Year-end Series (13)
Editor's Note:
If 2020 is the "stress" year for mankind to encounter the epidemic, then in 2021, mankind has entered the "response" year after the epidemic, began to adapt to a new way of life, adjusted its relationship with life and the world, and looked for a path for self-development in the "post-epidemic era".
It's a goodbye, and it's a reunion—saying goodbye to your former self in the midst of change, and reuniting with your new self in the midst of change.
As 2021 draws to a close, The Daily Supplement has designed a questionnaire with nine simple questions but many different answers. Here, we have chosen those wonderful, sincere, and interesting answers to be published as a record of 2021 and this era.
Guests
Long Renqing
Born in March 1967 in the Tiebuga Grassland on the shores of Qinghai Lake. In 1990, he began to create and translate literature. He has published more than 20 original and translated works, and has won the "Horse Award" and the Sanmao Prose Award. Some of his works have been translated into English, Japanese, italian and other languages. He is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and the vice chairman of the Qinghai Writers Association.
Yu Fei
Chinese TV drama screenwriter, graduated from the Literature Department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts in 1998. He is currently the vice president of the China Film Literature Society, the executive deputy secretary general of the China Television Drama Screenwriting Committee, and the vice president of the Screenwriting Committee of the Beijing Filmmakers Association. Yu Fei has written dozens of TV dramas such as "Circuit Prosecutor Group", "Crossing the Yalu River", "The Third and Fourth Parts of the Six Groups of Serious Cases", "The Eternal Radio Wave", and the movies include "Crossing the Yalu River" and "Car Accident Doubt". He is also the author of the novel "People's Justice" and so on.
Song Fangjin
Screenwriter, writer. Vice President of China Film Literature Society. His major works include TV series "The Dream of Yuan Longping of Meritorious Service", "Mobile Phone", "Sweet", etc.; the movie "Fly", "Wen Liangzhu", etc.; the publication of "Letter to Young Screenwriters", "Qingming On the River Map" and so on.
1. For you personally, if you were to record 2021 with three keywords, which three words would you choose? Why?
Long Renqing: Time seems to have been "accelerated", and it has suddenly reached a new year. Looking back, there seems to be nothing to remember in 2021. Think about it, "fast" should be the first key word. The second key word is "home". Flipping through my travel records, 2021 is the least year out of the house in recent years. What is the third key word? Seems to be "thinking". Because I go out less and spend more time at home, I have time to think about things. There are many times when I find myself sinking into meditation, which is of course a sign of aging.
Yu Fei: Speed of light, butterfly, balloon.
At the age of more than half a hundred years, time flies faster and feels faster than the speed of light. Every day ended without doing anything, so scared that I often didn't even dare to go home to eat lunch, and I could only eat outside, so as not to delay the time, so as not to get sleepy and take a nap. But even so, I often feel that I don't have enough time. In particular, children grow up rapidly, and they set off their own light speed to grow old.
Career feeling is that non-professional athletes are swimming butterfly swimming, doing their best to pull up their bodies in the choking water, the movements are not standardized, swimming very slowly, but arousing many useless splashes, both ugly and sad and can not stop. Often warn yourself not to flutter, but also to calm down to break through one first, do not target too much flutter for half a day and do not catch anything.
Because of the great pressure of creation, I often feel like a balloon full of breath. This is not a metaphor, there is a substance, every evening, is the time of the greatest harvest, the naked eye can see the stomach swelling can not be returned. By the time I wake up the next morning, I'll be in a bit better shape and my stomach will be flattened. But after a day of work, if there is not much progress, the stomach will bulge again.
Song Fangjin: Learn, observe, adapt. Although it has always maintained a state of learning, since the epidemic, learning has become more focused and conscious. I've re-watched Akira Kurosawa and Hitchcock's films over the past year and have new inspiration. The so-called can see the doorway, will not look at the lively. Before, I only saw the hilarity. Such learning is effective. Observation mainly refers to observing the film and television industry I am in, which is undergoing seemingly slow but rapid changes because of the epidemic and technology, and these observations will be included in my "Letter to Young Screenwriters". Adaptation means adapting to these changes.
