A still from the TV series “Qing Qu in the High Mountains”.Photo courtesy of China Television Artists Association
Huang Dafa, the grass-roots cadre in the impoverished mountainous area of Guizhou, created a “miracle on earth” – since the 1960s, with the help of the party and the government, he has led the local people for more than 30 years to climb over many hills and cliffs. A “life canal” about 9,400 meters long was excavated on the cliff. This canal is also called “Dafa Canal” by the local people.
The TV series “Qingqu in the High Mountains” created with the “July 1st Medal” winner and “model of the times” Huang Dafa as the prototype moved many audiences. The portrayal of the heroic character Huang Dafa in the play confirms the common artistic experience of similar excellent works such as “Meritorious Merit”, “Taihang Babies”, “Gu Wenchang”, “No Regrets”, “Dashan’s Daughter” and so on.
Huang Dafa’s experience is legendary and typical, providing a solid foundation for TV drama creation. The creation of the heroic model theme is based on real characters. To shape the image of the heroic model, it is necessary to grasp the relationship between breadth and depth, and locate and describe the rich social relationship in order to highlight the spiritual brightness of the characters. For the creation of poverty alleviation themes such as “Qing Qu in the High Mountains”, the social relationship of the characters includes not only the relationship between the individual and the family, but also the relationship between the characters and the surrounding environment and even the natural world. The rich dimension of interpreting Huang Dafa’s spiritual world is thus constructed. .
At the beginning of the TV series, Huang Dafa was dubbed “Mountain Monkey” by the villagers. He was agile and agile, and his appearance was unusual; his parents died early, and he grew up in the second uncle, which also allowed him to have close ties with more people in the village; The conflict between the old ideas represented by his uncle, his feelings for his grandmother’s upbringing, and his guilt towards his second uncle strengthened his determination to change the water shortage and poverty in his hometown. With frugal pen and ink, the works clearly show the relationship between characters and nature, family, and others, and also lay a psychological and emotional foundation for his hard-working character and perseverance.
The cultivation of party organizations is crucial to Huang Dafa’s growth. The acquaintance of the township leader Xu Hongliang and the young Huang Dafa is a kind of enrichment for the relationship between the characters. As secretary of the township party committee, Xu Hongliang is Huang Dafa’s leader, a leader who emphasizes strategy and feelings, and a confidant who shares life and death. Teacher Wang Shixun’s intellectual temperament and Huang Dafa formed a contrast and complementation. Wang Shixun added a science lesson to Huang Dafa’s construction of aqueducts, and the two became close friends. It is through these different levels of social relations that the play completes the two-way construction of the heroic characters and the people around them, so that Huang Dafa’s heroic image can surpass the family and neighbors of Caowangba and lead to a broad social dimension.
The play is good at grasping the relationship between the small and the big, and presents the fate of the characters vertically, so that Huang Dafa’s personal growth and socialist construction are closely integrated, and the fate of the characters is presented between the individual life history and the development history of the times. In the play, from Kaimei, who “I washed my face last month” to Qiaoling, who could not eat rice until her death, they all witnessed the extreme water shortage and poverty in the mountainous areas of Guizhou in the early days of the founding of New China. Huang Dafa took risks so that the villagers would not starve to death, reluctantly killed Lao Niu, Chen Daren’s fate change, etc., are all symbols of the changing direction of the times. “Qing Qu in the High Mountains” witnesses the waves of history through the fate of the characters and the occurrence of events in the way of seeing and knowing the book. TV dramas and so on are everywhere. Huang Dafa’s sacrifice to publicize the canal repair for the villagers, the sacrifice he made to move Li Jiwen’s grave in Lijia Village, the anger at seeing the old man wasting water… vividly highlights his deep canal complex.
Of course, the play also has shortcomings in grasping the relationship between individuals and the times. In comparison, Xu Hongliang and Wang Shixun’s handling of their situation changed due to an unexpected wildfire was somewhat simplistic. At the end of the play, the pen and ink of Bin Cai’s death from a serious illness is very heavy, highlighting the family tragedy of Huang Dafa caused by lack of water, but the relationship between small and big and its symbolic symbols can be presented in a more serious way.
The restoration of the geographical environment of Caowangba in “Qing Canal in the High Mountains” provides a sufficient reason for the protagonist’s tenacious motivation to repair the canal. The play has a strong balance between the documentary sense and drama of the heroic characters. The image of Huang Dafa is close to the prototype of the character, not exaggerated or exaggerated, and the performance of actor Li Jian exudes the power of simplicity. The plot of the work is ups and downs, and the beginning of the chapter shows Huang Dafa’s strong self-esteem and stubbornness incisively and vividly. Another example is Huang Dafa’s fight against the blind “mountain god”, borrowing tools from Guan Daxiang, and dealing with Chen Daren, all of which show the wit of the characters, making “this” heroic character and contemporary “Yugong” full of vitality, respectable and lovely.
Huang Dafa said: “What is water? It is hope, life, and the dream of Caowangba.” Simple and unpretentious, but moving people’s hearts. “Clear Canal in High Mountains” is a vivid portrayal of Chinese grassroots cadres and common people finally realizing the “Chinese Dream” through hard work and technological assistance.
(The author is a professor at the School of Drama, Film and Television, Communication University of China) Dai Qing
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责编：杨帆 ]