In 2018, a "Meteor Garden" plunged the post-80s and post-90s into an atmosphere of collective nostalgia.
In fact, there is also a TV series that also has this kind of function.
And the show has silently ushered in the 11th anniversary of the start of broadcasting this week.
Well, this is the show "Struggle", which premiered on May 17, 2007.
In 2007, the mainland TV series hit a "Bright Sword". After that, domestic TV dramas experienced a period of silence. In the situation where the TV series market has been declining all the way, "Struggle" has unexpectedly played the strongest sound.
Driven by "Struggle", Tong Dawei, Ma Yili, Li Xiaolu, Wenwen, and Wang Luodan became the hottest stars of that year, and some mainland youth dramas that were not eye-catching in the past began to be recognized again.
The media of that year also called the drama "Struggle" "The Bible of Struggle" as "The Struggle Bible of College Graduates".
During the period when "Meteor Garden" was popular in Asia, almost all the male audiences who watched the show wanted to become F4, and the female audience wanted to become F4 women.
Compared with the relatively simple (fu qian) influence of "Meteor Garden", the impact of "Struggle" on the audience can be said to be more comprehensive and far-reaching, which can be summed up in one sentence:
It has influenced a generation of teenagers to "aspire to become Wenqing" and has since embarked on the road of no return.
Boys pressed the first rule: the collar of the polo shirt had to stand up
To become a "Wenqing", the most basic condition is: always thinking about life, thinking about love, thinking about the current state, thinking about everything about the world...
As a result, these thoughts have been transformed into the most classic part of this play, the lines of this play.
About Love:
Charlene said:
It's a good day to be with you.
About marriage:
To the south said:
Don't look at the brothers dragging the family with the mouth is very tired, in fact, the brothers are beautiful in their hearts.
About Life:
Xu Zhisen said:
The important things in life are not that you do it well. It goes well and it's important that you know when to "hit the brakes" and know when to adjust yourself.
About Graduation:
The teacher in the play said:
A few years later, when you are in the society and bleeding, at that time, you will come back to talk about it at the school celebration to see if they have a teacher of kindness. I hope that after entering the society, the students will make more contributions to the society, and finally do not forget to cultivate your alma mater. Goodbye, students!
The students in the play say:
Teacher, please stop. We are reluctant to you, very, very reluctant to you, but we must tell you that we must leave you, we must go to work, to fall in love, to struggle, this matter is a hundred thousand urgent, we can not wait for a day, please accept our last greetings before leaving.
……
In fact, the above lines are only a small part of the play, and the "philosophical" lines in the whole play can be said to be everywhere.
It can be said that "Struggle" drove the oral culture of that year, and the poverty of Beijingers has become a characteristic of young people across the country who are competing to imitate.
In the dissemination of these lines, it has impacted the QQ signature that was originally only filled with non-mainstream quotations.
In addition to the lines, the biggest impact of this drama on the literary youth of that year is that it brings fire to a state of life.
In "Struggle", Lu Tao, Millais, Xiang Nan, Hua Zi and others transform an abandoned factory into a loft, and decorate it with graffiti walls, small gardens, and billiard halls.
They also gave the place the name "Heartbreak Utopia." It is said that the people who live in it have been heartbroken because the utopian ideals in their hearts cannot be realized.
Watching a group of their good friends live in such a big house, laughing together, crying together, and struggling together, all the people who watch the show are estimated to have planted a new way of life.
Today, many years later, 798 has become a must-visit place for tourists visiting Beijing; and the loft room type has also become the first choice for the decoration of various "startups" office space. Almost all the decoration methods of "cultural and creative parks" across the country are decorated according to the "heartbreak utopia".
The creation of these "Wenqing cultures" is all due to the screenwriter of this play: Shi Kang.
Who is Shi Kang? Friends who often watch "Xiao Shuo" may find that Gao Xiaosong mentioned him.
At the same time as mentioning him, he also brought another person, that is, the old wolf. Old Wolf and Shi Kang had been "mixed" together for a while. In gao Xiaosong's words:
One day the old wolf said to me unhappily, "I especially hate you famous school students, your stinky body." "He was also a famous school student, and he was also that stinky, but later he suffered some setbacks and was forced to mix with Shi Kang."
According to Gao Xiaosong's revelations, in Shi Kang's early work "Danghuang Youyou", there was a story about the three of them in Xiamen:
"Luck is one thing, time is another. In this period, I have no luck in time, Hua Yang does not see it this way, he said that we are waiting for luck in mixed time, and it is really unfortunate that he waited for luck.
Towards the New Year, he and Liu Xin went to a record company to sniff a xiaomi, and they were running into a group of people singing and chatting there, and Hua Yang sang "I saw that part of you at a glance" to the girl he wanted to sniff, and then further played, singing what "who lifted your long skirt, who took off your underwear".
