For a hundred years, they have lived by the water, made their boats their home, and landed on the shore to become a village; They build fishing rafts, build wooden houses, float on the sea, and live off fishing.

They are members of the Wan family known as the "Sea Gypsies".

The Han family belongs to the Han ethnic group, and their ancestors have lived on the sea for generations, forming unique customs that are different from the land, and gradually producing unique Han family culture such as water marriage and Han family tuning.

Liu Kai, a junior student majoring in radio and television directing at Nanhai College of Art and Technology at Haikou University of Economics, wanted to record the old life and "culture of the family" at sea, so he made a documentary called "Sea Gypsies".

First acquaintance

In fact, there are records about the Gang family since the Tang Dynasty. Some people think that the name of the Gang family is because the Gang family takes the boat as their home all year round and lives on the sea, like eggshells floating on the sea, so it is called the Gang family; Some people also think that the Han family fights with wind and waves at sea all year round, is in a dangerous living environment, and their lives are insecure, and they are as fragile as eggshells, so they are called the Gang family. Fishing, raising dogs, cooking, sleeping, getting married, raising children, going to school... Fishing boats and sea fishing rafts are their homes.

"I'm from Qingdao, and I've been with the sea since I was a child, and when I was a child, I used to take my camera to the seaside pier whenever I had time and take pictures of interesting pictures." After coming to Hainan to study at university, Liu Kai gradually moved his lens from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea, and also met friends from the Yan family who lived by the sea.

Liu Kai recalled his acquaintance with Xing Yishi, the protagonist of the documentary, Xincun Town, Lingshui County, Hainan. Once, he and a few friends were on the beach and saw the fishermen returning from fishing and unloading their goods from the boat. He asked, "Are these fish sold?" How much is a pound? Xing Yishi looked at him and said with a smile: "This half basket of fish has more than ten catties, if you want to take it away from the whole basket, just give some money casually." ”

After more contact with Xing Yishi, Liu Kai had a good impression of this group of simple and optimistic, reverent of the sea, and perennial companionship of the sea. Therefore, he invited several students such as Ren Zikuan, Qi Le, Cao Shouxiang, Wen Yi, Yu Li, Bao Yirui, Ji Yutong, etc., and decided to make a documentary about Xing Yishi's story to record the unique production, life and survival mode of the Yan family with images.

Recording

In "Sea Gypsies", Liu Kai spent 19 minutes fully showing the production and life of this group of "sea nomads" with the unique perspective of "fishermen's expression".

"No giant's shoulder can help." Liu Kai lamented that because the historical image archives available for reference are very limited, their team members basically cross the river by feeling the stones, so "Sea Gypsy" is divided into two stages in script creation alone. The first stage mainly tells the story of the Han family objectively from the perspective of a third party. But during the creative process, they found that such a narrative could not give the audience a real sense of experience.

So in the second stage, they consulted Li Yuran, associate professor of Nanhai College of Arts and Technology at Haikou University of Economics. The teacher believes that it is necessary to find the perspective and direction of material selection that conforms to the laws of documentary images, "that is the combination of humanistic and localized colors of the fishing raft of the Gangjia". The most important feature of Hainan is that its cultural form belongs to the Chinese marine civilization, and in the past, everyone's understanding of Chinese civilization was the form of land farming civilization, but the object of farming is not only cultivated land, but also the ocean. Li Yuran believes that in the documentary, "it is necessary to combine the poetic imagery of the sea with the characteristics of Hainan's Chinese marine civilization, and show the picture of harmonious coexistence between man and the sea through the fishing raft of the Gangjia family."

In the process of script creation, Liu Kai and his team members suffered a lot of "suffering".

"It wasn't until my feet stepped on the solid concrete floor on the pier that I felt that long-lost steadiness. But the dizziness did not disappear immediately, and for the next few days, as soon as you closed your eyes, everything around you began to shake again, making people feel like they were back on the fishing boat mixed with the smell of fishy and engine oil. This is the note of Liu Kai and his team members, although they had expected the hardships of life at sea before departure, but it was not until they really faced the wind and waves that they really experienced Xing Yishi's daily difficulties.

When he followed Xing Yishi to fish, he saw the scorching sun on his forehead, and every time he lifted the net harder, the wrinkles became more obvious. "In the past, I always thought that the profession of fisherman was only suitable for strong young people, but Xing Yishi told me that when I go out to fish, it is the old fishermen who have been through the storm for a long time. In the face of the unknown and cruelty of the sea, in addition to needing good skills, it is more important to have the experience and determination to fight and maneuver with it. Liu Kai said.

"The bigger the wind and waves, the more expensive the fish!" This is a line from the TV series "Crazy", and it is also a vivid portrayal of the lives of Xing Yishi and other fishermen.

As the offshore became farther and farther away, the wind and waves were getting bigger and bigger, and Liu Kai and his team members had to endure the torment of being away from the Internet in addition to overcoming the physical discomfort caused by seasickness. As Xing Yishi's fishing boat sailed to the open sea, the mobile phone signal gradually disappeared, and the smartphone became a decoration to watch the time. The work on the ship is day and night, 3 hours of work, 3 hours of eating and sleeping, and so on. Xing Yishi's life was broken up into fragments and crammed into the small space of the cabin.

