Screenshot of Shi Zhongshan’s new book launch online
Shi Zhongshan, the author of “Passion Burning Years” and “Happiness Like Flowers”, has published a new book “Ask the Vast Land”.
This atypical spy novel has written the story from before the founding of New China to after the reform and opening up. Such a large span has never been seen in previous literary works and film and television works. And such a large span brings a heavy sense of history to this work.
Recently, the launch of the new book “Ask the Vast Land” was held online.
Show the fate of special characters in the context of the great era
Q: Why is this book called an “atypical spy novel”?
Shi Zhongshan: This book is a continuation of my previous espionage dramas. There were “Underground” and “Continent Island” before. Strictly speaking, this is the third book. Some friends have read this manuscript one after another before, and after reading it, I communicated with me. The first feeling was that you were an atypical spy war drama. This is the first time I have heard this word, what do I mean by atypical? The typical one is “Hidden”, and the atypical one is “like catching a spy in the past”. This work does not have the typical ups and downs of spy war dramas, nor does it have the intricate relationships of many characters. What is shown here is more of a contest between people and the fate of special characters in the context of the big era.
My story begins with the liberation of Northeast China and the liberation of Shenyang in October 1948. The liberation of Jinzhou was two months earlier, and my story entered from here, and put it into the situation of life in the Northeast that I am familiar with.
Novels are not just about writing stories, but more importantly, there are many details of the living environment, the details of the characters’ survival, and the characteristics of the times. What I want to achieve in my work is to break the solidified result of spy war novels, and put the main character, especially an old and tricky character like the anti-No. 1 “Old Man” (pseudonym Wang Shouye), Under the background of the times, from the very beginning of the ambitious, looking forward to Taiwan’s early counterattack on the mainland, and finally wanting to cleanse himself, but there is nowhere to hide, nowhere to hide… And our protagonist, from the social sciences, intelligence of the Northeast. Ke, finally went to work in the Public Security Bureau. For so many years, he has not given up on the clue of “Old Man”. He has been tracking it until after the reform and opening up, and finally got to the bottom of it. The country belongs to the people, the country belongs to the people, and no matter how deeply the reactionary forces are hidden, they cannot escape the fate of failure in the end. This is the value of this novel.
A real literary work is not about writing stories, but about writing people, people’s hearts, and people’s destiny. The fate of any character in our real life is inseparable from the times, and the protagonists in the novels cannot be separated from the times.
Reading as a child, inadvertently, that seed blossomed in my heart
Q: Reading this novel will remind people of anti-special novels and movies such as “Dark Whistle in Yangcheng”, “Secret Drawings” and “Donggang Spy”. Are you deeply influenced by these works?
Shi Zhongshan: These works were all made in the 1960s and 1970s and have been replayed. We are not unfamiliar with that era. Reading revolutionary stories, catching spy stories, curious and interesting. Looking back at those stories now, it seems that they are all stuck in the historical stage of our revolution. There is no deeper character excavation, no historical context, and no integration of the fate of the characters. It is just a story. Perhaps, reading as a child, inadvertently, that seed bloomed in your heart and bears fruit. In fact, many works of a writer are inadvertently sprouted.
I was born in the army compound. I grew up listening to the bugle, watching my parents go to get off work in military uniforms, and they all wore military uniforms when they quarreled. Soldiers still fighting? Just that feeling, I don’t think it’s the same thing as the movie. After this dislocation, the first thought was that I would also join the army in the future. When I joined the army, I was one step closer to being a hero. Only soldiers could go to the battlefield and defend their homeland. At that time, I had the dream of being a hero.
I enlisted in the army in 1981, as a teenager, and the first mission was completed. After enlisting in the army, I felt that there was a distance between the peacetime army and my heroic dream. At that time, I read a lot of idle books. I grew up reading the stories of catching secret agents. I think it would be better if I were a writer. After so many decades of unremitting efforts, from a young-haired teenager to the present, although he is not gray-haired, he is also an old writer with a full face, which can be considered to have fulfilled his second dream.
