About TV series "Go East" and "Go West"

Last year, as the opening drama of CCTV, "Walking to the West" swept the country, awakening many memories of people who were sleeping in that era. "Walking to the West" was also the most common way for Shanxi people to make a living in that era. Because of the similar theme, Walking to the West was regarded as a companion piece of Crossing the East by the audience as soon as it was broadcast, so the comparison between the two became inevitable.

● Compared with the theme ●

"Going to Kanto, Going to the West and Going to Nanyang" are three famous population movements in China.

According to historical records, during the 300-odd years from the middle of17th century to the middle of 20th century, due to natural disasters, wars and other reasons, about 20 million people successively set foot on the land of Kanto, among which Shandong people accounted for the vast majority. This rare phenomenon of mass migration is called "de-orientalization". It is in this historical background that the TV series "Braving the East" tells the story of a great migration full of tragedy and courage in the history of China with the clue of the experience of Zhu Kaishan, a Shandong farmer, and with epic momentum.

Shanxi people's immigration experience is as long as 300 years. Taking this period of history as the background, going to the west exit embodies Shanxi people's industrious way of doing business and becomes an indelible memory of history. It is not difficult to see that, as far as the subject matter is concerned, the play coincides with "Braving the East". However, The Journey to the East reflects a group in Shandong, and takes the Zhu Kaishan family as a typical example. The Journey to the West is based on the legend that Ching Tien, a young scholar in Shaanxi, left his hometown for the west because of family changes and life. It takes Ching Tien as a point, which is simpler than "crossing to the east".

● Compared with the story ●

The TV series "Going to the East" tells the story of the ups and downs of the Zhu Kaishan family in Zhangqiu County. Through their stories full of bizarre colors and coincidences, such as gold panning, logging, ginseng harvesting, becoming bandits, being involved in wars, etc. It shows the legendary experience that this ordinary Shandong family took root tenaciously in Baishan Heishui and finally became a tough big family.

And "Walking to the West" is more about the theme of Shanxi merchants in "Qiao Family Courtyard", which focuses on the story of Shanxi people's struggle. In the play, Ching Tien's father was addicted to gambling and lost his family. The narrative length of nearly six episodes gradually showed the audience the historical background of the play and the reasons for going west, which made Ching Tien and Liang Mantun embark on the road of "going west" together. After numerous setbacks, Ching Tien finally redeemed the mansion. With their own sweat, tears and even blood, they made their own way out in the grasslands and deserts of northwest China.

From the story background, "going east" is more straightforward than "going west". "Going to the East" caught the audience's eye from the beginning with a bizarre and coincidental story, while "Walking to the West" made the audience slowly addicted in step-by-step expression.

● Compared with production ●

The time span from the late Qing Dynasty to the 9 18 incident was nearly 30 years. It is not easy to reflect the people's livelihood of The Journey to the West with the struggle history of one family. Screenwriter Gao Mantang, Sun Jianye and other creative staff have traveled all over Northeast China, with a journey of 7,000 kilometers. The crew set up scenes in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Shandong, Shanghai and other places, and many places involving the plot have long been lost. For example, Laojingou, a gold digger in the play, was rebuilt on a farm in Heilongjiang, recreating the scale of the gold digger in that year. In Heihe, in order to shoot a scene, the crew made a raft with a width of 30 meters and a length of 100 meters, which is the same size as the raft actually made by the people who made the raft that year. Gao Mantang, who was born in a family of "Braving the Guandong", also interviewed his family, two uncles in Gao Mantang who were in their 80s. In the end, they revised the script outline five times and revised the script many times before writing "Braving the East".

It is reported that since 2003, producer Lian Zhenhua has begun to grasp the theme of "westward advancement". In order to create a masterpiece, he specially invited Professor Yu from the History Department of Liaoning University to write the script. Yu, who was 72 years old at that time, was very happy when he received this task. His previous works such as Nurhachi, Kublai Khan and Ode to the River were all very successful. In the stage of script creation, Lian Zhenhua and the screenwriter made a detailed investigation and positioning of everyone in the story. The love-hate relationship between the protagonist Ching Tien and his brother-in-law Liang Mantun runs through the whole TV series. Liang Mantun, a narrow-minded, calculating and disloyal figure, finally died because of Ching Tien, giving him a "return" of conscience. At first, producers and writers were worried that the role of "Liu Yidao" was badly designed. Later, Lian Yue, a young female screenwriter who won the Xia Yan Prize for Film Literature, was invited to co-create. After repeated polishing, it took four years to create a good script, and it took only four and a half months to shoot.

Unlike Li Youbin, the protagonist of "Going to the East", the lineup of "Going West" is relatively young. Du Chun, the leading actor, is a young and powerful rookie in recent years. His handsome appearance and increasingly mature acting skills, coupled with a large number of opposite plays with Du Zhiguo, the father who plays the bandit Liu Yidao, have become a highlight of the film.

It's a little pity that "Going West" was broadcast not long ago, and some viewers questioned it. The biggest mistake is the tampering with the "Three People's Principles" in the plot. In addition, the interpretation of The Journey to the West in the play also makes the audience familiar with the history of Shanxi merchants very dissatisfied, thinking that it is a heavy history of Chinese immigration. However, The Journey to the West's narrative focuses on the reversal of human feelings, family feud and Jianghu feud, and does not reflect the grandeur and bitterness of the history of immigration.

● Bi dialect ●

One is Jin Opera and the other is Lu Opera. Therefore, many dialects will be interspersed in TV dramas. The Shanxi dialect in Walking West obviously lacks some flavor, and only a few words "Er", "What did you do" and "What happened" are iconic, among which the pronunciation of the word "Er (Sansheng)" is somewhat awkward for many viewers. However, the Northeast dialect in "Crossing the East" is quite smooth. Northeast dialect is well known to people all over the country because of the popularity of many Northeast comedians and Northeast rural dramas, led by Zhao Benshan. In contrast, the northwest dialect lacks such a way.

● Compared with modeling ●

The background of the two dramas "Braving the Guandong" and "Walking to the West" is in an era of turmoil and people's livelihood, and the characterization should be more yellow and heavier. From this perspective, the characters in "Braving the Guandong" are closer and more real. Especially in the episode of Westbound, when Ching Tien and others go westbound, their hair styles are neat and ruddy, which is in sharp contrast with the loess beam behind them. The characters look more like traveling than being confused about the future. In a word, going to the East seems to be slightly better than going to the west in terms of makeup and art design.