Chapter 442: The Biggest Bully in Chinese Literature

Film crews have always been habitual offenders of destroying cultural relics while filming. Lin Weimin has heard of many such incidents in later generations, some of which are particularly famous.

The Sino-Italian co-produced TV series "Marco Polo" was once approved to enter the Changling Ling'en Hall for real-life filming. The crew pasted plaster on the gold bricks in the hall, nailed nails on the nanmu main beams, and scratched and damaged more than 100 pieces of the painted ceiling. The management advised against smoking in the hall, but the Italian staff refused to obey the management and had an arrogant attitude, so the matter was finally left unresolved.

When Cheng Kaige's film The Promise was shot in Shangri-La, he turned the Bigu Lake, once famous for its stunning scenery, into a huge garbage dump. He also flattened a 40-50 square meter area of ​​century-old alpine rhododendrons, which was eventually restored by the local government.

Also, during the filming of "The Last Emperor", tracks were laid on the floor of the main hall, nails were hammered into the walls to set up lights and block light, which caused irreversible damage to the cultural relics. From then on, the Forbidden City no longer allowed the crew to enter.

Teng Jinxian might turn a blind eye to this, but Lin Weimin couldn't do that, as he knew very well what Teng Jinxian was thinking.

This has nothing to do with character or ideology.

It's simply the butt that determines the head. Now the general direction of the upper echelons is to treat foreign guests with courtesy and give foreigners super-national treatment.

Since it is super-national treatment, it means that they must enjoy certain privileges. How do you control them if you want to?

If things really get out of hand, it's easy to get embarrassed.

So in the end, many grassroots officials, even if they are dissatisfied with what foreigners do, will choose to ignore their problems and play nice.

After all, no one wants to be the one to be blamed in the end.

Compared with officials in power like Teng Jinxian, Lin Weimin certainly does not have such big concerns, not only because he and Teng Jinxian are from two different systems, but also because of the huge influence he possesses.

Although Lin Weimin was making a fuss, it was certainly not mindless. He also understood Teng Jinxian's depression and helplessness.

He held Teng Jinxian's hand and whispered to him for a long time, and saw Teng Jinxian's expression changing like a chameleon.

After finally listening to Lin Weimin's story, Teng Jinxian thought to himself: When you intellectuals become hooligans, no one else will have a chance to stop you.

"Is it okay what I said?" Lin Weimin asked.

"No problem, no problem."

Teng Jinxian finally realized that this guy was a troublemaker.

It would be a good idea to scare those foreigners so that they don't act so arrogantly all day long.

Following Lin Weimin's instructions, Teng Jinxian returned to the Hall of Supreme Harmony again.

It had only been a few minutes since the quarrel broke out. In the hall, Bertolucci was directing the staff to continue working, while Thomas was standing there cursing with lingering anger.

Teng Jinxian looked at Bertolucci anxiously and said, "Director Bertolucci, please stop for a moment, please stop for a moment!"

Bertolucci thought that Lin Weimin was gone and he could focus on making movies, but he didn't expect Teng Jinxian to show up again.

"Director Teng, are you going to stop our filming too?" Bertolucci asked, while Thomas on the side had a gloomy face.

Teng Jinxian shook his head and said, "It's not me who wants to stop you from filming, it's Lin Weimin who wants to stop you. Stop it now. He is going to our department to find my leader and the leader in charge of the Forbidden City's cultural relics. He wants to make a big deal out of this!"

Thomas couldn't help but get angry when he heard what he said. "Who does he think he is? We invested tens of millions of dollars in this movie and created a huge amount of foreign exchange for you, China. Your government departments should not listen to his one-sided words!"

Teng Jinxian sighed and said, "Of course the higher-ups won't listen to his one-sided story, but you don't know his temper and power. He's not someone you can easily get along with."

Seeing his attitude, Bertolucci couldn't help but ask, "Director Teng, why do you say that?"

Hearing this question, Teng Jinxian's embarrassment became more obvious, and he seemed to be hesitant to speak.

Thomas, who was originally furious, saw that he seemed to have something to hide, and asked, "What is going on? Can he really influence the filming of our movie?"

Having caught the attention of the two, Teng Jinxian was secretly delighted. He struggled for a moment and seemed to have made a decision, "Let's go to another place to talk."

Bertolucci and Thomas followed Teng Jinxian to a corner in the Hall of Supreme Harmony and looked at him with burning eyes.

Teng Jinxian looked at the two of them, then slowly said, "Lin Weimin is a writer and a playwright. You should all know this."

The two nodded. They knew this at the beginning of their cooperation. They also knew that Lin Weimin had a certain reputation overseas and that his novels and scripts had won awards abroad. They knew all this.

"But there are some things you may not know..."

Teng Jinxian paused here, and the curiosity on Bertolucci and the other man's faces became even stronger. What else didn't they know?

