Chapter 222: I'm Giving You Face

In the first month of 1983, Lin Weimin's work and life were busy and fulfilling.

At work, having just been promoted to deputy editor-in-chief of "Contemporary", Meng Weizai and Qin Chaoyang tried their best to escape and dodge the administrative tasks assigned by the publishing house. This made it difficult for Lin Weimin, who had just taken office. The editorial department always had to have someone to carry out the tasks, and the young Lin Weimin naturally became the best choice.

Lin Weimin even suspected that he was promoted to deputy editor-in-chief by the two old comrades. Once he got the position, he was not only inexperienced, but also young. How could he refuse if they asked him to do something? The leader made an exception and put him in such an important position. You can't be a slacker right from the start, right?

The task of publishing the winning works of the first Yanbing Literature Award in the form of "Contemporary Series", which was first proposed by him, was finally successfully completed after more than a month of hard work. The series has just been on the market not long and there are no signs of success yet. The latest of these works has been published for more than a year, so it is basically unlikely to trigger a large buying spree. We can only hope for the enthusiasm of the many domestic literature lovers.

In terms of writing, "The Horse-Trapping Man" was first published in the January supplement of "People's Literature" and was published separately. The importance it received is self-evident. After it was released, it completely stole the limelight from the January issue and triggered enthusiastic pursuit by countless readers.

As of the end of January, the sales of the January issue of People's Literature reached 700,000 copies, while the sales of the supplement reached 800,000 copies.

Comrades in the editorial department of People's Literature joked in casual conversation that after a month's hard work in compiling manuscripts, it was not as effective as a novel written by Lin Weimin.

The situation that the sales of the January supplement will far exceed that of the main issue is inevitable, and as time goes by, this gap will inevitably become larger and larger until the sales potential of the January issue is completely exhausted.

In real life, my girlfriend went to Beijing with the Xiaobaihua Yue Opera Troupe to participate in the Spring Festival Gala. The program has been confirmed. They will sing a reunion excerpt from "Five Daughters Paying Homage to Their Parents", which fits the cheerful atmosphere of the Spring Festival.

During this period, Lin Weimin and Tao Huimin met almost every two or three days, and their feelings warmed up quickly, and they were very affectionate to each other.

On this day, Lin Weimin came to the radio compound again. Today was the day for reviewing the Spring Festival Gala programs. As the screenwriter and consultant of this year's skit program, Lin Weimin naturally had to come and participate in the review.

"Teacher Yan, Teacher Wang!" Lin Weimin greeted Yan Shunkai and Wang Ruoyu politely when he saw them backstage. The two nodded to Lin Weimin with gentle smiles on their faces.

Lin Weimin was the consultant for the evening's skit program. He gave a lot of guidance and help to the two during the rehearsal process.

"How is it? Are you nervous?" Lin Weimin asked, patting his eldest nephew on the shoulder.

"I'm not nervous. I've seen places that are ten times bigger than this one." Han Zhuangzhuang's tone was firm, but his hands rubbing his trouser legs betrayed his inner feelings.

The scale of the Capital Theatre is indeed much larger than that of CCTV's studio. At that time, CCTV did not have the nationally famous Studio No. 1. Lin Weimin glanced around the stage. The entire studio was less than 600 square meters, and the stage alone occupied a large part of it. It could accommodate two or three hundred spectators, which was considered a lot. His nephew was right about this.

"Where are Guanhua and Dandan?"

Liang Guanhua and Song Dandan's expressions were a mixture of nervousness, excitement and agitation, and they didn't know how to express their feelings for a moment.

"It's okay. We've been rehearsing for so many days, there will definitely be no problem, just relax." Lin Weimin comforted everyone.

The fact is just as he said, they have been rehearsing for so many days and they can be said to have known the content of the skit by heart. There are two reasons why they are really nervous.

First, there were leaders sitting in the audience. Although the party was hosted by CCTV, all departments participated. Even leaders from the public security department were sitting in the audience.

Second, program review does not only consider the effect. Political factors and public opinion orientation are also the focus of the review. If the review leader really raises objections, the program will be taken down if it is not good.

If the show is really cancelled, all the hard work of the few people over the past month will be wasted, and they don't want this to happen.

The most important thing is that they missed the opportunity to show themselves in front of the national audience. Especially for Liang Guanhua and Song Dandan, who are still students in the actor training class of the People's Art Theatre. It is a great fortune for them to be able to perform on such a big stage as the CCTV Gala.

Lin Weimin searched backstage for a long time and finally found Chen Xiaoer and Zhu Shimao behind the curtain on the second floor.

"What are you two doing here?"

Chen Xiaoer was squatting on the ground, wearing a woolen hat, looking like a criminal.

"There are too many people down there, so it's better to have a quiet place here. We can have some conversation while we're at it."

