<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > This article is excerpted from the book "The Tactics of Film" (Criticism of Contemporary Chinese Film and Television), written on May 5, 2017. It is one of the seven theories of characters in "The Name of the People". </h1>
Let's start with a digression. I once said in the article "In the Name of the < people> characters: "Jullien" Qi Tongwei said that Qi Tongwei will not get any sympathy, because he has no critical consciousness of the feudalization of the upper echelons of Chinese society.
It now seems that this conclusion is not accurate, because Qi Tongwei has received widespread sympathy. The reason for this is that although Qi Tongwei will stop at nothing to climb up, he is, after all, to a certain extent, a victim of re-feudalization, and the victim cannot be unsympathetic.
Qi Tongwei's last words were: "No one in this world can judge me!" ”
This sentence is very meaningful, and those upper elites who are linked by nepotism are indeed not qualified to judge Qi Tongwei, just as the French aristocracy is not qualified to judge Jullien.
In the end, Qi Tongwei was surrounded by Lone Eagle Ridge (the name "Lone Eagle" is meaningful, and it is obvious that Zhou Meisen is also full of sympathy for Qi Tongwei), Hou Liangping went to persuade this scene to surrender, which could have been filmed with guts and tears, because the feelings of classmate friendship, procurator obligations, despair, regret, reluctance, anxiety and other emotions are intertwined, which can best capture the hearts of the audience. Unfortunately, this scene can only be described as plain as water, the lines are not wonderful, and Lu Yi has not entered the play at all. The two films directed by the famous Japanese director Yoji Yamada, "Dusk Kiyobei" and "Hidden Sword Ghost Claw", finally have a samurai to persuade his trapped friend to surrender the bridge section, in fact, it is much more exciting than "The Name of the People".
Back to the point.
In "In the Name of the People", Wang Wenge, a laid-off worker at the Gale Factory, is one of the few "people" in the play who can be called a fake exchange, and he has the strongest fighting ability, the strongest action ability, and the most resolute will. He has always advocated a confrontational approach to the interests of himself and his workers in the Gale Factory, but has repeatedly failed, first burning himself to the ground and seriously injuring himself, and the second time putting himself in prison and sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Wang Wenge's name is very interesting, he was born in 1968 at the height of the Cultural Revolution, it seems that at least his father was highly identified with the Cultural Revolution, so he was given such a commemorative name. Although the political upheaval in the future and the Cultural Revolution have been completely repudiated, he did not keep pace with the times and changed his name to "reform", which shows that he still insisted.
Looking at the whole drama, Zhou Meisen created the role of Wang Wenge, mainly to tell the audience: "populism" must be defeated, and must rely on elites in order to have a good life.
Wang Wenge first appeared on the eve of the "116 Incident", and he led the workers to resist the demolition as the leader of the workers' factory protection team. In fact, Wang Wenge was the real "culprit" of the fire at the Gale Factory, because it was he who ordered gasoline to be poured into the trench in front of the factory, and it was the spark that fell from the torch in his hand that ignited the gasoline, resulting in 36 people being burned and throwing the workers' own "defense line" into chaos. But his reckless behavior could not really defend the factory, but gave Li Dakang an opportunity to take advantage of the chaotic demolition. The person who really blocked the bulldozer sent by Li Dakang was not Wang Wenge, nor the workers of the factory protection team, but the old revolutionary Chen Yan, who relied on his close relationship with Sha Ruijin, the secretary of the provincial party committee.
The second highlight of Wang Wenge's play was the kidnapping of the son of Cai Chenggong, the owner of the Gale Factory, in an attempt to use this as a bargaining chip to claim his own equity, which is of course extremely crazy and completely irrational. Because first, it is impossible to get back the equity; second, to take a step back, even if you want to return the equity, because you are suspected of serious crimes, you will not have the opportunity to enjoy it; third, you are likely to be killed on the spot.
