Chapter 809: Kaizi wins by taking the head?
Jinghua Museum.
The owner is Lin Weimin and the director is Ma Dudu.
Jinghua is a beautiful name for the capital, where natural resources are abundant and people are outstanding.
It also means "essence", implying the essence of the museum's numerous and dazzling collections.
The brand new Jinghua Museum is worthy of the name. The cultural relics in the museum cover almost all important categories of antique cultural relics.
The Palace Museum divides its collections into 25 major categories, totaling more than 1.8 million pieces.
The Jinghua Museum cannot be compared with the Palace Museum, but the museum has just as many types of collections, though the quantity is much less than that of the Palace Museum.
Among them are 23,100 paintings, 14,000 pieces of calligraphy, 1,500 inscriptions and rubbings, 6,000 bronzes, 11,000 gold and silver wares, 9,500 lacquerwares, 1,200 enamelwares, 52,000 ceramics, and 4,200 pieces of weaving and embroidery.
In terms of the total number of collections, the Jinghua Museum is barely one-tenth of the Palace Museum, but it is much more than the average provincial museum.
In terms of the rarity and preciousness of its collections, the Jinghua Museum also surpasses many provincial museums, and there is no shortage of cultural relics handed down from generation to generation.
For a private museum, such a large number and quality of cultural relics would be hard to find a rival in the domestic antique collection circle, and it is extremely rare even in the world.
Of course, these collections did not come for free.
Ma Dudu started collecting antiques for Lin Weimin in 1982. Apart from his own business, he has devoted almost all his energy to this over the years.
Especially in the past few years when he was busy with the museum, Lin Weimin paid him a considerable salary every month even though the museum's formalities could not be completed. How could Ma Dudu have the nerve to take the salary and not work?
Lin Weimin is not short of money. Ma Dudu has been spending hundreds of millions of yuan almost every year in the past few years. Sometimes he is even a little scared. Over the years, the amount of RMB spent through his hands must be at least 800 million, if not 1 billion.
He could never make so much money in his business even if he worked for ten lifetimes.
And this money is just a small amount that Teacher Lin spends on his little hobby of collecting.
Ma Dudu sometimes secretly wondered how much money Teacher Lin had. He had heard that the royalties Teacher Lin received from countries all over the world almost every quarter were calculated in tens of millions of dollars.
They even hired specialized accounting firms and law firms in the United States to help deal with tax and copyright cooperation in various countries.
The cost of hiring these people alone would be over a million dollars a year.
After all these years of hard work, Ma Dudu's total assets barely amount to two or three million US dollars, which is not even enough to hire a long-term worker for a few years.
When asked whether Ma Dudu had any bad intentions while handling so much money, the answer is yes, of course he had, and more than once.
But every time the critical moment came, he would become timid.
There are three reasons.
First, he and Lin Weimin have known each other for more than ten years. They cannot be considered close friends, but they are good friends, and the friends around him are all in the same circle.
If he did something stupid, he would be cutting himself off from the network of contacts he had worked so hard to build over the years.
Secondly, Teacher Lin is a man of open-minded character and is generous and righteous. He will never hesitate to help his friends in need. In ancient times, he would be like Hu Baoyi and timely rain. After so many years of contact with Lin Weimin, Ma Dudu deeply admires Lin Weimin's character and broad-mindedness.
Thirdly, Mr. Lin’s identity was too special. Although he was only a J-level cadre and worked in a publishing unit, no one in the system dared to look down on him.
To put it bluntly, both generations of leaders are loyal readers of his books.
People can easily make a phone call to the Ministry of Finance, saying that they want to crack down on book piracy, and hundreds of pirated book dealers across the country have been imprisoned; they said that they want to crack down on the concealment and underreporting of movie box office, and dozens of theater staff have been imprisoned; they have almost made big newspapers like "Southern Metropolis Weekend" fall apart, but don't the local officials still have to be well fed and well provided for?
Looking back at Lin Weimin's past achievements, is it possible for ordinary people to offend him?
