From the birth of China's first strictly speaking film news documentary "Wuhan War" in 1911 to today's documentaries of various genres and themes fully flowing on various platforms, the history of Chinese television documentaries has gone through more than a hundred years of development. Like newspapers and films in history, documentaries must be influenced by the political, institutional, ideological, cultural and other factors of the era at that time, and at the same time have a certain positive and negative effect on the political, cultural and social development of that era.
After the founding of New China, the development of Chinese documentaries has also entered a new period of historical development. He Suliu, director of the China Documentary Research Center, divided the history of documentaries after the founding of New China into four stages: the period of politicized documentaries (1958-1977), the period of human culture documentaries (1978-1992), the period of civilian documentaries (1993-1998), and the period of socialized documentaries (1999-2004).
As a representative work of the period of human culture documentaries, "Looking at the Great Wall" has set off a "new documentary movement" and completely got rid of the creative mode of the politicized documentary period. The birth of "Wang great wall" is not accidental, it is the result of the comprehensive action of various factors of the times. Today, we will start with the period of politicized documentaries before its birth, and interpret how this landmark documentary was conceived by the times.
A television documentary on China after the founding of the People's Republic of China
In 1958, China's first television set "Huaxia First Screen" was born in the Great Leap Forward Movement. In the same year, China's first television station, Beijing Television, was also announced by Xinhua News Agency. At the time of the famous "three-year difficulty" period in the history of New China, which was also a difficult period of extremely tight state finances, the establishment of television stations at that time was actually a state act and part of the complex international relations and political work at that time. This birth environment set the tone for the production of Chinese television documentaries in this period: the broadcast of television programs should play a role in reflecting national politics.
China's first television set "Huaxia First Screen"
China's first television station, Beijing Television
In the next 30 years, China experienced the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations, the "Great Leap Forward", the "Three Red Flags", the "Anti-Rightist", the "Four Qings", and the "Cultural Revolution". The political environment is turbulent and undulating, and the main body of documentary production basically maintains a militarized management model - before the TV news documentary is broadcast, it must pass the joint pre-examination of the three levels of leaders of the Central Broadcasting Bureau, the Television Station and the Television News Department, so as to ensure the safety of the documentary broadcast.
The concept of documentary writing in this period was mainly influenced by Grison's "figurative political theory". In terms of creative mode, the theme comes first, and the government uses documentaries to carry out political propaganda and mass education, and through documentaries, let the people know the content of the nation-building plan and get the assistance of the people. Therefore, whether in the selection of topics, techniques, concepts, or styles, the documentaries of this period exude a strong political meaning:
In the selection of topics, the achievements of socialist construction and the foreign affairs activities of state leaders are the mainstay; in form, the separation of sound and picture, the enthusiastic broadcast of the host, and the commentaries of the party newspapers are all filled with a strong idealistic atmosphere; in terms of concepts, the concepts of collectivism and state interests occupy an absolute dominant position, and individuals are in a state of selflessness and selflessness. Among the subjects with strong politicization factors, the sense of individual subjectivity is particularly lacking.
"Rent Collection" is the most influential TV documentary of this period, written by Chen Hanyuan and photographed by Zhu Hong and Wang Yuanhong. This documentary filmed real people, historical materials and clay sculptures of rent collection homes in Dayi County, Sichuan Province, reproduced the relationship between exploitation and exploitation, oppression and oppression between rural landlords and peasants in China, profoundly exposed the bloody crimes of the bully landlord Liu Wencai, and awakened people not to forget history and suffering. The television documentary also cooperated with the socialist education movement that was unfolding at that time, mainly playing a political role in propaganda and education.
TV Documentary "Rent Collection"
Evans, a well-known Dutch documentary filmmaker, commented on Chinese documentaries at that time: "Chinese documentaries are always associated with news reports, and they are often closely linked to politics, so it is difficult to get great development from art. My peers at the China News Documentary Film Studio, who have long been subject to such limitations, have always been a pattern in documentaries. Always come up to explain, come up to prescribe how you think, always want to tell you through language how you should think, how you should do. ”
Reform and opening up ushered in the golden age of Chinese television documentaries
In 1978, a nationwide debate on the standard of truth was launched, proposing that truth should be sought and pragmatic. China has finally opened its doors and entered a new period of reform and opening up. Reform and opening up have brought about drastic changes in society, and both social politics, economics, and people's ideas and concepts are in the midst of drastic changes that have put things right and cleaned up the source.
