The TV series "The Right Path of Life is Vicissitudes" directed by Zhang Li will be broadcast on the "Revisiting Classics" channel from July 28. The play uses the family to see the country, the small to see the big, and the three brothers and sisters of the Yang family with different beliefs as the starting point to show the magnificent changes in the world before the founding of the People's Republic of China. The play has made a successful exploration of the creation of revolutionary historical themes and won the first prize of the 28th China TV Drama "Flying Apsaras Award" for Outstanding TV Dramas and the Outstanding Actor Award (Huang Zhizhong).

In 2009, the China Television Art Committee held a seminar to analyze the creative experience and artistic achievements of the play. The minutes of the seminar and the director's explanation are now republished to appreciate why the play became a landmark work of the year.

Creator says

Using art to convey truth - Director of "The Right Path in the World is Vicissitudes" explains

● Zhang Li, TV series director of "The Right Path in the World is Vicissitudes"

The TV series "The Right Path of Life is Vicissitudes" uses the artistic form of a TV series to write about the complicated Chinese history from the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to the founding of the People's Republic of China. The series tries to present the Chinese New Democratic Revolution in a panoramic way through the fate of five young people from the Yang and Qu families in this period of history; by creating the image of outstanding Communists full of passion and ideals represented by Qu En and Yang Liqing, the series tries to express artistically that the Communist Party of China is an excellent and advanced political party that represents the fundamental interests of the vast majority of the people, thereby conveying the truth that "only the Communist Party can save China."

This drama tries to explain the correct concept of the country through the portrayal of the concept of family and country, and expresses that the fate of the family and the fate of the country are inseparable by describing the relationship between individuals, families and the country. The three children of the Yang family belonged to three political forces in China at that time, representing different classes, and they also held different concepts of the country. In the end, history confirmed that Yang Liqing's choice was correct. Through the different fates of the three of them, it shows that only a free and democratic concept of the country is correct, in line with historical laws and the needs of the times.

During the creation process of "The Right Path of the World is Vicissitudes", we always pay attention to the pursuit of true aesthetics, strive for overall refinement, and ensure artistic texture. This is achieved through specific means such as art design, character emotional portrayal, narrative logic organization, and war scene creation.

From the beginning of the creation, I was determined to make "The Right Path of Life is Vicissitudes" into a "good-looking" TV series. The "good-looking" of this drama is fully reflected in four aspects:

First, the charm of showing the fate of individuals and groups lies in the fate of the characters. The fate of the characters is the most fundamental element to attract the audience. If the fate is well written, the dramatic conflict will naturally emerge.

The second is to create rich dramatic conflicts. The ethnic conflicts and class conflicts contained in the script of this drama are already very solid, and the key is to create real emotional conflicts during filming - constantly and reasonably creating "entanglements" that capture people's hearts.

The third is to properly handle the characters’ movements. Although the series is long, it has a huge network of movements, and we strive to make it well-structured, well-organized, and clear during filming.

Fourth, the details are as rich and vivid as possible to advance the plot and shape the characters, such as Fan Xiliang's refusal to be bribed by the traitors. The portrayal of details is powerful and effective in supporting the characters, conflicts and actions of the play.

In addition, the drama pays attention to the combination of reality and fiction from beginning to end. The major historical background and events are real, but the historical figures involved in the drama are all fictionalized. While adhering to the creative principle of "major events are not false, minor events are not restricted", it strives to focus the audience's aesthetic focus on the story itself.

Critics Talk

Bold summary, innovative narrative, emotional guidance

● Li Zhun, famous literary critic

As a TV series on revolutionary history, "The Road of Life is Full of Vicissitudes" has three points that are particularly worthy of attention.

First, through bold artistic generalization, the origin, experience, character and cultural identity of some important historical figures are integrated into the play, thus expanding the historical connotation of general revolutionary historical works and improving its spiritual and cultural taste. The play may become a sample for similar works.

Second, the drama uses family narratives and kinship narratives to depict the cooperation and competition between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party over the past two decades. Under today's new historical conditions, it is a call for the reunification of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Third, the play uses vivid emotional conflicts and life experiences to portray the characters, enrich the characters' flesh and blood, and guide the development of the plot, giving the whole play a rare personality brilliance and belief power. Through the personality collisions between characters and the character development of the characters themselves, historical events are brought out.

Be responsible for art and for the people

● Zhong Chengxiang, member of the Central Academy of Literature and History, famous literary critic

This work has a universal significance in the current literary and artistic creation, with a high aesthetic and historical taste, and should become a landmark work for the great development and prosperity of Chinese culture. This drama has a good balance between reality and fiction, and a good balance between tension and relaxation. Its attitude of being responsible for art and the people is worth learning. Good works should enter the eyes of contemporary Chinese TV drama historians and be evaluated scientifically and realistically.

