Author: Amethyst

On October 2023, 10, the historical drama "Ding Baozhen" premiered on CCTV's eight sets of prime time, which depicts the legendary story of Guizhou historical celebrity Ding Baozhen killing An Dehai, governing the Yellow River, punishing corruption, establishing a machine bureau, and reforming the salt administration from the three levels of "governing the country and leveling the world". Judging from the audience's reaction, this is a word-of-mouth masterpiece. Zhong Chengxiang, former vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the first chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association, wrote two articles commenting on "Ding Baozhen" "to lead history with people, to find poetry in history, to use the past for the present, and to run through the past to the present." ”

After the premiere, the show was soon rebroadcast on CCTV's eight morning files and CCTV's eight afternoon files. Behind this famous "Ding Baozhen" is a legendary producer Fu Xiaoyang.

Change generals on the spot, resurrect the "backbone of China" on the screen

With the popularity of "Ding Baozhen" and Fu Xiaoyang's other work "Uncle Kurban and His Children and Grandchildren" this year, his home has become more and more lively, and most of the old friends congratulate him while talking about the little-known stories behind the scenes of "Ding Baozhen". It turned out that the actor who was originally scheduled to play Ding Baozhen was not Ma Shaohua, and he had signed a contract and paid a deposit, but Fu Xiaoyang still insisted on being played by Ma Shaohua despite public opinion.

His explanation for this is that "Ding Baozhen was the "backbone of China" in the late Qing Dynasty, and the kind of heroic righteousness that he has "asking for the people's lives at the expense of his family" has to be interpreted by people like Ma Shaohua. "The understanding of Ma Shaohua not only comes from the classics that Ma Shaohua has performed in the past, but also based on the direct cooperation between the two in the filming of "Tiankan Secretary Deng Pingshou", Deng Pingshou was elected as one of the "100 Chinese characters who have moved since the founding of New China", and Ma Shaohua's performance perfectly restored this township cadre who is deeply loved by the people. Fu Xiaoyang has repeatedly commented in public that Ma Shaohua is a "drama idiot", and this kind of "idiot" makes his performance three points into the woods.

The broadcast effect shows that Fu Xiaoyang's insistence is right, but this courage to change generals is by no means an impulse in his head, but Fu Xiaoyang's accumulation and sensitivity in the industry for decades.

Stick to the original intention, and continue to make masterpieces for decades

As an experienced producer, chief planner, and chief producer, Fu Xiaoyang's works were already well-known long before "Ding Baozhen".

In 2001, Fu Xiaoyang's first TV series "Zhao Shiyan" was broadcast on CCTV in prime time. Zhao Shiyan was an outstanding proletarian revolutionary in the early days of the Communist Party of China and one of the founders of the Communist Party of China. Fu Xiaoyang's project, which took eight years to create, filled an important gap in the field of artistic creation for the first time as the chief planner and screenwriter of a drama.

After that, he launched the era trilogy of "Mother, Mother", "Brothers and Brothers", "Sisters and Sisters", as well as the well-known biographical story "The Old Woman with Two Guns", these works have a strong regional color, which is the understanding and feedback of this filmmaker from Chongqing to his hometown. In the 2001 years since 20, he has handed over more than 20 TV drama works with the main theme, including all awards in the field of TV dramas, including the Five One Project Award, Feitian Award, Golden Eagle Award, etc.

In 2016, his work "Three Sisters" became a good story in the industry with "non-prime-time broadcast works beat prime-time broadcast works" on the national network station. There is also a moving story about this work, Fu Xiaoyang's niece was assigned to teach in a remote mountainous area after graduating from normal school, she asked her uncle to help her stay in the city to work, in this regard, Fu Xiaoyang said I will send you a TV series to watch, this is the TV series "Three Sisters" about female teachers in mountain villages, after watching this work, my niece said, "I am very moved, I am willing to give love to the children in the mountains like the third sister." ”

In 2018, the TV series "Assault and Assault", "Mother's Uncle", "How Far Is the Way Home" and "Xinghuo Cloud Street" produced and distributed by him landed on CCTV's eight sets of prime time, with four dramas and 168 episodes, which has become a record that no one has broken so far.

Most of these plays reflect the changes of the times with the fate of small people, spread positive energy with twists and turns in the development of plots, and express the great feelings of creation with themes close to life. For a time, Fu Xiaoyang became a typical representative of "little people, positive energy, and big feelings".

In 2016, the film "Out of the Mountain", which he co-invested and produced with Guangxi Tianchang Company, won the highest award, the Remy Award, and won the gold medal in the biography category. This is the first time that a Chinese has won the world's highest award at the festival. It is understood that the Houston International Film Festival is one of the three major film festivals in North America, and the works of director Spielberg and Chinese director Ang Lee have all emerged from the festival.

