The literary era since 1979

With the popularity of "Desire", Yanjing Television Station receives a large number of letters and calls from viewers every day.

Most of them are like "One episode a day is not enough. If the neighbors see it, they will think he despises it. We must add another episode!"

Therefore, in response to the strong demands of the general public, Yanjing TV had to change the daily broadcast from one episode to two episodes.

Seeing that the situation was not good, CCTV's painstakingly produced "The Last Emperor" was ruthlessly crushed by "Desire" in terms of ratings. As a last resort, it held its nose and asked Yanjing TV for the rebroadcast rights of the TV series. "Desire" also shined on such a big stage as CCTV.

The heat of "craving for heat" is spreading across the country like a virus.

Zhang Kaili, who played "Liu Huifang", defeated Zhu Lin, Gong Xing and Liu Xiaoqing overnight and became the most popular actress - even more popular than Zu Lijian.

Of course, with such fame, Zhang Kaili was inevitably invited to participate in the "Desire" TV series symposium.

At this moment, she was dressed neatly and stood at the door, hesitating and not daring to open it.

Only after I was mentally prepared did I finally push my bike out the door. However, not long after I started riding, I ran into a group of people head-on.

"Oh, this person looks like Liu Huifang!"

"Huifang, is that you?"

"..."

Seeing a group of people surrounding her, Zhang Kaili's heart skipped a beat. It's over, she's been recognized!
"Auntie, I, I'm not."

"You are!"

Another middle-aged woman appeared and grabbed her hand, "Oh, it's really you, Huifang!"

Zhang Kaili had no way to defend herself. Ever since "Desire" became popular, more and more audiences had transferred their love for the kind and simple Liu Huifang to her. These days, people would come to her house from time to time, asking for her help just as they had asked Liu Huifang for help.

"How could you be so stupid that you would leave Song Dacheng alone and jump into the fire pit of Wang Husheng?"

An auntie held Zhang Kaili's hand with concern.

The audiences in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s were so lovely that they couldn't distinguish between the actors and the characters. Their love for the characters would be transferred to the actors. They would love the actors and hate the people in the actors and hate the people in the actors as well. It was even exaggerated to the point that they couldn't stand the "Song Jiang" played by Li Xuejian and smashed the TV in anger.

A typical female comrade like Liu Huifang is naturally widely loved and sympathized by female compatriots.

Just when Zhang Kaili was surrounded, a woman squeezed into the crowd, speaking in dialect at a very fast speed.

"I'm from the countryside and want to work in Beijing, but the government won't give me a hukou. Can you help me?"

"what?"

Zhang Kaili was confused. "How can I help?"

"You are such a kind person, there must be a way, I beg you!"

Just as the woman was shamelessly asking for help, a large group of people heard that Liu Huifang was here and immediately surrounded her.

They either wanted to chat with Liu Huifang or ask her for help. Some even yelled, "Huifang, please judge for me! I told him yesterday that he shouldn't smoke. He argued with me all night. Please judge for me, am I wrong?!"

"..."

Zhang Kaili blushed and ran away in a miserable state.

It's not just her. Li Xuejian is now called Dacheng wherever he goes, and Li Chengru is called Li Sanjin wherever he goes.

The worst was Sun Song, who played "Wang Husheng". When he went to the street to buy vegetables, no one refused to sell them to him. When he rode his bicycle to work, his tires were always punctured. Taking the bus didn't work either. Once, someone kicked him secretly and an old lady pointed at his nose and scolded him.
"Wang Husheng, you blah blah..."

I guess he let out all the anger he had accumulated from watching "Desire".

The result was that Sun Song lived in Wang Husheng's shadow for half his life, and only pulled himself out when he reached middle age, but by then he had already wasted his time and had lost his spirituality.

In comparison, Feng Yuanzheng is much luckier than him. At least he was able to crawl out of the quagmire of "domestic violence man An Jiahe".

Of course, this also has to do with the audience. Audiences from the 80s to the millennium could easily confuse the characters and actors, such as Rong Mama.

But as the TV drama industry continues to develop, by 2010 and 2020, the audience still can’t tell the difference, it’s either stupid or bad.

As for those who attack the actors in the name of their roles, every one of them is either a brainless fan or someone taking the opportunity to vent.

In short, they are not good things!

