The drama "The Family of Gold Powder", how did it become a love horror movie?

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

At present, domestic romance dramas take the trouble to exaggerate the romance of a domineering president and marrying into a wealthy family, and the concept of love conveyed is empty and naïve, more like an outdated argument. As early as 20 years ago, "The Family of Gold Powder" had already thoroughly explained the so-called "Qi Da is not coupled" and the concept of marriage and love that the three views do not match.

✎ Author | Xie Wuji

✎ Edit | Tan Shan Shan

The theme of love has always been an inexhaustible source of creation for domestic dramas. Interestingly, with the changes in the environment of the times, although the sweetness of the current domestic idol dramas and romance dramas has only increased, and "CP" is more like a carnival feast, the love spark between men and women makes people feel suspended, and it can always make people feel like they have tasted the flavor of industrial prefabricated dishes, which is more and more empty and boring.

Rewind time back to more than 20 years ago, there are too many classics left by domestic romance dramas, and you will find that our imagination of romantic love once had such a picture with the texture of an oil painting: Jin Yanxi played by Chen Kun and Leng Qingqiu played by Dong Jie ran in the endless sunflower field, and then lay down in the flowers to talk about their life ideals, with the BGM of "Dark Fragrance", which makes people fall asleep in a second.

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

"The Family of Gold Powder" is adapted from the original novel of the same name by writer Zhang Hatshui, which was broadcast on CCTV-8 prime time in March 2003, with an average rating of 7.68%. In the following 20 years, it has been repeatedly mentioned, rewatched and interpreted. Its classic is difficult to replicate, and a few years ago, there were voices of remakes from time to time, and it sparked heated discussions because of the casting of the male and female protagonists. Some people say that because the characters in the play are so profound, so many years have passed, and we have never been able to take off the filter on Chen Kun and Dong Jie.

At present, domestic romance dramas take the trouble to exaggerate the romance of a domineering president and marrying into a wealthy family, and the concept of love conveyed is empty and naïve, more like an outdated argument. As early as 20 years ago, "The Family of Gold Powder" had already thoroughly explained the so-called "Qi Da is not coupled" and the concept of marriage and love that the three views do not match. Looking back at this drama, the original romantic filter is sparse, but it is more like an extremely realistic "love horror movie" or "love disenchantment film". From the perspective of women's awakening, "The Family of Gold Powder" seems to be traditional, but it is actually ahead of its time.

20 years later, why does it still make us so upset?

01

"Why did you change your mind"?

"The Family of Gold Powder" was born out of the enduring "Cinderella" story, and many romance dramas will refer to this model: a beautiful woman from a poor background meets and falls in love with a man of prominent status. "In the end they live a happy life", the fairy tale always ends here.

Obviously, the ambitions of "The Family of Gold Powder" do not stop there. It is not only the Republic of China version of the "Cinderella" story, but also extends the youth romance film to a family life film, which makes its perception a little fragmented: how extreme the first half is about passionate love, and how cold and thrilling the witness of the grave of marriage is in the second half.

A large part of the shock it brought to the audience at the time should be attributed to a tragic aesthetic - it created a huge love dream for us, and then crumpled it into ashes with our own hands. The gold dust is scattered, and there is a sense of disillusionment of "the mirror flowers and the moon are empty". As "Dark Incense" sings, "Let the heart die in splendor, and let love be reborn in the ashes".

Maybe everyone will sigh with the eighth sister in the play: Don't you love each other very much? Aren't you a free marriage? Why don't you love each other? Why do you change your mind?

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

This may be the question from the perspective of God buried by Li Dawei, the director of "The Family of Gold Powder", in the play. In 2003, he said in the program "Into TV" that he wanted to find a point, that is, two people who love each other but can't be together, "There may be environmental reasons, family reasons, and class reasons, but the most important thing is not this, but the reason of a person's nature."

In the play, the reason for the tragedy is explained by the mouth of Leng Qingqiu, which is also the concept of marriage and love expressed by Zhang Hatshui in the original work. This allusion comes from "Zuo Chuan": During the Spring and Autumn Period, the monarch of Qi wanted to marry his daughter to the prince of Zheng Guo, Zheng Guo was a small country, and the prince of Zheng Guo pushed off the marriage on the grounds that Qi was a big country and did not dare to climb high. In the future, "Qi Da Fei Couple" was used to refer to the difference between improper doors and wrong households in the marriage relationship, and conveyed the traditional concept of marriage and love that pays attention to the family.