How much face does Ma Dudu have to have to be able to treat him as a friend? If he can't figure it out and makes a fuss about it, he's like an old man eating arsenic - he's tired of living!
Jinghua Museum opened today. Ma Dudu has lived up to Lin Weimin's trust in him over the years. He spent an astronomical amount of money and finally got such a museum.
Ma Dudu had learned in advance that Jinghua Museum was the first private museum in the country in the true sense, and the number of cultural relics in its collection was more than that of many provincial museums.
With Mr. Lin’s financial resources, Ma Dudu is confident that he can build Jinghua Museum into a first-class museum in the country.
The opening ceremony was very simple. When the red silk fell from Lin Weimin's hands, the ceremony was over. There were no firecrackers or loud gongs and drums. The celebrity actors and actresses who came to show their support did not even have the chance to come forward and had to stand obediently at the gate of the courtyard.
"Okay, the ceremony is over, everyone should do what they should do." Lin Weimin said.
Ma Dudu said, "Teacher Lin, let's at least take a photo together."
Lin Weimin thought for a moment and said, "Okay, let's take a photo together."
Ma Dudu quickly called out, "Come on, come on, let's gather together and take a photo."
Gu Changwei, who came with Zhang Yimou, volunteered to act as the photographer.
Many actors, directors, and writers stood at the entrance of Jinghua Museum with Lin Weimin as the center.
With a sound of "cheese", the picture froze.
Lin Weimin stands in the center of the picture. On his left are writers such as Shi Tiesheng, Yu Hua, Mo Yan, and Tong Zhonggui, and on his right are directors such as Zhang Yimou, Cheng Kaige, and Feng Xiaogang. In front and behind him are many celebrity actors.
Today is the first day of opening. Jinghua Museum is open to the public free of charge, but the number of people is restricted, with only 100 people allowed to enter in each batch.
The first batch of places were all given to the guests who came to support the event. Since everyone is here, we have to let them in to take a look and have a look.
The people outside the door were disappointed whether they could see the stars or not, so some of them left, while others insisted on standing at the door. Some wanted to see the stars, some wanted to enter the museum, and some wanted both.
Lin Weimin, like the first group of guests, also entered the museum. Although it was his private property, he had not been here very often over the years and might not know it as well as the employees in charge of security.
After years of collection by Ma Dudu, the number of collections in the Jinghua Museum is extremely large, and the exquisiteness of the key collections is comparable to some treasures handed down from generation to generation, which has amazed many guests who came to support the event.
The scale of Jinghua Museum is not very large. In addition to some key exhibits, there are many rare cultural relics that cannot be seen in one go.
After strolling around for more than an hour, it was almost noon, so Lin Weimin asked Ma Dudu to arrange a restaurant.
Everyone is here to show our support today, and we can’t let them go away with empty stomachs. Although no one needs a meal, we still need to be polite.
When this group of people came out, the crowd at the door immediately surged and shouted the names of these stars.
My goodness, even the police couldn’t stop him.
"Hurry up and leave, hurry up and leave, to avoid any more trouble."
Lin Weimin understood the public's enthusiasm for seeing so many celebrities gathered together, but he absolutely did not want any group T incident to occur on the first day of the museum's opening.
Under the protection of several policemen, the group of actors escaped from the crowd. Seeing that they had all left, the crowd quieted down. Some people were still queuing to go into the museum, and most of the rest of the people saw that the big stars had left, so they followed suit.
The excitement of the first day of the opening of the Jinghua Museum has finally passed.
Lunch was arranged at a nearby hotel. Everyone came to see Lin Weimin, and Lin Weimin became a bridge and channel for communication among everyone.
Liu Bei was discussing the script with Wang Shuo, asking him to write more roles for her; Feng Xiaogang was flattering Zhang Yimou, asking for advice on directing techniques; Hai Yan was recommending his actors to Cheng Kaige.
Lin Weimin is the protagonist today. Ma Dudu sits next to him and occasionally talks to him about things in the museum.
Lin Weimin's main focus was on Zhang Yimou, Gong Li, Cheng Kaige and Cheng Hong.