2. In 2021, the negative impact of the epidemic on us is self-evident, but from your perspective, what is the positive enlightenment it brings to society? If so, tell us about your experience or opinion.
Long Renqing: In 2021, we went with the group to the Heihe River Basin for cultural investigation, and when we arrived at the source of the Heihe River in the hinterland of the Qilian Mountains in Qinghai, the new crown epidemic occurred in Zhangye, Gansu Province, which became a risk area for the epidemic, and we immediately stopped this activity. On the way back to Xining, although I have regrets, this is the only rational choice. The new crown epidemic has actually corrected many bad habits in our lives, such as crowded queues, emotional things, and bad hygiene habits.
Yu Fei: Actually, in the face of an unknown disaster, no one can do it perfectly in one step, but we have actually done the prevention and control of the epidemic at a small cost. The biggest impact of this incident is to make the people trust the leadership of the government more and have a stronger sense of pride in the Chinese nation. Of course, this does not mean that we have done a perfect job, in the vast territory of our country, there are still huge differences in the quality of epidemic prevention work, and we need to further bridge this difference.
Song Fangjin: When I answered three key words, I said that I have become more active and focused on learning because of the epidemic. I think this is the revelation and change brought about by the epidemic. Because of the pandemic, I've found that people become more in awe of nature. At the height of the epidemic, when people could not move in large areas, many wild animals appeared. I think the biggest revelation of this epidemic is that it will make human beings think deeply about the relationship between man and nature and all things.
3. Which "new thing" will enter your life in 2021?
Long Renqing: Alcohol and masks have become a daily necessity. Oh, and "vibrato", I have also registered, brush it from time to time, and require myself to be moderate.
Yu Fei: The new things that entered my life are actually "all old things" from decades or even hundreds of years ago. Because of the decline in physical function and the lack of exercise for a long time, my allergic rhinitis has become very serious and almost uncontrollable this year.
In a desperate time, I picked up the hard qigong that I had practiced with my teacher in my twenties. This kung fu is simply to say that after inhaling the air with the mouth, and then with the corresponding action, the nose is fully sprayed out of the body, and all the garbage is taken out of the body. After a while, my rhinitis has gotten better. The traditional culture and traditional medicine of the motherland is indeed a treasure house, and now this qigong has entered my life as a new thing, occupying the most important position, no matter how busy it is every day, I must practice it first.
Song Fangjin: health treasure, itinerary code, nucleic acid test. These three things are completely embedded in life.
4. Work, study, socialize, mentality... Eating and living, health and leisure, consumer entertainment... What are your most positive changes in 2021? Let's go into a little more detail.
Long Renqing: During the epidemic in Xining, during the work at home, when reading, I began to take reading notes on my mobile phone (I only read before, not take notes), and in a month, I made about 100,000 words of notes for more than a dozen books - during this period, the reading notes of one book were lost due to improper operation, and I hurriedly copied other reading notes to the computer for backup, which also counted the word count. Most of these are some text that has feelings and sends, which are slowly written on the mobile phone while reading, and are also a confrontation between impetuousness and anxiety, and the effect is extremely good.
Yu Fei: See the answer to the third question.
Song Fangjin: The most positive change is active learning. This was said in the previous answer.
5. In 2021, what are your most proud, regretful, and painful moments?
Long Renqing: Knowing the Destiny of Heaven in his old age, the so-called pampering is not shocking, and there seems to be nothing that can be called "the most" to say. A strong feeling is that "responsibility" is becoming more and more of a thing that requires specific operations, even on the spot.
Yu Fei: The most proud moment was that in early 2021, my screenwriting works "Circuit Prosecution Group" and "Crossing the Yalu River" were broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV, Youku and CCTV respectively, and I played with myself, and the ratings of the two works always occupied the first and second places, and also won a good reputation.
The most regrettable moment is that I was "careless", and I did not go to see the sample film before the "Circuit Inspection Team" was broadcast, reminding the relevant personnel not to insert too many advertisements to affect the quality.
The most painful moment was when creating a new project, it took less than a week to write five episodes of the script, which was highly recognized by everyone, and continued to write under excitement, and it took nearly a month to change the five episodes to eight episodes, but in the end I found that the direction of the change was not right, and I had no choice but to return to the first draft. It is a waste of time and energy and a waste of enthusiasm, and it is very painful.
