Ignition Dimension (ID: chaintruth) original
Produced by Burning Finance
Author | Tao Tao
Edit | Rao Xiafei
Weibo reading exceeded 920 million, Douban topped the top of popular books for many consecutive days, "Dear Child" can be said to have gained a wave of domestic TV dramas in the second quarter of 2022.
Photo/ Weibo data on the topic of "Dear Child"
Source/Burn Finance Screenshot
The TV series is based on Wang Xiaoshuai's 2007 film "Left and Right", which tells such a story:
Husband and wife Xiao Lu and Fang Yinuo have been married for many years and gave birth to a daughter, but because of the birth of the child, there are constant disputes, resulting in divorce. Then, in order to save their daughter who was suffering from leukemia, the two were advised by doctors to have another child and use umbilical cord blood to save their lives. After the failure, they had to face the problem of natural fertility after marriage, which led to the dilemma of the moral ethics of the reorganized family.
After "Dear Little Kids" gained widespread attention, controversy ensued.
The audience member Yuanzi told Burning Finance that "Dear Child" amplifies the anxiety of marriage and childbearing, "The dog blood is stewed into a pot, which will lead to the fear of marriage and childbearing between unmarried women and newlyweds, which makes me feel psychological discomfort." ”
But this work can unveil the fairy tale of marriage, face the crux of the early conflict of marriage - fertility, and cut from the most typical marital contradictions at present - child-rearing methods, postpartum depression and other issues, so that the audience can see another cross-section of life. Therefore, most netizens gave a relatively positive evaluation of this TV series.
So, what is the reason why "Dear Little Kid" can be recognized by most audiences? Are the contradictions and conflicts involved reasonable? Are the problems common? What kind of realistic marriage drama does the audience need? In response to these problems, Burning Finance and television practitioners and audiences chatted about their feelings.
Grasp the symptoms of the times
In the eyes of many viewers, the reason why this TV series is hot is because it pinpoints the pain points of the current audience.
"The anxiety and fear of expectant mothers facing childbirth, the emotional changes in women after childbirth, the decision-making controversies of extended families... Not to shy away from, not to beautify, this is very much needed. Luo Shu told Burning Finance.
Tv dramas do reflect the core issues of marriage and parenting at present, keeping up with the characteristics of the times. Different from the mother-in-law dramas that were popular in China more than ten years ago, including "Double Sided Tape", dramas that reflect economic burdens such as "Snail Residence" and "Naked Marriage Era", this marriage and family drama focuses on the birth of the most likely to cause contradictions between husband and wife.
Moreover, unlike the common theme of son preference for daughters and only concern for children and no concern for lovers in early marriage and family dramas, the perspective of the play rarely involves parenting motivations, and focuses on the way the couple's family treats parenting, as well as the wife's postpartum depression.
First of all, parenting choices are the most serious fertility problems at present. The low desire of young people to procreate is an indisputable fact.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the national birth population was 17.86 million in 2016, and from 2017 to 2020, the birth population fell from 17.23 million to 12 million for four consecutive years, and the birth population in 2021 further fell to 10.62 million.
Obviously, although the state introduced the three-child policy in May last year, and cooperated with supporting policies such as extending maternity leave and improving women's security to try to stimulate fertility, the effect was not obvious.
For young people, the impact of women's childbirth on the working life, and the stronger desire of post-90s and Generation Z young people for high-quality postpartum marriage, have become the reasons why marriageable people are hesitant to face childbearing.
"For a TV series related to marriage and fertility, it is successful to throw out problems without shying away and thus arouse the attention of society." Screenwriter Sanlin told Burning Finance.
The husband and wife Xiao Lu and Fang Yinuo in the play married for many years and had children, first of all, under the pressure of parents, not out of the wishes of the two, but also became the reason why her husband Xiao Lu gradually became tired of taking care of children, and Fang Yinuo was also dissatisfied. This is also a problem that many families face.
"Dear Child" extends the "procreation or not" floating on the iceberg to the topic of "what the consequences of giving birth if you are not ready" can be. This can lead to more mature and rational thinking about fertility decisions for young couples.
Postpartum depression is another prominent problem facing parenting, especially today.
According to the Statistics of the Chinese Association of Psychiatrists, the incidence of postpartum depression in the mainland is about 7.3-37.14%. The proportion of women with depression, pessimism, despair, and irritability is as high as 50-70%.
According to the media of the Medical Federation, postpartum depression is mainly due to five components: pregnancy factors (hormones), birth factors, psychological changes during pregnancy, genetic factors and incompatibility to role switching. Among them, the psychological changes during pregnancy are mostly related to worrying about the child's upbringing and returning to the workplace after pregnancy. Therefore, at a time when the financial burden that women need to bear at home continues to increase, the return to the workplace and postpartum anxiety and depression have also become the symptoms of the times in the 21st century.
Photo / Fang Yinuo, who was anxious after giving birth
Source/Douban
Therefore, in "Dear Child", the symptoms shown by Fang Yinuo are just a true portrayal of the faces faced by countless pregnant women, which can better enable real-life husbands, mothers-in-law and other family and friends to experience the difficulties of being a contemporary mother through role substitution.
