邓友梅，男， 1931年3月生于天津，祖籍山东省平原县。笔名右枚、方文、锦直等。曾任北京市文联书记处书记、中国作家协会副主席，现为中国作协名誉副主席、中国对外友好协会理事。邓友梅拥有传奇般的人生经历，他十二岁就在故乡参军当小交通员，之后一两年又被强行押送至日本某化工厂做苦工，过着九死一生的生活。1944年回国参军，并一直在文工团工作。靠自学走上文学道路的他自中央文学讲习所学习结业后开始在文坛上崭露头角。著有《邓友梅自选集》(五卷)《京城内外》《烟壶》《散文杂拌》等。《我们的军长》获全国第一届优秀短篇小说奖，《话说陶然亭》获全国第二届优秀短篇小说奖，《那五》获全国第二届优秀中篇小说奖，《烟壶》获全国第三届优秀中篇小说奖等。

　　邓友梅被认为是中国当代“京味儿文学”创作的鼻祖，他的创作风格可用刚健、平实四个字归纳，最能代表其艺术成就的“京味儿”小说是《那五》《烟壶》等。这批“京味儿”小说，大都取材于旗人的故事。作家以独特的视角，描绘出今日读者不大熟悉的旗人的生活画卷，不仅使读者领略到老北京风味，获得民俗学知识，还给人以历史的感悟和现实的启示。

　　邓友梅熟悉北京人的语言、北京人的心态，《话说陶然亭》是他用北京人的心态语言进行创作的第一个尝试，反响甚佳。他以鲜活的民间生活语言入文，叙述语言得北京话的方言精髓而又化于无形，清爽利落，明净单纯。接着，“京味儿”小说《那五》通过没落贵族、八旗子弟那五游手好闲、贪图享乐、浪迹多年、一事无成的人生经历，以民间视角从历史更替和人生道路方面揭示政权灭亡、民族衰落的原因，反思中国传统的国民性中的弱点。那五有过两次走上正道的机会，但他不屑为之，相反，投机取巧、自私怯懦、要面子讲排场是他人性中最顽固的部分。本应承担保家卫国重任的八旗子弟日常生活却是玩鸽子走马，过惯了寄生生活的他们一身吃喝玩乐的本事换不来半个硬饽饽。可以说是不当的国策培养了不良的子弟，不良的子弟葬送了清王朝。

　　《烟壶》采用的是双线交错的结构手法：一条线索是写没落八旗子弟乌世保被陷害入狱，在狱中结识汉族烟壶艺人聂小轩，学会了烟壶的内画、“古月轩”的技艺，成为自食其力的劳动者；另一条线索是写聂小轩宁肯手骨折断，也不绘制为八国联军歌功颂德的烟壶的传奇故事。一个有权有势的“洋务派”贵族九爷为了向日本人讨好，逼聂小轩烧制绘有八国联军攻打北京后行乐图的烟壶，聂小轩毅然断手自戕，以示反抗。

邓友梅

Deng Youmei

　　Deng Youmei was born in March, 1931, in Tianjin, though his family has its roots in Shandong province’s Pingyuan County. Deng has adopted a number of pen names, such as You Mei, Fang Wen, and Jin Zhi. He has served as secretary of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice-chairman of the China Writers Association — of which he is currently honorary vice-chairman — and today sits on the board of The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship With Foreign Countries.

　　Deng has had a life that can be described as legendary. At the age of just 12 he was working as a military signaler in his hometown. In the couple of years that followed he was forcibly dispatched to Japan to do hard labor in a coal mine, where he lived life on the fine line separating life and death. In 1944, he returned to China and rejoined the military, where he worked in the armed forces’ art troupe. After completing a course of study at the Central Training Institute of Literature, Deng — who was previously self-taught in the art of the written word — soon became an up-and-coming figure in the literary world. His published works include: The Collected Works of Deng Youmei (in five volumes),Within and Beyond Beijing’s City Walls, Snuff Bottles and A Hodgepodge of Essays. Our Commander won the country’s inaugural National Outstanding Short Story Award; Taoran Pavillion won the same prize the following year; Na Wu won the second National Outstanding Novella Award; and Snuff Bottles won the third National Outstanding Novella Award.

　　Considered the forefather of contemporary China’s so-called “Beijing-Flavor Literature”, Deng possesses a creative style that is best described by the words robust and honest. It is his “Beijing-flavored” novels like Na Wu and Snuff Bottles that are most representative of his artistic achievement. Such works, imbued as they are with the taste of the capital, mostly take their inspiration from stories of the Manchu people. With his unique perspective, the author paints a tapestry of the lives of the Manchu, a people with which readers of today are generally unfamiliar. Not only do such works take you among the sights, smells, and folklore of old Beijing, they also bring you realizations about the past and enlightenment about the present.

　　Deng is all too familiar with the language and psychology of Beijing’s people. His first attempt at harnessing the speech and mindsets of Beijingers, Taoran Pavillion was met with critical acclaim. He imbues his writing evocatively with the life and language of ordinary people; while assuming the dialectic essence of the Beijing tongue, the narrative is also intangibly refreshing, nimble, clean, and pure. The Beijing-flavored work Na Wu follows the idle, lavish, unanchored, and unaccomplished life of its eponymous protagonist, a privileged child belonging to a nobility in decline. From the perspective of the general populace, and following the path of human life and the comings and goings of historical eras, the work lays bare the reasons behind the collapse of a government and the decline of a people, offering food for thought on the weaknesses that lie within the national character of traditional China. Na Wu has two chances to set himself back on the straight and narrow, but he dismisses them disdainfully; opportunism, selfishness, cowardice, pride, and vanity are deeply engrained parts of his character. Rather than shouldering the responsibility of protecting their families and serving the country as would have been expected, the spoilt youth like him spend their days playing with pigeons and walking their horses. Long used to the parasitic life, their knack for eating, drinking, and finding merriment are worth not even half a stale pastry. Arguably, it was the country’s unfavorable policies that cultivated a generation of such good-for-nothings, which in turn led to the ruin of the Qing Dynasty.

　　Snuff Bottles employs an interlocking dual-narrative structure. One narrative follows the framing and subsequent imprisonment of Wu Shibao, a privileged child of the declining noble class. In prison he meets Nie Xiaoxuan, an ethnic Han snuff box artist who teaches Wu the art of making enamelled porcelain and painting the inside of snuff boxes. With these skills, Wu goes on to make his own living. The second narrative tells the legend-like story of how Nie Xiaoxuan chooses to break the bones in his own hand rather than paint a snuff box singing the praises of the Eight-Nation Alliance — an international military alliance set up to quell China’s Boxer Rebellion. In a bid to curry favor with the Japanese, the character of Ninth Master, a powerful advocate for westernization, tries to force Nie to paint a snuff box portraying the jubilant scenes following the Eight-Nation Alliance’s assault on Beijing. Resolutely opposed, Nie breaks the bones in his own hand in protest.