Author: Hu Yifeng
Youth are the most active and dynamic force in the whole social force, the hope of the country lies in the youth, and the future of the nation lies in the youth. Young people are also favored by literary and artistic creators and have become "regular customers" and "important guests" in their works. From Wang Zhong in the novel "Young Drifter", Tao Jianping in the left-wing movie "Tao Li Robbery", Lin Daojing in "Song of Youth", Liang Shengbao in the novel "History of Entrepreneurship", the female soldier of the signal soldier in the oil painting "I Am Haiyan", to Enron in the novel "Red Shirt Without Buttons", Sun Shaoan and Sun Shaoping in the novel "Ordinary World", a large number of outstanding literary and artistic works have left countless wonderful youth images in people's hearts.
Information picture of the TV series "The World"
Stills from the movie "Chosin Lake" Courtesy of the producer
Stills of the web drama "The Beginning" Courtesy of the producer
Literature and art are records of the times. Even the stories of young people who have become history can be interpreted in the literary and artistic creation of different eras. Contemporary youth actively innovate and create in the ever-changing social life and non-stop development and progress, providing inexhaustible inspiration and themes for literature and art. In recent years, literature and art have kept pace with the times, keenly capturing the mutual shaping of youth and the times, reflecting the life and growth of young people, and portraying many touching, inspiring and inspiring youth images with new perspectives and techniques.
Interpret the spiritual genealogy of communists
Revolutionary youth are an important driving force for social change and an important theme of literary and artistic creation over the past hundred years. 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and various art disciplines have launched a large number of outstanding works on the theme of party history. Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has absorbed many "new youths" and is full of youthful vitality. The average age of a major CCP deputy is only 28 years old. When the party was founded, Chen Duxiu was 40 years old and Li Dazhao was only 30 years old. The TV series "The Age of Awakening" takes the founding of the party as the main line, vividly portrays the portraits of Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong and other revolutionary youth groups, and carries forward the great spirit of party building.
The major representatives of the CPC in the movie "1921", Wu Qianli and Wu Wanli in "Changjin Lake", Zhang Xianchen and Wang Yu in "On the Cliff", Yun Daiying and Shi Yu in the drama "Yuhuatai", Haitang in the opera "Yimeng Mountain", Qu Qiubai in the Kunqu opera "Qu Qiubai", and the image of young revolutionaries in the Han white jade sculptures "Faith", "Great Cause", "Tackling Tough Problems" and "Chasing Dreams" in front of the History Exhibition Hall of the Communist Party of China have enriched the art gallery of the image of revolutionary youth. These characters either have their own history or recreate them for archetypes, and complete the narrative of revolutionary youth with their own life stories, vividly interpreting the spiritual genealogy of communists.
Some young creators have made attempts to shape "new youth" in a new perspective. For example, the drama "The Tale of The Two Wings" takes Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Zhang Shizhao and other intellectuals of the Republic of China as the prototype, shapes the three characters of Cheng Wuyou, Lu Bo'an, and Lang Shibiao, and "answers the same topic" with similar theme works, handing over a new and full answer sheet, telling the young people's adherence to faith and original intentions from another side, making our understanding of the youth group in the "awakening era" richer and more delicate, and also showing the various possibilities of writing history in literature and art.
Play the strong sound of the rush of the new era
Youth is the tide of the times. The struggling posture of young people constitutes the brightest scenery of the times. In recent years, literary and art workers have focused on major national strategies such as poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, all-round well-off, and scientific and technological research, and have written an important chapter in the epic of national rejuvenation with a series of "struggling youth" images.
The zhuang opera "Huang Wenxiu" is based on the poverty alleviation deeds of Huang Wenxiu, the first secretary of the village, and uses opera techniques to reproduce the young party member's political beliefs, spiritual pursuits and feelings for the people. Ma Defu in the TV series "Mountains and Seas", Feng Cheng in "The Most Beautiful Youth", after graduating from college, threw himself into the grassroots and took root in the earth, and Wang Jicai and Wang Shihua in the movie "Island Keeper" took the island as their home and accompanied the sea, and they all dedicated the most beautiful years to the "great man of the country" and radiated a strong positive energy of youth.
