On April 21, on the eve of World Book Day, the second season of the humanistic documentary "The Daily Life of Literature" was launched on Southeast TV, Straits TV and Youku Video. The first season of this documentary was broadcast two years ago, and it cuts from the perspective of "friends visiting", leading the audience to approach the five writers of Ma Yuan, Ma Jiahui, Mai Jia, Ah Lai and Xiao Bai, and has scored 8 points on Douban so far. This year, the new season of "Literary Everyday" will feature six writers and their friends, namely Liu Liangcheng and Hong Qi, Yu Jian and Hu Liangcan, Li Xiuwen and Han Songluo, Shuang Xuetao and Shi Hang, Li Er and Zhang Qinghua, Chen Yan and Chen Xiaoduo.
On April 21, the second season of the humanistic documentary "The Daily Life of Literature" was launched. Full-text stills were provided by the creative team of Everyday Literature.
"I want to tell you that there are still some dreams in daily life, and there are some moments when they take off a little." On the night of the first episode of the new season of "The Daily Life of Literature", Wang Shengzhi, director of "The Daily Life of Literature", was interviewed by the surging news reporter. He said: "In the past, many people felt that literature was very far away from themselves, no, there is a part of daily life that is literary, and those shining, poetic beings belong to literature. So there is daily life in literature, and there is literature in daily life. ”
Wang Shengzhi at work (first from the right)
【Dialogue】
The shining and poetic presence can impress many people
The Paper: How did you come up with the idea of making the series "The Everyday Life of Literature"?
Wang Shengzhi: "The Daily Life of Literature" has been filmed for the second season, and the first season was filmed in 2019, when I wanted to shoot this series, which was actually related to personal interest. I am from the department of Chinese, and I also studied modern and contemporary literature in graduate school, and most of my leisure time after work is also used to read novels. Once at a dinner party in Shanghai, Ma Jiahui told me that the relationship between a writer and a work is a bit like the relationship between a hen and an egg, and if you eat this egg and think it's good, you may want to meet this hen. I think it is true that there should be a mirror relationship between the work and the writer himself.
I've always been interested in the writers community, but I know that this era doesn't belong to writers anymore. This era is the era of intelligence, or the era of 5G, the era of traffic, and it is not the era of writers. My initial expectation was that no one would see it after the shooting, but then I also told myself that maybe this is also the best time for writers, because writers don't need much attention.
Writers, on the other hand, have a trait, they are people who live mainly through thinking, and they soothe people through words. Other information communication, such as we brush a lot of vibrato every day, brush a lot of today's headlines, to put it bluntly, big data pushed to you, is not real communication, but people do need to communicate. So I think this group still makes sense in this day and age. So I thought about photographing a group of contemporary writers.
The Paper: Was the title "Everyday Literature" decided at the beginning? The relevant name may be "Writer's Everyday", but the meaning is completely different, so I also wonder what ideas the name "Literary Everyday" carries?
Wang Shengzhi: Yes, thank you for asking this question, so many reporters have asked this question about you. We can easily call it "the everyday life of a writer," or "the everyday life of a writer," but such a name would be banal. Our daily routine is inherently sticking to the ground, day after day. So why add a definite phrase to the everyday life – "literary"? Because literature means an ability to dream, it means that even if it is stuck on the ground, literature can lift you a little higher from the dust, have a little ability to fly. In this film, I never give a biography to a writer, never use a long explanatory text to introduce what he wrote, what honors he has received, no, I value literature rather than literature, I want to photograph their literary nature, also called dreaminess.
The first season of "The Daily Life of Literature" scored 8 points on Douban.
The first season of "The Daily Life of Literature" has a short review of Douban
The Paper: What are some special considerations in the selection of writers? The first season has Ma Yuan, Ma Jiahui, Mai Jia, Ah Lai, and Xiao Bai, and the second season has Liu Liangcheng, Yu Jian, Li Xiuwen, Shuang Xuetao, Li Er, and Chen Yan.
