January 20, 2023 issue | Total No. 3122
Chen Yi said, "Entering Shanghai is the last difficulty of the Chinese revolution." Before seeing "Dawn East", I didn't expect it to tell the foundation year of New Shanghai from such a perspective.
"Breaking Dawn East" was originally called "Fighting Shanghai". Among the literary and artistic works under the name of "Fighting Shanghai", there is a black-and-white combat feature film that once swept the country. The film tells the story of a certain part of our army in the battle to liberate Shanghai, and there are grand war scenes and blazing battle details in the film. There are also martial arts operas in "Breaking Dawn East", but the focus is on literary opera.
"Breaking Dawn East" is a major revolutionary drama. In the "major" lineage, some basic patterns are still used today. If the story takes place during the Liberation War, showing the strategizing of the "five secretaries" is the main perspective, and showing the response of Chiang Kai-shek and his colleagues is another important perspective. War dramas with a sea of people are standard, and the unity of our army and the internal contradictions of the enemy are also the focus of the story.
"Breaking Dawn East" has high-level decision-making and grassroots hardships, which mainly shows how the new Shanghai leaders, led by Mayor Chen Yi, brought a megacity with a deteriorating livelihood back to the track of living and working in peace and contentment in one year. To some extent, Shanghai is the real protagonist, and Shanghai's recovery is the result of a series of detailed planning and confrontation between good and evil.
In the macro, meso and micro level narrative, this drama particularly highlights the length and clarity of the meso perspective. In the proportion of political, economic, and military struggles, the importance and dramatic tension of economic warfare are particularly highlighted. This is out of the comfort zone of revolutionary dramas, unique and creative play.
All roads lead to Rome. No matter how the screenwriters of "Breaking Dawn East" Long Pingping and Qin Qin distribute their pen and ink, how director Gao Xixi and the behind-the-scenes team construct images, and how starring Zhang Jiayi and others interpret historical figures, this drama still answers the major proposition of "why the Communist Party can". As the play reaches its climax and the play reaches the end, a high-scoring answer sheet gradually appears.
The "Three Great Battles" of the Economy
Movies are easy to display huge spectacles because of their large screens, and more emotionally impactful because of their "black box" viewing. Because of its length, the TV series is convenient to show the ins and outs of historical events, as well as the profound historical laws under the surface.
"Breaking Dawn Orient" tells the story of Shanghai before and after its liberation. At the beginning, the three major battles ended, and the PLA troops arrived in Shanghai. The encirclement has not yet been formed, and Chen Yi (played by Zhang Jiayi) has already received the arduous task of ruling Shanghai. The battle had not yet begun, and preparations for the "Danyang rectification training" were held in advance.
Why do you need to do the whole training first? Because Shanghai is the leader of China's economy and a big city of more than 5 million people. If Shanghai's takeover and construction work is done well, it will be a positive signal and a huge boost to the liberation of the whole country. Otherwise, it will add hidden worries to the liberation process and adversely affect the transition of the entire country from a state of war to peacebuilding.
Whether it was the correction of the soldiers "taking the light bulbs without warning" or the live newspaper drama propaganda of whether they could "drink a sip of water from the masses" after entering the city, they all paved the way for urban governance after the capture of Shanghai and set the key points.
Then there was the tragic "war Shanghai". The iron law of the battlefield that heavy artillery is not allowed, the real case of "three captured a thousand", and the total sacrifice of a combat unit finally planted the battle flag on the building on the opposite bank ... These images are full of historical presence, and also write about the heavy price that accompanies progress.
After the military victory, another invisible battlefield opened. After Chen Yi led his team to take over Shanghai, he fought three major economic battles: the battle to defend the renminbi, the war to track down hidden assets, and the war to protect grain, cotton and coal.
Financial stability, economic stability. The golden coupons issued by the Kuomintang led to the collapse of Shanghai's economy and the hardship of the people's livelihood. The Communist Party introduced a new currency in the Liberated Areas, and the introduction of the renminbi into Shanghai was a must. This touched the sensitive nerves of speculators and allowed the remnants of the Kuomintang to see an opportunity to make trouble.
If you want to circulate the renminbi in the market, I prefer to fight it with silver dollars. You want to give profits to ordinary citizens, and I want to tempt businesses with huge profits to disrupt the situation. This is a financial war and a struggle for city dominance. Chen Yi declared war on the outspoken profiteer Zhao Fengnian (played by Mi Xuedong), and then destroyed the old nest of speculators in one fell swoop by means of civility and martial arts, and won the currency war.
After that, tracing the hidden assets of the four major families was like peeling off the cocoon in a maze, and Ji Nanyin (played by Liu Tao), who understood the economy, and Lu Xiuyuan (played by Li Zefeng), who knew how to fight, cooperated tacitly to find out the "big fish" step by step, providing new support for Shanghai, which was looted by the Kuomintang when it retreated.
After that, sleeper spies and unscrupulous businessmen joined forces to hoard grain, cotton, and coal and sell them at high prices, highlighting the problem of eating for Shanghai citizens: the street crossed three lanes, and prices jumped three times. Chen Yi and Vice Mayor Zeng Shan (played by Liu Xu) asked the central government for help, sought help from friendly neighbors, and at the same time tapped the potential within Shanghai, which solved the urgent needs of the people's livelihood and thwarted the conspiracy of the reactionaries.
