Many people are as curious as me: How can a collection of essays like "My Altay" be adapted into a TV series? This question has always existed from the time this series was established, to finalization, to the release of trailers and stills, to being shortlisted for the 7th Cannes Best Long Drama Competition, to its premiere at the Beijing Film Festival, to its final broadcast. It wasn’t until I watched all eight episodes in one go that this doubt was finally eliminated.
The drama "My Altay" is very different from Li Juan's collection of essays. It can be said that the drama actually just borrows the background of the essay collection, the era, the region, the customs, and a few core characters The setting, as well as some details, and the entire story is basically starting from scratch.
For example, Zhang Fengxia, as the core character, is basically based on Li Juan’s mother. She appears in all of Li Juan’s prose, from "My Altay" to "The Distant Sunflower Field", Li Juan’s mother is everywhere . Zhang Fengxia in the series follows most of the image elements of Li Juan's mother and opens a mobile canteen in the Altay pasture area. She is fierce and open-minded, cares about money, and generous and insightful. She single-handedly helps Li Juan and Li Grandma Juan also created a small utopia for the shepherds in the mountains. Li Juan's grandmother became Zhang Fengxia's mother-in-law in the series. She has Alzheimer's disease. She is sometimes awake and sometimes confused, bringing a lot of jokes, but when she is awake, her words are full of wisdom. "Keeping accounts and asking for accounts" in the
essay collection has become the core plot driving element in the first and second episodes. Through the footsteps of Li Wenxiu who returned to the pastoral area and asked for accounts, we got to know this land and this land. The people of the land and the way they conduct themselves. For example, Li Wenxiu went to the neighbor woman to ask for a debt, and she recognized the wrong person, which made the neighbor woman very sad, because she did not owe debts, and she was not a person with the habit of owing debts. Li Wenxiu went to ask for debts, which made her very embarrassed. Another neighbor was upset that his name was called by the wrong name and demanded an apology from Li Wenxiu until Zhang Fengxia reconciled and said: "You are the creditor, you have the final say."
As for Ba Tai and Gao Xiaoliang, they are actually newly created people for the needs of the plot. Although some elements of these two people have appeared in the collection of essays, they are not so dramatic. For example, Gao Xiaoliang's fungus picking was adapted from the "Auricularia fungus" chapter in the collection of essays. The description of human greed in the "Agaric fungus" chapter finally focused on Gao Xiaoliang, which also caused the climax of the entire story. Because these elements are real, the breath of detail is accurate.
The most successful adaptation of the drama "My Altay" is actually the strengthening of the female perspective and the description of the identity of "female". There are many writers who write about Xinjiang, such as Wang Meng, Zhou Tao, and Liu Liangcheng, but they all start from a male, historical perspective, or a natural or ecological perspective, while Li Juan's prose is undoubtedly from a female perspective. . She introduced the image of a Han observer to Altay and Xinjiang, and projected this image onto Xinjiang's mountains, rivers, people, and customs, which is unique among Xinjiang writers. Although there were female writers who wrote about Xinjiang before Li Juan, such as Zhang Manling, and there are also many women among current ethnic writers, I am afraid that Li Juan is the only one who has multiple identities such as an outside observer and a long-term resident. .
The producer of "My Altay" has a relatively balanced gender composition, but when it comes to the main creators, the majority are women. Director Teng Congcong and screenwriter Peng Yining are both women, and the leading actors are also women, with several male characters. There are not as many roles as women. The series implements and strengthens the female perspective of the original work, and uses this perspective to explain and examine the customs and customs of the Altay region. "Women" are the tellers, observers, and performers of this story. Needless to say, Zhang Fengxia’s image of a free elf, the story of Token played by Alima more specifically presents the life scenes of women in border areas: “We women have to cook, wash clothes, take care of children, and want to go out. There was no time for one trip. I told your brother many times to go to the canteen to buy me a washboard, but he never brought it back until he died."
But no matter where these women come from and what experiences they have, "My Altay" treats them with a peaceful, cherished, affectionate, and praising attitude. In the harsh natural environment, their harmony is not poetic enough. In his life, he existed tenaciously, giving endless care to himself and the people around him, and became the only warmth in the long winter and difficult travel. Therefore, when the village director saw Zhang Fengxia's retreating back, he slowly said. : “Of all the women in the world, she is the one you don’t need to worry about the least. "Compared with them, men are like nomads in a nomadic world, with dual nomadic identities, but at the same time they are in a trance, fragile and confused, impulsive and irritable, and stubborn and conservative.
Therefore, "My Altay" has changed from prose to a drama. The success of the collection lies in the establishment of this perspective and the singing of this female utopia. Only with this understanding can it be established and the rest can be united.
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