"First of all, he is very talented at a young age. It's not only because he is talented, but also because he has a good teacher."

"teacher?"

"That's right. Mr. Wan Jiabao, the most outstanding contemporary Chinese playwright, is equivalent to Dario Fo of Italy."

Bertolucci and Thomas are in the film industry, so they naturally know Dario Fo's status in the Italian theater industry. So this teacher is indeed amazing.

"Because of this teacher, Lin Weimin has always been working with the most famous and powerful drama theater in China. In his crew, he always has the final say, and even the director has to listen to him.

This is true not only for plays, but also for movies and TV series. The director does not even have the right to change the script he wrote.

The year before last, he facilitated a collaboration between China Central Television and Hong Kong's largest wireless television station. However, because they had a conflict with him, he forcibly drove all the people from Hong Kong back.

He also participated in our country's largest festival gala. The reviewers of the program team were all leaders at all levels of the government. When they raised any objections to his program, he dared to scold them harshly.

Last time, my direct supervisor invited him to a meeting and praised him a few times, but he still didn’t give me any face and walked out in the middle of the meeting.”

Teng Jinxian listed Lin Weimin's "numerous bad deeds", which shocked Bertolucci and Thomas.

Is this a screenwriter?

Our Italian mafia is not as domineering as him!

"Why does he do this? It's too much!" Thomas said indignantly, feeling very indignant for his colleagues who were bullied by Lin Weimin.

"Why? Because he has strong connections and his works are good!" Teng Jinxian said, and then said: "Since he started his writing career, he has won almost all the major and minor literary awards in China. The sales of his works are calculated in millions of copies. Every play he performs is a hit, and every TV series he plans has set a record for viewership in both our country and Hong Kong. In the past two years, it has been even more amazing. The movies he wrote have won awards overseas, and he has also won major literary awards in Japan and the United States..."

"Also, as I just said, the magazine he presided over is called Contemporary, which is the largest literary magazine in China, with sales of one to two million copies per issue. He was able to become the editor-in-chief of a magazine of this level at such a young age, relying on his solid work ability.

I can say that more than half of all the well-known young and middle-aged writers in China in the past decade were his classmates, or were simply discovered by him, so his influence in the Chinese literary world is pivotal.”

Teng Jinxian sighed deeply again, "If that's all, this person can at most be considered influential in the literary and drama circles, but he can't interfere with our Film Bureau and your film shooting, but..."

His pause again made Bertolucci and Thomas feel anxious. This "but" was too serious. They looked at Teng Jinxian with worry in their eyes.

"He holds an administrative position, and his rank is not low. He is already a senior cadre in our country. He is less than 30 years old this year, and there is still a lot of time in the future. His rank will definitely be higher than this.

I'll give you an example and you'll understand. The journal he presided over was called "Contemporary", and the previous editor-in-chief of "Contemporary" was the president of the National Literature Publishing House. And the previous editor-in-chief of another journal of their unit was promoted to a ministerial position, which is the level of my boss. "

Although Bertolucci and Thomas do not understand the ecology of China's officialdom, they only need to use common sense to understand that if it is true as Teng Jinxian said, then Lin Weimin is indeed a person that many people in the Chinese government do not want to offend.

"Not only that, he is also the investor of our country's largest literary foundation and the vice president. Do you know who the president is?"

Bertolucci and Thomas shook their heads in unison.

Teng Jinxian didn't keep the secret and said, "One president is the most famous literary veteran in our country, and the other is a leader at the head of state level."

Hearing this, Thomas' eyes flickered. He had never imagined that Lin Weimin's power was so enormous!

Teng Jinxian finally finished his long speech and looked at Bertolucci and Thomas quietly.

The two of them were thinking about what Teng Jinxian had just said. Thomas was unsure and asked, "We are foreigners after all, and we are here to make a movie about China, which is very beneficial for China's external publicity. You should ensure that our investment will not be affected, right?"

Teng Jinxian smiled bitterly and said, "Mr. Thomas, we Chinese have an old saying that goes, 'You can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can't be on guard against thieves for a thousand days.' If Lin Weimin is determined to cause trouble for us, no one can guarantee that it will not affect the filming of this movie!"

Bertolucci and Thomas looked at each other. With Lin Weimin's influence, it would not be difficult to cause trouble for them.

Thomas held on to his last glimmer of hope and asked, "Isn't he afraid that your government will hold him accountable?"

"If he was afraid, he wouldn't have done it. At most, he would be punished with administrative penalties, such as suspension. His novel royalties and theater box office revenue are several million US dollars a year. Not to mention in our country, even in your Western countries, he would be a millionaire. This kind of punishment will have no effect on him."

Bertolucci and Thomas looked at each other and fell into silence.

Teng Jinxian understood their feelings very well.

How come I was just trying to make a movie and ended up with something like this?

(End of this chapter)