Vividly telling the story of Chinese sports with light and shadow (light film and television industry)

The picture shows the stills of the movie "The Climber". Profile picture

The Winter Olympics are about to open in Beijing, and the new Olympic spirit of "faster, higher, stronger - more united" is once again ignited in China.

From Sun Yu's first Chinese sports film " The Queen of Sports " in 1934 to today , sports have always meant a healthy personality and vitality. Sports culture not only represents the modern spirit of pursuing higher, faster and stronger, constantly breaking through the limits of human beings, but also a national spirit of never giving up, indomitable, changing from the weak to the strong, and developing and progressing.

In 1957, the third generation of director Xie Jin filmed "Women's Basketball No. 5", borrowing the stark contrast between the two generations of basketball players in new and old China, showing the process of the new society so that athletes are no longer discriminated against by team owners and foreigners, and become a profession with personal dignity. Through the younger generation of athletes overcoming their personal thoughts, the film combines sports training with winning glory for the country, giving sports-themed films a patriotic background. A number of excellent sports films such as "Sisters on Ice" in 1959, "Female Diver" in 1964, and "Milk Swallow Fly" in 1979 not only reflected the liberation of women after the founding of New China, but also presented the integration of individual competition and collective culture. In 1981, the fourth generation of director Zhang Nunxin filmed "Sand Gull", which tells the story of Sha Ou, the main member of the women's volleyball team, who overcame the injury and insisted on training, but finally did not win the championship, and then regained his strength in life's setbacks and the death of his relatives, showing the spirit of hard work.

In the 1980s, the spirit of the women's volleyball team of "five consecutive championships" inspired generations of Chinese to catch up in the era of reform and opening up, and Chinese sports athletes actively participated in international events such as the Asian Games and the Olympic Games, and every major sports event was an opportunity to stimulate patriotism and fighting spirit. China successfully hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 2008 and will host the Winter Olympic Games this year, making significant contributions to the development of sports in the world.

A number of sports films shot in recent years have become cultural carriers to tell the story of China in the new era. Among them, the more representative ones are "The Climber" that showed the Chinese mountaineering team climbing Mount Everest in 2019, and "Win the Championship" that showed the re-emergence of the Chinese women's volleyball team in 2020. Both films reflect the stories of struggle and patriotism of athletes of different eras.

The movie "The Climber" is based on the real history of the Chinese mountaineering team's two successful ascents of Mount Everest in the 1960s and 1970s, and shows China's feat of organizing the climbing of the world's highest peak in a special era by telling the story of the Chinese mountaineering team climbing Mount Everest twice from the north slope of the Himalayas in 1960 and 1975. For fang wuzhou, qu songlin and jebu, the veteran mountaineers who climbed Mount Everest in 1960, the first time they climbed Mount Everest because they failed to leave video data, they could not get the recognition of the international mountaineering community, which became a knot in their hearts that they could not let go. Since then, no matter how much the times and personal encounters have changed, they have always believed that they can still climb Mount Everest, which can be seen from Fang Wuzhou's physical training for more than ten years and Qu Songlin's collection of meteorological data day and night at the foot of Mount Everest. This will not accept defeat comes from their personal beliefs, but more importantly, it relies on scientific organization and rigorous training, which is behind the strength of the state. Climbing Mount Everest is not only a sense of competition that does not accept defeat and does not accept defeat, but also a defense of national honor and national sovereignty. The film combines individual emotions with collectivism, presenting the spirit of tenacious struggle for the motherland.

"Win the Championship" takes the Chinese women's volleyball team as the protagonist, showing the glorious history of the women's volleyball team rushing out of Asia in the 1980s and winning five consecutive championships in the world, to experiencing the continuous downturn in the 90s, and then to regaining the world championship since the new century. Volleyball is a collective project, which requires both individual quality and teamwork, and it is the spirit of the old women's volleyball team to train hard and win glory for the country. The 80s women's volleyball training ground condensed the history of the old women's volleyball team's hard struggle, blood and sweat; and Lang Ping's scientific training, personalized motivation and pre-war mobilization of laying down baggage showed the integration of the spirit of the old women's volleyball team and the temperament of the new women's volleyball team. It can be seen from here that the Chinese sports story in the new era not only defends national honor, but also respects the differentiated development of individuality, which is a more inclusive and diverse patriotic spirit. At the end of 2021, a documentary film "Endless Climbing" was released, telling the story of Xia Boyu, the first Chinese mountaineer to successfully climb Mount Everest by prosthetic limbs. After experiencing the unbearable situation of leg amputation and cancer torture of ordinary people, Xia Boyu finally realized his dream of climbing Mount Everest at the age of 69, creating a human miracle of climbing Mount Everest.

In recent years, China has achieved innovative development of sports culture. The combination of competitive sports, commercial sports and mass fitness, a variety of modern sports projects introduced into China, such as marathon, mountaineering, racing and other extreme sports are also welcomed by Chinese, campus sports attach importance to the spirit of "complete personality, the first in sports". In the progress and development of human society, we need the sportsmanship of tenacious struggle. Sports competitions have an end, success or failure, and the sportsmanship of pursuing dreams and breaking through limits has no end. This spirit of struggle, which is not afraid of difficulties, risks, and brave to climb the peak, is the charm of sports and sports-themed movies.

(The author is a researcher at the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University)

People's Daily ( 2022-01-20 20th edition)