At this critical juncture, it was Chen Yan who saved him. But Chen Yan saved his life, could not save his crime, he was still sentenced to a heavy sentence. The loss and recovery of the shares of the workers in the Gale Factory was not the result of the violent struggle of Wang Wenge, but the result of the anti-corruption of elites like Hou Liangping.
Although the image of Wang Wenge exposes the elite consciousness of the creators of "In the Name of the People" and the rationalization of elite rule, it must be admitted that Wang Wenge also reflects the mental state of the vulnerable groups in Chinese society, especially the more radical wing of the vulnerable groups at present - they are indeed "populized".
To be honest, I hate the words "populist" and "populist", because in the elite and mainstream media, this kind of vocabulary is specifically used to deny the legitimacy of the interests of the people at the bottom, so I never use this kind of word, let's use it today, but to redefine it.
By populism, I mean those at the bottom who recognize that their interests are damaged and advocate the use of drastic means to regain their own interests. The difference between politically mature "classes" is that their class consciousness has not awakened or is in a state of immersion, so they focus only on immediate concrete interests, cannot put forward correct political propositions, and cannot wage justified and disciplined struggles. In confrontation with the elite, they are both easily satisfied and easily defeated, and between the threat of holding a knife and reflexively kneeling, there is only a contract that is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
Wang Wenge is such a person.
Since the eighties, they have been deceived many times. The most serious one was in the 1990s (abridged below), when they lost their identities and became small craftsmen who repaired cars and nailed shoes, urban poor people who set up stalls, and even vulnerable groups who depended on low insurance, and in some places even men and women were prostitutes and had no dignity.
The tragic experience of repeated deception made Wang Wenge not trust anyone, even Chen Yan, who was regarded as a "saint on earth." In "In the Name of the People," from Sha Ruijin, secretary of the provincial party committee, to Zheng Xipo, chairman of the trade union, to Li Dakang, the unruly secretary of the municipal party committee, they all pay respect to Chen Yan and call him "Elder Chen", and only Wang Wenge calls him Old Man Chen. The inability to believe that no one is the root cause of Wang's irrational behavior and violence, and the main source of many social conflicts today.
The failure of Wang's Cultural Revolution reminds the working class that unless it can transcend the demands of populism, rebuild its class consciousness and political consciousness, and act as a class, it will never be possible to effectively defend its own interests, let alone restore its ownership.
Finally, let's talk about the death of Chen Yan.
When Wang Wenge put the knife on Chen Yan's neck, Chen Yan must have lost all his thoughts, and he had to face the absurdity of his life! The blow was fatal to him, and although the wounds inflicted by Wang Wenge's knife on his neck were so insignificant that doctors thought there was no need for bandaging, Chen Yan's inner world completely collapsed.
He fell ill and never recovered, and his last wish was simply to hug his son, a wish that had nothing to do with the "people", because he knew that he was ashamed of them, and that death was really a relief for him, because he no longer had to endure inner torment.
Why is Chen Yan suffering? This is because unlike those who have mixed into the revolutionary ranks with personal goals, Chen Yan is a sincere revolutionary, and he has always changed his original intentions, and he has always been proud of it, which is the spiritual pillar of his life. But when a worker put a knife directly on his neck and accused him of being deceived, Chen Yan suddenly realized that his life was a ridiculous circle - starting with leading the people to resist exploitation and oppression, and ending with becoming an accomplice of the new exploitation oppressors. All he had done for the workers of the Gale Factory was to persuade them to accept the new wage slave status with peace of mind.
Chen Yan's conscience as an old revolutionary made him unable to accept such a reality, but his theoretical level also made it impossible for him to logically explain his "ghost hitting the wall" life experience, and found that he had actually betrayed those he loved the most, and his spiritual pillar collapsed, and this torment made him worse off than dead— death became the best liberation.
You can buy in Jingdong, you can also pay attention to the "independent commentator Guo Songmin" WeChat public account, find a link to buy books, and you can also add 18239788296 Xiaobian WeChat to follow up.