After chatting with the two for a few words and knowing that they needed to prepare for the show, Lin Weimin stopped disturbing them.

A few minutes before the review began, Lin Weimin came from the backstage to the audience seats in the studio.

Looking at the rows of small stools in the audience, Lin Weimin complained in his heart, even if it was not a live broadcast, wasn't the scene a bit too tragic? Couldn't they just change the stools?

But looking at the department- and bureau-level officials sitting in the first row, he couldn't express any opinion and just sat there quietly.

The rehearsal officially began and the programs were performed one by one.

As an evening party that intends to innovate, CCTV has given great support to the chief director Huang Yihe and invited many performance teams from various domestic art groups.

The theme of the evening party is "Unity, Joy and Hope". Although it is the first time for such event, the program structure of the whole evening party is very rich, including singing and dancing, cross talk, sketches, poetry recitation, Huangmei opera, Peking opera, Yue opera, and even magic, acrobatics and martial arts, covering almost all art forms that ordinary people can see in their daily lives, and even two movie clips have been prepared.

Before the Spring Festival Gala in 1983, CCTV's Spring Festival Gala had announcers and broadcasters, but there was no concept of "host".

This year, CCTV introduced a host for the evening party for the first time, but this role was not played by the announcers of CCTV at that time, but was given to several actors instead.

Wang Jingyu, Liu Xiaoqing, Ma Ji, Jiang Kun.

The reason for doing this is that the station leaders are worried that the announcers have strong memorization skills but no on-the-spot experience, and they are afraid that if something happens on the spot, they will not be able to react.

Ma Ji and Jiang Kun, two crosstalk performers who were invited, had quick reactions but were prone to making jokes and were afraid that their performance would not be of high quality, so they also invited Wang Jingyu, a comedian who had received professional training at a drama academy.

All three hosts were men, which didn't look good on stage, so they invited Liu Xiaoqing, the most popular actress today.

Today was the first time that Lin Weimin met Liu Xiaoqing in person. She is a very busy person now and only attends the party when she has time. She only attended the party when there was more than a week left before the live broadcast.

This big Benz head doesn't look very good. People's aesthetic taste is still too simple!

After waiting for nearly an hour, the first skit that Lin Weimin was responsible for finally came on stage. It was "Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren" performed by his eldest nephew, Song Dandan and Liang Guanhua.

Several young people performed very hard, but the people in the audience didn't laugh. They sat on mats with serious expressions, and whispered to each other from time to time.

The performance became more and more unsure, and two small mistakes occurred in the second half.

After the show was over, several people returned to the backstage, feeling uneasy.

"I see that the leaders below are not laughing. Will our show be taken down?" Song Dandan said worriedly.

Liang Guanhua sighed, "It's hard to say. Didn't we remove a program last time?"

Han Zhuangzhuang could only comfort the two of them, "It's okay. Last time it was because the rehearsal didn't go well. This time it's an inspection. We'll know the result soon."

While several people were worried, the performance on stage continued.

The entire evening show lasted a total of 278 minutes. Excluding the opening speech at the beginning of the evening, the introduction of the guests, and the consolation to the staff at the end of the evening, there were more than 50 programs.

It took almost an entire night to review all the programs.

It was nearly midnight, the show on stage had long since ended, but the conference room was filled with smoke.

There is still more than a week until the party starts, and time is running out.

Today, the review team raised two prominent issues. One was the issue of "Homesickness" sung by Li Guyi, and the other was the issue of "triangle debt" raised in the skit "Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren".

At the end of 1979, CCTV broadcast the documentary "Legend of the Three Gorges", and its opening theme was "Homesickness". Once it was broadcast, "Homesickness" attracted people's attention with its unusual rhythm and singing method.

During the New Year's Day holiday, Shanghai's Wenhui Daily published an article commenting on "Legend of the Three Gorges", in which it talked about "Homesickness" and pointed out that the song has a beautiful and lyrical melody and is very popular with the audience.

Two months later, the song was selected for the "Weekly Song" of Yanjing People's Broadcasting Station. "Homesickness" quickly spread throughout the country and produced a huge response. In just a few months, TV stations and radio stations competed to play "Homesickness".

At this time, criticisms also followed. First, the Yanjing Music News published an article titled "Unsuccessful Attempt" on the front page, criticizing "Homesickness" for "not expressing a healthy love for the motherland's mountains and rivers" but "a low, lingering, decadent sound." Some people even accused the singer Li Guyi of "decadent bourgeois sentiment."

Later, colleagues in the industry criticized Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music represented by Teresa Teng at a national music creation conference, and "Homesickness" was also severely criticized for its similarity in style to Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music.

After all these things happened, the once very popular "Homesickness" became a "banned song" for a time.

