Beijing, November 6 (Reporter Ren Siyu) "The evening star is like your eyes killing people and setting fires, you didn't say anything, the wild wind disturbed me..."
Recently opened the short video platform, I believe you will always brush this song "Mohe Ballroom".
Unlike the previous "Divine Comedy" that went out of the circle with brainwashed melodies, what made netizens feel a strong empathy for "Mohe Ballroom" was its pictorial creative background: the dance hall of a small northeast city, the lone dancing old man who missed his dead wife, the huge fire more than thirty years ago...
Source: Screenshot of short video platform.
The love behind "Desert River Ballroom"
"I would like to dedicate this song to the elderly Zhang Dequan and his deceased beloved wife", which is the last words written by musician Liu Shuang in "Mohe Ballroom".
According to Liu Shuang's article, the archetypal character in the background story of "Mohe Ballroom" is an old man named Zhang Dequan, whose wife was killed in the 1987 Daxinganling "May 6" forest fire accident, and since then the old man has not remarried and has no children for more than 30 years.
Excerpt from "Goodbye Evening Star". Source: Screenshot of the "Uncle Ang" public account.
In the Mohe style of Liu Shuang accidentally met the old man, in just five minutes of conversation, he learned the time, place, people, events, after obtaining the consent of the old man, he created the song "Mohe Ballroom".
In March 2020, before the new song was released, Liu Shuang wrote a letter in the first person of the old man, adding some literary filling and artistic imagination, and attached a GIF of the old man's dance.
Excerpt from "Goodbye Evening Star". Source: Screenshot of the "Uncle Ang" public account
A year and a half after the release of this song, someone uploaded a video of an old man dancing alone on the street, accompanied by the music and story of "Mohe Ballroom", which attracted the attention of many netizens; on October 25, the short video account of the Mohe Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism released a video of "Mohe Dance Hall" introducing the background of the song.
In the era of short videos, this song with its own story has aroused a lot of imagination of netizens, in addition to the background introduction, many people have associated the song with the solo dance scenes in movies such as "Daytime Fireworks" and "Mountains and Rivers", giving it more emotional significance.
"Mohe Ballroom" quickly fermented, the reporter learned that as of November 5, the "Mohe Dance Hall" topic on the Douyin platform has been played more than 1.8 billion times, multiple versions circulated on the Internet, but also produced a hot search topic "a hundred versions of the Mohe Dance Hall".
The ballroom owner and creator responded
After "Mohe Ballroom" became popular, the whole network began to inquire about Zhang Dequan and The Mohe Dance Hall.
Locals found the dance hall in the semi-basement, and the owner of the dance hall, "Bao Ge", said that he had seen the old man when the dance hall opened around the beginning of 2019, and the old man looked to be about 60 years old, danced there himself, danced for more than an hour and left, coming five or six times. But in the past two years, the old man has not appeared in the dance hall.
The boss said that now because of the epidemic, the dance hall is temporarily closed. The dance hall is usually open at night, a ticket is 5 yuan, and the people who come to the dance hall are retired elderly people in the forest, who are about 60 years old, and the youngest is the person in his forties and fifties.
"After listening to the story of the elderly Zhang Dequan, I was very moved, whether I made money or not, I hope to open the dance hall down, and I hope that the old people in Mohe have a leisure place."
Source: "Mohe Ballroom Brother" headline number
Although there is no way to examine the whereabouts and stories of the old man at present, netizens are willing to believe this poignant love story: in China's northernmost city, in today's dance hall itself has become the mark of the times, there is an old man who misses the most loved person in his life in a romantic way such as solo dance.
Some netizens commented: "In this impetuous era, it is touching to listen to a sincere and touching love story. ”
In the long article "Wanted "Evening Star"", the musician Liu Shuang responded to various questions about the song and the story behind it, along with the popularity of the song, there were many articles on the Internet that distorted and maliciously interpreted the behind-the-scenes story, and even some netizens casually photographed the old man dancing on the side of the road, saying that it was Zhang Dequan, who got more than 10,000 likes.
Source: Screenshot of Liu Shuang's Weibo
Liu Shuang said that he did not want the song to be spoofed. In the interview, he mentioned that Mohe is only a geographical carrier of the song, and the song is a reminder to remember the disaster. Of course, the little attention brought to Mohe City has also had a positive effect.
"Mohe Ballroom" and Mohe
In the process of the popularity of this song, it is worth mentioning the timely follow-up of hot spots in Mohe.
Since October 25, the Douyin account of the Mohe Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Film and Television and Tourism has released a number of videos related to "Mohe Ballroom" for several consecutive days, accompanied by dance hall pictures, Images of Mohe City, and fire history materials for dissemination.
Source: Mohe Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism Douyin account
Netizens talked about their impressions of Mohe in the comment area, and the account actively replied and invited everyone to have the opportunity to travel to Mohe to punch in.
There are also many local netizens who mention the memory of the fire that year, and it should be pointed out that there is also a "Five-Six" fire memorial hall in Mohe City.
According to reports, the Daxing'anling "May 6" Fire Memorial Hall is built to reflect on the commemoration of the exceptionally large forest fire that occurred in Daxing'anling on May 6, 1987, and comprehensively displays the whole process of the "May 6" fire from fire, disaster, fire fighting, disaster relief, home reconstruction and ecological construction, and is a living teaching material for the Daxing'anling forest area and even a wider range to carry out forest fire warning education and popularize safety and fire prevention knowledge.
"May 6" Fire Memorial. Source: Mohe Municipal People's Government website
A song with a red city, before the mention of Mohe, people will think of China's northernmost point and the aurora, and now, it has more memories of the dance hall. This kind of momentum spreads, invisibly narrowing the distance between netizens and the city.
Feng Guangqing, director of the Mohe Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism, told the media that the song "Mohe Ballroom", like the song "Chengdu", can be said to have become a local cultural symbol, "In fact, fire is very harmful to a city, we can not forget the warning effect of fire, nor can we forget what happened at that time, we hope that this city is getting better and better." He said that in the future, he plans to find a suitable place to restore the state of the old dance hall and let the symbol continue to expand. (End)
Source: China News Network