Chapter 335: Half and Half

Inside a room on the second floor of this building, the room was brightly lit, but the windows were tightly covered with blackout curtains. Not only could a person not see inside, but not even a sliver of light could leak out. Several men were talking.

From their speech and clothing, these men were all Yuanlao. The room was furnished in a salon style: comfortable and private. The wainscoting on the walls was made of solid hinoki wood imported from Japan, and the floor was made of solid paulownia wood from the same source. The windows facing the backyard were hung with thick double-layered curtains. In the middle of the room were several ergonomic rattan sofa chairs with thick cushions, wide and comfortable.

Each of these Yuanlao held a cigar, discussing something amidst the curling blue smoke. On the long coffee table in front of them, besides tea sets and drink cups, were scattered several photo albums and documents. Many black and white portraits were haphazardly spread across the table.

A large imperial kiln brush washer, serving as an ashtray, was filled with cigar butts and extinguished matches. It seemed their discussion had been going on for quite some time.

“I think that’s it,” said Fang Fei. As the director of the Mass Activities Department of the Ministry of Propaganda, he was the moderator of this meeting and naturally had the final say.

“How can that be it?” The speaker spoke slowly, clearly not taking his words seriously. “I’ll say it again, this kind of thing is a crooked path!” Although the speaker’s expression was calm, his words were fierce. “It’s true that art should follow the mass line, but you shouldn’t switch concepts and define the otaku line as the mass line.”

He waved his arm, his long hair swaying with the movement. “Art must serve the masses. This is the artistic line established by the Senate. I’ll say it again, otaku culture is not mass culture. It’s niche. No matter how large the ACG group is in the Senate, our artistic groups must first face the naturalized citizens and the native masses.”

“Who says idol groups are otaku culture?!” The person sitting diagonally opposite couldn’t help but retort. “I’ll say it again: you are biased against ID01! You think you’re so high-brow, but you’re detached from the masses! You’re just admiring your own reflection! The opera and serious music you boast about all day have zero audience in this era! You talk about mass and niche, I say it’s zero-niche. Outside of Bairen City, no one even knows about it!”

This person was 190 cm tall and probably weighed no less than 190 jin. His shouting was like a booming bell. He wore the black uniform of the National Police, a high-ranking Yuanlao police officer.

“The masses need correct guidance. Idol groups, this cancer of Japanese music, are a major reason for the overall decline of Japanese society, a chronic poison. As a vibrant and upwardly mobile society, we should not and cannot promote this kind of culture…”

“Nonsense,” Dongmen Chuiyu, sitting on the other side in a military uniform, couldn’t help but stand up. “Idol groups didn’t just appear in the 21st century. Their history can be traced back to the Taisho period, and they flourished in the 70s and 80s. Japan at that time was not a decadent, contracting society; it fit your standard of a vibrant and upwardly mobile society very well. Can you say the corporate warriors of the Showa era were decadent figures? The resurgence of idols in the 21st century is a social phenomenon caused by the Heisei deflation. It’s an ‘effect,’ not a ‘cause’!”

Fang Fei stepped in to smooth things over. “Comrades, don’t get excited. Regarding the artistic line, ‘let a hundred flowers bloom’ is also one of our policies. Everyone’s goal is the same. It’s just that different aesthetic tastes have led to different paths. There’s no major issue of right and wrong…”

At this point, Yuan Ziguang, who had been silent, spoke up cautiously. “Speaking of the artistic line, I remember President Wen’s speech at the literary and art symposium was: ‘Art must serve the cause of the Senate’s construction and transformation of society, face the masses, let a hundred flowers bloom, and shape the aesthetic and artistic views of the new era.’ This was later written into the ‘Guiding Principles for the Artistic Line in the New Era’.”

This innocuous speech slightly eased the tense atmosphere. Yuan Ziguang looked at Fang Fei. “Director Fang, my view is that the core of this guiding ideology is only one thing: to shape new aesthetic and artistic views.”

Fang Fei nodded. This was, like the artistic line he had just recited, correct but useless talk.

Everyone waited for what would come next.

“To implement this core guiding ideology, when facing the masses, we cannot simply cater to them. Otherwise, besides replicating a few traditional puppet shows, we wouldn’t need to develop any new artistic forms.”

“What we are discussing here today are all new artistic forms. Whether we see them as high-brow or low-brow, they are essentially new things in this era. The purpose is to shape new aesthetic and artistic views. So, in terms of our fundamental purpose, everyone is completely in agreement, hahaha.”

