Generation Z Artists

Chapter 294 New System

The uproar caused by "Hero" in this era will not end as easily as Fang Xinghe thought.

His eyes were fixed on the stars and the sea, and he regarded 7 million US dollars as nothing.

Meanwhile, countries that had just integrated into the world through the WTO witnessed a cultural miracle of vigorous progress and elevation.

Therefore, "Hero" received far more attention than "Farewell My Concubine" did when it won the Palme d'Or.

The group had barely landed when they were pulled into a meeting.

Let's not go into the specific details, but anyway, there were several meetings, and we were busy for several days.

Increasing signs indicate that the government is considering awarding honors to the crew of the TV series "Hero".

Fang Xinghe didn't have any particular ideas yet, but Mou Zi was getting more and more restless every day.

That day, he went to Starry Sky Entertainment, claiming he wanted to discuss the new film, but in reality, he only mentioned the new film a few times.

"I have a new idea: to make another period martial arts film. Xiao Fang, do you have time?"

"No."

"Are you starting your own new project? Have you written a script yet?"

We are considering it.

"Oh. Then I'd like to invite Hong Kong and Taiwan stars, Jin Chengwu and Liu Dehua, and bring Xiao Zhang along. Domestic male stars can't support the investment."

"That's your business, you don't need to report it to me."

"Hey, we need to let them know..."

Mou Zi chuckled and explained, "Their stance is still fine, unlike those idiots who eat their rice and then curse their mothers..."

Fang Xinghe glanced at him and reminded him with a hint of sarcasm: "Take good care of the script, otherwise all this talk about stance is just nonsense."

Mou Zi was a little embarrassed and quickly changed the subject.

"Hey, has your boss talked to you about this? Does he know what award you're aiming for?"

"Our principal mentioned it once, and it's most likely the May Fourth Youth Medal."

"That's not necessarily true!"

Mou Zi slapped his thigh and began to talk non-stop.

"What I've heard is that the medal to be awarded hasn't been finalized yet, and the higher-ups are having quite a headache about it."

One opinion is that awarding only the May Fourth Youth Medal is not enough to recognize your outstanding contributions.

You are so popular abroad that you have become a benchmark for the image of Chinese people, and a very positive one at that. You have promoted Chinese literature and carried forward Chinese culture. You deserve the highest recognition.

However, another group of leaders, considering your age and career, felt that there was really no other award they could give you.

You are definitely not qualified for the Medal of the Republic right now. The remaining national honorary titles are all based on long-term performance, so it would not be a good thing to award them to you as an exception.

So the internal discussions are still going on, with small meetings every day.

In the end, I felt that this might actually benefit me; it would involve transferring a portion of your personal honor to the entire "Heroes" team..."

At this point, Mouzi was completely overjoyed.

Fang Xinghe was taken aback: "What do you mean?"

"It means that 'Hero' will basically be designated as a national core cultural achievement and included in the cultural heritage list. Then, personally..."

Mou Zi suddenly rubbed his hands together, smiling with a mix of smugness and embarrassment.

"Perhaps, maybe, possibly, I can get the title of People's Artist..."

"what?!"

Fang Xinghe was startled and found it unbelievable.

"Has the People's series reached its peak?"

"That's right!" Mou Zi nodded excitedly. "People's Artist, People's Scientist, People's Hero—in the national honorary title system, as long as you have these two words, you're at the highest level!"

"Wow, that's quite a weight."

In Fang Xinghe's memory, it seems that after directing the 08 Olympics, Zhang Yimou never received this title; he was only respectfully called the "National Master" by netizens.

If we can acquire it this time, then "Hero" will indeed be extremely valuable.

It grossed approximately $1.5 million worldwide.
20% of global DVD sales revenue, exact figure unknown;
One Oscar for Best Picture, and one Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film;

Numerous domestic honors and awards;
Furthermore, all the main creators have been promoted to higher status, overwhelming the position of the domestic entertainment industry.

This was several times better than the best result Fang Xinghe had initially expected, but at the same time, the excessive honor also brought several times the pressure to his and Zhang Yimou's new film.

"Better Days" is an art film aimed at winning awards, which is fine, but Zhang Yimou's new martial arts film will definitely be scrutinized under a magnifying glass.