Wang Shengzhi: My standard is not in the Literary Association, not in literary awards, not in film and television adaptations, nor in whether it comes with its own traffic. In the past two seasons, my choice is entirely based on my own reading interests. The writers I choose are the ones I've seen over the years and sparked my reading thoughts. So after the first season came out, I watched the bullet screen and the comments, and there were a lot of viewers who said who he liked, who was not familiar with who before but since then, which I didn't expect, I didn't expect that personal interest can also resonate with many people. It can also be seen that some writers are not personal, and his works and ideas can impress many people.
Yu Jian (left) and Hu Liangcan
Yu Jian
The Paper: What is the process of convincing writers to "get on camera"?
Wang Shengzhi: You know, the "meeting" between writers and journalists and directors is not friendly, and I eat a lot of closed doors. Why is that? Because most writers are very active in the spiritual world, dare to take risks and explore, but he may be clumsy, shy, timid in the real world, and helpless in the face of the camera. So when it comes to the media, the first reaction of many writers is to refuse.
But I'm confident that the writers I'm under the lens are comfortable, and whoever they are, they're going to be able to speak with all their hearts and lungs. Teacher Liu Liangcheng was worried at first that I had filmed him badly, and strongly asked to see the sample before the broadcast, so I sent him the sample, and he did not respond that night, and I did not ask. The next day, he told me to watch it again at noon, and said that he never thought that the director of Chinese television could make it like this, saying that this film was much more meaningful than many documentaries of foreign writers he had seen. Moreover, he said that the whole filming process was very pleasant, and he did not feel "interviewed". Therefore, to get close to the writer, you must first become the writer's confidant, and even strive to become the writer's peer, so that he is not embarrassed, and he is willing to open his heart.
Of course, it's impossible to really be their peer, each of them has been thinking and writing for years, how can I become a writer just because I made a documentary? So I'll tell you frankly, I'm relieved every time I shoot a writer, because before the interview I did a lot of "stupid work", full of their works, related comments, I feel that after two days of shooting, my reserves about them were exhausted. But also because of these "stupid kung fu", I could talk about their works very freely in those two days, as if they were acquaintances. Yes, in fact, I have turned them into acquaintances in my heart, but their actions in the real shot are strange, and this familiar and strange feeling inspires my questions and their answers.
Liu Liangcheng (left) and Hong Qi
Liu Liangcheng
In one encounter after another, the world meets unexpectedly
The Paper: In terms of specific shooting methods, how do you think of all the entry points of "friends visiting"? Their conversations are sometimes between two people sitting down and talking, which is relatively familiar to us, but there are also many times when two people talk while walking, talking on the move.
Wang Shengzhi: The two core elements of this film are here, one is "friends" and the other is "roaming". I wrote them a phrase in the promotional video called "The loneliest people often have the most persistent friends." Most writers' daily life state is to be in a daze, thinking, reading, and often a person walking alone in the spiritual back garden, but this kind of person often has very persistent friends, as long as you find the right friends, they can map each other and share the same voice. For example, many of the poems written by Wang Wei are for Pei Di, and a person who writes meets Zhiyin and meets a real friend will gush endlessly. If you swap this friend for a TV presenter, it's likely that you'll end up saying nothing.
You point out another very important thing, which is roaming. Most writers were afraid of trouble at the beginning, and they said that they would shoot at home or in the study, but I was very insistent on this, and I said I wanted to go out. In the second season, this kind of roaming is particularly obvious, such as Li Xiuwen and Han Songluo driving all the way from Lanzhou to Dunhuang, what is the core of this wandering? It's an encounter. As long as you go out, you will have unexpected encounters, which is completely beyond the so-called "planning case". After arriving in Dunhuang, we went to a village, and at the entrance of the village, we met an uncle who was planting an elm money tree, they asked the uncle what the elm money was used for, and then went into the uncle's yard smoothly. The uncle also beckoned them to sit down for tea and told them about their past, and Li Xiuwen later read a passage from "Mountains and Rivers" in that place: "In an instant, I felt inexplicable, and I had to be grateful for writing again, grateful for writing that will run through my life, only because the rice waves in front of me, and the labor in the rice waves, are the two gods I want to continue to worship for the rest of my life: the people and beauty." ”
I would say that this encounter is really unplanned, because roaming is both a movement of physical space and a spiritual journey of friends. They'll talk deeper and deeper, and there's a lot of improvisation. Encounters and improvisations are very real things, the core of my film, and it is also different from "The Hometown of Literature", "They Write on the Island", "The Moon in Hand", and my film is completely completed by encounter and improvisation.
