(East-West Question) Liang Xiaosheng: From "the world is miserable" to "the world is worthwhile", why does "The World" move the Chinese?

  China News Agency, Beijing, April 24th, title: Liang Xiaosheng: From "the world is miserable" to "the world is worthwhile", why does "The World" move the Chinese?

  Author Li Xiang

  The TV series "The World", adapted from the Mao Dun Literature Award-winning work, has hit a new high in CCTV's 8-year ratings since it was broadcast on CCTV at the end of January this year, and its popularity has drawn the attention of the original.

Photo courtesy of the TV drama "The World"

  The novel "The World" was created by Chinese writer Liang Xiaosheng after 8 years. It uses 1.15 million words to describe the life trajectory of an ordinary family in Northeast China since the founding of New China. It tells about the "feelings" and "hopes" of the Chinese people.

China News Agency "East and West Questions" recently exclusively interviewed Liang Xiaosheng, the author of "The World", and listened to him talk about how "The World" moved the Chinese from "the world is miserable" to "the world is worthwhile".

The following is a summary of the interview transcript:

China News Service reporter: Have you ever thought that "The World" will receive so much attention and popularity?

Liang Xiaosheng:

I didn't think about it, and even when I created my work, I didn't even think that it would one day be made into a TV series.

At first, I was not very optimistic, because for a long time, the content of this kind of photo was rarely seen on TV screens or on the big screen in theaters. I was not sure whether the audience would accept such content. .

But the final broadcast result was relatively good. Everyone likes the work "The World", and I am also very pleased and happy.

China News Agency reporter: Who is your favorite character in "The World"?

Why?

Liang Xiaosheng:

I like everyone in my writing, I give them names, characters and stories.

But if you need me to pick a favorite character, it might be the Zhou family three siblings.

  I like Zhou Bingkun's persistence and loyalty to friendship.

He has the characteristics of my character when I was an educated youth in the Great Northern Wilderness: cherishing friendship.

I think this is what a friend should be like.

  I like the righteous layout.

Bingyi is actually a new intellectual in the 1980s with abundant humanistic qualities under the influence of various literatures. He is completely different from the ordinary intellectuals admitted to universities today.

Abundant cultural literacy also makes this character more considerate of the overall situation when considering problems, and his pattern should be larger.

  Zhou Rong's female independence and her focus on the fate of the country are also my favorites.

China News Service reporter: Many of your works have been adapted into film and television dramas. From "Annual Rings" to "The World", the Chinese society and human feelings you described have been highly recognized by readers. What do you think is the reason?

How is the audience today different from the audience 30 years ago?

Liang Xiaosheng:

There are actually three aspects to this question.

The first is the relationship between original literature and film and television dramas.

I personally still prefer to regard the TV series as a work independent of the original, because the TV series itself has been recreated to a large extent on the basis of respecting the original.

It is to break up the original content into various materials, and then re-weave these materials to form an independent work.

  The novel writing can be more calm than the TV series writing.

"The World" I can write more abundantly, and write it into 4 volumes.

But TV shows have a limited number of episodes.

  As for the audience changes you mentioned, I really didn't expect many younger audiences to follow the show.

Even when the novel was published, I repeatedly asked the editor, will anyone read this work?

Maybe because I'm older and have experienced a lot of things, on the contrary, I'm too conservative.

  Now it seems that the popularity of "The World" confirms that in today's China, there is a need for a work that tells the changes of the times. There are so many young audiences and readers willing to watch this work, which proves that we have made great progress in cultural confidence.

People of all ages can calmly face the changes of the times, and this kind of cultural self-confidence should be promoted.

"The World" starring in a group photo, from left to right are Xin Baiqing, Song Jia, Lei Jiayin, Yin Tao.

Photo courtesy of the crew of "The World"

China News Agency reporter: The characters in many of your works will remind people of your experience as an educated youth.

Are there any intersections between these characters and your life?

Do you miss your youthful years?

Liang Xiaosheng:

First of all, it should be emphasized that the works are all fictitious.

Of course, there are some of my experiences in the original book. For example, Zhou Bingyi's life as an educated youth has some overlap with mine, including that my father also participated in the "big three-line construction" (the construction of the industrial system in the 1960s and 1970s), and my younger brother was in soy sauce. Factory work, which became my creative source.