A few days after going to sea, Liu Kai's biological clock also magically adapted to this routine of not sleeping and sleeping, "but those habits on land are difficult to change, for example, every time I finish eating, I always use to put chopsticks on the bowl, while the old fishermen will put their chopsticks on the edge of the raised table", the next wave came over, the person who tilted his body to pick up the chopsticks must be Liu Kai and members of their team.

After the shooting was basically completed, Liu Kai and they waited for the transport ship for the return journey. In the wind and waves, the two boats relied on the cable, briefly rendezvous, they violently collided and separated violently, the fishermen saw the opportunity, slid boxes of fish through the planks to the opposite transport boat, and Liu Kai and his friends also grabbed the cable thrown from the height of each other and stepped onto the boat on the return journey. In the dark, they watched Xing Yishi and his fishing boat dangle away, and they had to continue to operate in this sea area for more than 100 days.

Even though they have fought thousands of times, the family who depend on the sea for their livelihood is still in awe of nature. They gain spiritual comfort and security through religious worship and observance of taboos. In "Hainan Gypsy", there are many scenes of fishermen worshipping at the Sanjiang Niangniang Temple.

Life at sea is very monotonous and boring, and the Han family has no more pastimes, so they simply put their joys, sorrows and unspeakable hearts in the lyrics in the way of singing, and gradually formed the "saltwater song" culture of the Han family, and they sing the beautiful emotions and yearning all over the world. "Saltwater song" is a song of the sea, which was later listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage item, collectively known as "boil song".

In Liu Kai's shots, there are many scenes of men and women and even children singing songs to each other on the boat or on the shore. "The lyrics of the song are almost always improvisational, praising nature, praising labor and harvest, singing about traditional virtues, singing about new life, expressing the yearning for love and a better life, and telling the concern for relatives - it can be said that the song is the song of laborers and an important part of Chinese maritime civilization." Liu Kai said.

trace

In recent decades, the Han family has gradually moved to shore. However, the immersion of modern civilization has also made many "Yanjia cultures" face the disappearance, which is also the focus of Liu Kai's focus in the documentary.

"If the 'Han family shed' has disappeared, the traditional Han family's boat wedding has almost disappeared, and the traditional handicraft production skills of the Han family are lacking, and the people who can sing the gang song are all old people, and there are very few. The inheritance of the culture is in jeopardy, and the culture is in danger of a fault. At first, Liu Kai wanted to reveal the secret of this small group to everyone, and now, more to record this group with a "rescue history" mentality, but unfortunately, many original cultural scenes and foundations no longer exist.

In this regard, Liu Kai's mood is mixed: as a director and filmmaker, he is worried that the contents of "The Wedding on the Ship" and "School on the Ship" are missing from the album, which has become a regret that he can never fill; In order to protect and inherit the culture of the Gang family and tap the cultural heritage of the Gang family, more and more of the Gang family now adhere to the route of "going to the shore, going to the deep sea, and walking towards recreational fishing" to develop recreational fishing, and the Gang family has also eaten "tourist rice", which makes Liu Kai happy.

"Today, most of the next generation of fishermen is no longer in the fishing and volleyball industry, and most of them have settled in big cities." Through the communication with the children of fishermen, Liu Kai feels that for the young people who go out from the fishing raft, the fishing raft is a special emotional sustenance, they have grown up in the fishing raft since childhood, and every corner of the fishing raft has left the imprint of their growth. "When you know your hometown, you should know your hometown", every "wanderer" who walks out of the fishing raft is in awe of the fishing raft on which their fathers depended for their survival, and is also writing a new history of the Gang family.

On May 5 this year, "Sea Gypsy" was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Unit of the 8rd Asian International Youth Film Festival and the Hong Kong Bauhinia International Film Festival, and Li Yuran, as the instructor of the film, was deeply pleased.

"A student work was shortlisted for the International Film Festival, which made me realize that the video recording rooted in life and rooted in the people is also written on the motherland. When we are truly honest with various phenomena in nature and society, especially those that are far from our own life experience, it will stimulate the impulse of life from our hearts, and then creation will not simply stay at the level of interest, but become a spontaneous action with a sense of mission. When creators and photographers have an inner impulse for life, they will really have the motivation to explore nature and society, find their reasons for connecting with nature and society, find that all the behaviors explored in their documentaries are closely related to the fate of nature and society, and truly understand the connotation of 'the unity of heaven and man'. Li Yuran believes that focusing the camera on the general public, recording vivid faces, and leaving vivid biographies and epics for our era, society, nation and country should become the internal driving force of all the new generation who are determined to influence the world with images.

Although the film has long been produced, Liu Kai continues to pay attention to the new life of the Yan family. "I am very pleased to see that the young people of the Yan family have found a new way out." He said.

China Youth Daily / China Youth Net reporter Mou Haokun Source: China Youth Daily