When we feel sorry for the "Qi Da Fei Couple" of Minglan and her "White Moonlight" little grandfather in "Do You Know If You Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", "The Family of Gold Powder" has long presented it as if it fell into reality. This highly respected traditional concept of marriage and love has now been extended to a new extent - "Qi Da is not even", not only the differences in family education, life background, growth environment, cultural accomplishment, customs and habits brought about by birth, but also reflected in the outlook on life, world view and values of both parties, which is what we often call "three views do not agree". The key is whether the soul and personality are equal.

(Photo/"Do You Know If You Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin")

In this sense, "The Family of Gold Powder" is closer to realism. In the original novel, the two lovers are placed in an interpersonal context, showing the strangulation of freedom by power and money, as well as the depiction of the worldly human nature of desire and greed. In this way, its presentation of love is more complex and more profound. The clues to the tragedy of the marriage of the male and female protagonists have long been buried when romantic love occurs.

02

Gains and losses in the eternal love field,

What's wrong?

There is never a shortage of warblers and warblers around Jin Yanxi, and Leng Qingqiu's attraction to him is the embodiment of the pursuit of scarcity and freshness. He is amorous, and he has long been accustomed to seeing the piles of fat powder in the social field, but he rarely sees a plain and elegant woman in cloth like Leng Qingqiu. In the play, Jin Yanxi never forgot the glimpse of Leng Qingqiu, and after several pursuits, he found a beautiful woman. In the original novel, Jin Yanxi forgot about Leng Qingqiu after seeing her for the first time, and the subordinate Jin Rong accidentally mentioned it, and he suddenly remembered it. And during this period, he never stopped playing ambiguous socializing with other women.

Jin Yanxi has long weighed the pros and cons, for him, Bai Xiuzhu, the lady of the same class, is a "new woman in the social field", difficult to control - "I can't interfere with her actions, she has to interfere with your actions", and Leng Qingqiu is a symbol of the docile and pure wife's personality, and it is more like a "plaything" to give and take.

Leng Qingqiu was based on the concerns of "Qi Da Fei Couple" at the beginning, and there were also sober moments of cold treatment, but she couldn't deny the temptation of material and vanity to her. Under Jin Yanxi's repeated offensives of sending silk, shoe tickets, and theater tickets, and frequently showing her poetry talents, she was conquered, and the two made a private agreement for life, and they were pregnant before marriage.

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

After marrying into a wealthy family, the concubine's cold words, her husband's domineering, and her mother's caution when she entered the Golden Mansion made Leng Qingqiu feel more and more that she was like a "bird in a golden cage", living a suffocating and painful married life. Jin Yanxi thought that women didn't have to pursue too advanced knowledge, so Leng Qingqiu gave up her studies after marriage. The two gradually got into a gap, Jin Yanxi still couldn't get rid of the amorous and extravagant style, he never respected his wife's personality from beginning to end, regarded her as an "accessory", and made her obey.

In a quarrel, Jin Yanxi coldly hit Leng Qingqiu: "You take a good look in the mirror, from head to toe, which one is not the Jin family? Which one is the Leng family? Please check it yourself." Leng Qingqiu is a woman who seems to be traditional, but in fact grew up under a new education, and she pursues personality freedom and independence emotionally, which made her wake up and break with Jin Yanxi.

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

After the death of Jin Quan, the power representative of the Jin family, the family went into decay and collapsed, and the young masters exposed their true colors one by one. Jin Yanxi couldn't fall behind and be independent in the family road, so she tried to curry favor with Bai Xiuzhu, proposed to her, and decided to go to Germany to study with her. Leng Qingqiu realized that this marriage existed in name only, and lived in the attic with his son, coarse tea and light food, isolated from the world. Then, a fire caused her to flee her family.

At the end of the drama version, Jin Yanxi realized that "only when you lose can you know how to regret it", and the two took the train and went against each other. The ending of the original work is more realistic: Jin Yanxi followed her sister to another country, and after returning to China, she became a well-known director and screenwriter, and married actor Qiu Xizhen as his wife. He made a movie about the story with Leng Qingqiu, satirizing Leng Qingqiu for taking revenge on himself through a fire, and he once again entered the glitzy world of drunken gold fans in the name of director. After Leng Qingqiu left the Jin family, he made a living selling calligraphy and paintings, and had no fixed residence.