Later, the melody of this song was appreciated by a producer of the record company, filled in a new word that young boys and girls like to hear, Hua Yang produced a tape, became famous in one fell swoop, and after the Spring Festival of 93, even the free market vendors would sing his song. The song was written by Liu Xin, and Liu Xin and Hua Yang have been together since then, concentrating on making money and making money, far away from the world of chaos, and busy. ”
Excerpt from: Shi Kang's "Dangling And Leisurely" verse 217
It should not be difficult to guess: the characters in the above article, "I" refers to Shi Kang, "Hua Yang" refers to the old wolf, and "Liu Xin" refers to Gao Xiaosong. And the song that was used to sniff honey was a sample of "You at the Same Table"!
"Who lifted your long skirt, who took off your underwear for you", such a song, such a phrase, who could have imagined that when we were young, everyone sang it, but it was actually just the works that the wenqing people took to make a girl?
Gao Xiaosong old wolf
The book we mentioned above can be said to be the best-selling novel of the year in China in 1999.
To what extent is the fire?
With a circulation of more than one million copies, the streets of China are filled with genuine pirated copies of the novel.
As a result, the novel was titled "China's first epoch-making youth novel" at that time.
This book, along with Shi Kang's later publications of Fragmentation and A Mess, is known as Shi Kang's own youth trilogy. These three books created huge sales and became classics of Chinese youth literature.
Even at the turn of the century, some people have raised the view that contemporary Chinese Chunqing literature began with Shi Kang.
Shi Kang
However, the "godfather of youth literature" has advantages and disadvantages.
The pros and cons we have already said earlier, and the disadvantages are the "values" issue that has been controversial for many years in this drama.
Although the name of the play is "Struggle", it is actually more like "Spelling Daddy":
Male and female protagonists, a scumbag man and a small third, on Huazi is an inspirational point, can not watch the drama at all, and the struggle has nothing to do with it, have to say that there is also a spelling father!
There are even netizens who directly diss vulgar:
In addition to the language is poor and has the style of Wang Shuo, the content and meaning are very far-fetched, and like all vulgar youth idol dramas, the characters are very naïve, almost do whatever they want, and logic is difficult to justify themselves.
In fact, every writer's work has an inescapable relationship with his own experience. The plot of Shi Kang's novels basically follows the same routine, perhaps because his life is always like this.
For example: the successor of "Youth Literature": Guo Jingming. Behind the gold worship culture of each step of his works, it may carry the grievances suffered by small-town youth who climbed to the tip of wealth step by step, and the more you lack something, it is easy to emphasize what you have; therefore, our Xiaoguo classmate may be short of money in five elements.
Compared with his successor, Shi Kang lacks "affection".
Shi Kang is a good writer, but not a good man. He writes things that are as beautiful as he spits out lotus flowers when he hooks up with a girl. His novels read smoothly, even with a slightly melancholy lyrical atmosphere, they are still unpretentious.
It looks like your best hair is small, sitting in front of you, a little shy at first, but when you talk about it, you get up —you can't hold back, you can say everything.
According to the principle that we just said that what is missing is what we love to say, we analyze the male protagonist Lu Tao in "Struggle":
Although he is a selfish and irresponsible scumbag who runs away when he encounters things. But in the play, he is also a "lucky one" who has love, affection, and friendship perfectly:
The rich second generation's ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend love him without principle; his buddies also tolerate him without principle; and his two fathers, one rich and one powerful, can also stand up at critical moments...
If we change Lu Tao from a male protagonist to a female protagonist, then what do you find:
Yes, in fact, "Struggle" is ultimately a male version of the Mary Sue drama.
Although this drama can not go further in depth, this drama can become a phenomenon-level classic in that year, and even now it can be revisited very well, the biggest reason is that:
It created an idealized world for everyone, a utopian world.
If you pay attention to the development of domestic dramas in recent years, it is not difficult for you to find:
In a sense, from "Struggle" to "Snail Residence" to "Ode to Joy", contemporary young people have gradually lost the positive and deliberate enterprising heart, but gradually sink under the pressure of reality, willing to the status quo, materialization.
In "Struggle", Lu Tao is the ex-girlfriend of the fight, but he studied architecture, he is indeed fighting to build the house in his heart; although Charlene is a junior, she also regards the designer as her career ideal.
In "Ode to Joy", everyone seems to be struggling, but their motivation to struggle seems to be only "better".
Qu Xiaoxiao is to prove himself to his father and inherit the family business by the way; Little Earthworm and Guan Guan also have struggles, but at the same time the struggle is more of the confusion of people who have just entered the society; Fan Shengmei is very clear, in order to take root in Shanghai; as for Andy, anyway, I don't understand what she is for?
Over the years, the rapid development of science and technology has filled the whole society with the atmosphere of materialization.
Every year, the newer generation of iPhones makes you fall behind before you can replace them; apps such as Kuaishou Douyin make our time run out unconsciously; the cultural industry is developing more and more, but people are becoming more and more "uncultured". Ideal thus became a nihilistic term.
While Struggle didn't seem like a perfect TV series then or now, I'll revisit it over and over again. Because this 11-year-old dog blood drama still has the holy place called "Utopia".