Mr. Lao She's works are almost all in Beijing dialect, which is often referred to as Beijing-style novels. However, in the modern literary world, there is also a writer who specializes in writing "Beijing-style novels". He is Wang Shuo.
Many people compare Wang Shuo's and Lao She's works, and evaluate that one is the New North Beijing dialect and the other is the Old Beijing dialect. What's the difference between the two, or which is more authentic?
Characteristics of Beijing dialect
As a popular language in China, Beijing dialect is characterized by many short sentences, high tones and many inflections. Speaking of the time when Beijing dialect was formed, it must have a history of at least 3,000 years. However, Beijing dialect really began to take shape when the Qing Dynasty officially moved its capital to Beijing.
At that time, after the Manchu Eight Banners settled in Beijing, they entered the inner city of Beijing and drove the people from the inner city to the outer city. It was at this time that the languages inside and outside the city gradually merged, and after a period of evolution, the present Beijing dialect was formed.
Later, in the literary world, writers began to integrate Beijing dialect into their works. At this time, experts are thinking, what kind of works can be regarded as Beijing flavor?
Later, experts summed up a work with Beijing flavor, which should be judged from the four characteristics of Beijing dialect, Beijingers, Beijing incident and Beijing city. Because an important feature that distinguishes Beijing-style works from other literature is a strong word "taste".
Beijing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, not only shaped Beijing's spiritual culture, but also contained people's deep feelings. Therefore, it is not enough to understand Beijing-style works from a simple aspect.
But in the eyes of many people, whether an article has Beijing flavor or not will be judged from the written language first.
The only works that can be recognized by people in modern literature are those of Mr. Lao She and the new generation writer Wang Shuo. Although both of them have their own achievements in the field of literature, in fact, there are great differences between them in Beijing-style literary works.
Almost all their works are stories of ordinary people in Beijing, and the words are written in Beijing dialect.
Lao She's Beijing dialect is considered by many people to be old Beijing dialect. Wang Shuo's belongs to New North Beijing dialect. In this regard, Wang Shuo has different views. In his own words, Lao She's is the master's Beijing dialect, while his is the slave's Beijing dialect.
It can be seen that it is still up to Mr. Lao She to recognize the real old Beijing dialect. Then why is it different?
Lao She is a representative of the old Beijing dialect.
The greatest feature of Mr. Lao She's works is that there is a strong "Beijing flavor".
Mr. Lao She was born in Beijing since childhood, and his father was a Manchu soldier. Lao She's works, whether novels, plays, essays, etc., have a strong symbol of Beijing.
Most of the characters in his works are based on the lives of ordinary citizens, and the language is vulgar and delicate, so the characters in his works are all refined Beijing vernacular. It is Lao She's realm as a master of language to reflect the times and life with popular and plain words.
Therefore, we can also see the strong local flavor of Beijing from Mr. Lao She's works, such as Teahouse, Four Generations under One roof, Camel Xiangzi and so on, all of which are the flavor of old Beijing dialect.
However, Mr. Lao She's Beijing dialect was not like this at first. After the age of 25, he went to teach in England. During that time, he gradually forgot his Beijing dialect.
Let him begin to realize that Beijing dialect is his mother tongue, because he discovered it while studying English and Latin.
Because before he studied Latin, he thought English was the only foreign language except his own country. After studying Latin, he found that every country has its own national language, which gave him a new understanding of his hometown dialect.
With this awareness, Mr. Lao She's works are gradually created and polished in Beijing dialect, and rhetoric is transformed into writing articles in the most popular vocabulary, making the articles read like dialogues between people, instead of using elegant words to decorate articles.
When creating a play, he will pay attention to the natural expression of language and whether the spoken language of the characters in the play is properly arranged. Because the lines of a drama are real-life displays, not articles.
Mr. Lao She's works have the flavor of Beijing and Beijingers in that period, so he became the pioneer of Beijing-style novels and created a series of impressive images of Beijingers.
Compared with Lao She's works, Wang Shuo's Beijing flavor works are another kind of Beijing dialect.
Wang Shuo is a representative of New Taipei Beijing dialect.
Wang Shuo's Beijing flavor works are more elegant than Mr. Lao She's, and there is a little more freshness in them.
Wang Shuo was born in 1958, and his hometown is Nanjing, Jiangsu. Therefore, he is not a native of Beijing. At this point, it has been explained that he and Mr. Lao She have different understandings of Beijing dialect.
When I was very young, because of my father, Wang Shuo's family came to Beijing to live. At that time, I lived in a military and cultural compound on Fuxing Road, Beijing Road. It was also at that time that in his later works, almost all ordinary people in Beijing compound could be seen.
Wang Shuo's contact with Beijing dialect can be said to have started from middle school, when all his classmates were born and raised in Beijing. At that time, children's language habits began to form gradually.
I used Beijing dialect more with my classmates and teachers, and slowly learned to speak Beijing dialect. Over time, I became like old Beijing.
Wang Shuo's literary works have a unique style, and their works are closer to modern people's lives, but the characters are very single and not as rich as Mr. Lao She. Words are vivid and flexible, and there is a cynicism between the lines.
Therefore, he said that the Beijing accent of his works belongs to the slave, while Mr. Lao She's is the master's Beijing accent. What does this mean? That still has to start with the work.
The dialogue in Wang Shuo's works is very easy to understand, at least for modern people. As a result, later people read Wang Shuo's book and were unconsciously taken on the road by Wang Shuo. For example, nothing serious, just playing with the heartbeat, who is more stupid than who, and is addicted to death. All of them are the colloquial new Beijing dialects of Wang Shuo when he was a child.
This suddenly changed people's views on literature. This also misled many people to change their views on literature after reading his works, thinking that they seem to be able to write literary works.
Actually, writing literary works is not that simple.
Looking at Wang Shuo's works carefully, although it is easy to understand, the actual irony and ridicule are the biggest characteristics of his creative language. It's as if his characters always look at each other with playful eyes, but in fact they are like slaves and can't say anything. It is such a contradiction that people always look at the characters in his works with an indecent eye, which is why others call him a "literary hooligan".
In fact, no matter Mr. Lao She or Mr. Wang Shuo, their works have their own unique artistic characteristics. Whether it is old Beijing dialect or new North Beijing dialect depends on how we define Beijing. Generally speaking, they are all outstanding representatives of Beijing-style literature.