Yu Xiuhua became famous. The 38-year-old gained unprecedented fame at the end of 2014. As a song titled "Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You" spread virally on the Internet and among friends, this peasant woman from Hengdian Village, Shipai Town, Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province, became the subject of media discussion overnight, and even Shen Rui, a traveling American scholar and poet, was hailed as "China's Emily Dickinson (one of the greatest poets in the United States)" (yesterday's "Southern Metropolis Daily").
In my opinion, when the topic of "pure literature" becomes a public topic or a hot topic on Weibo, something must have gone wrong. After all, in a country with a pitifully small population that reads poetry, the current situation of poets is that only if they die, commit suicide, or are cerebral palsy patients or working girls, can their works be labeled with one or another identity. , can be disseminated and read in pieces. People who don't usually read poetry or rarely read poetry, but because of the reposts from people around them and the comments in the media, they patiently ponder what is so good about Yu Xiuhua's poems.
Even for Shen Rui, a professional literary critic, her strong recommendation is the key to Yu Xiuhua’s poetry quickly becoming popular. In Shen Rui’s widely circulated recommendation article, the word used is “moving” , "shocked", "really well written", "dazzled you", "heart is bleeding", "meteor shower of language", etc. are more metaphors and metaphors, reading experience and expression from a personal perspective, far from being discussed. Get "professional" poetry reviews. In my opinion, it is a pity that it is lyrical but not professional enough. It misses an excellent opportunity for poetry education for the public.
In fact, Yu Xiuhua expresses her feelings as a physically disabled woman in a poetic way, or expresses feelings that have nothing to do with the "identity" that the outside world is interested in, such as peasant women and cerebral palsy patients. Such private experiences are very important in contemporary society. It is not uncommon in literary creation, news reports, and online articles, but regarding what is poetry and what is good poetry, if you miss this opportunity of Yu Xiuhua, I am afraid it will be difficult to find similar opportunities in the future. By discussing specific poets, let us Poetry has returned to public literary education and literary sensibility. This is so important. The reason is that, on the one hand, the threshold for writing poetry is not high. "Lihua style" was popular for a while, and Sister Feng's poems could also be published in well-known literary publications. What is good and what is not good has no place to follow. On the other hand, due to the extreme lack of poetry education, poetry was even excluded from the college entrance examination. There are too few people who understand poetry. The most direct consequence is that the lack of poetry makes understanding reality a problem.
Some people may ask, why is poetry important? In my opinion, poetry should be the literary genre farthest from utilitarianism, especially in an era when people love stories and jokes, and the spread of an article mainly depends on how many laughs and grooves there are. Only poetry carries the language itself. Even from the most realistic perspective, Sister Feng’s salary for publishing poetry is 2-3 yuan per line, which is considered a good standard in China. Imagine if Shakespeare was lucky enough to be born in China today and write a sonnet, he would be able to change McDonald's meal. Yu Xiuhua is a sensible person. After becoming popular, she wrote in the circle of friends: "For poetry, such attention is really not deserved. My aunt only writes her own poems, and I try to write them as well as I can." After the commotion, I hope that some literary educators will take over as soon as possible and start from the poetry itself to let us know what is so good about Yu Xiuhua’s poems.