Later, film and television adaptations were in the ascendant. After “Camel Xiangzi” and “Four Generations Together”, many writers were electrocuted and entered the film and television circle. A writer not only gets ten yuan and thirty yuan for manuscript fees, but also copyright fees and screenwriting fees for a thousand words, and feels that he can live a better life. Then I want to change my life, let myself live a good life, let my wife and children live a good life, and parents don’t care about their hearts. This dream is very grounded. I want to adapt more of my works into film and television, earn a little more money, talk about masturbation, support my family, and gradually become an amphibious writer.
Literature and film and television are a relationship that feeds back each other
Q: As a well-known “amphibious writer” in my country, which one is more free to write novels or write screenplays?
Shi Zhongshan: Writing a script is not as comfortable as writing a novel. Write TV dramas, three investors and five leaders stare at them, and write novels on your own.
In fact, doing any kind of job has a technical threshold, and without a technical threshold, you cannot pass this level. After you really master this technology, and then do this thing, you will forget the technology itself. When writing novels, you may be less aggressive, less pretentious, and less open-minded. When many writers write a work, they do not have too many concepts in their minds. The pig arches forward, the chicken digs back, and everyone has their own way. Conceiving a work is conscious, but actually entering the novel situation is unconscious.
I have never been in the habit of writing an outline. Basically, after I set the first paragraph, I know how to write the second paragraph. On the back page of the manuscript, I write in three words and five words what I want to write tomorrow. The next day, as long as you don’t drink too much wine, you sit at the desk, and after the first sentence at the beginning of the second paragraph is finished, the story is connected.
Q: I haven’t seen your work for many years.
Shi Zhongshan: In the past few years, it is true that I have not been doing my job properly. I have been a producer, screenwriter, filming, etc., and there are fewer works.
Novels are individual, while TV shows are for the masses. It’s hard to do a TV show. If the first three episodes of the TV series can’t catch the audience, no one will buy it on the TV station, and the audience has already lost and ran away. Writing scripts is full of mother-in-laws. Sometimes the script is about to start, and the script is thrown to the crew for discussion. Even a field worker and a light can give you advice. Why? Because it is an audience, the audience has the right to propose whether it is reasonable or unreasonable, and which part is comfortable or not. Or he thinks I’ve been through some episodes that are more contagious than yours (laughs).
When you write a script, you not only consider the scene and props, but sometimes you have to have a sense of the picture. Otherwise, how should the director shoot and how should the actors act? But if you want to write this thing into a novel, the ability to restore life must be greatly improved, including the ability to control complex character relationships.
The relationship between literature and film and television is a process of feedback. After the adaptation of my works, I am not the screenwriter, but I also watch every episode. I think which parts are better and which ones are not good, and which points give me enlightenment and hints. This is very important, these two art forms are a feedback process. Not only TV dramas, but also movies, dramas, musicals, and other artistic genres are all the same, and they all complement each other in such a relationship.
The ability to tell a story is the basic ability of a writer. If we writers have the opportunity to do screenwriting a few times and then come back and write novels, it will be very beneficial to the ability of storytelling.
Literature is to leave room for imagination
Q: Is the follow-up film and television adaptation of “Ask the Vast Land” also advancing?
Shi Zhongshan: It will definitely be pushed forward. If it is faster, it will be able to start up next year.
Q: Are the actors and protagonists of this film in progress?
Shi Zhongshan: I haven’t thought of this, because there is no script, and the script is more similar once it comes out. When writing a novel, you don’t think too much about who will play which role, the character will be stereotyped, and it will walk into a dead end. For example, Zhang San, written like Zhang San, this character is Zhang San. Literature is to leave room for everyone’s imagination, and the script is something concrete.
Q: You have so many successful works, which ones are you particularly satisfied with? What other works are there to regret?
Shi Zhongshan: There are too many regrets. What we know is perfect, and what we don’t know is regret. I think I have three works, which are ignored by many audiences, and I am more satisfied with myself. The first time I directed, “The Perfection of Happiness”, this is the youth chapter of the army, the romance chapter, I learned some Korean styles and things at that time, and it seems that it is not too clever to come to our mainland. There is also a work “Children of the Big Courtyard”, which is also operated by the old Mandarin team, Li Bo and Zhao Youliang. And “Brothers Under Heaven”. These plays are all ignored, it’s a coincidence.
(Chutian Metropolis Daily Jimu news reporters arranged according to the on-site shorthand)