The political environment began to relax, and China's new generation of television people gradually began to discover the problems of filming and producing special documentaries, and the call for reform was also growing. "In an era when the ideology-first concept of television has long monopolized television creation, people have become very disgusted with the condescending preaching of feature films," pointed out Zhu Yujun, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Communication University of China.
All-round reform has also brought a relatively stable and pluralistic and open social environment to society, people's spiritual life is becoming more and more abundant, those major and unified themes of the times can no longer fully cover the spiritual trend of the nation, what has emerged is a state of pluralistic symbiosis and coexistence of values, the voice of the times has begun to be composed of multi-level voices, the consciousness of "people" has slowly been liberated from the "collective consciousness" that has been overemphasized, and gradually obtained a more "personalized" attribute, and the humanistic concept has begun to be established.
Technically, the eng (electronic news gathering) electronic news gathering system has also strongly influenced the development of Chinese documentaries. The biggest feature of eng is the camera synchronization, which can show the TV reporter's interview, report, direct voice and shape in front of the audience at the scene of the news event. This laid the technical foundation for the documentary to show the ji realization field through simultaneous sound.
At the same time, after the reform and opening up, the people's living standards have been greatly improved, and the production capacity and consumption capacity of television receivers have also been greatly improved. Television has gradually changed from a luxury to an ordinary consumer goods, and the "TV fever" has spread throughout the country. In 1976, when a nationwide television broadcasting network was initially established, the television coverage rate of the national population reached 36%, and the coverage rate in Liaoning, Hubei, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and other places exceeded 50%.
Under such an ecological environment, the ideological emancipation movement is surging and Chinese television documentaries have begun to take off in an all-round way, entering the golden period of China's television development in the 1980s, and a large number of TV documentaries with different themes and different styles have begun to appear - "Looking at the Great Wall" is one of them.
Before the birth of "Looking at the Great Wall", the carnival has quietly begun
The birth of "Looking at the Great Wall" opened the "New Record Movement" and reached the first peak of the TV documentary movement. But it is not accidental, before "Looking at the Great Wall", Chinese television documentaries have begun to emerge a large number of works that are different from traditional political documentaries, quietly opening the carnival era of Chinese documentaries.
The storm of the Cultural Revolution ravaged Chinese cultural circles, and Chinese intellectuals were scarred by the storm. In the 1980s, scar literature and reflective literature gradually came to an end, and intellectuals began to think about the deeper reasons behind "people" - national cultural psychology after painful thinking, and a vast "cultural root-seeking fever" quietly opened. Ideological enlightenment and aesthetic realism became the two cultural banners of this period, the criticism of reality and history, and the pursuit of humanistic ideals also became the most basic artistic themes of this period.
In 1980, the first truly large-scale television documentary "Silk Road", produced by CCTV in cooperation with the Japan Broadcasting Association, was broadcast on CCTV. With a scorching passion, it traces back the ancient history of Chinese civilization and conducts a comprehensive "cultural scan" of the cultural sites, ethnic groups and religious customs that flourished at the moment.
Large-scale TV documentary "Silk Road"
Soon after the broadcast of "Silk Road", CCTV immediately organized a group of people to start the filming of "Talking about the Yangtze River", and Chen Hanyuan, who wrote for "Rent Collection" that year, served as the screenwriter of "Talking about the Yangtze River". Released in 1983, "Talking about the Yangtze River" triggered thousands of empty alleys, collectives and memories of the times. Following "Talking about the Yangtze River", continuing the form of "Talking about the Yangtze River", "Talking about the Canal" also followed, and the screenwriter was also Chen Hanyuan. From the explanatory words in "Rent Collection": "Fighting, fighting, eating people's mouths...", to the "Song of the Yangtze River" in "Talking about the Yangtze River": "You come from the snowy mountains, and the spring tide is your style,...... You have fed the children of all races with sweet milk. ”
The documentary has evolved from a strong political nature to a dual standard of politics and artistry in the "Words to Speak" series. Taking the great rivers of the motherland as the theme, the new narrative method of "words" uses a romantic and lyrical narrative tone to lead the audience to carry out screen travel along the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and the audience enjoys the documentary through daily viewing methods and follows the camera lens for screen travel, bringing an unprecedented audio-visual feast to the Chinese television industry.
