1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 430: What is the crime?

Jiang Xian has never been a passive person.

Although the recognized pioneering work of reflective literature is Ru Zhijuan's "The Story of the Wrongly Edited Story", in the past two years, more and more people believe that "Furong Town", an earlier published novel, should be the symbol of the true emergence of reflective literature.

This article in the newspaper describes the clear historical reflection direction of "Furong Town" as a smear on our faces, which is a bit serious because it has a political interpretation.

What it means implicitly is that your "Furong Town" is a Fan Dong.

But Jiang Xian understood that this was nonsense and taking things out of context.

Marketing accounts in later generations love to do this kind of work.

He frowned and looked at the author's signature on the critical article: Zhu Dake.

"Zhu Dake?"

Jiang Xian scratched his head. He seemed to have some impression of this person, but couldn't quite remember it. So he simply called Li Tuo, the know-it-all in Beijing, to ask.

"Do you know this man?"

"Zhu Dake? I have an impression of him."

Li Tuo thought for a moment and said, "Oh, this person is a Chinese teacher at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He previously published an article called "The Flaws of Xie Jin's Film Model" and proposed a 'Xie Jin Model', which caused a stir in the domestic film industry."

"Oh? It's him!"

After Wang Meng's explanation, Jiang Xian had an impression.

Zhu Dake was still young, about twenty years old. After graduating from university, he was assigned to be a Chinese teacher. Since his major did not match his research field, he lost his direction for a while, became frustrated and idle.

After lying dormant for two years, this guy accidentally published an article, which was a poetry review.

This article completely deviates from the general principles of criticism. It is naive but murderous. Overall, it is full of strange ideas. It is more like showing off oneself than explaining other people's works.

But it was this article that brought Zhu Dake success and attracted attention in the literary world.

Then, he immediately wielded the knife against Xie Jin, the most watched director in the film industry today, and published an article entitled "The Flaws of Xie Jin's Film Model."

The famous "Xie Jin Model" of film theory was born.

In later generations, the film industry has been able to understand the "Xie Jin model" very objectively.

But not now.

Especially in Zhu Dake's words, the "Xie Jin model" is simply a serious discordant sound in China's cultural transformation! The movies shot by Xie Jin are just a kind of vulgar movies with a certain pattern!
In short, Xie Jin's films are sensational, old-fashioned, and vulgar. They are completely trash that are not worth watching. They are transformed film Confucianism!

Confucianism is definitely not a good word at this moment.

After scolding Xie Jin, Zhu Dake gained the biggest boost in fame in his life.

This young man became famous.

From a "nobody", he transformed himself into a pioneering critic with a rising reputation in the country.

"This person is really crazy to death, crazy to no limit."

Li Tuo complained: "I once attended a meeting with him, a very high-level academic meeting. This guy talked nonsense at the meeting and hardly paid attention to other participants. He left the meeting on the spot after he finished speaking. Oh, it's true. If I lied to you, I would be your grandson.

You don’t know, that guy with his nose pointed up in the air is so awesome, I haven’t seen such a ‘proud’ young man for a long time.”

"Okay, I got it." Jiang Xian hung up the phone and quickly went over the matter in his mind.

Since it was Zhu Dake, there was no need for him to leave any room for him.

To put it nicely, this person has a sharp mind and never stops saying shocking things. To put it bluntly, he over-interprets and makes far-fetched claims.

In the 90s, under the tremendous pressure of commercial ideology on literary criticism, Zhu Dake saw that the path of literary criticism was no longer viable, so he turned to mythology research.

What he wrote still continued his style:

If you don’t say anything shocking, you will die!
He said that Shun was originally a Greek god named Helios, and Helios became Shun after coming to China.

Fuxi originally lived in India and was called "Varuna". During the Eastern Zhou period, because he was dissatisfied with the contraction of power, Fuxi ran away from his hometown in India to our China.

Except Fuxi, Laozi and Hua Tuo both had Indian household registration.

Mozi did not escape either. People said that Mozi was a foreigner from Mesopotamia and had Jewish descent!
To sum up, it's just serious nonsense.

In his writings, the ancestors and gods of the Chinese people, Pangu, Fuxi, Nuwa, Queen Mother of the West and other Chinese ancestors, all became outsiders, either from India or Greece.

As for our culture, they are all "imported products", which are superimposed from European and American myths from all over the world.

Jiang Xian felt no psychological pressure in dealing with such a cultural hooligan.