Fang Fei thought to himself that after all this grand talk, he had just come back to saying nothing. But he roughly understood Yuan Ziguang’s inclination. This was an indirect refutation of the tall, thin young man’s words. The tall, thin young man opened his mouth to say, “But…”

At this moment, a man who had not spoken much said, “Dongfang, I think we should just let it go. Everyone has their own preferences. We have so few resources, and everyone is fighting over them. Our literary and art circle will become a laughingstock before it even gets started.”

“I will never admit that they are any kind of literary and art circle…” the long-haired, tall, thin man said forcefully.

“We don’t care either!” the stout police officer retorted. “Is the literary and art circle so great?”

“Alright, let’s stop this nonsense,” Fang Fei finally couldn’t take it anymore. He turned to Dongmen Chuiyu. “Are you saying that all the expenses for the group are borne by you few Yuanlao yourselves?”

“To be precise, it’s borne by our Plaid Skirt Club,” Dongmen Chuiyu said.

“But the manpower is still centrally allocated. After all, the people you want are all those who have received a new-style education…”

“Yes. What I want to say is that this group is essentially state-owned and serves the Senate. It’s not our private property, and certainly not a product to satisfy ‘bad taste.’ Naturally, personnel and some material aspects still need to be coordinated and resolved by the Executive Committee. Of course, we will try to use as few of the Senate’s resources as possible. After all, we are not too well-off yet.”

“Alright, your project can continue. However, if there are no concrete results within a year, the relevant license will be revoked. You can continue to maintain the group, but there will be no more material or manpower support from the Senate. Do you agree?”

The stout police officer didn’t hesitate. “No problem!”

“Then what about facility use and teaching staff?”

“As a state-owned artistic group registered with the Ministry of Propaganda, you naturally have the same rights,” Fang Fei said.

“Thank you so much…”

“As for the allocation of manpower, I won’t talk about the Yuanlao teaching staff. Let’s all be considerate of each other. We also have to respect the individuals involved. Professionals like Liu Shuixin have limited time and energy. We should still coordinate and plan. As for the naturalized citizens, Dongfang and Okamoto are following the elite artistic soldier route. There won’t be too many people with good talent. I personally think we can give Dongfang and the others priority in personnel selection. Although I don’t understand idols, I probably know that the threshold for idols in the 11th district is very low. I believe your club can also discover some immovable ACE-like figures from ordinary girls…”

Yuan Ziguang said anxiously, “Well, you can’t put it that way…” The other few did not show any dissatisfaction with this statement; on the contrary, they all smiled. Dongmen Chuiyu secretly despised him: this Yuan Ziguang guy doesn’t understand anything at all! A fake fan who’s just a uniform fetishist, no doubt. He’ll have to be kicked out later! As for Dongfang and Okamoto, although their expressions weren’t very lively, they didn’t raise any further objections.

“Alright, since everyone can accept this plan, let’s allocate the manpower now. This is, after all, our main topic today,” Fang Fei said. “Also, I want to remind everyone that the Human Resources Department has only given us a total of 32 full-time positions for artistic groups. You each get 16 now.”

“16 people is enough,” Yuanlao Dongfang nodded. “We are not a group that relies on piling up numbers to create a human sea. With too many people, we might not be able to teach them all.”

“As long as you have no objections,” Fang Fei said. At this point, Dongmen Chuiyu interjected, “Can non-professional, amateur personnel join?”

“Yes, cultivating non-full-time amateur artistic backbones is also a direction for mass artistic activities. I have already spoken with Yuanlao Yang from the Human Resources Department, and he will give us sufficient convenience.”

“That’s great.” The members of the Plaid Skirt Club quickly exchanged glances. “The Executive Committee is truly wise…”

Fang Fei chuckled dryly. “You’d better show some results soon.”

“We will definitely work hard.”

Next was the selection of personnel according to the agreement between the two parties. Yuanlao Dongfang went first. He was confident and quickly selected photos from the black and white pictures on the table.

“These few girls have considerable talent in musical instruments. They have a strong sense of music and potential in both string and wind instruments.”

“These few have good physical flexibility and coordination. They are natural dancers.”

“And this one has a wide vocal range. Even Liu Shuixin praised her.”

In fact, Dongfang and Okamoto didn’t fancy many people. After picking seven or eight, their pace slowed down significantly. But since they were given 16 spots, it felt like a waste not to take them all, so they made up the number to sixteen. The selection for the Plaid Skirt Club was more complicated. They held a pile of photos in their hands, their heads huddled together, looking and choosing, with small arguments from time to time, using vocabulary that was very unfamiliar.