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Just as Chinese female TV viewers are increasingly being fed by various “urban female elite dramas”, an “alternative” female drama “Rock and Roll” has recently appeared in the circle. Small controversy and polarized word of mouth.
At present, the Douban score of this drama is stuck at 7.4 points – not very top, but it is already the “leader” among domestic women’s dramas in recent years.
“Rock and Roll” is a show with obvious strengths and weaknesses. And a considerable part of the praise is that the “star” is voted for its distinctiveness – the heroine Peng Lai (played by Yao Chen) is such a rare “rock mad mother” in the Chinese screen landscape; in the domestic city In female-themed dramas, this drama is so anti-routine.
In recent years, feminism has gradually emerged in Chinese popular culture thought—although it is a kind of Xianxue that has become popular with various inherent logical conflicts and loopholes.
No matter what different opinions people have about “feminism” (“feminism” in English, more often translated as “feminism” in the past), at least, people have basically reached a consensus on “women’s independence”.
The “foundation” of women’s independence is, first of all, economic independence.
When women’s diligent pursuit of “economic independence” is superimposed on the success story that spreads in society, this “joint force” makes the Chinese women’s drama market keen to create various female myths about “success” and “counterattack”.
From the fiery “Ode to Joy” (2016) to “The First Half of My Life” (2017), to the hit dramas “Thirty Only” and “Golden Years” in the previous two years, to this year’s Women’s dramas “Perfect Companion”, “Dressed Up”, “Their Name”, “Battle of the Roses”, etc., the screen is full of “elite heroines who have succeeded” or “elite heroines who are about to succeed”. “. “They” are either already “female tyrants”, or they are walking on the road of “becoming female tyrants”.
Since Yuan Quan’s “Tang Jing” in “The First Half of My Life” came out of the circle, the whole screen is full of female elites who walk with the wind and dress very OL. It seems that if a woman is not beautiful, successful, or counterattack, she is not worthy to be seen and told on the screen.
In this context, the emergence of “Rock and Roll” is very rare.
Originally, rock and roll themes have always been in a “marginal” position in China’s film and television market, and have always been “non-mainstream”; and there are not many film and television works that mainly focus on mother-daughter relationships, which are far from being compared with the theme of love; the key , it is not an inspirational story of a salted fish turning over and turning against the wind – it is a story of a failed rock singer who has to “accept fate” no matter how she refuses to admit defeat.
Whether you like the show or not, objectively speaking, Yao Chen has indeed contributed a very rare female image and mother image on the Chinese screen – Peng Lai.
Peng Lai’s character is China’s first-generation “rock queen”, who is stubborn with the pain of his original family. She is extremely musically talented and has a natural rock-n-roll voice. The beauty and talent of the talent usually make a girl with personality more dare to insist on her personality.
At the age of 19, Peng Lai was not yet popular, but she became pregnant out of wedlock. The cowardly and mediocre boyfriend did not dare to have this child, but she recklessly wanted to keep this life, even if she had to “live and raise one by one”. This child is the daughter Bai Tian played by Zhuang Dafei.
And this female rock singer who took her daughter to various places to run on the stage, her talent was hard to hide, and she quickly became the “Queen of Rock and Roll” at that time. Unfortunately, as arrogant as she is, she has ushered in the double betrayal of friendship and love. Her ex-husband received a divorce certificate from her in the morning, and a marriage certificate from her good teammate bassist Chen Yue in the afternoon.
Peng Lai acted in anger, and in front of the public during the performance, he beat his best friend who became his daughter’s “mother” with a concussion. She left her 6-year-old daughter to her ex-husband and went to the United States alone. Life took a turn for the worse.
Peng Lai wanted to go on a “conquest” trip to the birthplace of rock music, but he was not accepted by the new market at all. Coupled with her arrogant personality, the company she signed did not hesitate to “fly” her: music that cannot make money has no value at all.
She began to sink, drink heavily, and at one point committed suicide. To survive, she had to go to restaurants in Chinatown to sing pop songs to diners, and was often fired for that. Her only stable occupation is as a nurse in a nursing home. I don’t know since when, swear words and alcohol have become “drunk life and dream death” that she can’t quit.
She felt that she was miserable and humiliated, so she did not return to China for 12 years. She couldn’t face the reality that she was a loser, and she couldn’t accept to face her daughter Bai Tian as a loser.
