storytelling. Mr. Jin Yucheng's "Flowers" tells a traditional story. The story is about the three male protagonists of Husheng, Ah Bao and Xiao Mao, and in their friendship and growth, the story records the style, times and "legends" that belong to the alleys and lofts of Shanghai. The adaptation of the TV series is mainly based on telling the story from the perspective of "Bao". Therefore, Wong Kar-wai also said in the interview, "It's too difficult to adapt everything, if you can, I still want to read the **original work", yes,**In the narrative, there are about 100 characters appearing, so it is difficult to figure out the relationship between the characters, which is the characteristic of the **narrative. And Wong Kar-wai "sharpened a sword in three years", removing the style of light and shadow, he had to choose Ah Bao to tell the story as the protagonist, and more or less briefly mentioned the story of Husheng and Xiaomao, on the whole, the painting style of this drama is very "Wong Kar-wai".
Appreciation of writing techniques.
In fact, the real power of "Flowers" is not his story. The story is nothing more than a story about the past in the business world, so I won't talk too much about it here. What is really powerful is its writing technique, Mr. Jin Yucheng is very powerful, he used thirty-one chapters, more than 350,000 words, to reproduce for us the sixties to seventies of the last century, and the life in Shanghai in the nineties, yes, this is not just a **, but also two eras, why two eras, it is often written in the previous chapter about the three protagonists when they were young, and the next chapter begins to write about things when they grow up. For example, Ah Bao, he was still a child in the previous chapter and did not grow up, and by the beginning of the next chapter, he was already the "Bao Zong" of the Yellow River Road. To tell the truth, this kind of narrative technique interspersed with narration is extremely rare in modern Chinese literature.
In addition, the most different thing from Mr. Jin Yucheng's "Flowers" is that he does not directly narrate the story, but uses the language that seems to be like the classical script ** to ——— old soup for new tea, the story is new, but the narrative and language are old, just like the script**.
There are a lot of sexual descriptions in "Flowers", almost every chapter will probably have them, so in this way, ** is like "Golden Vase Plum", now we don't talk about his sexual descriptions, only take some of them as examples. For example, he wrote that women "embroider their eyebrows and hang down, looking forward to Shenfei", there are many descriptions of classical ** techniques similar to this, which is also the characteristic of the so-called **.
The author, Jin Yucheng, wrote in the last "Trek" of the book, "The beginning of "Flowers" reads: ......Tao Tao said, I won't see you for a long time, come in and have a cup of tea. Husheng said, I have something to do. Tao Tao said, come in, come in and see the scenery ......The conversation came and went, and a familiar force suddenly came flooding in. The style of the script, an old rut, slipped into today's wheel, still smooth, new. Later, he wrote, "Today, when the people are proficient in the northern language, what would it be like to use the connotation and style of "Flowers" to accommodate a faint written message."
"Flowers" has been wandering in a context for a long time, and it has also made some readers fall into this atmosphere for a long time. A friend said that he couldn't stand reading books and newspapers, and reading them in the tone of "Flowers". This is a result I didn't realize. My original intention was to be a very low-ranking storyteller, "rather than overlooked, rather than high", to please my readers - every Suzhou storyteller in the old era paid great attention to the reaction of the audience, and the gentleman said on the stage that he found someone yawning and was absent-minded, and returned to the cabin, or under the vegetable oil lamp in the small inn, and wanted to change it overnight. My old father said that this is called "changing the book". Whether you can say this, ** the author should also have his own readership in his heart, and sincerely serve them, I am in awe.
I hope that what "Flowers" brings to readers is the life in **, but also the vitality of language, although I use old stories and language itself, but they are new and different from other ways. ”
In general, Mr. Jin Yucheng's "Flowers" is rare in modern literature in terms of language and writing techniques, and this is indeed the case.
The general language of prose and the use of Shanghainese vernacular.
The writing of the whole story is as soothing as Wang Anyi's "Song of Long Hatred", and the entire ** narrative is extremely scattered. It is almost a story that leads to a story, a story set a story, and the dialogue of the characters is similar to the long paragraph in the classical script, but it is peaceful, like a stream slowly entering the heart, and the waves are not alarmed, so I feel the customs of the two eras of Shanghai.