Song Fangjin: The most proud thing is that he wrote "The Dream of Yuan Longping of Meritorious Service". The most regrettable thing is that a story I have been trying to write this year has never been written. The most painful moment was not. Life is mundane most of the time. Pain is an extraordinary feeling. Ordinary is bliss.
6. What good books or film and television dramas, variety shows, and exhibitions in 2021 have made you unforgettable? Which two would you recommend to everyone and why?
Long Renqing: Living in a Tibetan gathering area, Tibetan life such as "reincarnation" and "divine artist" have a lot of magic realism, so I have also liked works such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" before, and I have also written some novels with a magical reality flavor. It seems that only strange and mysterious things will arouse their own interest.
Perhaps it is because I am slowly getting older, and I am beginning to like "slow" things more and more and works that describe "slow". For example, the kind of work that slowly walks on the road, opens all the sensory tentacles of the five senses, feels the world, and then records everything that is seen, heard, and smelled. In 2021, I re-read the works of British writer John Goulsworth, such as "The Apple Tree" and "Yin Red Flowers", and liked the kind of words that completely immersed themselves in the surrounding environment and let the color and fragrance of nature come to them. Such words can hardly be seen in the current novel works (most of the novels now seem to be sitting on the high-speed rail to watch the scenery, everything is fleeting). I also feel that reading such words is an effective resistance to the anxiety and uneasiness that are pervasive in this era.
Yu Fei: Personally recommend "Ideal City", "Are You Okay in Other Places", "Meritorious Service", "Annual Comedy Contest".
"Ideal City" writes a very earthy, many boring construction industries into a legendary story of its own imperial power plot and small people counterattack, the author's in-depth understanding of the industry and the control of narrative skills are well combined, coupled with the director's skillful techniques and the actors' performances in place, completing a benchmark for industry dramas.
The whole look and feel of "Are You Okay in aNother Country" is completely like a documentary, whether the reality is like this or not, but in my opinion, workplace life is exactly what it shows. The actor's performance is also very relaxed, and you can feel the director's super control ability. The only bit of a pity is that there are too many coincidences in the later plot.
In "Meritorious Service", I first recommend Mao Weining's "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian", but this drama has been recommended and analyzed in detail by many people, and I will simply say: it is not a mechanical imitation of the Hollywood model, but a successful attempt and a huge breakthrough in domestic war-themed TV series, and it is a benchmark for the film and television of Chinese-style war. If we can all come by this standard, we will export our own heroic culture just around the corner.
"Annual Comedy Contest" is actually not all comedy sketches are successful, there are also very low scores, but every season broadcast, there are always a few good, and even a lot of amazing, compared to other variety shows that rely on inexplicable trivia, this is an absolutely positive energy and demonstration program for creation. Any literary and artistic work needs content, and at present, only it makes people feel that they are really respecting the content, which can be seen from the works that are performed, and can also be seen from the actions of inviting the screenwriter to the scene. Lo and behold, let the screenwriters come to the scene, sign each screenwriter, the sky has not fallen. Unlike some circles, it is popular to hide and seek by taking down the name of the screenwriter or hiding in the corner.
If you want to carry a little selfishness, I would also like to recommend my own screenwriting works "Across the Yalu River" and "Circuit Prosecutor Group", these two plays are a combination of screenwriting skills, if you are interested in script creation friends can study it.
Song Fangjin: Liu Zhenyun's novel "One Day and Three Autumns" is an impressive book I read last year. How many things in life, two or three jokes. Liu Zhenyun wrote about people, ghosts, animals, and the weight of life and the lightness of life in simple and simple words. The web drama "I am very good in other places" is also recommended to everyone, there is no traffic actor, not IP, but it makes people move to tears, so there are too few dramas with deep still water.
7. If there is a time machine, is there a moment in 2021 that you want to start over? Say exactly what the reason is.
Long Renqing: I accept old age, wrinkles and gray hair. People should be like this age at every age, calm and calm. I don't have the need to "start over".