In 1987, Chen Hanyuan served as the screenwriter of "Tang Fan Ancient Road". The documentary follows the route of Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty into Tibet, showing the magnificent river and mountain scenery, rich real estate resources, precious historical relics and monuments in the west, and at the same time, it also focuses the camera on the people of all ethnic groups on the Qinghai Plateau, showing their life style and ethnic customs, and praising the long-standing traditional friendship between Han and Tibet. The people around them and the real world are finally viewed by TV documentaries in a humane, level-headed light. The original heroic theme was replaced, the publicity flavor was gradually diluted, and the documentary creators began to take the initiative to focus the lens on the civilian masses, the vulnerable groups, and the small people on the margins, observing society and individual life from a heads-up perspective.
In 1988, "River Death", directed by Xia Jun and edited by Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang, was broadcast on CCTV, which shook Chinese society. What cannot be ignored is that the deputy director of CCTV who was in charge of this work at this time was also Chen Hanyuan. Starting from the reflection and criticism of the traditional Chinese "Loess Civilization", "River Death" gradually introduces the introduction of the "Azure Civilization" in the West. Many things that have long been proud of Chinese, including the "Great Wall" and "Dragon", are analyzed and judged, and china's inward-looking "yellow civilization" based on rivers and earth has led to conservatism, ignorance and backwardness. To survive, China must learn from the "blue civilization" with its foundations on the ocean and should build an economic system based on a market economy. Reflecting on the origin of Chinese civilization, the history of China and the challenges it faces, "River Martyrdom" is heavy in theme, and the contemplation and cross-examination throughout are also heavy, triggering a generation of people to think about history and culture, bringing heavy sorrow and sorrow. Strong nationalism and humanistic pursuits culminate in this documentary.
Documentary "River Death"
Kang Jianning and Gao Guodong's 1989 film "Sand and Sea" uses the camera to record the ordinary life of two families living in the desert and by the sea. Starting from real life and processing in the form of art, through the living conditions of two families living in the desert and on the seashore, we can see the two directors' general thinking about life and life. From Liu Zeyuan and Liu Picheng in the film, we see the most simple and authentic peasants in China: they may be illiterate and accustomed to being submissive to difficulties, but they will not be opportunistic and use diligence to cope with the hardships of life. This struggle is the root of our nation.
The same is true of Wang Haibing's "People in Northern Tibet", in the northern Tibet of the film, the clouds float freely, and the cattle and sheep are flocked under the blue sky. The Day of the Tibetan Tsoda family from early morning to night is recorded by camera, eating, living, marriage, worshiping gods, aesthetics, shearing sheep, playing, dancing... It is also the daily life of every herdsman in northern Tibet. The harmony and struggle between man and nature, the topic of man's creation and survival in nature, and people in different regions, different nationalities, different cultures and different lives are all common.
Documentary "People in Northern Tibet"
After a long period of accumulation, the wave of creation represented by documentaryism has borne a large number of fruitful fruits. Produced by Chen Hanyuan and directed by Liu Xiaoli, "Looking at the Great Wall" was born in the golden age of Chinese television documentaries in the 1980s. After experiencing a large number of excellent works, "Looking at the Great Wall" seems to appear in the Chinese television documentary industry like a thunderbolt, setting a milestone in the history of the development of Chinese television documentaries, but in fact, it has long been accumulated, and after one shock after another, it has finally pushed the carnival era of Chinese documentaries to a climax and opened a "new record movement".
So, from the perspective of documentary creation, what kind of breakthrough has "Wangwang great wall" achieved, making it an indispensable coordinate point in the history of Chinese documentaries, like an immortal monument standing in the long river of history? Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the "Great Wall" series of articles, the third article will be interpreted for you, stay tuned!