I once said that the creation of works of the educated youth is a realistic writing, in order to complete a lost piece of history.

Rather than remembering it, it is a kind of looking back.

China News Service reporter: "The World" makes people feel the "sorrows of the world", but also makes people feel that "the world is worthwhile".

How do you see the relationship between suffering and life?

Do you believe in "suffering and suffering"?

Liang Xiaosheng:

From the perspective of creative works, I have written almost 20 million words, and I rarely use the word "suffering". I am very cautious about the use of these two words.

  As far as the work "The World" is concerned, I think suffering has always existed in life.

For example, both Hao Dongmei's family and Ma Shouchang and his wife Qu Xiuzhen have experienced hardships.

After the 1980s, their family gradually came out of the misery.

However, suffering has approached the outdated (referring to the community) people with problems such as being laid off and changing jobs, and their survival has presented great challenges.

And as time goes by, most of the light-word films have also been freed from suffering in their own way.

  I often wonder, which nation or country has not experienced suffering?

If we observe the history of human beings every 300 years, it is accompanied by difficulties, wars and disasters.

Due to the difference in civilization and progress, at a certain time, wealth may be more concentrated in the hands of a few people, so there is such a poem "The wine and meat of Zhumen stink, the road is frozen to death".

  But when we compare the history together, human society is indeed making progress.

Therefore, "hardships come through" is in line with the vision of a nation and country yearning for a better life, which is also one of my original intentions when I wrote this book and directed it to make it into a TV series.

  Just mentioned the suffering in the work, it is a comparison of modern life in the work.

If there is no comparison, we may be very indifferent to the changes brought about by the development of China today.

When a part of the past is restored through this realistic literature, we can understand our past better.

Just like everyone's life, there are ups and downs full of hope.

China News Service reporter: "The World" tells the life history of an ordinary Chinese family under the changes of the big times. It makes people feel that "family and country culture" flows in everyone's blood. You can see the shadow of your family in it.

Some people think that between the East and the West, and between different generations, there are differences in the understanding of "small family" and "everyone".

What is your opinion on this?

Liang Xiaosheng:

Regarding the relationship between home and country, I personally think that the whole world is the same, and it is not the only Chinese nation that emphasizes this kind of relationship.

  However, Chinese culture does explain the relationship between the family and the country more fully, and this is due to the great sages, who are often thinking about the relationship between the family and the country.

This kind of "home-country culture" that seems to be unique to us is actually applicable to the whole world.

  At the same time, many elaborations can be found in the West, such as the British writer Oscar Wilde, and even back to the Greek “three philosophical sages” Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who also elaborated on the relationship between home and country.

China News Agency reporter: In your opinion, the "family and country culture" is similar, but there are many differences between Chinese and Western cultures.

How do you understand cultural differences?

And how can we promote cultural exchange and integration?

Liang Xiaosheng:

Literary creation in Western culture is more about the study of individuals at first, and to some extent, it is from the perspective of psychology to analyze the psychological activities of individuals facing reality.

For example, Medea in Greek mythology, Salome in religious stories, and even the prince of Denmark in Shakespeare's writings are all studying people's hearts.

  The literary works under the influence of Chinese culture have, for a long period of time, portrayed characters from the moral category.

The works are more about the description of the relationship, similar to the relationship between people, the relationship between people and society.

This is the biggest difference between the early literary works under the background of Chinese and Western cultures.

  From this point of view, we can know that cultural integration is not an easy task.

Although it is difficult, it will happen naturally.

In my opinion, cultural confidence is the key when Chinese and Western cultures are blending.

Because culture actually plays a role in promoting the nation to keep pace with the times in its own country.

  How to achieve mutual integration and communication while retaining our own culture, the most important thing is to find a balance between "care" and "don't care" about the different voices of different cultures.

In my opinion, this actually requires wisdom.

(Finish)

Interviewee Profile:

  Liang Xiaosheng, a famous contemporary Chinese writer and a member of the China Writers Association, has written and published a large number of influential novels, essays, essays and film and television works, and is one of the representative writers who are famous for educated youth literature in modern and contemporary China.

Lives in Beijing now.

In July 2019, he won the 2nd Wu Chengen Novel Award; on August 16, he won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Award for his work "The World".

In 2022, the broadcast of the TV series "The World" has been well received, triggering an upsurge in the reading of the novel "The World" by the whole people.