Yu Fei: If I had a time machine, I would like to take fifteen minutes every day and walk a little circle in the community with my son Yuanyuan. He was just five years old, and I spent too little time with him compared to his sister. We both had many happy times to recall, and he liked to name names, and he would give names to every action he made while playing with him. For example: meat electric fan, mother's big spoon chicken, Shenzhou 8 ready to launch, vibrato and so on. We haven't had a new name in a long time.
Song Fangjin: There is no moment when you want to start over. Let the past pass.
8. Do you have the most important thing you want to say but don't say in 2021? What is it? To whom?
Long Renqing: "Thank you for your willingness to follow a mediocre, incompetent, and faulty man to the present, and to keep going." —Say it to my wife.
Yu Fei: For work, I haven't been with old friends for a long time. Before that, the old political commissar who had been missing for decades found me, very kind and enthusiastic. But when he came to me to reminisce, I was dealing with some financial problems, and I couldn't separate myself, and I felt very guilty. Later, the head of my former university, My esteemed Teacher Zhu, came to the WenDai meeting and wanted to make an appointment with me, but I did not catch up because I was leaving Beijing. For so many years, I feel particularly sorry for my old leaders and old comrades-in-arms, and I want to say a word to them: There may be various force majeures in the future that make it impossible for me to get together with you, and I can only create more and better works to dedicate to you!
Song Fangjin: I want to say goodbye to 2021.
9. In 2022, you must have set yourself some small goals, flags, choose three to share with us (and whether they can be achieved or not).
Long Renqing: There are no big plans, they are all small goals. A publishing house has edited a collection of my short stories for me, which should be published in May or June 2022. To me, this seemed like a summary or farewell to my early fiction writing, heralding a new beginning.
1. In 2022, to complete my first children's novel, I went to Sanjiangyuan and Coco Xili for this purpose - I did not intend to "please" from the writing style and other aspects, but Wrote the content solidly.
2. Because I went to Coco Siri and did a more detailed interview with the mountain rangers who accompanied us deep into the hinterland of Coco Siri at that time, I planned to write a book about them. The book will be completed with Wan Ma Tse-dan, a Tibetan director who entered Coco Siri with me.
3. A book about highland flowers and birds, the kind written in natural literature, has completed most of the chapters. I also want to write a short biography for Mr. Li Shanyuan, a photographer who has won an international award.
Yu Fei: Tell you about the secret of my mindset when I am creating: if I am tired of writing, how can I continue? My most important way to do this is to look at the house.
In recent years, I have seen almost all the most expensive villa projects in the suburbs of Beijing, at first it is still casual, and then let the agent only introduce large houses with gardens of more than 500 square meters, and recently I have seen several houses with gardens of three or four thousand square meters, standing in the middle feels like in the vast grassland.
There is also a house, behind the garden is a hill piled up by the developer, which is covered with all kinds of miscellaneous trees, like a primeval forest, and can be hidden in it to fight guerrillas.
After seeing these houses, once I was tired of writing, couldn't write, and wanted to rest, I began to think about how to install these houses, especially how to decorate these huge gardens.
In order to decorate these gardens, I also thought about asking all the art instructors I knew to help design them in various film and television styles, such as "Alien" and "Game of Thrones". Of course they didn't know I was thinking about them.
From the TV series "Circuit Prosecutor Group" to the TV series "Crossing the Yalu River", I have come up with dozens of renovation plans for houses and gardens, and it is indeed very decompressing, like experiencing a big health care of the mind. What's more, I didn't buy any of these houses in the end because I couldn't afford them. So such a big health care is very environmentally friendly.
Sadly, the creative tasks behind are heavier, and there are not enough houses in Beijing.
These are my creative mindset adjustment tips posted on social media. For 2022, my only thought was to find another mansion and start figuring out its renovation plan to ease the anxiety caused by my heavy creative tasks. As long as this virtual renovation task is completed, everything is not a problem. If one set doesn't solve the problem, then two sets.
Song Fangjin: First, write a TV series about rural revitalization, called "A Life of Nobility". Second, write a movie script, called "Sisters". Third, publish a book called "Shangyuan Lantern Color Map".
Reporter Li Zhe
If you are interested in answering these 9 questions, please send your answers to the small editor's mailbox [email protected]