Of course, I can't fail to mention that the Shanghai slang that comes with ** itself, such as Jiaozi, Jiasheng (in fact, it is what the northerners say), Jiaozi, after checking the information, I know that it is the meaning of a few cents in Shanghainese, and Jiasheng, that is, what we say in the words of the northerners.
The drama version of "Flowers" is a small note.
Director Wong Kar-wai said in an interview that in fact, ** wrote about two "Bao", namely the "Mr. Bao" who became famous in the 1990s, and the child "Bao" in the 1970s. So, how did "Ah Bao" become "Mr. Bao", Mr. Jin Yucheng's ** did not narrate, and the drama version of "Flowers" is about this story, making up for what the author did not narrate, the so-called "missing" However, whether this is the case, I haven't watched the TV series, so I don't know, you can take a look at the drama version of "Flowers" directed by Wong Kar-wai, yes or no, and then make a decision hahaha.
As for the Shanghai version of the TV series, (the TV series has two versions of the "Shanghai version" and the "Chinese version") just so that the audience can better feel the flavor of old Shanghai, so those languages are matched into Shanghai in the later stage, in fact, it can be seen that Director Wong Kar-wai is very attentive, in order to facilitate his Shanghai audience, specially released a "Shanghai version", which is rare, so although the tone of the TV series is indeed not very good, but in terms of its Chinese version and Shanghai version, "double version" attitude, We should also forgive him for his unique "Wong Kar-wai" style in light and shadow design.
Uncle: "Talk.
There is a person mentioned in the drama version of "Flowers", this person is the "uncle" who taught Ah Bao to do business, this person is a master in the business field, however, in **, Uncle does not pay too much attention to ink, he has no heavenly skills, just an ordinary person who can peek at women taking a bath, but because the drama version of "Flowers" is written about how "Ah Bao" became "Mr. Bao", the leader always has to have "Uncle" in **, of course, it can be adapted into a big guy in the TV series. Therefore, the character of "uncle" played by the old man You Benchang in the TV series certainly belongs to Wong Kar-wai's recreation.
As for the storyline, because it involves too many characters and too many so-called sexual descriptions, I won't mention it too much, just this article, I will dedicate "Flowers" and Mr. Kim Woo-cheng.
Make up for one * with the truth of reality and the falsehood.
In the past, I have read reports that the characters in Mr. Jin Yucheng's "Flowers" can actually be found in real life, just like "Dream of Red Mansions". Later, a TV station interviewed Mr. Jin Yucheng, and Mr. Jin did not shy away from this, but said, it is true, this is a ** made by my own experience. As for who I am in the story, some people say it is "Husheng", and some people say it is "Bao", or "Xiaomao", these are left to the reader to guess, I just tell this Shanghai story well. So who Mr. Jin Yucheng is in ** is still inconclusive. Maybe it's the ** protagonist, or maybe it's the former recorder of what he has seen and heard, as for who it is, readers naturally don't have to worry about guessing. Besides, ** is good for fiction and reality, so it doesn't matter whether Mr. Jin Yucheng is the narrator or one of the protagonists. The important thing is that in the pen of Mr. Jin Yucheng, we traveled to Shanghai once, and felt the so-called drunken gold fans in the old Shanghai beach, as well as the passing clouds on the Yellow River Road, and the old things were revisited.
Complement 2 * of the intention.
* Through the growth process of the three people and the different trends in the end, it shows us the different choices of each person on the cusp of the times. If "Ah Bao", "Hu Sheng" and "Ah Mao" are the protagonists of the story, it is better to say that the three of them are actually a microcosm of Shanghai Tang in the 90s. In addition to the superb narrative language and writing techniques, Mr. Jin Yucheng has tried or has shown us how extravagant Shanghai was in the first ten years of the last century, which is very rare as an author.
That's exactly that: the wind blows the story in the alley.
Write freely.
People talk about old things in Shanghai.
The storyline goes the same way.
Today, we will talk about the internal affairs of the book.
Let's see the author from afar.
Narrative language and writing.
It's quite like a script.