………………

At the same time, Fang Yan helped Shi Tiesheng push his wheelchair, and arrived at Yanjing TV Station early with Wang Shuo, Yu Hua and others.

After all, there was a small pennant award ceremony before the symposium.

As soon as everyone stepped into the building, they felt a festive atmosphere. From the manager to the cleaning staff, everyone was excited.

Although Yanjing TV has been very popular in recent years, relying on TV series such as "I Love My Family" and "The Judge Advocate of the Song Dynasty", which are not inferior to CCTV, it cannot compare with "Desire". Some newspapers even defined it as "bound to become one of the cultural symbols of the late 1980s."

Cultural symbol, what a grand word!

When the group arrived at the conference room, they saw the director of Yenching TV, Lu Xiaowei, Su Ya, Zheng Xiaolong, Feng Xiaogang and others had arrived early.

As soon as Fangyan appeared on the stage, he was immediately surrounded by people from Yanjing TV and the Television Art Center, like the moon surrounded by stars.

"Teacher Fang, our Yanjing Taiwan can be proud of itself in the whole country this time, all thanks to your advice!"

The director of Yanjing TV Station held his hand tightly.

"Director, you are too kind. Please don't say that. The success of Desire is due to everyone's hard work!"

Fangyan glanced at Shi Tiesheng, Yu Hua and others one by one.

"Yes, yes, yes. If you hadn't written such a good script like "Desire", we wouldn't be as successful as we are today."

The director of Yanjing TV was all smiles.

"Our director said that no matter who is missing from the symposium, Teacher Fang and the rest of you cannot be missing."

Lu Xiaowei added: "Otherwise this symposium cannot be held at all."

As soon as these words were spoken, Wang Shuo, Lu Haiyan, Yu Hua and the others straightened their backs, looking proud, as if all this was nothing to worry about.

Then, under the gaze of everyone, Fang Yan and Shi Tiesheng, on behalf of the studio, accepted a banner with the words "Maintaining Public Order" from the director of Yanjing TV. Although it was an honor, everyone felt a little weird. How could I, a TV drama actor, be involved in maintaining public order?

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa."

The room was filled with applause.

Fang Yan pressed his hand down, and then saw Su Ya handing him a densely written manuscript.

"What is this?" "Report, we need to share and exchange the reasons why "Desire" is so popular at the symposium later."

“That’s too much.”

Fangyan said half-jokingly.

"Not much, not much at all."

Zheng Xiaolong took out a thick stack of reports and said, "Since the broadcast of Desire, its influence on all walks of life has been really huge."

Feng Xiaogang nodded repeatedly. "I read in the newspaper a few days ago that the Yanjing Water Company was very dissatisfied because they received many complaints about insufficient water supply. After investigation, they found that it was because during the breaks in the broadcast of "Desire", the citizens all went to the toilet together, which led to insufficient water supply."

"Hahaha!"

In the conference room, laughter suddenly broke out.

"There are even worse ones. During a meeting of leaders in Tianjin, they were bombarded with phone calls reporting a power outage in a certain district. People said they couldn't watch The Desire and demanded that the government solve the problem immediately. The leadership team immediately suspended the meeting and restored power as quickly as possible."

"That's nothing! I heard that Kelly was recently invited to a place, and as soon as she got off the plane, there was a red carpet everywhere, and the provincial leaders personally met her."

"The Yenching Institute of Social Psychology conducted a survey, and the results showed that 96.1% of people have watched Desire."

"........."

Listening to everyone's discussions, Fang Yan realized that he had greatly underestimated the influence of "Desire".

The scale of this symposium alone was very different. In addition to more than 100 people from the Yanjing film and television, journalism, and commentary circles, television stations from several provinces and cities relatively close to Yanjing, such as northern Hebei, southern Henan, eastern Shandong, and Tianjin, all sent representatives to participate, all wanting to learn from Yanjing.

………………

There were still about 5 minutes before the symposium was to be held, and leaders from various departments including radio, television, propaganda, and culture had not yet officially entered the venue.

However, the meeting room was already packed with people, whispering to each other, stirring in excitement and nervousness.

From time to time, a look would be cast towards Fangyan sitting in the front row, especially the representatives from other provincial and municipal TV stations, their eyes full of passion.

The reason why Yenching Television Station can be so successful is that it has been clinging tightly to Teacher Fang!

