Appearance, No Less Than Talent, Makes Good Writers
Appearance Matters
One of the miracles in the history of contemporary literature is Jin Yong and
his 15 novels. Winning his spurs by his first martial-art novel, Books and Swords, written in 1955, Jin Yong saddened his readers by quitting the martial world
after finishing his last masterpice, Lu Ding Ji, written between 1969 to 1972.
Good stories never die. Individually and collectively all his works are considered literature wonders, winning him an enormous readership, and have been staged, filmed and adapted to TV series over and over again over all the decades.
Jin Yong might have the largest readership in Chinese-speaking peoples, but he
is only one of the stars in Chinese literature. Most of these super giants are
well-read, if not exactly well-educated, well-traveled, and sophisticated, kownledgeable eggheads that have taken the world in their late 40s or 50s or even later. People admire their talent, and their talent only -- few seem to care about how they look, handsome or simply average. Why, they say, I am interested only in their works, why should I bother with their appearances?
But the trend seems to have changed a lot. The latest news about a few post-1985 writers causing a chaos at the book selling and signing events, with crowds
of fans screaming and pushing around, is indeed eye-opening. Not satisfied with
the traditional book marketing, the publishers, one of whom being Meng Ya magazine targeting young readers, invited music bands and other pop celebreties to bring an air of festival. And that worked! But the most mind-boggling fact is they consciously chose those would-be boy writers who look handsome and cool and girl writers who look sweet and trendy to promote. Obviously a charming face helps not only for actors actresses and singers, but now for those who dream a dream of literature.
Even with his all time best-sellers, Jin Yong may be ashamed of himself for not looking cool at the current literature circles. And for those who look forward to becoming a successful writer, the tip is, aside from constant reading and practice, you forget about the sterotype of writers and poets being dishevelled looking and start looking into the mirror at yourself more from now on.
:D
Panpanpan.
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