Tao Jun in the film "Chinese Doctor", the young medical staff, volunteers, courier brothers, etc. who resolutely retrograde in the face of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in the drama "People First", as well as the youthful faces of the medical staff who are frozen in the major photography project of "Making Statues for Angels", all show the firm and powerful youth force in the fight against the epidemic. Under the structure of "infinite flow", the network drama "Beginning" tells a gripping story, Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun's righteous deeds in the face of emergencies, which makes people read about the courage, wisdom and responsibility of young people in the new era. The image of young ice and snow athletes in the works of the Ninth China Beijing International Art Biennale shows a moving picture of the Winter Olympics.
In the name of youth, the Chinese dream is a universal light, enough to illuminate the young heart. Taking the dream as the horse, the far-reaching world inspires endless motivation for struggle. The TV series "Entrepreneurship Era" takes entrepreneurial youth in the Internet field as the performance object and tells the story of the innovative development of instant messaging software. The animated film "Lion Boy" turns its attention to the left-behind teenagers, depicts their self-improvement and unremitting dream-chasing life, refracts the strength of struggle and the light of dreams with youth, and transmits the firm footsteps of continuous progress to our hearts.
The bright colors of human nature that reflect the torrents of life
The phenomenon-level TV series "Human World" portrays the touching and profound character image of Zhou Bingkun. As the old knot of the Zhou family, in this 56-episode long work, the young Zhou Bingkun occupies a great role. Although the time span of the narrative of the series is large, it makes the most detailed description of Zhou Bingkun's youth, and completes the typical writing of the ordinary Chinese youth of the "post-50s". In the turbulent trend of the times, Zhou Bingkun, with his kindness and tenacity, showed the life experience, moral character and life attitude of a generation of young people.
Compared with "The World of Man", other works place young people in the scene of learning and life, and portray the self-reliance and self-improvement of young people in the torrent of life through the choices of characters at the moment of major events. For example, the novel "Chinese Tao Li" focuses on the youth growth of "post-80s" college students in small cities, "Fog Walker" shows the reshaping of youth life under the change of the times, Li Play in the movie "Dog Thirteen" is caught in intergenerational conflict, Chen Nian in "Young You" faces campus violence, and Enron in "My Sister" is thrown into the contradiction between personal life and family responsibility.
These seemingly individualized and accidental problems actually reflect social issues such as gender equality, family reorganization, intergenerational ethics, and peer groups, and what is deeper is the contemporary youth socialization mechanism composed of cultural traditions, educational environment, social customs and other elements. The movies "Hello, Li Huanying" and "Good Teacher" respectively focus on the relationship between teenagers and their parents and teachers, and create a warm-hearted youth image of heavy family affection and gratitude. The film "Send You a Little Red Flower" uses the stories of Wei Yihang and Ma Xiaoyuan, two terminally ill youths, to show the wandering and blooming of human nature when youth is blocked. Ma Xiaoyuan's cheerfulness, self-confidence and Wei Yihang finally came out of the repressive indifference and self-abandonment, portraying the emotional structure and spiritual temperament belonging to young people from a unique perspective, allowing us to see another kind of youth writing of art to the suffering of life.
These young people may not have the heroic deeds of running around and shouting, nor did they do great things in the world, but this did not weaken the attractiveness and appeal of the characters in the slightest. Whether it is Zhou Bingkun's kindness, Enron's responsibility, or the growth of Chen Nian, Wei Yihang, and Ma Xiaoyuan, we feel empathy and have a relationship. Of course, this is related to the intentions of the creators and performers, but also because these characters are close to us, and the trajectory of life overlaps with us a lot, and even a part of us.
Fanglin new leaves promote old leaves, and the front wave of flowing water makes the back wave. In the rushing river of years, youth is the moving face of the times. We look forward to the emergence of more moving images of young people in the creation gallery, and decorate the Hundred Gardens of Chinese Literature and Art with more vitality.
(The author is a director of the China Literary and Art Critics Association)
Original title: Shaping the image of youth, outlining the face of the times - young figures in literary and artistic works in recent years
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition