popcorn, drinking milk tea,
watching movies in a dark theater,
is now the most common pastime of people in the city.
However, the elders of
will remember the time when open-air movies were popular.
took to a small bench, sat in the crowd,
chased the beam of light, focused on the thin curtain,
, have you ever had this experience?
"Filmmaker"
shuttles through the village's heads and lanes
In remote villages in Qinghai, villagers in the ravines are accustomed to calling people who pull screens and projectors walking through the village's heads and lanes as "filmmakers".
"Daily craftsman, when will you come? What will you put?" When Dai Huadan went out to buy vegetables, people in the villages near and far did not leave these words.
"There are carpenters for sawing wood, and stonemasons for cutting stones. We play movies, and they call it "craftsman"."
Hua Danjia, a Tibetan person, was born in Hualin Township, Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Xining City, Qinghai Province. When going to school, every time there is a movie to be shown, the classmates will spread it early, "But only in one village, I have to walk from school to dark in order to watch." He grinned and gestured with both hands in the movie "Heroes". Wang Cheng gripped the blasting tube tightly, "I thought at the time, it would be great if I was a projectionist."
In 2007, the wish came true, although the conditions were limited: the family’s hand-held tractor plowed the land during the day and installed the projection equipment in the trailer at night. On the plastic sheet, Daihua Danjia carried Daihua Danjia all the way to another village. "Every time you set off, you must first pour the engine and components with boiling water." Not only is it time-consuming, but in cold weather, "the leather hat, leather jacket, and leather sleeves are all wrapped up, and it's too much."
Plus learn to ride a motorcycle and tie the equipment to the back seat, which is flexible and fast, but not safe. Once, he rode through a zigzag sandy road. Unexpectedly, when he turned a corner, the car suddenly lost its center of gravity. He was thrown out with all the people and equipment, and his right shoulder hit a rock: "I was too painful to move, so I yelled to give way. Someone helped me up, rested, and continued to ride."
In 2015, Dai Hua Danjia finally drove his car. "This road is too much, I even know where there are pits." He turned the steering wheel skillfully, and the farm houses and fields on both sides of the concrete path passed quickly, and the low bungalows at the foot of the snow-capped mountains were undulating. Only small dots are big. "Far away?" He said, pointing to the side: "There are still deeper villages. We will go too. You can't see it."
screen, projection lamp, projector, tripod, two big speakers... In 12 years, Dai Hua Tanga pulled more than 100 kilograms of projection equipment and traveled across the county's large and small villages. Today, the 52-year-old is a well-known "veteran" in the county. He no longer runs around like in the past, but concentrates on film screenings in 21 villages in 2 townships and over 250 films are shown every year.
Currently, there are nearly 300 projectionists like Dai Hua Danjia in Qinghai Province, covering more than 4,000 administrative villages, showing more than 50,000 non-profit films each year, achieving the goal of "showing one movie per village per month" .
A youth wandering on the screen
In the evening, the projectionist Wang Zhengquan left work from the county seat and did not care to eat, so he drove to the ancient village together with Hua Danjia.
At the entrance of the village, Wang Zhengquan set up the speaker on the car: "Invite you to watch the open-air digital movie at 7:30 tonight..." Slowly he turned to the square, opened the trunk, and picked up a heavy black vertical speaker in one hand. The body moved forward slightly swaying.
Seeing night fall, the two speeded up their hands and feet, and one corner of the curtain was tied to the window guardrail. “In some villages, the rope can only be tied to the basket or wooden pole, or you can find a white wall for direct projection.” Wang Zhengquan said.
A few meters away, the projector and the projection lamp were propped up on the tripod, and the screen appeared on the screen, "Today is playing "Fire King Kong"," he fiddled with the projection lamp up and down, adjusting the sound effects, "Old people like anti-Japanese classics,'Are there any ghosts? "They often ask, they especially like to watch tunnel wars and mine wars."
"I heard that in the past, I used a carriage to pull the film machine to Murakami. The front performance was wonderful. The film suddenly broke. The projectionist will take a long time, everyone. I was waiting impatiently." In Wang Zhengquan's view, old movies evoke the nostalgia of youth for the elders.
Wang Zhengquan (first from right) plays the movie, courtesy of Datong County Radio and Television BureauPicture
and I feel the same way: "When I was in my 20s, I bought a signal receiver from the small commodity market and placed it on the roof. It was able to receive six CCTV, Phoenix, and American movie channels. I saw Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat.”
The night was getting deeper, and the cold wind kept digging into his neck. Wang Zhengquan put on a cotton coat and continued to recall: “I was born in a ravine since I was a child. I left home to work at the age of 17, and my mother put on new shoes and walked away. After 13 kilometers, it rained heavily on the road and stepped on the mud. "This scene many years ago was recently re-drawn in my mind by the movie "Mom and Dad, I Love You" which tells about the affection of parents in rural areas. "Because I have experienced it myself, so The feeling is very deep."
shed tears together, laughed together "boom" together, the light and shadow are intertwined, the old people are chatting, the children are chasing, the father is sitting on the tricycle pushed by the son, and he is happy to see Take out the brewed highland barley wine to warm everyone up...
villagers watch the open-air movie. Photo courtesy of Datong County Radio and Television Bureau
"I accompany my son to watch 3D movies, but I prefer to be with the villagers," even if I watch too much I never feel boring in the movies that I have made. "Because I look at everyone happy, I feel relaxed and energetic." Wang Zhengquan said.
Did you watch an open-air movie when you were a kid?
Do you remember the movie that
played at that time and the people who watched with you?
kind of lively and kind feeling, do you miss
?