It would be fine if this guy was making trouble by himself.

But he insisted on provoking him.

Dare you put your foot on Jiang Xian's head and want to use him as a stepping stone?
Sorry about that.

Xie Jin had the bearing of a master and was too lazy to pay attention to this villain.

Jiang Xian is different.

Who isn't a young person?
"You have to scold when you deserve it!"

"I have been online for decades. I have fought against Weibo Boxer and Fan Club Jimei online. I have fought thousands of battles, big and small, on Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Zhihu."

"How can you, a marketing editor from the 80s, compete with my 80-strong navy coach?"

Jiang Xian got excited and took out a page of manuscript paper. He decided to use magic to defeat magic and quickly finished an article. After finishing, he called Xie Jin and asked the crew members of "Furong Town" to come out for dinner together.

"What are you going to eat?"

"Celebrate!"

Although the movie has not been successfully released yet, this achievement should still be celebrated, because Jiang Xian knows that everyone in the crew, from the actors to the director, has made an effort, and it is a huge effort.

"Brother Jiang, you don't know how much I paid to play Qin Shutian."

Jiang Wen smoked a cigarette and complained to Jiang Xian, "The makeup artist insisted that my skin was not dark enough and asked me to make it darker. So I wore shorts all day and sat on the balcony to bask in the sun. Look how tanned I am. I used to be so white, but now I look like a 'black loach'."

Jiang Xian took a look at Jiang Wen's arms, and they were indeed black and shiny.

"Okay, okay, what's wrong with a darker man? Girls like dark ones."

"How is that possible? Don't all girls like clean-skinned men?"

"Why not? He's so manly, maybe Xiaoqing will like him."

When saying this, Jiang Xian deliberately glanced in Liu Xiaoqing's direction.

Jiang Wen noticed his gaze and his expression suddenly became a little unnatural.

"What's wrong? Why are you talking about me again?" Liu Xiaoqing blinked his big eyes with an innocent look on his face.

"." Jiang Wen said nothing.

Jiang Xian smiled and said, "Well, Xiao Jiang and I discussed whether you prefer darker or lighter men."

"Just be healthy."

Liu Xiaoqing was carefree and deliberately flirted with Jiang Xian, "It's fine if you have a body similar to yours, screenwriter Jiang. I don't like the kind of weak and frail ones who fall down when the wind blows and have no masculinity at all."

"Let's eat. Let's eat."

Jiang Xian arranged for the crew to sit down, and Xie Jin called him to say a few words first. He stood up and briefly and sincerely affirmed their efforts and the production level of "Furong Town".

"I believe that this film is a milestone in the history of New China's cinema and an immortal masterpiece in the history of world cinema!" The crew members who seemed depressed during this period because the film could not be released gradually cheered up.

After three rounds of drinks, some staff members couldn't hold back and asked questions that had been on their mind for a long time.

"Director, can our movie still be shown?"

"Yes, can it still be shown publicly?"

"Why did I hear that the higher-ups wanted to ban the film?"

Xie Jin blushed a little, but with a serious expression, he promised:

“It will definitely be shown!”

When everyone heard this, they were excited, and because they had drunk a little bit of wine, they were emotionally fragile for a moment, with some crying and some laughing.

Xie Jin looked at this scene and took a deep breath.

Although he made such a promise, he actually had no idea whether the film could be released.

With a hint of melancholy, Xie Jin finished the celebratory banquet, returned to his residence, took a nap for a while, sobered up, and then went into the editing room to work all night, cutting out several controversial clips.

The earliest version released was 164 minutes long, but 20 minutes have been cut.

He leaned back in his chair and dozed off for a while before being woken up by editor Wang Hua, who brought breakfast for several people and today's newspaper.

"Xie Dao, let's eat something first."

Xie Jin nodded, "Let's ask everyone to come and have dinner."

Everyone was already exhausted. Upon hearing this, they put down their work and came over to drink the eight-treasure porridge in silence.

Xie Jin was eating while reading the newspaper, trying to see if there was any news about "Furong Town" in today's newspaper.

During this period, as the scope of the preview expanded, more and more reviews of "Furong Town" appeared, with criticism and praise generally in a 30:70 ratio.

But in psychology there is a concept called "negative effect", which means that people are more sensitive to bad negative information and remember it more deeply, which means "one black is worth ten fans".

Thirty percent of the criticism is already fatal.

The most serious of them all was the criticism written by Zhu Dake.