After her ex-husband died of a heart attack, she had to return to Beijing to face her 18-year-old daughter, Bai Tian. A “good show” of mother and daughter falling in love and killing each other was staged.
It is not uncommon to see “adolescent daughters” who are rebellious and stubborn and act against their mothers, but it is rare for “teenage mothers” to act against their daughters in the same manner. By the description of netizens, it is “a mother without a mother”.
Peng Lai, who returned to Beijing, has to solve not only the conflict with her daughter, but also the entanglement between her and her mother, but more importantly, the career attempt that has never been extinguished in her heart – regaining the “rock dream” , turn over again.
In the play, Penglai not only has to face a bleak career, but also faces conflicting family relationships as a loser. But what she does is always unexpected, even ridiculous.At this point in the story, just when you are constantly looking forward to the drama of family reconciliation and salted fish turning over, you find this “Penglai” – always surprising and even ironic. This character reflects an exceptionally rich sense of humanity and conflict, making “Peng Lai” an indescribable “crazy flower”.
Browsing the various comments, viewers who like Peng Lai will say that they like her “rebel”, “dare to break the rules”, and “crazy and dragging”. Peng Lai’s extreme ego and self-willedness made her do things they wanted to do but were afraid to do or couldn’t do.
After all, everyone has the original desire to break the rules, go wild, and rejoice in enmity, but from the moment people fall, they have to accept “discipline and punishment” and learn to live within frameworks and restrictions.
It should be said that Penglai does have this “consciousness” when it comes to consciously breaking the explicit restrictions of society. Many of her sloppy behaviors in the play, if we refer to the prevailing “rules” in society, do appear to be very “different from ordinary people”. Including her performance in the mother-daughter relationship.
In this light comedy, these “rebellions” and “abnormalities” “reconcile” the “sense of refreshment” and “sense of joy” that modern audiences are very fond of, so much so that it even overwhelmed the “sense of joy” in the character of Penglai. grief” and “tragic”.
However, what moved me the most and made me recall the most over and over again came from the “tragicness” of Peng Lai.
Deep in the quagmire, she seems to have firmly set up a life program called “ideal (rock)” for herself, but in the process of chasing “ideal”, she has long been “alienated” unconsciously. Open the skin of “rock” and “personality”, and the “commonality” between Penglai and “the majority of the crowd” is her real life “main theme”.
In this light comedy, “rebellion” and “abnormality” reconcile the sense of refreshment and joy that are very useful to modern audiences, and even overwhelm the sense of sadness and tragedy in the characters.Although Penglai said to his daughter that “Rock and roll does not need to be defined, the definition is what rock and roll wants to break”, but in fact, in the predicament of survival, she “betrayed” the spirit of rock and roll. Even she didn’t even realize it.
Recalling the past, what she talked about was not how good her music was, but how “brilliant” and “successful” she was at that time. The appearance fee was “as high as 300”, and the money was so much that she could buy a three-bedroom and one-bedroom in Sanhuan.
Later, in order to become popular, what she really wanted was to “win”, to defeat her opponent in a variety show to advance.
Even in her post-operative fantasies, what she longed for was still being sought after by thousands of people, getting into the stretched luxury car as a rock star amid cheers.
All of these have nothing to do with what Penglai calls the “rock spirit”, music, ideals, and love.
I think it is this “tragicness” that makes this light comedy profound.
Is she really a “failed idealist”? At least in my opinion, not.
Peng Lai is more like a “failed version of Zheng Jun”, while Zheng Jun is a “successful version of Peng Lai”.
They all wanted to use “ideal” and “idealism” to compete with the times, but between passive and active, they were “reconstructed” by the times they were in and the consumer society they were in.
Their “rock ideal” has actually been commercialized and commercialized since the day they entered the music market.
Otherwise, how could Penglai judge the difference between two rock singers with “I would have had 300 shows, he only had 200”?
A few years later, both Peng Lai on the screen and Zheng Jun in reality had to go to music variety shows with the intention of “turning over” or “making a living”. Peng Lai used rock ideals to package his “want to become popular”, and Zheng Jun used “I was forced by his wife” to package his “want to make money”.