I remember when I was shooting Ah Lai last season, one of his requests was "I don't act", he said that many people called him to act when he made a film, from left to right, and who to shake hands and who to hug. He said he wouldn't shoot if he wanted to act. My films seek extreme realism in the wandering. But this is really unfriendly to the director, because you don't know when the encounter will pop up, you have to grab it in time, amplify it, go deep into it, and you can't do it again. In that scene, if you have no eyeballs, it blinks and it passes.
The Paper: It seems that there is a question of geospatiality involved here – what kind of place does the writer choose to live in? What kind of places does he go to on a daily basis? Where does he want to take his friends? ...... A writer's understanding of life, his understanding of literature, is often inseparable from these geographical spaces.
Wang Shengzhi: Yes, a writer's creation usually has a lot to do with his choice of place. If you think of Bai Juyi or Su Dongpo, every time they go to a favorite place, they have to build a house, plant flowers before and after, and then wander in their own spiritual world. The base of one's creation is first of all in the geospatial sense.
Li Xiuwen (left) and Han Songluo
Li Xiuwen
The Paper: Do different writers have different emphases?
Wang Shengzhi: Every writer is a different individual, but I prefer to talk to you about one thing they have in common, that is, they look old and mature on the surface, but in their hearts they are particularly naïve, particularly childish, and full of curiosity about the world, like our children who grew up in rural areas say that old people live as "old children".
The Paper: Personally, what are some memorable images during the filming process?
Wang Shengzhi: I remember that Teacher Liu Liangcheng would crouch down and talk to the lizards, and also guess from the broken wine bottle that a herdsman had a night when the west wind was roaring; Teacher Yu Jian was more like a child, he went to an ancient courtyard, called me to see a door with a broken corner, and then asked me if I knew how this corner came from, I said I didn't know, he said that this house was from the Song Dynasty, the husband quarreled with his wife, the wife slammed the door, and the door broke a corner. I was stunned to hear it, and I thought isn't that what a child said? There was also the Mai family teacher last season, it was raining that day, he was not upset at all, and I said that there was no rain, no moonlight, there would be no poet, and said: "If it does not rain, I can't fall in love, and I have been out of the sun to talk about what love." It's particularly interesting, and I think it's wonderful to be able to record the innocence of these writers with images.
Then there is Shuang Xuetao, the youngest writer in two seasons. At that time, he and Shi Hang walked in the alley and entered a family, which was not too repulsive to the camera, so we begged for a cup of tea. Unexpectedly, this family was laid off in the ninth year, and he told Shuang Xuetao that I was a laid-off worker, and I had no skills, unlike you who were a writer. Shuang Xuetao immediately said that my parents were laid off. That moment also shocked me quite. Then there's the fact that I asked him which book or which writer had the most impact before he became a writer, and you know what he told me? He said his literary career began with The Reader.
Teacher Chen Yan returned to the home where he wrote his first novel, "The Story of Xijing". The man lived in xi'an's urban village, and the bedroom was connected to the kitchen, and together they were less than ten square meters in a place. As a result, after Teacher Chen Yan went in, he sat there and talked to him about home, and at that moment you will find that sympathy and empathy do not mean that I understand you, or that I pity you, there is still a difference in treatment, and true sympathy or empathy is "I am you".
Chen Yan (right) and Chen Xiaoduo
Chen Yan
When people can't hold their breath, literature is still there
The Paper: The second season continues the narrative style of the first season, but has there been some adjustments and changes compared to the first season?
Wang Shengzhi: Compared with the first season, the second season is more beautiful and more daily. After all, words are abstract and have directed meaning, and everyday life is the freeze frame of current life, so I hope to strengthen the everyday and bring the audience something different.