As a pioneer critic with a rising reputation, Zhu Dake has caused great damage to "Furong Town".

Xie Jin flipped through the pages for a while and came across the China Film Times, a film newspaper founded by the Film Critics Society.

Xie Jin soon saw a review article about "Furong Town" on it, and after reading for a while, he found that Zhu Dake was mentioned.

“Is this a counterattack article?”

He was surprised and looked at the specific content. As a result, he coughed a few times and almost spit out the eight-treasure porridge from his throat.

“Haha, absolutely amazing!”

"Director Xie? You..." Editor Wang Hua stared in astonishment.

"Look, all of you, look at this."

Xie Jin wiped his mouth, spread the newspaper on the table, and patted one of the pages. "This article is absolutely amazing!"

Wang Hua curiously stretched his head over and looked for a while. His reaction was even greater and he slapped his thigh hard.

"Awesome! This article made me laugh to death. Who is this Xu Fei? Why is he speaking for us?"

"Xu Fei?"

An editor was somewhat impressed.

"I know this guy, but I haven't read his articles in a few years. His writings are very sharp."

"What's written? What's written?"

"Look at this, it's so cheap, haha!"

Beijing Film Academy.

"Any news?"

"News? Yes, Chen Chong is going to return to China to participate in this year's Spring Festival Gala."

"Chen Chong? Hasn't she been in the United States for several years?"

Fang Chen muttered for a while, "Is there any news about Furong Town?"

"Hibiscus Town"

At the newspaper sales counter, the salesperson handed over a copy of China Film Times: "Take a look at this. A lot of people came to buy this today. I only have two copies left."

"Give me one, then."

Fang Chen paid for the goods, picked them up, casually opened it and took a look, he laughed out loud.

"Hahahaha!"

"That's a nice scold!"

Fang Chen randomly pulled the people around who were staring at him in horror, pointed at the newspaper, and said, as if they were old friends, "I said that Zhu Da Ke was talking nonsense. Does that grandson know anything about movies? It's nonsense. He cursed really well and beautifully."

The article is titled "What crime should 'Furong Town' be charged with?"
"After the release of Furong Town, controversy arose. It is normal to have controversy. Our country also caused controversy at the beginning on issues such as Baosteel's site selection, Shenzhen's special economic zone, and Sannhai's power station. The creation of literature and art should be more open to controversy."

"But the problem is that this kind of dispute should be a democratic, equal academic discussion, rather than criticism, condemnation and one-sided discussion."

“We are in a great era.”

"Some things happened almost 10 years ago. The great changes in society are precisely the era of producing great works and great films."

"It has been more than 30 years since the founding of New China. Why should we still be timid, trembling, and cautious in doing things?"

"We paid a high price, but the films we made were not as good as those made decades ago."

“So what on earth do filmmakers do?”

"Our generation is fortunate to have experienced different social realities, which enables us to have a clearer understanding of the path that our country, nation and individuals have taken, and it provides us with good conditions for filming."

"Plus, China's other filming conditions are also quite good, which are rare in the world. Why not cherish these conditions? Come up with excellent films with profound connotations and grand ideas!"

"If we can only produce mediocre and weak films, we will be sorry for this era and the suffering we have suffered over the years."

"And "Furong Town", in my opinion, is a big movie with profound connotations and a huge conception, a blockbuster that far exceeds the level of our past movies and has epoch-making significance for our film industry!"

"But at this time, people like Zhu Dake made a rough and rash conclusion about a work, and used a brush to characterize "Furong Town" as a smear."

"This is a disastrous decision for "Furong Town", and even more so for the fate of Chinese films!"

"His sense of smell is so sharp that those who don't know him would think he is a reborn eunuch from the East Factory of the Ming Dynasty."

"Just because a speck of dust was swept up on the bluestone street of Furong Town, it was determined that it was the gunpowder that could overthrow the country!"

"Perhaps, in the eyes of 'eunuchs' like Zhu Dake, even Along the River During the Qingming Festival would be criticized as a remnant of the FJ."

"According to this logic, what crime should be committed by The True Story of Ah Q? It dared to let scabies grow on the heads of the people of Wei Village; what crime should be committed by Teahouse? It dared to let the foul smell of opium dens float under the shzy sky."

In the Chinese Teaching and Research Department of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Zhu Dake was so angry that he tore the newspaper into pieces before he finished reading the article.

(End of this chapter)