"Then why aren't you being more careful?"

He asked with a wicked grin, "What kind of martial arts films are you going to make without me? Don't just get the title of People's Artist and then immediately make a huge mess of things..."

"What words!"

Mou Zi was furious, but his expression subtly revealed a hint of guilt.

"How could I not be careful? Hey, I brought the script with me, could you take a look at it for me when you have time?"

"Where would I find the time?"

Fang Xinghe waved his hand and refused without even thinking.

“Your boss is Zhang Weiping, not me. Have him find someone to help you figure it out. I have to take care of my own work.”

"Aren't you just waiting for Cannes? Haven't you heard about any new projects?"

"Just kidding, I have so many projects to prepare that I can't keep up!"

"Stop talking nonsense, just tell me what you're busy with right now."

"Busy with a series of books!"

Fang Xinghe pushed the file on the table forward. Zhang Yimou picked it up with some skepticism and saw four large characters on the cover—

The Primordial Era

When Mou Zi opened it and glanced at it, he was stunned to find a huge amount of historical records and settings.

"What is this thing? I don't understand it."

How do we explain the concept of "primordial chaos" to people today?

Fang Xinghe thought for a moment and said simply, "If you think of it as a prequel to the Investiture of the Gods, something from the mythological era, then that's about it."

Mou Zi was increasingly confused: "But the Investiture of the Gods is already public domain, why are you rewriting it?"

why?
Of course, this is to prevent some idiots from taking pictures of China's precious cultural heritage!
Like that guy, right?
In 2030, the most valuable character IPs recognized in China are: the Monkey King, Nezha, and Erlang Shen.

Beneath these top-tier IPs lies a vast amount of untapped content.

For example, those super popular fantasy novels, such as "Investiture of the Gods," and even the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors stories that have never been filmed before, are all cultural treasures.

Because these things are naturally suited for big-budget industrial films, and can be used to make Chinese blockbusters.

Hollywood has its superhero universe, and China isn't just about war as its main theme; it's just that in the previous era, no director explored these themes effectively.

Let's not go into the specific reasons, but in short, the Chinese film industry is sitting on a goldmine, making a few high-grossing comedies and then sitting there smugly and complacent.

If it weren't for dumplings, most people would never realize, oh, the Chinese film market has such enormous potential.
The leap from 50 billion to 150 billion represents the spiritual needs of the Chinese people that have never been truly met.

Fang Xinghe didn't want to judge anyone; he just felt that some things could only be done by himself—after all, he was a reborn, cheat-free entertainment saint.
What you lack the ability, ambition, capital, and motivation to do, I'll do.

Not only will we do it, but we will do it well. We will erect another monument for you and establish another standard of measurement!

The first step, naturally, is to start by integrating IPs.

The Chronicles of the Primordial Era is a product of this intention.

It's not really about unification; his main purpose was to construct a standardized framework to bring together the relatively chaotic Eastern mythology to a certain extent.

Anyone who wants to film "Investiture of the Gods" in the future had better completely respect the original work and not improvise. Otherwise, if they stumble upon any plot or character details from my book series, the legal team at Nanshan Pizza Hut will be in for a world of trouble...

In this way, although it still cannot stop those crazy directors from making haphazard films about gods, Journey to the West, fantasy, and ancient costume dramas, because "The Chronicles of the Primordial Era" is more expansive, more intense, and more exciting, the audience will vote with their feet, causing those rubbish films to completely lose their market, thus naturally playing a blocking role.

Another benefit is that once he has fully established the prehistoric system, he can guide the nascent online literature industry to develop faster and better.

Online novel authors can write books within the framework of the prehistoric era as they please, and I won't take a single penny of the profits. However, all copyright attributes are derivative rights, and authors cannot grant licenses indiscriminately, nor can animation and film directors create works arbitrarily.

Fang Xinghe did not intend to use such methods to control anyone; he only wanted to regulate the online literature industry in advance, and thus regulate the film and television industry to a certain extent.

As the source of IP, the online literature industry may be small in size, but it has a more fundamental significance.