For example, Mr. Yu Jian reads a passage about life and death in a wet market, and Shuang Xuetao reads his works in the billiard hall of a small alley. The people selling vegetables on the edge of the market, the people who sell meat and the people who pass by, as well as the faces under the smoke in the billiard hall are everyday, but the text is pointing to the meaning, such a picture with such a text, will make all the audience easy to accept, feel that the picture is very familiar, and find that the daily life is meaningful, and the daily life can also extract serious problems such as the hearts of the world, personal destiny and so on. Let's put it this way, images are everyday, they're present, but when words sound, they can fly.
On the other hand, when we shoot writers, it is easy to think of bookstores, libraries, and study rooms, and the audience may feel the barrier and feel that it is a place where intellectuals stay, but writers are intellectuals and ordinary people, and they will also go to the streets and alleys, to the vegetable market, to sing and drink. I hope that literature can be better integrated with everyday life, and literature does not have to be alone, as if it is such a small enclave.
Shuang Xuetao (right) and Shi Hang
Double snow waves
The Paper: Before, more viewers are familiar with you because of the difference between making a life documentary like "Breakfast China", filming breakfast and food, and shooting writers and literature? What do they have in common?
Wang Shengzhi: No one has ever asked me this question. I think so, "Breakfast China" also emphasizes "flying on the ground", the owner of the breakfast shop works hard day after day, but there is always a good side to life, such as playing a favorite song of the bosses. I tried to extract poetry from ordinary life and make people feel that the world was still worth living.
So what is "The Everyday Life of Literature", it is actually with the help of the writer's poetry and dreaming ability to crack the everyday. I never talk about creation in "The Daily Life of Literature", such as fiction and documentary, character shaping, etc., not talking about these. The daily life and worldliness of writers are what I value. These two types of programs, one is from the ground to find out the flight to the sky, the other is from the sky to the ground, the direction is different, but always thinking about how we live in this world.
The Paper: There is also this point in "China Is So Beautiful".
Wang Shengzhi: Yes, in fact, these works of mine are shooting a thing, that is, the secular life of ordinary people. Literature is about ordinary people, rock or folk songs are related to ordinary people, and breakfast is more direct. Whether I'm dealing with writers or musicians, I want to bring them into secular life. I'll give you an example, Bi Feiyu's "Tuina" writes about a blind man, called Tai Lai, who has lost love, Bi Feiyu wrote that he has been singing, singing the pop songs of the eighties to the twenty-first century, and after singing he is fine and can go to work. It can be seen that there are also many things in popular songs or music that are closely related to the general public. But all worldly life is what I value.
The Paper: Frankly, compared to Breakfast China, is the audience of "Everyday Literature" smaller?
Wang Shengzhi: After the first season of "Literary Everyday" aired, I was quite optimistic. At first, I did think that I was afraid that no one would watch it, but after the broadcast, I found that things were not so bad, the people who loved to read books in the world were still there, the people who cared about the spiritual world were still there, but not on the face, in every corner. I now feel that people still need writers, need spiritual communication, no matter where the times progress, even if it is 6G, 7G, 8G... But the father is still the father, the son is still the son, and there is always something permanent in daily life.
Li Er (left) and Zhang Qinghua
Li Er
The Paper: You are from the Chinese department and have witnessed the changes in Chinese literature from the 1980s to the present. In your observation, is there a process of moving from mainstream to periphery in the social position of literature? What do you think of such a process?
Wang Shengzhi: Yes, but first of all, I think that the 1980s were obviously abnormal, when writers could become national idols by publishing a novel, which was not necessarily a good thing for literature. Many novels from the 1980s can't be read in retrospect. I think it's a more normal situation now: writers do what they're supposed to do, and then influence a bunch of people who deserve it. Whoever needs to settle in the spiritual world, who needs to harvest spiritual comfort, can naturally find it. You want everyone to like it, and it doesn't have to be necessary, just stick to your personal creation.
The Paper: What do you think literature means to us today?
Wang Shengzhi: There is a phrase in our hometown called "head into the chicken trough", which means that the chicken does not lift its head when eating, like a printer, and eats all the chicken food in one breath. In real life, we are like chickens, first of all, to eat, then literature may be to look up at the sky once in a while. I can only use such a less precise metaphor, look up at the sky, or float to the surface of the water after a long dive to change your breath, literature plays this role, when you can't hold your breath, it is still there.
Poster for the second season of Everyday Literature