How to Thrive in the ’60s - CH 69

Chapter 69 – Gaining glory by association (1)

The provincial capital’s post office’s efficiency was very high. Mail within the provincial capital would usually arrive within the next day.

And so, the next day, several daily newspapers in the provincial capital received article submissions from an employee of the Dongjiang Textile Factory.

After reading the article, they were conflicted. They had a good impression because of the handwriting. The handwriting was vigorous and comfortable to read, but the content wasn’t that great. Although the article’s writing style was okay and the central idea was ample, it lacked the professional style of articles written by the serious writers in the editorial department.

In terms of expertise, it wasn’t competitive enough. However, this article contained many quotes from the chairman, so they couldn’t easily reject it. If it was only a few quoted lines, that wouldn’t be an issue. However, this article had quotes everywhere. Moreover, the writer had cited the written source of each quote at the end. Thus, they had to think more about this. If they rejected this article, wouldn’t it seem like they were disrespecting the instructions of the chairman and had opinions on him?

“Let it go to print, just give it a small section and leave it as that.” The editor-in-chief of the provincial capital’s daily newspaper decided.

Xinhua Daily’s editor-in-chief knocked on the table. “October 1st is coming. This will be just right to praise the motherland. It’s also praising society and the work unit. Its representative significance is pretty good. Yeah, it’s enough to give it an unassuming page layout.”

(T/N: Xinhua Daily is the first public newspaper published in the People’s Republic of China by the Chinese Communist Party. October 1st commemorates the founding of the People’s Republic of China.)

The Education News’ editor-in-chief expressed to his subordinates, “This is a real voice from the working class. We have to publish it and let people know that today’s easy life wasn’t easy to come by. Give it a good layout so that people can see it right away.”

—

At the end of September, Su Yu’s articles were published one after another by major newspapers in the provincial capital.

With several newspapers publishing the same article, everyone’s attention was attracted.

“Old Zhang, take a look, is this the same Comrade Su Yu we know?” In the trade union, Publicity Committee Member Hu was wearing glasses, holding a newspaper, and tugging on Committee Member Zhang.

Committee Member Zhang leaned over to look. “Dongjiang Textile Factory’s Production Department’s Fifth Workshop’s textile worker, Su Yu… Yeah, it’s her. Wait, she wrote this?”

Publicity Committee Member Hu nodded.

“Here too.” Officer Lin was reading the second edition of the Education News and saw the headlines for the same article.

Committee Member Zhang quickly went over to look and then quickly returned to her desk. She flipped through the newspaper she had been reading. Sure enough, she found Su Yu’s article on the lower right corner.

“How… How did she accomplish this?”

“I want to know too,” Publicity Committee Member Hu said.

Yan Xiaofang also flipped through the newspapers and confirmed that the article was published in four newspapers. In addition to a relatively small newspaper, the other newspapers were major ones.

She proudly said, “I said early on that Comrade Su Yu is very capable. I also heard from the factory committee’s Administrative Assistant Gao that Comrade Su Yu is studying very well in school and received the school’s vigorous praise.”

Publicity Committee Member Hu and Committee Member Zhang looked at each other. This Comrade Su Yu really was more outstanding than they had thought.

—

At the same time, in other leadership offices of Dongjiang Textile Factory, other people also saw the published article by an employee of their factory. Although the article focused on praising new China and the new society and expressing respect for their great leader, there was a small section in there that mentioned Dongjiang Textile Factory and its leaders.

In other words, their Dongjiang Textile Factory had made an appearance and the leadership of the factory was praised in the newspapers.

Everyone was walking on clouds.

As a small work unit, it was rare for them to get a mention.