yuan zidan, screenwriter of douban's 9-point masterpiece "when the mountain flowers bloom": restore the vividness and richness of zhang guimei
2024-09-26
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"i was born to be a mountain, not a stream. i want to look down on the mediocre valleys from the top of the peaks. i was born to be a hero, not a weed. i stand on the shoulders of great men and look down on humble cowards!" recently, the tv series "when the mountain flowers bloom" starring song jia was broadcast on cctv-1 and tencent video, with a douban score of 9 points. the play revealed the deep meaning behind this oath of huaping girls' senior high school in lijiang city, yunnan province.
zhang guimei, winner of the "july 1 medal" and "model of the times", party branch secretary and principal of lijiang huaping girls' senior high school in yunnan province, established a free girls' high school, teaching girls in the mountains to change their destiny with knowledge and thereby blocking the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
yuan zidan once became famous for writing the urban female group portrait drama "ode to joy". in 2021, she was tasked with telling the story of zhang guimei's school, so she went to huaping county with the production team to collect folk songs and get close to zhang guimei. soon, she decided to create a high-burning "entrepreneurship story". recently, yuan zidan admitted in an exclusive interview with a reporter from yangcheng evening news: "during the creative process, i saw a zhang guimei who was different from the news reports."
the following is yuan zidan’s own account.
[a] looking for zhang guimei: she is a very cool person
when i took over the "when the mountain flowers bloom" project in 2021, i went to huaping county as soon as possible. we set out from home at around 6 o'clock in the morning, arrived in kunming at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and then took a bus for nearly six hours. it was late at night when we arrived in huaping county. i was very moved the moment i set foot on this land. i came to the place where the struggle story took place.
i have read many news reports about teacher zhang guimei. in my impression, she is more of a saint-like image full of sacrifice. but after meeting her, i quickly made a judgment - she is a very cool person. when we first met, teacher zhang was dealing with a student problem. a student was not interested in studying because his family was sick. teacher zhang asked the student to go to the playground to sweep the fallen leaves. while sweeping, he thought about his attitude towards life difficulties and study. then he asked the student to take out the medical bills and she would help reimburse them. witnessing this scene, i had a real feeling about zhang guimei. she is a lively person who has concrete methods and is really dedicated to education.
i saw her cheerfulness, talkativeness, kindness, and passion. teacher zhang was ill, but in high spirits. during the break, the girls in the school had to do exercises and sing songs. teacher zhang took out the familiar loudspeaker and shouted, "hurry up! hurry up!" moreover, she knew every student well and would analyze and come up with countermeasures while looking at the report card. i also saw a completely different side of teacher zhang. she said that she loved beauty. when she first arrived in huaping county, everyone thought she was very fashionable, but as things became more, she had no more energy to pursue her interests and hobbies. during the field trip, she would forget to eat because she was so happy chatting. this is a very distinctive person. how to restore her richness has become my biggest concern.
we conducted several intensive field trips, which lasted for a year. i gradually found out the local issues that cannot be avoided when writing about zhang guimei, such as poverty, early marriage, education, and gender inequality. when women believe that they should sacrifice, unconditionally flatter and support the men in their families, and work hard just to save money to get married, zhang guimei's original intention and roots of working hard to build a girls' school are revealed. we walked the path that teacher zhang visited homes in the past, interviewed teachers, parents, and graduated students related to the girls' school, and restored many details.
during the field trip, i was moved by what teacher zhang did. first, she hopes that screenwriters, reporters and related personnel will try to reduce direct interviews with students on campus. if they want to interview her, they need to schedule an interview in advance to minimize the number of people entering the school. outsiders cannot wear strange clothes or dress too exaggeratedly. she wants to protect students and does not want too many visits and attention to distract them from their studies. she also wants to preserve the school as a pure land as possible. secondly, she does not want us to over-exaggerate the students' suffering, does not want students to think too much about their suffering, and does not want suffering to become a "selling point." she said: "students have self-esteem, and they do not want their secret stories and special families to be put on the screen as a gimmick."
however, teacher zhang also fully considered our creative needs. when we were collecting folk songs in huaping, we were fortunate to read an unpublished book that recorded in detail the stories and experiences of students that teacher zhang had come into contact with during her many years of home visits. we incorporated these stories into the creation of several main student images. compared with the children's suffering and misery, she hopes to let everyone see the children's difficulties, self-esteem, self-reliance, hard work and perseverance.
