Recently, the 2024 Beijing Cultural Forum was held. As a special guest, the famous director Zheng Xiaolong gave a speech at the "Cultural Communication: Film and Television Production and Expression of the Times" parallel forum, sharing his views on how film and television works

Recently, the 2024 Beijing Cultural Forum was held. As a special guest, the famous director Zheng Xiaolong gave a speech at the "Cultural Communication: Film and Television Production and Expression of the Times" parallel forum, sharing his views on how film and television works can tell Chinese stories well.

Zheng Xiaolong said that in the past 30 years, China's film and television industry has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities and also faced many challenges. In this process, practitioners must not only consider how to expand international influence, but also how to show China’s cultural connotation and spiritual outlook through film and television works. The core of film and television works lies in stories. To create high-quality products, we must tell Chinese stories, Chinese people’s stories, and Chinese humanity’s stories well.

There is a saying that is often said in literary and artistic theory: "Image is greater than thought." Zheng Xiaolong fully agrees with this. He believes that if the image is not well done, cannot be recognized and trusted by people, or is not unique, it will not be able to "live" in people's hearts for a long time. For example, "Dream of Red Mansions" is known as a mirror of feudal society. Cao Xueqin did not know what feudal society was, but he objectively and truly created many lifelike characters in "Dream of Red Mansions".

Looking back on his decades of experience in the industry, Zheng Xiaolong said with deep emotion that truly good works are works that can withstand the test of time, and these works are often works that can well reflect and record the times. For example, "Desire", "The Story of the Editorial Department", "Beijingers in New York", "Golden Wedding", "Red Sorghum", "Happiness to Ten Thousands of Families", etc. created in that year all have a clear mark of the times. At the beginning of this year, " South to North to " became a hit because it used the story of Chinese railway workers as an entry point to show the changes that Chinese society has experienced since the reform and opening up, and to highlight the spirit of the times. This requires film and television creations to extract materials from the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of the broad masses of people and the social reality reflected behind them.

Creators must improve their observation and understanding of society, life, and human nature, constantly improve their storytelling skills and production levels, and constantly improve their literary literacy and aesthetic ability. This is to practice internal skills. Many directors' works are of good quality, but even if they are poor in tone, they are never able to produce good works because of lack of internal strength. The other is to convey Chinese values ​​​​and show the common emotions and values ​​​​of mankind through works, so as to enhance the influence of Chinese culture in the global context.

When talking about how to convey values, Zheng Xiaolong took "The Legend of Zhen Huan" as an example. He said that when adapting this TV series, the creative team positioned the original fictional historical background to the Qing Dynasty, and positioned the value of the work to criticize and expose the decadence and cruelty of the feudal marriage system. The introduction of the overseas version of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is "an unyielding soul, a weak woman against the entire Qing Empire". This is not provided by the Chinese team, but is understood by overseas audiences on their own. This shows that the commonality of values ​​provides a value link for international communication. The popularity of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is largely due to the penetrating power of its thoughts, which has gained vitality and thus enhanced its influence. It also displays traditional Chinese culture in many aspects through various elements such as costumes, etiquette, architecture, food, and music in the play. charm.

Zheng Xiaolong finally said that creating high-quality film and television products with Chinese character, Chinese style, and Chinese style requires creators to start from real Chinese stories, adhere to the creative principles of realism, pay attention to the values ​​​​of the work, and deeply explore human nature in the creative process and the background of the times. Only in this way can we create a truly masterpiece that can stand the test of time and be remembered by the audience.

Reporter: Wang Likui Editor: Lu Bing Proofreader: Faye Wong