If Mr. Fang, Shi Tiesheng and others could give me a TV series that is as good as "Desire", wouldn't the limelight belong to me?
There were quite a few people present who held this idea.

Fangyan folded his hands and narrowed his eyes, like an old monk in meditation, and looked forward secretly through the slits of his eyes.

Zhang Shaolin and Zhang Jizhong from Jinxi TV, Chen Richen and Kong Sheng from Ludong TV, and Zhang Li from Xiaoxiang Film Studio...

Seeing how ferocious they all looked, he immediately guessed that they were most likely coming for him.

Suddenly, the restless house became quiet.

Minister Ai from the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television was seen walking in the front, followed by leaders of other departments, and at the end was the director of Yanjing TV.

"Whoosh!"

"well."

As Minister Ai cleared his throat, the applause gradually stopped. He sat in the main seat and made his opening remarks:

"Today, we are just holding a simple symposium and inviting all the colleagues in the industry to have a chat."

"It is very rare in the history of television creation that Desire has caused such a sensation and resonated with so many people."

“It’s worth pondering and summarizing what we can learn from it, so next, I hope everyone can speak freely.”

"Let's talk about our views on The Desire. The most important thing is the successes, but you can also talk about the shortcomings."

This was the characteristic of the 2s, 2s and s. It is almost impossible for a leader at this level to pay specific attention to a TV series and chat with the crew. At most, it would happen when representative movies such as "Wolf Warrior ", "The Wandering Earth" and "Nezha " appear.

"Ahem, then I'll talk about it first, just to stimulate discussion."

Xie Fei, who represented Beijing Film Academy, said seriously: "The TV series "Desire" has found the aesthetic ideal of the people today. Rather than saying that the audience loves "Desire", it is better to say that they are calling for kindness, friendship, warmth and sincerity in life..."

"Yes, judging by the family-related content of Desire and the fact that it has aroused public discussion, it is a product of popular culture!"

Yin Hong, a teacher from Beijing Normal University, said in a serious tone.

"What is most commendable is that Desire does not use conceptual language to persuade people to do good, but uses a touching storyline to inspire people's conscience."

Zhang Jizhong added: "This is rare in previous TV dramas. It is entertaining and educational, rather than directly preaching."

After the first, second, and third speeches, the conversation started and everyone followed suit.

However, the station had instructed in advance that speeches should be brief. If the guests spoke too much, the host Yanjing Station, Yanjing Television Art Center, and the "Ming Tian Xia" studio headed by Fang Yan would have little speaking time, not to mention that they also had to take the leaders of the relevant departments into consideration!

Listen more and talk less!
"You are the main creators of Desire. Please also share your views for the reference of our comrades."

Minister Ai cast his eyes on Zheng Xiaolong, Su Ya, Yu Hua and others, and finally fixed his sight on Fang Yan.

After a brief refusal, Shi Tiesheng, the main writer of the script of "Desire", was the first to speak:
"I think the success of Desire is based on human touch. A courtyard, a small western-style building, two groups of four families and three generations of people's joys and sorrows are gripping and touching. This kind of story with human touch, life, and grievances is hard not to attract audiences."

"I agree with Comrade Tiesheng."

Zheng Xiaolong followed closely, saying, "The success of Desire is undoubtedly a valuable exploration of how TV dramas can deeply reflect interpersonal relationships and moral concepts. Just like the theme song says, 'Forget about grudges and keep the true feelings from the beginning.'"

Then he changed the subject and said, "This is also due to the fact that our center made a major adjustment and reform to the structure of the TV series it produced at the beginning of the year. In order to achieve more social benefits, we established a strategy of parallel production of realistic life, situation comedy, and historical art."

“‘Desire’ is indeed a realistic social TV series.”

Minister Ai muttered a few words, "I remember there is another term called 'new realism', right?"

"Yes!"

Shi Tiesheng glanced at Fangyan and said that this concept was proposed by him, the chief screenwriter of "Desire".

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present focused their attention on Fangyan.

"Comrade Fangyan, you are the chief screenwriter of "Desire" and the initiator of "New Realism."

Minister Ai said: "Why don't you come and share your creative thoughts and experiences with everyone."

"Cough cough."

Fangyan was called, coughed tactically, then stood up and looked around.

"Before I start, I want to ask you a question: Is "Desire" a 'highbrow' or a 'lowbrow' work? (End of this chapter)