original title: Ignite the "single spark" in the hearts of contemporary youth
—— Interview with Long Pingping, literary consultant of "Blood Battle at Songmaoling"
Recently, a revolutionary history theme network guided by the Network Audio-visual Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television and the Fujian Provincial Radio and Television Bureau The drama "Blood Battle at Songmaoling" officially met with the audience. Following the last well-received work "Age of Awakening", screenwriter Long Pingping once again condensed his artistic perception and creative inspiration into this new work.
"Blood Battle at Songmaoling" tells a history of the Battle of Songmaoling - in the autumn of 1934, the fifth anti-"encirclement and suppression" campaign in the Central Soviet Region entered the most difficult stage. It became the last barrier of the Eastern Front of the Central Soviet Area. For 7 days and nights, on this mountain, more than 10,000 Red Army soldiers gave their lives, winning precious time for the central Red Army's strategic relocation. And their names, lives, and appearances are all buried in the dust of history, almost impossible to test.
"In the Battle of Songmaoling, thousands of Red Army soldiers used their lives and blood to win the victory of the Chinese revolution. Their stories are the most vivid footnotes of the great spirit of founding the party." As the original document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Long Pingping, director of the research department of the third edition of the research office, knows very well that these heroic images that stand up from the dust of history are worthy of praise.
In Long Pingping's view, the process of China's revolution, construction and reform in the 20th century is also a process of continuous awakening of the Chinese people, and the Battle of Songmaoling is an indispensable and important part of the road to awakening. If The Age of Awakening reflects the first "awakening"; then, the Battle of Songmaoling opened the prelude to the second "awakening". The former means that since the Opium War, young people have gone through countless hardships and finally found a "prescription" to solve China's problems and established the Communist Party of China, giving the Chinese people a strong leadership core; the latter means that the Chinese Communists have begun to Combining Marxism with China's reality, explore a revolutionary road that suits China's national conditions.
"Choose to participate in the reproduction of this battle, it is hope that through the concrete presentation, contemporary young people can better understand the Chinese revolution, and draw strength, belief and courage to move forward." Long Pingping said. Most of
's previous revolutionary literary and artistic works focused on one or a few historical celebrities and revolutionary leaders well-known to the public, but there was no such "big man" in the Songmaoling campaign. The people in this battle have little to no text to test against. So, how to tell this story well? The creative team kept asking themselves, and in the end, their solution was four words: uphold integrity and innovation.
"Keep upright, and keep a correct view of history." Long Pingping said that the relationship between historical reality and artistic reality must first be properly handled in literary and artistic works of major revolutionary history. Therefore, literary and art workers need to be as close to history as possible, and tell the audience the most valuable things in that history with a true narrative that conforms to the logic of the times. The creative team of "Blood Battle at Songmaoling" has done a lot of preparatory work in the early stage. In addition to researching documents and organizing expert seminars, they also visited the battle site and searched for those who experienced it and their descendants. In Long Pingping's view, "this dedication is invaluable in the current impetuous film and television drama market". After
gradually outlined the clear context of the Battle of Songmaoling, the creative team rationally speculated, studied and imagined the words, deeds, thoughts and thoughts of each character based on the existing historical data, and placed the characters in the social atmosphere at that time. Explore the rationality of their activities under the background of the characters' lives, so as to achieve historical reality and artistic reality.reality combined. The group portraits in the
drama include Yu Guangming, the head of the independent regiment who was born in peasants and swears to follow the Red Army; there is Zhu Yin, the illegitimate daughter of a big landlord, a female military doctor who has hatred for the country and the family; there is one who escaped from the Kuomintang army and resolutely joined the army. The old officer of the Red Army, the lame man; the businessman Xiang Wanjin, who has a shrewd abacus and is willing to give generously to the Red Army... These characters are not "perfect", and their "problems", big and small, all originate from different social status, identity, as well as upbringing and living environment. "Cannibalizing fireworks and having seven emotions and six desires, such people are real." Long Pingping said that only such a complex, three-dimensional and credible person can grow and awaken little by little through difficult struggles, and finally for his own beliefs Only by charging forward and shedding blood can arouse the empathy of the audience, especially the young audience. In his opinion, this is the biggest innovation in the creation process - "We told the stories of a group of ordinary people - to restore a large number of unknown and even no historical records of the Red Army soldiers from historical concepts to lifelike ones. 'People'."
And this is exactly the creative philosophy that Long Pingping has always upheld.
As a descendant of revolutionary martyrs, Long Pingping initially devoted himself to the study of party history. Due to his long-term engagement in the editing and research work of Deng Xiaoping's thought, life and the party's contemporary literature, many related film and television works have found him and his colleagues as consultants and screenwriters. Long Pingping believes that this is also "part of the work" of party history research. Only "Awakening Age" is an exception, "it's what I want to do in my spare time". It was the success of this "exception" that made him realize one thing: "Never underestimate the political discernment and artistic appreciation of contemporary youth."
Because the characters in "The Age of Awakening" are far from the living environment of contemporary youth , During the broadcast of the play, Long Pingping was very uneasy for a time. When the young audience responded enthusiastically, he was encouraged: "Youth in the new era are so cute, credible, and dependable! They know what is right and what is good."
Long Pingping believes that at present, it is time for Revolutionary themed literary and artistic works "the best era", the Party Central Committee held an exhibition to normalize the study and education of party history; and young people's thirst for historical knowledge and revolutionary spirit is extremely enthusiastic, literary and art workers are necessary and more responsible to grasp this. It is an opportunity to convey "Why the Communist Party of China can" and "What is the relationship between the struggle and sacrifice of revolutionary martyrs and our happy life today" to the audience through literary and artistic forms.
In Long Pingping's view, the characters must go from "concept" into reality and into the hearts of the audience. What audiences, especially young audiences want, is not to "follow what others say", but to really feel the pulse of the characters and understand the logic behind what the characters think, think, and do. This requires the characters to be real, believable and lovable. The foundation of "truth and credibility" is to understand and thoroughly understand history, and the soul of "lovely" comes from the unique objective, correct and scientific cognition formed by the entire creative team - screenwriters, directors and actors based on historical facts and historical research results.
At this level, "Blood Battle at Songmaoling" is a beneficial attempt to create a high-quality product and a benchmark.
"The soul of a country is tied to 'heroes'. But 'heroes' are not only big figures, but also many ordinary people like the Red Army soldiers who bravely sacrificed their lives in the Battle of Songmaoling." As a human being, only when you know where your new life comes from can you understand where you should go. He hopes that he can ignite the contemporary era with his pen, heart and affection.The red "spark of fire" in the hearts of young people encourages them to inherit the legacy of their martyrs and to make unremitting efforts to create a better life and realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. (Reporter from Guangming Daily: Wu Xiaoyi and Niu Mengdi)
"Guangming Daily" (October 30, 2022 04 edition)