Therefore, expanding from realistic themes to Eastern fantasy and creating this genre is an important part of Fang Xinghe's overall cultural strategy.

As for what the literary world thinks... I don't care.

Mou Zi understood, and therefore looked extremely annoyed.

"You mean, you're not writing realism anymore, and you're starting to write something... well, something beyond martial arts, something like immortals and gods?" "Yes."

"Ugh... these things are so hard to photograph..."

"It's difficult to film now, but that doesn't mean it will be difficult in the future."

"That's true. If it could be written like Harry Potter, it would definitely sell well all over the world."

Mou Zi's understanding is a bit superficial, but it's not a big problem. Fang Xinghe knows it himself, and that's enough. This is the only way to overtake Hollywood and completely defeat it.

Chinese films can't produce a Captain China; this is the fundamental difference between a people's view of history and a hero's view of history.

The way out for Chinese films must lie in the realm of fantasy and martial arts, based on culture and imagination.

Black Wukong and Little Nezha have already proven this fact, and now, Brother Fang is going to create an IP and a unique universe!
"Is there a main text?" Mouzi began to flip through the manuscript. "Let me see what the story is about."

"No, the outline for the first part has just been completed."

Mou Zi glanced at the terrifying table of contents, which totaled over 500 chapters, and grimaced in shock: "Holy crap! How many years will this take to write? One book is this long? Aren't you doing anything else?"

"It's not like I wrote it alone."

Fang Xinghe gestured towards the outside of the office: "I specifically recruited a scriptwriting team of nearly 50 people to work on the script and polish the novel."

"The Chronicles of the Primordial Era" is a massive project, and he certainly didn't intend to write it all by himself.

From the very beginning, this is a collective effort requiring everyone's wisdom and hard work.

"Then let me see how you define primordial chaos."

Zhang Yimou became interested and started flipping through the settings from the beginning, reciting them word by word.

"Pangu separated heaven and earth, splitting the chaos. In the original world, we use science to infer that a super explosion occurred at the beginning of the universe, spewing out endless matter to form galaxies, which together built our magnificent real universe."

But in a higher dimension, the world is not like that.

Chinese mythology describes the beginning of the universe using the term "the clear rising and the turbid descending".

What is meant by "purity"?
Information, energy, and all non-material existence.

What is meant by turbidity?
Matter, or materialized structure.

Where will it rise? Where will it descend?

Information, energy, consciousness—those mysteries within mysteries—constantly ascend to higher dimensions, separating layer by layer, which we inaccurately define as the Thirty-Three Heavens.

Matter and the fundamental forces that sustain its existence sink to the bottom.

Gradually, beneath the initial dimension, our barren material universe was born, called reality, also known as the prime material universe, or the bottom layer of all dimensions.

Matter endlessly aggregates, collides, and separates in the real universe, and the world has been desolate for countless epochs.

Until a few strands of energy carrying higher-dimensional information escaped into the real universe, triggering a wondrous reaction in pure matter, the first life was finally born.

From organic matter to microorganisms, and from microorganisms to plants and animals...

Modern life sciences are dedicated to explaining the origins of humankind. They have concluded that the hominids of millions of years ago were our ancestors, and that these ancestors evolved from ancient apes.

However, they cannot explain why there are flood myths all over the world, nor can they explain why humans evolved into such a fragile and inconvenient form.

Because humans have never been native to Earth.

Or rather, the immeasurable and elusive human soul was never born in the real universe.

It refers to the energy that falls into the real universe.

They remember, real people.

In an era when the real universe was not so tightly closed, we received a large amount of energy and information from higher dimensions.

They gave us consciousness and shaped us into who we are today.

Similarly, they also revealed to us such a place—

That was a dimension where clarity and turbidity were separated in equal measure, and matter and energy were highly coupled, a single entity in two states.

There, the essence of life is a trinity of information, energy, and matter; information constitutes a person's spirit, energy constitutes a person's vital energy, and matter constitutes a person's essence.

Such people are called celestial beings.

And this dimension is called the Primordial Era.

In an era when we received a wealth of information from the primordial world, we learned many secrets that are gradually being forgotten and denied by modern humans—

Heaven and earth, gods and demons, the realm of mountains and seas, the star domains...