Zhang Hatshui witnessed all this from the perspective of a bystander, and threw this question to the reader: "Is it the fault of men or women in the eternal love scene?"

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

The drama version of "The Family of Gold Powder" adds a lot of romantic tones to the love between the male and female protagonists in terms of the matching of roles and actors, visual presentation and plot. But at its core, there are also shortcomings. Zhang Jun, the grandson of Zhang Hatshui, once commented: "Only the words 'gold powder family' on the beginning of the film are familiar, and everything else is fresh." This TV series has been adapted into what it is today, and I am afraid that it will not please both ends. Young people don't know why they watched it, and middle-aged and older viewers watched it, and they don't know why. ”

But judging from the current domestic drama market environment, "The Family of Gold Powder" explores the concept of "Qi Da Fei Couple" love, and does not fall into the kitsch routine of a happy ending, which can already be called a classic drama. Looking back, the reflection it brought is still profound - Jin Yanxi can't change the "parasitic" attribute of his personality, Leng Qingqiu can't escape his inner submission to vanity, the gap between ideals falling into reality, and the inescapable character fate and powerlessness are all presented in the play.

On the other hand, the current domestic romance dramas are tirelessly creating a dream bubble of domineering presidents and wealthy marriages. The emotional line between Wang Manni and Liang Zhengxian in the hit drama "Thirty Only" certainly deduces the embarrassment of "Qi Da Fei Couple", but the love affair between the uncle and the girl in "All the Way to the Sun" does not dare to reveal the real food chain relationship in human nature, erasing the class crossing and the young body's need to take what they need, and packaging sugar-coated cannonballs with perfect love, which cannot make the audience have a real and profound resonance with the characters.

(Photo/"All the Way to the Sun")

03

the class nature of love,

It's already been explained

The drama version of "The Family of Gold Powder" focuses on "romance", but the original novel does not stop at romance, the joys and sorrows of several couples of the Jin family reflect the prosperity and decline of bureaucratic families in the Beiyang warlord era, some people praise it as the Republic of China version of "Dream of Red Mansions", and some people compare it with Nala's exodus in "A Doll's House". Although "The Family of Gold Powder" has its limitations, it is remarkable for the group narrative of the tragedy of women's marriage in that era, as well as the theme of women's awakening.

The contribution of "The Family of Gold Powder" is to draw out the class nature of marriage and love. This is inextricably linked to Zhang Hatshui's creative background. Serialized from 1927 to 1932, "The Family of Gold Powder" has been ten years after the vigorous "May Fourth" new cultural trend.

Different from the writers of the "May Fourth" period, Zhang Hatshui is more like a literati with a mixture of old and new. When he quit his job in his hometown of Wuhu, Anhui Province, and went to Beijing to study, hoping to join this wave, he did not study as he wished because of his livelihood, but worked as a news reporter for the "Declaration". The soil in which he grew up and the real life experience of walking the streets and alleys gave him a new thinking and perspective on secular customs.

The cover of "The Family of Gold Powder" (People's Literature Publishing House, 2018 edition).

During the "May Fourth" period, the new cultural people advocated freedom of marriage and love and opposed the view of the portal, "The Family of Gold Powder" seemed outdated and anachronistic at the time, and "Qi Da Fei Couple" was more like the conservative view of the old school literati. However, from an objective point of view, the writer cannot get rid of the background of the times and the limitations of the world when creating, and is in a turbulent transition period, and the traditional secular ethics have not yet completely transitioned to the new concept of free love, so "The Family of Gold Powder" can resonate more with the general public. Lu Xun explores "what happens after Nala runs away" in "Sadness and Death", and Zhang Hatshui's description is closer to mundane values - love dominated by economy.

In the novel, Leng Qingqiu is also out of place. This complex and multifaceted contradiction is more in line with Zhang Hatshui's own creative intention: she has the temperament of a traditional cultural person, but also has a modern education, and has the independent personality concept of an intellectual woman. She and Jin Yanxi broke the secular concept and entered marriage, and finally ran away unwilling to become an accessory of the patriarchal society.

Some people say that Leng Qingqiu has a precious sense of femininity, with "Lin Daiyu's talent, Nala's courage, and Cuicui's stubbornness". Most of the old-fashioned women in the novel live on the edge of alternating between the old and the new. Some are trapped in the cage of marriage and become tame women, such as Mrs. Jin, Aunt Cui, Peifang, and Yufen. They were a mirror image of the predicament of women at the time—submissive patriarchal families, rejected, imprisoned, named, and denied a voice.