The powerful inertia of history caused Zhang Yimou and Gong Li to break up during the filming of "Raise the Red Lantern", while Cheng Kaige got together with Cheng Hong after the filming of "Feng Yue" was completed.
Lin Weimin looked at the two couples and felt the gossip spirit in his heart burning.
But given his status and position, he couldn't be too explicit and had to pretend to chat.
"Has Kaige's Feng Yue been filmed?"
Cheng Kaige finally got rid of Haiyan's entanglement and smiled to Lin Weimin, "It's finished. After two years of hard work, it's finally finished. We're going to take it to Cannes."
"Are you sure you want to go to Cannes? Who knows, it might be another Palme d'Or!" Lin Weimin said with a smile.
Cheng Kaige was obviously very confident in his new work. In response to Lin Weimin's words, he was not humble at all, but smiled brightly.
Feng Xiaogang, who was standing by, looked at Cheng Kaige's performance with disdain.
Just because you got the Palme d'Or by relying on Teacher Lin, do you really think you are a great director?
Born into a poor family, he instinctively felt disgusted when he saw the gifted Cheng Kaige.
Rather than being disgusted, it is more like a stress response caused by inferiority complex.
"Master Kai, let me offer you a drink!"
Although Feng Xiaogang was indignant in his heart, his face was full of smiles and he humbly toasted Cheng Kaige with a glass of wine.
After drinking, he used his usual flattery skills to make Cheng Kaige smile happily.
"I've also watched your movie Party A and Party B. It's very well made. Although it lacks in artistry, it has a strong commercial flavor and has done very well at the box office!"
Facing Cheng Kaige's condescending tone, Feng Xiaogang felt annoyed but still smiled and said, "Well, I was just shooting blindly. How can I compare with you? Farewell My Concubine was a big success in both box office and word of mouth. It won both awards and box office. You are now a world-class director."
Hearing this, Cheng Kaige's eyes unconsciously glanced at Zhang Yimou who was chatting with Gu Changwei on the side.
That was his lifelong enemy!
In the past few years, he was consistently overshadowed by Zhang Yimou, but he finally made a comeback with "Farewell My Concubine".
"Haha, it's all because of the good original work by Teacher Lin." Cheng Kaige was rarely humble.
Feng Xiaogang thought to himself: Finally I know how to mention Teacher Lin.
"That's also inseparable from your talent as a director. You spent two years honing your skills on this film, Temperament Moon, and you are aiming for the Palme d'Or. Those foreign directors at this year's Cannes Film Festival will be trembling with fear."
Lin Weimin listened to Feng Xiaogang's disgusting flattery, but he also heard some of Liu Zhenyun's style in it.
This grandson is digging a hole!
"Who can guarantee that they will win the Palme d'Or, a competition for the world's most famous directors?" Cheng Kaige said. Just when Lin Weimin thought he was being modest, he continued, "But I know several of the judges this year. It's a film festival, so personal connections play a small role."
Feng Xiaogang's ignorant eyes widened when he heard this, with a look of amazement on his face, "It has to be you, Mr. Kai, who is the one who talks and laughs with great scholars, and has no ordinary people to associate with. With these friends around, why worry about not winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes?"
After saying this, he added, "Of course, friends always recommend the best regardless of their relationship. After all, you have the strength!"
Cheng Kaige was so confused by Feng Xiaogang's few words that his chest and head resonated. He laughed with great pride and looked very high-spirited.
Lin Weimin shook his head helplessly. Feng Xiaogang, Wang Shuo and Liu Zhenyun's ideas were really too bad!
The rich man came with great difficulty to support him and put him on such a high pedestal. How will he be able to save himself after this Cannes Film Festival is over?
Lin Weimin didn't tell everyone that the movie "Life is Beautiful", adapted from his novel "Life is Beautiful Anyway" and written, directed and acted by Roberto Benigni, has been confirmed to participate in this year's Cannes Film Festival.
"Life is Beautiful" VS "Feng Yue", will Kaizi win by the head?
(End of this chapter)
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