On the issue of scientific parenting and extensive parenting, the controversy between the heroine Fang Yinuo and the mother-in-law is also very typical: she hopes that the sister-in-law will take care of her, let the child wear new clothes, let the child take medicine when she is sick, etc.; and the mother-in-law hopes to take care of her granddaughter, let the child wear a hundred clothes, and burn paper to the child to "exorcise evil" when she is sick, which makes many bullet screens feel "very real".
For young people in the post-90s and Z generations, most of their parents are from the 60s or early 70s. Parents are still in an extensive stage of parenting; in the children, parenting tends to follow more scientific knowledge, not just "practical experience". The contradiction between Fang Yinuo's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is precisely the problem that the contemporary mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have in the face of early child-rearing.
The TV series's white depiction of the conflict of parenting concepts has triggered two generations of deep thinking and discussion on parenting methods.
The contradiction is generally reasonable
Is "Dear Little Kid" "selling anxiety"?
In the view of the audience Ouyang, a TV series can not be said to be poison because it condenses the contradictions in the family life of different people, "After all, the TV series is processed by art, a role, a drama does not represent the universal public, as long as you find the shadow in life in each plot." ”
And she also mentioned that today's marriage and childbirth dramas are far from the era of the flood of mother-in-law dramas at that time, "or we should encourage everyone to dare to reflect life." ”
In fact, the contradictions and conflicts reflected in "Dear Little Children" are generally reasonable.
In the TV series, the differences and suspicions between YueYi and Fang Yinuo due to the different concepts of breastfeeding, some netizens in the bullet screen think that they can find the services of the Confinement Center to easily solve.
But in fact, the confinement center is not something that ordinary families can afford. A 4-month-old mother ZZ said that the confinement center is not a place that most families can afford, "The confinement center where I live costs 80,000 or 90,000 yuan a month, about 100,000 yuan before the discount, which is at a medium and high level in Beijing." In Shunyi, the more remote and not very good kind of family workshop may also cost 20,000-30,000 yuan. ”
It is precisely because of this that the proportion of domestic maternal confinement centers is still very low. According to Chutian Metropolis Daily, taking Wuhan, a new first-tier city on the mainland as an example, in the past two years, the proportion of newborns and mothers in Wuhan has only been 5% in confinement institutions. This means that 95% of women still need to confinement at home.
At present, the different concepts of parenting are also one of the most likely collisions during confinement.
In the TV series, the fierce confrontation between the sister-in-law and the mother about mixed feeding and breastfeeding is the most common parenting conflict point in real life.
"For example, in my maternal friend group, many friends have mentioned that they want to mix the feeding of the baby, but the elders do not approve, thinking that breastfeeding is far better than mixed feeding, but in fact, the difference is not so big, but exclusive breastfeeding will be easier to produce vaccine antibodies." Bao Mama ZZ revealed to Burning Finance that if the breastfeeding pressure given by the elders to the mother of the newborn is too great, it will affect their milk production.
In "Dear Child", after Fang Yinuo was discharged from the hospital, he was always afraid that the child would not eat well, sleep well, and be exhausted at night; when he saw that the child was yellow, he did not listen to the experience suggestions of his sister-in-law, and he must check the jaundice value for her; later, when the child was admitted to the hospital and separated from her, Fang Yinuo was not guarded, and did not listen to the advice of his family to accompany the child.
Photo/ Decadent heroine Fang Yinuo
Source/Douban
The postpartum anxiety and depression shown by the heroine, and the fierce contradictions between her and her sister-in-law and husband, are also the daily routines experienced by many pregnant women, and they are not exaggerated at all.
ZZ said, "Like when I was in the confinement center, in addition to having my sister-in-law alone and my husband coming to accompany me at night, there were doctors and nurses to check my wounds, as well as the baby's jaundice value, body temperature, satiety, etc., which alleviated my anxiety." Even so, if no one was around me, I would still want to cry uncontrollably. ”
The TV series tore away the superficial brilliance of the postpartum mothers being cared for by their families, and really touched the place where they needed to be seen more: fluctuating emotions.
Although the heroine's sense of despair in the TV series was evaluated as a "horror film" by some Douban netizens who gave low scores, more viewers believe that "Dear Child" is actually teaching newborn mothers how to accept themselves.
"The most important thing is not to feel that you have done or made any mistakes, and the emotions of wanting to cry and curse people are normal, just like Fang Yinuo." In this way, when you really want to have a child, you may be less afraid. Another baoma, Qiu Fan, told Burning Finance.
The characters are relatively three-dimensional
In addition to cutting to the current marriage and family issues, facing related issues, and shaping three-dimensional characters, it is also the key to the success of realist marriage and love dramas.
The update of "Dear Little Children" is halfway through, and the first half mainly focuses on family conflicts caused by parenting and husband infidelity.
In the tenth episode of the TV series, when Xiao Lu still wanted to save Fang Yinuo after cheating, there was a plot that impressed the audience Luo Shu, "I remember that Fang Yinuo's mother-in-law took her own dishes to find her daughter-in-law, to the effect that 'if you can't live it, you can't bear this life'..."
