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adapted from the true story of zhang guimei, the realistic tv series "when the mountain flowers bloom" officially premiered on cctv-1 and tencent video this week. how to make a new story that has been adapted into a film or tv series is the basic issue that "when the mountain flowers bloom" faces.

based on reality, presenting the real plight of women in mountainous areas

"when mountain flowers bloom" is adapted from the true deeds of zhang guimei, winner of the "july 1 medal", "model of the times", secretary of the party branch and principal of lijiang huaping girls' senior high school. it tells the story of grassroots communist party members represented by zhang guimei, who dedicated their lives to the education cause in poor mountainous areas, established the first fully free girls' high school in the country, and enabled batches of girls to leave the mountains and change their destiny.

before the series was broadcast, zhang guimei's story had already spread across the country through news reports and related film adaptations. in order to tell this story well again, it is necessary to find a new angle of approach. according to reports, the series did a lot of investigation and research in the early stage, went deep into yunnan to interview and collect folk songs, and at the same time chose huaping, yunnan, where the deeds took place, to shoot the story, so as to truly present the original appearance of township life.

through the lens of the film and television, the audience truly felt the difficult situation in which zhang guimei's rural girls' high school was gradually established. the story begins with guyu, a girl who dropped out of school in the third grade of junior high school. zhang guimei, a teacher who also serves as the director of huaping children's home, went over mountains and ridges to find guyu, a student who dropped out of school. she encountered a matchmaker team who came to guyu's home to propose marriage, and had a head-on conflict with guyu's drunken father. in the communication with local cadres, the social bad habits of favoring boys over girls in huaping were revealed. local girls married early or went out to work before they could finish high school. in order to reduce the burden on the family, girls were even married far away before the legal age. local women did not have equal opportunities to receive education and were even deprived of the right to receive compulsory education.

behind a story of guyu is the common fate of countless girls in the mountains. "when the mountain flowers bloom" adopts a writing method of seeing the big from the small, and tells the most authentic educational story of zhang guimei and her students with a sense of mission. in the view of the main creative staff, the film and television adaptation of the play always adheres to a principle: "the characters have a basis, the creation has confidence, and the drama has sublimation." in the early preparations, the main creative team collected a lot of creative materials from zhang guimei, the teachers of the girls' school and the graduates, and ensured that all the drama adaptations and creations were based on evidence. only based on a large number of detailed and rich interviews and field trips can these touching real cases be obtained.

focusing on people, creating rich female portraits

it is not easy to tell a story that is well known to the public. in the view of the play's creators, although zhang guimei's story has been widely spread through news reports, the information that can be received through first-hand and second-hand text materials, video materials, and even field trips, interviews, and exchanges is very limited. the characters in the story are still the core, and more aspects and details deserve to be explored in depth.

according to the creative team, after actually meeting zhang guimei, the team was attracted by her great energy and personal charm. "she is a person with strong comprehensive abilities, who can make an impossible thing possible. when meeting her, the first thing you can feel is her great personal charm and clear thinking. zhang guimei has the qualities of a natural heroine."

this female perspective has given the current creative direction of "when the mountain flowers bloom". the play revolves around how zhang guimei realized the establishment of huaping free girls' high school. at the same time, in addition to shaping zhang guimei with a strong personal style, it presents a rich and diverse group of mountain village women. in the play, fang qiong, a local female reporter who has always been with zhang guimei, is not only her consistent "comrade-in-arms" since the children's home, but also an outstanding local woman who is also struggling to help rural girls. the female students represented by the female student guyu are also shining. they returned to school for different reasons, but they were all influenced by zhang guimei's spirit in the end, and found the ideal and direction of self-worth realization in the process of preparing for the college entrance examination.

in the subsequent stories, zhang guimei and her students will inspire each other and move forward together, and this kind of female expression also provides a breakthrough in the theme of "women + education" for "when the mountain flowers bloom". the real educational story samples provided by teacher zhang guimei and her female students not only make up for the lack of educational works in the film and television drama market in recent years, but also make important explorations in the innovative expression of mainstream tv dramas and closely connect with cutting-edge thoughts and young audience groups.

source: beijing daily client

reporter: li xiazhi