# Grateful to Professor Hu Decai, the Guardian Deity of Literature's "Dragon Gate"

 

# Grateful to Professor Hu Decai, the Guardian Deity of Literature's "Dragon Gate"

Natai

Every climber encounters benefactors who lend a helping hand along their journey. In my literary career, there have been more than just one or two such benefactors to whom I owe gratitude. After Professor Wang Chunlin gave me a boost midway, Professor Hu Decai—Dean of the School of Journalism and Cultural Communication at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan—took over and gave me a push at the "Dragon Gate". This push served as the crucial final impetus that helped me reach the pinnacle of world literature.

 

Mr. Hu Decai holds a multitude of social titles, both domestic and international—so many that I can hardly count them all. Listing them all out would be excessive and might bore some people, so I won’t do that. It’s sufficient to know that he is an accomplished scholar whose reputation extends beyond China’s borders. I had never met Professor Hu before, nor had we ever had any contact. The only connection I had with him was that when I was collecting works on comedy, I bought a copy of his book *A History of Modern Chinese Comedy Literature* at a bookstore—that was it. However, one year, out of the blue, I received an email from him. When I opened it, I was astonished to find a paper of over ten thousand words analyzing my creative works. It turned out to be his speech for a national academic seminar.

 

This came as a huge surprise. I am from Ningxia. Although I have published several works, I am by no means a popular writer. In terms of fame, I rank among the third-tier writers in Ningxia and even among the bottom-tier nationwide. Not even the professors and critics in Ningxia itself have taken Nantai (my pen name) as a research subject. So how did an unfamiliar university professor—who is also a dean, and thousands of miles away—come to study an unknown, unpopular writer like me?

 

Other than the fact that my "comedic novels" stand out like a red dot in a sea of green, there is no other explanation.

 

If we compare literature to a beauty, comedy is the princess; if we compare literature to nobility, comedy is the royal family. Ordinary people only judge a beauty by her looks, but connoisseurs pay attention to who the princess is. Similarly, ordinary people judge nobility by their official rank and power, but only those in the imperial court can recognize an emperor who is traveling incognito. Only this understanding can explain what happened.

 

Mr. Hu Decai specializes in the study of "comedy". He has published monographs on comedy and also serves as the Vice President of the China Comedy Aesthetics Research Association. Comedy is the most noble, most beautiful, most interesting, most vivid, most difficult to write, rarest, and most reader-loved genre in literary art. It is also a rare genre in short supply worldwide; among the public, comedy is known as "the art of masters". According to Professor Wu Xiaoru, one of the "Eight Elders" of Peking University, throughout China’s several thousand years of literary history, there have been only three writers truly worthy of the title "comedic novelist": Wu Jingzi, Lu Xun, and Qian Zhongshu. Since I focus on writing comedic novels, I presumably caught Mr. Hu Decai’s attention, which led him to bestow upon me the elegant title of "Professional Comedic Novelist". Moreover, it was Mr. Hu Decai who invited me to join the China Comedy Aesthetics Research Association—I am the only Chinese writer in the association. This is proof of what he truly values.

 

In China, comedic novels are like emperors traveling incognito; most people fail to recognize their true status. However, Mr. Hu Decai knows just how noble their status is.

 

Professors Wang Chunlin and Hu Decai—two scholars with unique insight, one in the north and the other in the south. Across China’s vast land of 9.6 million square kilometers, amid the dense "forest" of writers that resembles a primeval forest, they spotted this unassuming yet distinctive "prey" with the sharp eyes of a goshawk. This fact alone proves that they are true connoisseurs of literary art.

 

Those who study famous writers and write monographs about them are mostly like hardworking grooms. Only those who select research subjects from among unpopular writers deserve to be called "Bole" (the legendary horse trainer who could spot unrecognized talents).

 

A hundred grooms are not worth a single Bole.

 

Included in #MyViewsOnLiterature (Personal opinions, for reference only) 

91, Ningxia 

March 19, 2025, 06:34