He is good at "calculating" the big account and spreading positive energy in his works

When asked about the sensitivity and accuracy of controlling the major themes of the main theme, Fu Xiaoyang said: "As a producer, controlling costs and considering output is the most basic. ”

In his opinion, once a work is launched to the market, the audience is tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, and the social influence is immeasurable. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the political position, cultural value, social significance and timing of the work. For example, investing in a "Ding Baozhen" may not be the best project in terms of income. But when this figure who tried to turn the tide in the late Qing Dynasty was launched, his efforts and perseverance could build momentum for the fight against corruption and deter corrupt officials, which cannot be evaluated and is also a factor that producers must consider. A friend of Fu Xiaoyang who works in the Commission for Discipline Inspection said that this "Ding Baozhen" can save many people, and it can also make many people stop from the precipice.

As a veteran party member and demobilized soldier, Fu Xiaoyang said, "Producers should be well versed in the relationship between the work and the times, that is, under what kind of current situation to launch a suitable work." That is, to take on the important task of protecting, inheriting, and making good use of excellent traditional culture, and guarding the "root" and "soul" of the Chinese nation through TV dramas. He believes that this is the awareness, responsibility and mission that film and television workers should have.

Such a simple original intention and unpretentious persistence have allowed Fu Xiaoyang to produce many masterpieces in the past few decades, and at the same time, he has also gained many personal honors. He is a national first-class screenwriter, a cultural master of the Central Propaganda Department and a "four batches" (cultural management) talent, enjoys the special allowance of the State Council (literature and art), deputy director of the Industry Television Committee of the China Television Artists Association, in 2017, he and Feng Xiaogang, Wu Jing and other 9 people were selected as the annual figure of the Chinese cultural industry (film and television).

Nirvana was reborn, and the follow-up masterpieces continued

In 2019, the film and television industry encountered a cold winter, and was included in the list of extremely difficult industries by the State Council together with 16 other industries, coupled with the epidemic in the following three years, the trader behind the series of popular works seems to have disappeared. In 2021, he walked around the ghost gate due to a sudden severe cerebral infarction. Everyone thought that Fu Xiaoyang would never be able to stand up again, but he was reborn. From being unable to move his whole body at that time, to now living a basic life of self-care and limited work, the doctor said that Fu Xiaoyang has created a medical miracle. Even now, he must read the script for an hour or take an hour off after a script planning meeting, otherwise he may relapse and die. While insisting on taking medication and not giving up his job, he said: "For the responsibility I bear, for the sake of those who support me and invest in me, I want to surprise and assault." ”

Facts have proved that Fu Xiaoyang has not been forgotten by the industry or the market, and his ability to develop projects and plan topic selection, especially his sensitivity and control of major topics with the main theme, is still praised by the industry. In March 2022, Fu Xiaoyang, who was in the early stage of recovery from cerebral infarction, received a special mission to make the famous "Tieyuan Resistance Battle" into a TV series, which was later proposed by Kang Honglei, the director of "Soldier Assault" and "My Regiment Commander, My Regiment", to improve its artistry and express the relationship between war and land, and changed its name to "Earth". Based on the creative concept of "Earth", Fu Xiaoyang suddenly thought that "there should be "Sky" and "Sea" if there is "Earth", so he organized a team to create and completed the script and project establishment of "Sky" and "Sea". These three works were later called the "Military Soul Trilogy", and they are being planned and carried out intensively by Fu Xiaoyang and his team.

In addition to the "Army Soul Trilogy", Fu Xiaoyang also planned and developed a script that reflects the red inheritance and rural revitalization, "Half a Quilt Warm Village", which is based on "Half a Quilt" is the story of Xu Jiexiu's grandson giving up being the boss and returning to his hometown to be the village party secretary to lead the villagers to get rid of poverty and become rich Rural revitalization.

This is exactly the consciousness, responsibility and mission that Fu Xiaoyang adheres to. It is also what he mentioned, "cultural and art workers should 'learn the history of the party' while presenting the stories of important speeches and important instructions through TV dramas." ”

Not only that, he led the team to complete the script creation and approval of the TV series "The Master's Back" by Qi Baishi, Li Kuchan, Xu Linlu and a large number of other people in the calligraphy and painting industry, and is working with Beijing Normal University students to create a TV series that reflects the "April Day" founded by Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin. In order to promote traditional Chinese culture, he was invited by Sun Simiao's hometown to create "Sun Simiao" a few years ago. At present, his team is still creating several traditional themes that reflect traditional Chinese medicine, such as "Hua Tuo" and "Zhang Zhongjing". It is reported that he was also invited to undertake the task of producing a major revolutionary historical theme, which completely surpassed all his previous works in terms of political height, historical value, cultural blank and other dimensions.

Fu Xiaoyang will "calculate" the big account, in his opinion, even if a work only affects one person, it is also the credit and blessing of literary and artistic workers. Because he firmly believes that people who are honest, willing to take responsibility, work hard, and persevere, will eventually survive the hardships and achieve victory, so he will also stick to the positive energy in his heart, because in the soil of his insistence on hard work, there are flowers that will never give up.