As beings from different realms, can we, as beings from different heavens, return to the primordial world?
Perhaps, a lucky individual who catches a glimpse of the primordial world will unlock this ultimate mystery for us…

Synopsis: Modern teenager Su Muwu accidentally travels to the prehistoric world. He thought he could cultivate immortality and achieve eternal life, but he discovers that the Journey to the West story is from ten thousand years ago. Gods and demons have vanished, spiritual energy has declined, and the Tang Dynasty is on the verge of collapse. He has to struggle to survive in this chaotic world, gradually uncovering the subtle connection between the real universe and the prehistoric world, until he traces it back to the source of the prehistoric world...

Part One: The Buddha is the Path

Episode 1: The Immortal Tang Dynasty
Chapter 1: The Transmigrated Boy
……

"Oh, I'm going!"

When Mouzi got to the exciting part, he suddenly slammed his hand on the table and stood up.

"Xiao Fang, this is interesting! As I read on, I suddenly felt that it was quite plausible, both reasonable and full of mystery, making it very intriguing... This book is interesting!"

That would definitely be interesting.

It's not just Chinese people who are captivated by online novels; many stubborn foreigners are also engrossed in them, finding them far more exciting than works like "Game of Thrones."

What Fang Xinghe was going through from the beginning was the culmination of the primordial system, a comprehensive understanding of how many iterations it had undergone.

As for whether it's scientific or not...

Science can't observe the origin of the Big Bang. We're all on our way, so no one should look down on anyone else.

You Westerners dare to claim that God created the world, I dare to assert that Pangu created the heavens and the earth!
For fantasy novels, being engaging is the top priority.

Beyond being engaging, the more self-consistent the logic, the greater the influence.

Therefore, Fang Xinghe has great ambitions in writing this series of books.

Domestically, he wanted to sort out the Chinese mythological system, form a modern interpretation, base it on popular culture, and distinguish it from the official and unofficial lineages of Buddhism and Taoism.

Externally, he aims to begin exporting truly authentic Chinese fantasy, seizing the high ground of Gen Z's imagination.

If we don't act now, and wait until Japanese anime and American comic book superhero adaptations rise further, China's cultural industry will still have to struggle and agonize over imported products for more than a decade before it can embark on a tortuous and winding path of self-exploration.

Now that he knew about this situation, Fang Xinghe considered it his responsibility and obligation to get to the bottom of things.

"The preface is already this exciting?"

Fang Xinghe smiled and took back the manuscript, patting it in his palm.

"Then you just wait, the main story is even more exciting!"

Zhang Yimou's eyes suddenly lit up: "When will the first one come out? I want to see it, and I want to make it even more!"

"Watching is fine, but taking pictures is actually a bit premature."

Fang Xinghe did some quick calculations and felt that it would take at least seven or eight years of promotion and seven or eight films to make this system truly mature enough to enter the film market.

If we're lucky, we might even be able to compete with Avatar and achieve true IMAX 3D.

"Don't rush me, didn't you come here to talk to me about that martial arts movie?"

"Let's not talk anymore."

Mouzi didn't know what was going on either, but he picked up his script and turned to leave.

"This script is too boring, far from good enough. I need to go back and think about it some more. I'm off, see you at the meeting another day!"

I was so anxious, it felt like my butt was on fire.

Just as he was about to leave the office, Fang Xinghe suddenly remembered something and hurriedly called him back.

"Hey, revise your script properly. I might slip someone in later, the female lead from my novel 'You'. I owe her a favor because I had a serious illness."

If your notebook is too bad, then this isn't about repaying a favor, it's about continuing to create trouble!

Did you hear that? Take it to heart!

"Alright, alright, I know what I'm doing!"

Mouzi was very impatient. He waved his hand and walked away without turning his head.

Hopefully he really knows... but that's unlikely.

On one hand, there's the honor of being a People's Artist; on the other, there's his own version of a lousy hero. He's stubborn and gets stuck on both sides. Collision is one possibility, and giving up is another.

Who knows?

Just like the future of Chinese cinema, only time will tell.

Just as Fang Xinghe was engrossed in organizing the outline, the May Day holiday arrived quickly.

(End of this chapter)