This year, CCTV invited Li Guyi to participate in the gala. Based on the bold principle of bringing forth something new from the old, Li Guyi was asked to perform 9 songs in a row, each of which was her well-known classic song, including "Homesickness".

The review team requested that the song "Homesickness" be removed from the program. Director Huang Yihe could only explain that the songs sung by Li Guyi were determined by the director team after extensive investigation and were confirmed to be songs that the general public liked.

One side held the power of review, while the other side had public opinion at its disposal, and after a while of discussion they reached a deadlock.

At this time, Li Guyi spoke up, "Otherwise, I won't go to the party to save everyone from embarrassment."

Li Guyi is only in her thirties now, but she is very famous. With her unique voice, the songs she sings are widely circulated across the country.

The review team didn't expect Li Guyi to be so stubborn. She said she wouldn't perform. She had a total of nine songs on the program. If she really didn't perform, the entire program schedule of the party would be disrupted.

Hearing what she said, Huang Yihe hurriedly said, "Teacher Li, please don't give up. We didn't say that we won't let you go."

He knew that the reason why Li Guyi dared to say this was definitely not simply because she was angry with the investigation team.

Because around the Spring Festival, the Central Orchestra where Li Guyi was located had a large-scale performance in Shenzhen.

If she came to the party, she couldn't go to the performance in Pengcheng. At that time, Li Guyi was the leader among the solo singers of the Central Orchestra in terms of strength, fame and representative works. Without her, the performance would definitely be overshadowed, so the Central Orchestra did not want her to attend the party.

But CCTV's hosting of the evening party was like holding a sword of authority to demand someone, and the Central Orchestra dared not disobey and had to let Li Guyi come.

If the evening party program team gave her this excuse now, she might just turn around and run off to Pengcheng. We must not let her get away.

"Dear leaders, how about we discuss the issue of the song "Homesickness" again?" Huang Yihe found a way out for the review team, and everyone had to nod.

Next came Lin Weimin's turn for "Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren".

Looking at the look in the eyes of the review team, Lin Weimin really wanted to say, "I won't go to this party either."

Unfortunately, it’s not possible. After all, it’s my nephew’s show, and I have to protect it no matter what.

Teacher Lin said: It’s not a big problem.

"Yang Bailao and Huang Shiren" was created in 1996. At that time, the problem of "triangle debt" in the country had become so serious that it had to be dealt with. The government had made great determination and efforts to rectify it several years ago.

At this time, the problem of triangular debts has become widespread, but the economic situation is still good, so all problems are covered up.

Facing the questioning of the investigation team, Lin Weimin looked calm.

"Dear leaders, I just want to ask, does the problem of triangular debt exist? Can we discuss the problem in the program of our party, or do we just need to sing praises?"

Lin Weimin's words were like a sharp sword, pressing against the throats of the members of the investigation team. Everyone looked at him, and for a moment no one dared to speak.

What does it mean to kill someone and destroy their heart?

This is called killing someone and destroying their heart!

Do you dare to say that CCTV’s evening parties can only sing praises and not expose problems?

It might be true twenty years later, but no one dares to say that at this time.

Huang Yihe glanced at the faces of the people in the investigation team and laughed in his heart. Li Guyi's tone was stiff just now, but this guy was just taking a big stab at her. Who dares to respond to this? He's hitting a wall, right?

Everyone in the review team also became alert at this time and realized that the young man in front of them was no ordinary person.

Deputy editor-in-chief of Contemporary magazine, a disciple of Mr. Wan, the founder of the domestic drama industry, and a famous writer who has won national literary awards for his short, medium and long works...

To put it bluntly, if they can come and write a program for us, it will bring honor to the party!

No matter how powerful the review team is, they can't do anything to others. If you say today that you have tainted their program, they will dare to complain to the Writers Association the next day, saying that you are blocking the channels of speech. It's only been a few years since the storm passed, and those old literary ruffians are very sensitive. Who knows how serious the situation will be.

"Leaders, I see it's already midnight. Our director team has already understood your opinions. How about we wait until the next review to take a look at them?"

The members of the review team looked at each other and decided to take the opportunity now that they had it.

As for the next review, we'll talk about it next time.

"Okay, let's do this for now."

The meeting ended, and the review team left first. Lin Weimin and Huang Yihe walked in the end. Huang Yihe whispered to Lin Weimin: "Teacher Lin, be tough!"

Lin Weimin smiled and said, "I'm not as tough as Teacher Li."

Li Guyi, who was walking in front, turned around, glanced at the people in front, and said softly, "Teacher Lin is still tougher!"

Lin Weimin chatted with the two of them for a few minutes, then thought about it and felt that something seemed to be wrong.

I was busy all day yesterday, and the first update is here. The second update will be around 11 o'clock, and the third update will be around 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

(End of this chapter)