At the same time, this work indicates that the leading TV artists in contemporary China have begun to consciously get rid of the one-way thinking of either this or that, and enter a more comprehensive, harmonious and dialectical thinking from the philosophical level to grasp history and reality and to shape artistic models. This is a very valuable experience not only for TV drama creation, but also for the entire literary and artistic creation.

Condensing history with fiction

● Yang Shengqun

He was then Deputy Director of the Central Literature Research Office and Vice President of the Chinese Communist Party History Society.

This TV series uses the form of general revolutionary historical themes to present major revolutionary history, and interprets major revolutionary historical events with general characters and their stories. From the perspective of the form of expression, the characters in the play are the incarnations of important historical figures, such as Qu En, who is neither Qu Qiubai nor Zhou Enlai, but has the soul of both. This is the combination of historical truth and artistic truth. Similar but not, is the highest realm of Chinese aesthetics.

The play covers the period from the Great Revolution to the eve of the national liberation, and condenses the great changes in history and social relations over more than 20 years into two family members and a group of Huangpu members. This concentration is vivid and real. Yang Liqing's family was extremely representative at the time, and their family's separation and reunion was a microcosm of the complex social and political relations at the time.

A grand narrative through the fate of the family

● Yin Hong

Professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University

This is the most magnificent and broad-minded TV series I have seen this year. I regard it as a typical work that uses family destiny to complete a grand historical narrative. Sometimes the tangible and intangible constraints in fictional creation, in turn, increase one's imagination in expressing and narrating history, which is an experience that is very worthy of study and summary.

What moved me the most was Liren, who was caught between family affection, love and political choices, and it was difficult for him to achieve the unity between the individual, family and politics. He was the eldest son of a family caught in the whirlpool of history, and his historical depth and social breadth were higher than those of the eldest sons in some other works.

Respect the character's choice and let the character walk on his own

● Fan Yongge, then editor-in-chief of Literary Gazette

The innovation of the main theme of this drama is very obvious, and the effort put into production has also made it reach a relatively high aesthetic level. The drama does not over-evaluate the differences in beliefs and doctrines, but respects the characters' own choices to unfold the narrative in such a way, allowing the audience to judge for themselves and the characters in the drama to walk their own way. Literary and artistic creation can be diversified, but the guiding ideology must be unified. This is what "The Right Path of the World is Vicissitudes" grasps better. It can reflect harmony in differences in hostile relationships, which is refreshing.

The most impactful portrayal of the inner world of the characters

● Wang Weiguo Professor and doctoral supervisor at Communication University of China

There are at least the following reasons why this drama is a masterpiece: First, the aesthetic pursuit of this drama is real, which is also the most important feature of this drama. Second, this drama is precisely about the inner world of the characters, which is very contagious and impactful. The reason why Qu Xia's story is touching is that the audience accepts this narrative method. Third, the action narrative of the characters is combined with the movement narrative of the camera, and the skillful use of depth of field lenses and telephoto lenses brings rich visual changes. In a narrative space, there is definitely more than one thing to tell, which is rare in general TV dramas.

Home is in the foreground, history is in the background

● Hou Keming, Professor of Beijing Film Academy

This play is full of righteousness from beginning to end. It is not entirely a historical drama, but a lyrical drama that uses lyrical methods to explain this period of Chinese revolutionary history, with family in the foreground and history in the background. This is an innovation. The audio-visual language and film expression techniques of this play are used quite well. Director Zhang Li is a photographer himself, and his grasp of the visual modeling and style of the entire play is quite complete and unique. For example, he almost never shoots empty panoramas, and the sound conception and music are also quite unique.

Three Benchmarks, Three Degrees, and Three Inspirations

● Hu Zhifeng, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Beijing Normal University

Three benchmarks - "The Right Path in the World is Full of Vicissitudes" is a very important benchmark among the "tribute dramas to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China", a benchmark among the creation of major revolutionary historical themes in recent years, and a benchmark in the history of TV drama development.

Three degrees - depth of history, intensity of emotion and height of thought.

Three revelations: first, it is a positive combination of mainstream values and popular expressions; second, from the perspective of artistic creation, it is a thorough presentation of the artistic dialectics; third, if you really want to make an epic drama, it is difficult to achieve without huge investment and large-scale production.

Attachment: "Using Art to Communicate Truth - Director's Explanation of "The Right Path in the World is Vicissitudes" in "China Television" Issue 9, 2011 (Author: Zhang Li and Liu Miaomiao)

"China Television" 2009 Issue 8 "Minutes of the Seminar on the TV Series "The Right Path in the World is Vicissitudes"