Editor's note: In the novel "Flowers", a large part of the plot of the story takes place in Jing'an. Xuezhi lives in Anyuan Road, Husheng lives in Wuding Road, and Abao lives in Caoyang New Village. Ah Bao got along with the tram conductor Xuezhi, took the cinema, visited the park, and accompanied her to the middle class on the tram, "Caojiadu to Tilanqiao to take two laps".
From the entrepreneurial history of Po in the TV series "Flowers", we also see the city spirit of embracing all rivers, pursuing excellence, being open-minded and wise, and being modest, keeping integrity and innovation, and not forgetting the original intention, thus stimulating the endless imagination and creativity of Shanghai.
Text: Wang Zhiqi
Painting: Rong Defang
A tree blooms all over the city
▲In front of the Beef Soup Pavilion - Cao Jiadu 1980 Rong Defang painting
The famous Hong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai made a TV series for the first time, and asked Shanghai writer Jin Yucheng for a "fake leader", named "Fanhua". The TV series "Flowers" immediately became lively like flowers and flames. Just like the ordinary little person Ah Bao, as soon as he wears the suit carefully made by the tailor master, he suddenly becomes a trendy person of the era calling for wind and rain on the food street of Huanghe Road. Now that the winter solstice has passed, the coldest March 9 of this year will bid farewell to Shanghai, and a tree will bloom all over the city.
Mr. Lu Xun once said: "A Dream of Red Mansions, scholars see "Yi", Taoists see lewdness, and talented people see lingering ......" A tree of flowers will have tens of millions of readers and audiences, not to mention Wong Kar-wai's TV series has a drastic adaptation of the novel "Flowers". Writer Jin Yucheng showed his face at the beginning of the TV series, symbolizing a kind of tribute from Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai to Shanghai writer Jin Yucheng.
The writer begins with the sentence: "It is better to go up to a tall building alone, preferably at night", and he no longer shows up, and it does not ring. There are more than 1,300 "silent" in the novel "Flowers", but in fact, there is blank space everywhere, so that the reader's imagination is like a wild horse stepping over the weeds, turning the fingertips of the pages to freeze the time, and you can look back quietly. Now Wong Kar-wai's TV series "Flowers" adapted has a total of 30 episodes and 1,200 minutes, and the audience can only follow the river of time in the TV series and have their own opinions.
▲ Source: Stills from "Flowers".
Watching the TV series "Flowers", I think the audience should not be entangled in whether the neon on the food street on Huanghe Road is so gorgeous and enchanting, and they don't care whether the "hard" and "glutinous rice" of Shanghai women are too hot or not, these are all skin appearances, and there is no need to be persistent. The focus of "Flowers" is on Bao, and the key to Bao is to highlight the true colors of Shanghai men, that is, shrewd and trustworthy, affectionate, affectionate and not abusive, as the saying goes, "a mold with a ping pong sound". Even if he has done "piling molds", he has long been reborn and has entered the business circle freely.
In the early nineties of the last century, it was the golden development period of the spring breeze of reform and opening up and the tide surging, A Bao crawled in the primitive market, from foreign trade to bonds, moved bricks, made the difference, endured all the hardships, and even almost died under the wheel, but he turned into a butterfly and deservedly became a top figure. Director Wong Kar-wai created a "grandfather" out of thin air to help Ah Bao's staff, not only to serve as a ladder for Ah Bao to break through the class barrier, but also to continue the afterglow of the business world of the old Shanghai "Ten Mile Ocean Field".
No matter how the times change, Shanghai people are honest and trustworthy, and the background color of the rivers and lakes remains unchanged. In the face of Fan Xinhua, the owner of Huxi Knitting Factory, Ah Bao took retreat as advance, won the sales right of 800,000 domestic mercerized cotton T-shirts in one fell swoop, and erased the purchase and sale price of 1.2 million yuan. As for the hemp boss of Zhuji Knitting Factory, Ah Bao neither flinched nor feared, nor did he bend to welcome him, jumped out of the "counterfeit" trap, created a domestic brand, and had great ambitions. Although in the end, the fashion mall on Nanjing Road failed to replicate the hot sales glory of "Sanyang", but also kept its promises, and the marketing concept has been far ahead of "Uncle", and Bao's business future is unlimited.