【b】restore zhang guimei: i like her restraint the most
teacher zhang guimei is the recipient of the "july 1st medal". the ending scene of our first version of the script outline is the moment when teacher zhang received the "july 1st medal", which is a great honor for her. but teacher zhang put forward a basic requirement for the script creation: do not focus on showing her personal deeds and honors, but let everyone see the efforts and contributions made by the teachers and students of the whole school and governments at all levels for the achievements of huaping girls' high school today. teacher zhang said that when she was doing this, no one knew whether it would succeed, but she would do it anyway, and many people were also working hard for it. i was particularly moved and shocked after listening to it. teacher zhang's realm is far above ours, and she cares more about how the girls' school can continue to move forward.
there are many tear-jerking scenes in this drama so far. for example, teacher zhang spoke at the party congress and made a long statement calling for the establishment of a girls' school. we did not want to deliberately sensationalize, but just tried our best to restore the details of her speech in terms of lines, performances, and camera scheduling. in that scene, what i like most is teacher zhang's restraint. i asked teacher zhang if she was nervous to speak in the great hall of the people? she said, of course she was nervous. song jia's performance was particularly good. she was nervous, restrained, and truly moved. the audience could feel the power of her speech. after this speech scene, there were also interviews with reporters and the concerns of comrades at all levels of government about the establishment of a girls' school. there is no doubt that this incident looks like a person's ideal was "accidentally" realized because of his speech, but there are indeed many people behind the scenes who support this ideal; all the seemingly accidental things are inevitable because countless people care about and pay for the girls' school.
as for the portrayal of zhang guimei, song jia, like teacher zhang, is from the northeast and has a tiger-like spirit. the costumes are particularly suitable for the role. song jia also went to huaping county many times to communicate with teacher zhang, observing and imitating teacher zhang's habits and movements. song jia also does not want to play a "tall, big and perfect" image. she wants to restore the real person with great energy and love in her eyes.
【c】understanding zhang guimei: she is an educator
now, many people will ask such questions: is it worth investing in learning? is studying still as ideal as it used to be? i hope that after watching this drama, everyone can realize that the meaning of education is not to gain something in a short time, but to open up your world and give you more choices in life. because it is very likely that before you receive education, you can't even see the existence of options.
i also hope that through this drama, many women who are still troubled by whether they should or can study will understand that studying is a right that everyone should have, and it is the only way to eliminate ignorance. at present, women should do their best to fight for the possibility of education for themselves, and not be trapped by anyone's ideas and stop pursuing their dreams.
in addition, i hope that after watching this drama, everyone will realize that we can also change the world little by little. we may not have the energy of teacher zhang, but ideals are still worth pursuing. justice and nobility should not be avoided, but should be praised. we should strive to have good thoughts and then strive to have good deeds. don't be afraid that the world is not perfect, we can improve it little by little.
regarding the educational philosophy of the girls' school, teacher zhang made it clear that there may be many different teaching methods in the world, but they can only grasp this one. because, in huaping county at that time, the only way these children could get, accept, and produce results in the shortest time was hard work and study. therefore, teacher zhang and her colleagues adapted to local conditions and taught students in accordance with their aptitude. at the same time, the college entrance examination is a rare fair competition in the world. for many young people from poor families, studying is indeed the only way for you to see a bigger world. when there are no other options in life, you can only choose the options that are available in front of you.
teacher zhang not only advocates hard work, she is a true educator, she provides a lot of psychological counseling and mental resonance for students, encouraging them to strive and fight. under such conditions, i believe the audience can understand. we hope to restore a kind of emotion, and hope that through teacher zhang, we can change the story of this group of people in front of us, so that many young people, and even many middle-aged people like me, can realize that life has infinite possibilities. no matter how difficult the situation is, you can boldly make changes and fight for your own life.
text | reporter gong weifengphoto | stills