Never before has a drama so systematically told the turbulent economic turbulence after Shanghai's liberation. Military struggle is an excellent material with natural theatrical genes. Individual business wars are also easy to spread the contradictions and conflicts between you and me. And how a city can get rid of its devastated economic difficulties, and how a new regime can defuse the destruction of hostile forces lighting fires everywhere, is actually difficult to express in the form of drama.
"Breaking Dawn East" sets the official perspective, but also sets the people's perspective, and also sets the villain perspective, trying to sort out the dramatic elements in the economic contest, and write the difficult to focus on the market game as the confrontation between adults and people. Of course, this kind of dramatic writing still needs to be summarized and improved, but the courage to launch such a brave attempt is worthy of praise.
It is difficult to fight the rivers and mountains, and it is even more difficult to sit on the rivers and mountains
The campaign to liberate Shanghai is a part of the process of fighting Jiangshan and the economic "three major battles" is the continuation of the fight against Jiangshan and the beginning of sitting on Jiangshan Mountain.
Hostile forces launched the "three major battles", and the people were hostages in their hands. The financial sector is out of control, prices are out of control, energy supply is out of control, and the first to suffer are the citizens of Shanghai. The new government in Shanghai responded to the battle, like fighting mice in a porcelain shop, and it was difficult to imagine both to eliminate rats and protect porcelain.
However, the dividends after winning these battles are infinite. If the People's Liberation Army sleeping on the street has won a good first impression, truly solving the people's livelihood problems is the key to the new government winning the hearts and minds of the people.
The capture of enemy agents by force and the forcible dispersal of speculators are only the basis for restoring order. The urgent allocation of materials and the confiscation of hidden assets are only urgent needs. The ultimate solution to the Shanghai issue depends on the deployment of the whole country in a game of chess, and second, on the restoration and development of its own advantages.
Deng Xiaoping (played by Lu Qi) was entrusted by Chen Yi to report the situation to the Central Committee, and Chen Yun (played by He Gang) organized representatives of the five major regions to hold a financial and economic conference in Shanghai.
Representatives of the five regions spoke in their respective dialects, giving a clear picture of the economic predicament throughout the country in the later stages of the Liberation War. At the beginning, it was all local-based considerations, and under the ingenious guidance of Chen Yun and Chen Yi, a situation of national support for Shanghai was formed.
However, this is not a one-way transfusion. Some factories in Shanghai have relocated to the hinterland on the basis of comparative advantage, bringing industrial seeds and productivity to each other. Factories that remained in Shanghai, also because of their comparative advantages, were helped to recover and give back to other places with high-quality industrial products.
Rong Yiren (played by Feng Shaofeng) took the lead in turning the machine of the mill. Qin Shenghong (played by Youliping) returned from Hong Kong with funds and technicians at the sincere invitation of Ji Nanyin and Lu Xiuyuan, and the leading enterprises resumed production.
In this way, in a relatively short period of time, Shanghai's market stabilized, production was launched, and it became the locomotive of the national economy again. Moreover, in the next few decades, "Made in Shanghai" will be well-known throughout the country, and the reputation of "the eldest son of the Republic" will always be locked.
In March 1949, when Mao Zedong moved the central authorities from Xibaipo to Beijing, he likened it to "going to Beijing to catch up with the exam." In "Breaking the Dawn of the East", the communists represented by Chen Yi also study urban governance, familiarize themselves with economic work, solve people's livelihood problems, and establish development goals with the mentality of "catching up for exams".
In the conversation with his son, Chen Yi said that he would work hard and answer the questions assiduously. As he learns from experts, he listens intently. In the face of provocations from profiteers, he decisively fought back. When facing entrepreneurs in Shanghai's industrial and commercial circles, he saluted Corporal and was enthusiastic about solving problems.
To do this well, professional knowledge is essential. The people are the ultimate judge, and the heart to think about what the people think cannot be less. When Ji Nanyin reported on the exchange ratio of renminbi, gold vouchers and silver dollars, Chen Yi repeatedly asked for a non-negotiable tone in favor of the interests of the citizens. And every time the safety of people's lives and property is threatened, he is always the first to go to the scene to command.
What kind of mayor there is, there will be what kind of subordinates. Under the leadership of Chen Yi, Zeng Shan straightened out financial work, Xia Yan (played by Huo Qing) did a good job in literary and artistic work, Pan Hannian (played by Yin Xiaotian) and Li Shiying (played by He Minghan) eliminated the enemy bandits, and the sky in Shanghai became clear day by day.
Get a glimpse of the panther. The situation in a corner of Shanghai shows the rapid changes in the country. The People's Liberation Army swept through the southwest, the Liberated Areas were transformed into construction, and the red sun of New China was rising.
epilogue
"Breaking Dawn in the East" has the composure of writing history, and the process of correcting things in the early days of Shanghai's liberation is delicate. There is also the heat energy of drama, and the waves of unsettled and rising strife never stop.
It is written in political, economic, cultural and military writing, including elements of business warfare, action, anti-special, and life. It has a colorful group portrait of characters, and Chen Yi's image is unprecedentedly full. It also has a "pork belly" structure with three teachings and nine streams, and the five lakes and the four seas and the tone of the gang are smelted together.
The time is tight and the task is heavy, which is not a cliché for this show. After overcoming many difficulties such as the sudden attack of the epidemic, the blockage of mobility, the shortage of funds, and repeated revisions, it met the audience in late December 2022.
Now that the finale is approaching, the media and the audience have given praise. And its selection of materials to fill the gaps, the brushwork of both literature and martial arts, and the narrative of virtual and real will surely nourish later creators for a long time.
【Text/Li Xingwen】