▲ Source: Stills from "Flowers".
As a Shanghai man, Po is also characterized by being amorous, affectionate but not abusive. I privately think that Ah Bao in the TV series "Flowers" is a mixture of Ah Bao and Husheng in the novel "Flowers". Ah Bao and Miss Wang at No. 27 on the Bund, Reiko from Tokyo at night on Jinxian Road, and Li Li from Huanghe Road to Zhenyuan are intertwined and wonderful.
▲ Source: Stills from "Flowers".
Halfway through the TV series, Xuezhi, the first love in the novel, appeared on the stage, and Xuezhi, the conductor of the No. 13 tram, led to a part of Bao's old dream of Caojiadu.
▲ Wealth and water - Cao Jiadu 1980 Rong Defang painting
In the novel "Flowers", a large part of the plot of the story takes place in Jing'an. Xuezhi lives in Anyuan Road, Husheng lives in Wuding Road, and Abao lives in Caoyang New Village. Ah Bao got along with the tram conductor Xuezhi, took the cinema, visited the park, and accompanied her to the middle class on the tram, "Caojiadu to Tilanqiao to take two laps". Po went to see Xuezhi for the last time:
The car stepped from Caoyang New Village to the top of the Wuning Road Bridge, and then slid quickly under the bridge...... To Changshou Road, turn left, Ah Bao decided to change the route, first go to Wuding Road, go to Husheng's room to change a set of clothes, and wait for the car to arrive at the door of Wuding Road, Ah Bao sighed, Husheng's door key, not around, in front of a blank. Dressed in work clothes, to go or not, uncertain, the car continued to move south, through Xikang Road, rambling to Nanjing West Road, until he saw the poster of Ping An Cinema, Ah Bao woke up, turned to the Jiangning intersection, immediately facing north, wearing such clothes, to see Xuezhi, because it was work, the two sides had already ended, it didn't matter. ”
▲Sanguantang Bridge - Caojiadu 1980 Rong Defang painting
I have to mention that Wong Kar-wai's TV series "Flowers" completely removed Xiao Mao from the novel "Flowers", washed away the fireworks of civilian life in Shanghai in the nineties of the last century, and made Betty, a childhood friend who swims like a fish, disappear, which is a pity.
In the 90s, Shanghai changed a lot every year and three years, and what changed was the appearance of the city, but in fact what changed was people's ideological concepts and way of life. In today's development of "Exploring the Sustainable Model of Urban Renewal", and then looking at the TV series "Flowers", from Bao's entrepreneurial history, we also see the urban spirit of embracing all rivers, pursuing excellence, being open-minded and wise, and being modest, keeping integrity and innovation, and not forgetting the original intention, thus stimulating the endless imagination and creativity of Shanghai.
יהוה —יהוה 1980
In the tide of the times, the tuyere will appear at any time, will you become the next Bao?
About the Author:
Wang Zhiqi is a member of the Jing'an District Writers Association. He graduated from the Department of Chinese at East China Normal University in 1982. He used to be a middle school Chinese teacher and a second-level researcher of the United Front Work Department of Jing'an District Party Committee.
Painter introduced
Rong Defang, former director of the Art Department of the School of Fashion of Shanghai University of Engineering Science, senior arts and crafts artist. He has presided over and independently completed design projects and won many national, provincial and municipal awards. He is one of the winners of the design of the regional flag and emblem of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.
▲ "Flowers" memory map (Source: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House "Flowers" Jin Yucheng drawing)
Editor's note:
This column is derived from Paramount Door, a supplement to Jing'an Daily, which was first published on February 8, 1994. On the WeChat platform, "Paramount Gate" will be presented to readers in a new form. Regular push every week to read Jing'an from a different perspective. Submissions can be sent to [email protected]
Source: Jing'an, Shanghai