In Luo Shu's view, in this marriage and family drama, women and women are finally no longer a hostile relationship with each other, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have mutual understanding, and mother-in-law is no longer the stereotypical evil person image, which is the key to the role can stand.
In "Dear Child", although the mother-in-law is not a high-level intellectual, raising her granddaughter using the local method, likes to play mahjong, smoke, but in the TV series, she later quit smoking for her granddaughter, stewed pig hand soup for her daughter-in-law at night, accidentally dropped her granddaughter, and carefully took care of her daughter-in-law and children everywhere, all of which reflected the kind side of this rough old lady.
Photo / Mother-in-law Gao Caiping persuades her daughter-in-law to drink pig hand soup
Source/Burn Finance Screenshot
Male characters are also not the image of paper people in the TV series. In the play, Xiao Lu cut apples for Fang Yinuo during her pregnancy, laid down strips, and helped her rest, which can be described as a good husband in the early days; after the wife gave birth, when the sister-in-law ran away and his mother wanted to take care of his wife Fang Yinuo, Xiao Lu told his mother that his wife's wounds were not good and her mood was unstable, so she did not have to worry about her wife, and it could be said that she was considerate of her wife in many ways.
Although the widowhood of the husband is reflected in the TV series "Dear Child", it is not a rough and cold style, but a gradual type that allows people to see the reasons, so that the audience can also understand the role of the father a little more: Xiao Lu works during the day, wants to help breastfeed at night and cannot help, the wife's mood changes greatly, and the physical and mental exhaustion brought about by the husband's role of wandering between his mother and his wife are the objective reasons why he is more tired of coping later.
Fang Yinuo is also not a "perfect mother" in the TV series. Although there are typical postpartum depressions and emotional ups and downs to a certain extent, the lack of understanding of the family, and different growth backgrounds, she and her mother's concept of parenting is very different from that of the mother-in-law, which also objectively accelerates the disintegration of the family.
In other words, in Dear Little Kids, the audience rarely sees characters of good and evil, no perfect and abhorrent characters. This is the texture that a realist drama should have.
What kind of marriage drama does the audience need?
Of course, "Dear Child" is not perfect.
First of all, under the influence of the original adaptation, there are also absurdities in the conflict in the TV series.
In the second half of "Dear Little Child", the plot comes to the story of a leukemia daughter who needs divorced parents to have a new son to get a new life. At first glance, this is a typical extremely small probability event, but it has caused serious conjugal ethical problems, and its social significance is difficult to withstand torture, and it is no wonder that the original movie "Left and Right" has caused great controversy.
However, the plot of saving her daughter Hehe continues, and whether the plot will have a more reasonable interpretation remains to be revealed.
In addition, the rhythm of the TV series is also the core issue mentioned in the bullet screen. "Too slow to watch" is the perception of about 1/3 of the audience in the first few episodes of the TV series, which is why many viewers have been dissuaded.
In addition, in terms of character shaping, entering the middle stage of the development of the TV series, the screenwriter has gradually lost restraint in the shaping of the heroine Fang Yinuo: after Xiao Lu cheated, Fang Yinuo not only resolutely divorced the former, but also held a table to invite a group of friends to draw a clear line with Xiao Lu, and publicly and coldly deprived Xiao Lu of his right to be a father.
Under this setting, the iron wall presented by Fang Yinuo's character in terms of emotion may lose some of the audience's empathy, thereby weakening the closeness of the TV series characters - especially when the mother-in-law and Xiao Lu did not appear as absolutely evil people in the early stage.
However, "Dear Child" can be regarded as a success after all, and it is the marriage drama we need at the moment - it is not like the TV series "Our Marriage" that was just launched this year, "the male characters are scum, but not real"; the role played by Feng Shaofeng in "Heart Residence" has also become the "bullseye of spit"; it will show that the male characters in the play are in the torrent of the times, carrying the burden of supporting the family and taking care of the family, and the difficulties of wife childbearing are presented at the same time, which can make most male audiences feel respected.
"This is the realism we need at the moment for marriage dramas – boldly reflecting the real dilemmas women face in marriage, while also allowing male characters to be seen, so as to attract more male audiences to watch the play." Only if more audiences with different portraits are willing to watch this type of work, women have self-awareness, and men can empathize more, women's post-marital situation can be improved. Screenwriter Sanlin said.
A few days ago, Hu Kun, the director of "Dear Child", said on Weibo that after watching the birth clips in the play, his brothers couldn't help but cry, and said that they should be nicer to their wives - it can be seen that the texture of this TV series has at least resonated with some male audiences, which is gratifying.
Source/Weibo Screenshot of Burning Finance
However, according to Burning Finance, for now, most male screenwriters rarely watch TV dramas on the theme of marriage and love. Realistic marriage dramas have a long way to go to leap to a universal high-quality level, create more three-dimensional characters, have more reasonable plot conflicts and rhythms, and gain more recognition from male audiences.
*The title image is from the official Weibo of "Dear Child".
*Sanlin, Ouyang, Yuanzi, Luoshu, ZZ, and Qiu Fan are pseudonyms.