Drop in price? Are you sorry? Possibly a little bit. However, we also have to admit that this aspect of “Peng Lai” and “Zheng Jun” is actually what most people will look like in this consumption era. Just like the many people who went to sell sanitary napkins in “Rock and Roll”, Chen Yue who participated in the pop singer audition, and those musicians who all quit the “rolling circle”.
Therefore, Penglai can never really reach Penglai. What I have experienced in her is actually a kind of living situation that modern people have to face together, and the “commonality” that modern people show when facing this situation.
What Penglai embodies is actually the living situation that modern people have to face together, and the “commonality” displayed when facing this situation.I was impressed by a line Penglai said to his daughter in the play: “I’m going to live in a big mansion in America, why don’t I take you to enjoy yourself?”
But who said that the “necessary condition” for a happy life is to live in a large villa? That is just a model of “happy life” shaped by the consumer society.
The most precious thing a mother can give her daughter is obviously not a big villa. The “success” of a rock singer is obviously not defined by a big villa.
In the end, Penglai still failed to be “undefined” as he hoped, failed to “renovate the rules by her” and “occupied her consciousness” as he sang – she did not become “Rock and Roll” “She” in the theme song.
She is still defining her value as a rock singer by whether she is accepted and affirmed by the market, whether she has won fame and fortune, how she can get “mixed”, and whether she is “faced”.
Looking at the rock circle, probably only Dou Wei is the only one who really doesn’t care and doesn’t care.
So, is Penglai, who is very punk, more rock, or Dou Wei, who is wearing an old shirt, more rock?
Speaking of styling, let’s say a few more words. Peng Lai’s style in the play is now very popular on Xiaohongshu, which focuses on female user groups, and it seems to be a new trend.
There are many female user comments that Penglai’s style is very “personal”, but what I want to say is that it is actually a “collective trait” – that is, a certain type of “rock feature” constructed by specific makeup and dress up .
When we say that Penglai looks very “rock diva” (the criticism is ‘stereotype’), the subtext is: this is a copy of the look, there is no real original personality.
Dressing “like” a female rock singer might just reflect “no rock”.
Therefore, Dou Wei has only one. Under the general dilemma of modernity, the vast majority of people actually lived as “Penglai”.
The poet Gu Cheng once wrote: “Fate is not the wind, blowing back and forth, fate is the earth, wherever you go, you are in the destiny.”
The consumer society is the “factory setting” of today’s modern people, and it is a destiny that modern people cannot escape. whatever.
The resistance of “Penglai” was a resistance that was doomed to fail. She has long been “seduced” by her own desires. When the desire for fame and fortune to win and become popular is packaged as an ideal “appearance”, she has already “lost”.
As for the incompleteness of this “rebellion/resistance spirit”, it probably also stems from the innate limitations of “rock music” itself. Since its birth, it has been a banner of “mass popular culture”. What is popular, that is, “liked by many people”, means entering the industrial system of mass culture production and manufacturing cycle, and means commercialization.
The first person who “rebels” is the real rebel; a group of people who follow along to rebel is “popular”. Rebellion, commodified, commercialized in the process of popularity.
Just imagine, which Western rock star is not born with huge commercial benefits? By breaking the rules, fighting against the elite and the mainstream, and “breaking into” the upper class “Vanity Fair” they once despised, they became a member of the celebrities of the era.
Is this also very similar to Penglai in the past?
However, even Penglai’s incomplete challenges and criticisms are valuable and meaningful.
To borrow Baudrillard’s words in “Consumer Society”: endless accusations are part of the game, which is a critical phantom, an anti-lie that crowns the lie. Critical discourse is nothing but the “country house” of the intellectual class. It is through consumption and the revelation and critique of consumption that our society establishes a balance.
Like “Penglai”, we are all trapped in fate. Whether you choose the head or tail of the coin, you are doomed to escape the macro “rules of the game”.
In the end, Peng Lai was not able to fight against fate and get rid of it, but at the end of the play, she finally tried to see herself and her destiny clearly for the first time. In the end, she chose to reconcile with fate and herself.
Starting from “rock and roll” and eventually moving towards “reconciliation”, is it a kind of maturity or sophistication? Is it a “profoundness” or a “tragic”? This is exactly the openness and richness of interpretation that “Rock and Roll” provides the audience.
(This article only represents the author’s personal views, editor email: [email protected])