The launch of "Zi Bin" magazine: the origin of the concept and the first issue of the call for papers

What kind of magazine is "Zi Bin"?

"Zi Bin" is a Chinese literary magazine [quarterly] that inherits "restricted writing". The idea originated from the literary writing experimental group founded by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais, and participated by Italo Calvico, George Perec and others. The literary idea of ​​"Oulipo" mainly exists in the experimental literature of "restricted writing". For example, in Ernest Vincent-Wright's masterpiece "Gadsby", the letter "e" does not appear once in the book; and the vowel "e" as the most common letter in English also makes this "restricted writing" attempt more difficult. French writer George Perec also chose the most difficult letter "e" in French as his "restricted writing attempt" and created "A Void". Therefore, "restricted writing" is one of the most important writing attempts in Zijie.

This kind of writing attempt is mainly through the method of almost "literary performance art", using the behavior of autonomously seeking "limitation" to indirectly convey the meaning that the author wants to express in the article through words.

The experimental writing of the Oulipo writing group has made the experience of literature and text more three-dimensional and multi-dimensional. Words are no longer simply the flow of ideas from the author's pen on the paper, but have become carriers that can be "interpreted" one by one, as if they have become a silent, silent but powerful dance.

"Zi Bin" hopes to continue this kind of writing experiment and carry it forward in the creation of Chinese and Chinese.

The Origin of "Zi Bin" Magazine

"Zijie" magazine and its "restricted writing" experimental concept follow the concept of the Oulipo writing group, collect and publish in the form of magazines the creations of global Chinese creators (both simplified and traditional) that are consistent with "restricted" writing.

"Zi Bin" magazine lives in matters.news, a blockchain-based writing field. All published articles currently only support version 4 revisions and are permanently stored on IFPS. Based on this, the limited writing attempt of "Zi Bin" magazine will be more interesting, permanent and sustainable.

The essay award for the first issue of "Zi Bin" is also provided by Matters. The source of funding is 50,000 LikeCoins from the architect fund of the Editor-in-Chief and founder@MaryVentura. Other judges will be invited to participate in the judging panel for the first issue and subsequent periodicals.

How to Participate in the First Issue Call for Papers

1. Call for papers for the first issue: from July 23, 2021 to midnight on September 23, 2021, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

2. The text rules of this issue :

There should not be any characters with radicals/parts of "口" in the text of the submitted article.

Some characters contain "口", but "口" is not a radical, and it is sometimes penetrated by other strokes, such as "Zhong", "Zong" and "Ge". The word "mouth" can be used, such as "suo", "shi" and so on. [For relevant examples, please refer to the main text of the concept origin of "Zi Bin" magazine. 】

Contributed articles, no matter simplified or traditional, must abide by the restriction rules of the selected font. The journal accepts submissions in simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese, and the simplified and traditional fonts will not be changed when published.

Submissions that do not comply with the text rules will be considered invalid submissions.

3. Submission method: Please send the manuscript to zifumag@gmail.com in .doc, .docx, .page, .pdf format, and please write the following information in the body of the submission email (submission will be considered invalid if not specified)——

Contributor's expected signature: pen name can be filled in

Contributor profile (within 100 words): will be published at the end of the article after publication

Manuscript title:

Manuscript word count:

Introduction to the manuscript (within 200 words):

4. The call for papers is open to all people at home and abroad who write in Chinese; whether you are registered as a Matters user or not, you can contribute. If you are already a Matters user, the magazine will @your username at the author after the manuscript is published or won an award; unregistered users will not be linked to @author’s signature.

5. The essay prize will be issued in the form of LikeCoin, so the winners are required to have a Matters account. Once the winner is notified by email, if there is no Matters account within three weeks before the prize is issued, the prize will be deemed to be forfeited.

6. The first issue of "Zi Bin" magazine only accepts submissions for novels and non-fiction creations, and the maximum word limit for manuscripts is 7,000 words. The selection criteria are based on the language and the quality of the submitted text. In the first issue, 7 winning essays will be selected for publication, each of which will receive 1,000 LikeCoins as an essay bonus, and the remaining 5 outstanding works will be selected for publication, and each of them will receive 600 LikeCoins. The magazine initially plans to call for essays with prizes in 5 issues. The rules and judges for each issue of essays are not necessarily the same. The relevant rules will be announced successively .

7. If you want to support "Zi Bin" magazine, please click the support button below to support. All support funds will be used for the magazine's logo and graphic design, editing and other operations, as well as author bonuses.

8. Applying for ISSN. "Zi Bin" magazine will become an electronic magazine with an international standard serial number in the future.

9. This journal does not accept any submissions of articles containing racial discrimination, hate speech, etc. Any such submissions will be automatically deemed invalid and no further notice will be given.

10. Once the work is published, the copyright belongs to the original author. When reprinting, translating (please contact the original author) or republishing, the original author must indicate " first published in "Zi Bin" magazine ".

11. If there are any unfinished details about the solicitation of papers and bonus rules, "Zi Bin" magazine reserves the right of final interpretation.

Thanks to @Matty for providing the architect fund to support "Zi Bin" magazine, and thanks to @yingxin for his help and encouragement. 🙏