Some have completed their own "Nala Ran Away", such as Jin Runzhi, the sixth lady of the Jin family who became a revolutionary, Huichang, the second young grandmother who actively promoted the idea of women's emancipation, Bai Xiuzhu, who disdained to play the role of "Red Rose" in Jin Yanxi's dream and went abroad, and Xiao Lian, the roommate who eloped with her lover Liu Chunjiang in order to resist the arranged marriage.

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

The combination of Xiao Lian and Liu Chunjiang's talented and beautiful woman is the side of free love presented in the novel. From Zhang Hatshui's own experience, we may be able to get a glimpse of his concept of marriage and love immersed in "The Family of Gold Powder". He suffered from the traditional marriage and love of the family, and the first marriage was arranged by his mother, which brought him pain and helplessness. He has also tried the pain of "Qi Dafeifei" marriage, and his second marriage with Hu Qiuxia, who was born as a maid, proves this - the gap between the knowledge background and cultural accomplishment of the two is too big.

He should be satisfied with his third marriage to the schoolgirl Zhou Nan. But in this marriage, you can also see the price that women pay for this, according to the record of "Zhang Hatshui Annals", "Zhou Shuyun, before marriage, was a Beijing Chunming female middle school student, and after marriage, Zhang Hatshui changed her name to Zhou Nan, and took care of housework all her life."

Putting aside these speculations, the significance of "The Family of Gold Powder" is not to show a criticism and proposition of marriage and love, but more like Zhang Hatshui presenting a social reality from the perspective of a journalist. His "anachronism" of the "May Fourth" free love trend looks more like a reflection rooted in secular fireworks from today's perspective. He has no intention of writing surreally, and has repeatedly said that "there are two realms of fiction, one is to narrate life, and the other is to imagine life, and probably my writing always takes the path of narrating life".

Zhang Ailing, a writer who also expresses the profundity of love, may be more able to appreciate the value of Zhang Hatshui, she once said, "I like to read Zhang Hatshui's books, because it is neither high nor low", and "Zhang Hatshui's ideal can represent the ideal of ordinary people".

(Photo/"The Family of Gold Powder")

04

When Cinderella's fairy tale comes to life

Looking at "The Family of Gold Powder" from the perspective of the present, it is different from romantic novels, in which the presentation of the hidden class nature in love and marriage, as well as the gender awakening and pursuit of freedom of women in a patriarchal society, is quite realistic. In today's social environment, it seems to be traditional, but in fact it is ahead of its time. At present, it is still difficult for women's consciousness to get rid of the shackles of traditional secular ethics, and women have not yet ushered in the ideal state of freedom, especially how to maintain the freedom and independence of women's personality after marriage, which is still a difficult proposition.

Nowadays, love has gradually become a scarce commodity, luxury and consumer goods in the era of consumption, and we are intoxicated with the dream of love woven by various media, and on the other hand, we tend to be instrumental and rational, and disenchant romantic love. As the American scholar Janice A. Radway mentioned in her book Reading Romance Novels, we have read too many clichés of romance novels, which always wrap up the romance of love, and many stories will eventually weaken and divert our attention from the gender issues of class and interest that romantic love obscures. When women are still emphasized to marry and continue to abide by the responsibilities of marriage and motherhood, they ignore the critique of patriarchal structures.

The cover of "Reading Romance Novels" (Yilin Publishing House, 2020 edition).

While "marriage for love" has become the mainstream concept of marriage and love, the traditional factors surrounding the marriage system, such as the economy, class and social status between families, and even power alliances, have not completely disappeared. In fact, the concept of marriage by love originated in modern times, and the institution of marriage based on family unions has existed for thousands of years. How to win both under the enlightenment of free love and the gender game of traditional marriage, this may reflect the question faced by many ordinary men and women - is marriage the grave of love?

This is also why "The Family of Gold Powder" looks more like a "love horror movie" today, this story nakedly exposes the class nature of marriage and love, and shows you the cruel and true side of human nature hidden in romantic love. When Cinderella's fairy tale comes into reality, perhaps, the adult love story has just begun.

· END ·

Author丨Xie Wuji

Editor丨Tan Shanshan

Proofreading丨Huang Siyun