Chapter 142 Movies Go to the Countryside
After the beginning of spring in 1978, it was already New Year's Eve.
It is almost the New Year and there is basically not much work to do in the fields. Everyone is enjoying the rare relaxing days in this rare winter.
The old banyan tree at the entrance of the village has always been a good place for people to rest. Even when the north wind is howling, there are still aunts, uncles, young girls and wives who gather under the tree to do some light work in the sunlight.
Every festival is a new year and a new atmosphere. Having survived the natural disasters and national grief of the past, many people finally put on a long-lost smile on their faces, taking advantage of the good opportunity to quell the unrest and usher in new policies.
"Hey, have you heard that the village has invited people from the county theater to come over to show a movie tonight?"
In mainland China these days, televisions are still extremely rare, not to mention in rural areas, even in cities. Being able to broadcast movies in rural areas is a rare and popular form of entertainment for the general public.
"Of course I've heard of it. These movies are those foreign movies and TV dramas, right?"
"A few days ago, the educated youth in our team fought tooth and nail for the first screening in the city, just for the position of a movie commentator!"
"What is this commentator?"
"Whatever it is, those who have read the book should read it first, understand how the story is told, and then explain to us what the story means when the movie is shown."
"Oh, that's great! I'm an uneducated person like me, and I'm afraid I won't be able to understand that foreign stuff!"
In fact, it was not just the peasants who were new to the term "movie commentator". Even many people in big cities and the educated youth who were invited to attend the first round of screenings found it very new: Isn't this just watching a movie? Do we need someone to break it down and explain to others what the story is like giving a lecture? Can't we just watch it?
Little did people know that Su Yun, who came up with this method, had put a lot of effort into it.
Mainland China is currently in a period of revival after a period of unrest. Not many people can read, so movies are directly shown in rural areas in accordance with the policy of promoting culture. Most of the time, they are just for the sake of excitement and novelty, and people can only see the prosperity on the surface, rather than really touching the core of "opening your eyes to see the world".
If it is misunderstood and misinterpreted, it may become another time when people work together to criticize the chaos of capitalist ideology, which may backfire in the end.
Therefore, Su Yun, who had already completed the dubbing, submitted an application to invite educated young people from surrounding rural areas to watch the first round of screenings when the film began to be screened in Shanghai and surrounding towns, and to add the position of "film narrator" in the early stage.
Su Yun was a patriotic artist with a reputation in the capital, and had once supported Tang City and proposed to donate half of the film profits as post-disaster reconstruction funds. With the support of policies, this application quickly received a positive response.
In Shanghai, the movies started showing after the National Day. The average knowledge level in big cities is relatively high, so even if the working people don't quite understand what's happening on the spot, there will be intellectuals nearby to help them clear up their confusion. Su Yun pretended to watch a few shows, so she wasn't too worried about the movie screening situation in big cities.
However, because the average knowledge level in rural areas is relatively low, she pays special attention to the screening of films in rural areas.
As the year draws to a close, there is policy support. The ticket prices in rural areas are lower than the general price of about 1 cent in big cities, and are gradually adjusted according to the local rural conditions: the ticket prices in wealthy villages with large auditoriums are around 3 to 5 cents, and the ticket prices in open-air theaters that are just portable machines are 1 to 2 cents accordingly. Children under 6 years old and people over 60 years old can get free tickets.
Every time a movie is shown, two educated young people are required to serve as film commentators, and their work experience is counted as such. By this time, the term "educated youth" was about to become history, and the news of their return to the city in batches filled them with new hope. However, how to determine the order was a big problem in many places.
As soon as Su Yun submitted the proposal to rank young intellectuals as film commentators based on their cultural promotion performance, it immediately received a lot of support.
In this way, it can not only solve the situation where educated young people are fighting openly and secretly for who to return to the city first, but also continue the true meaning of the educated youth going to the countryside to promote culture, allowing educated young people to bring knowledge and culture to the countryside.
After getting the permission, Su Yun traveled to surrounding towns and cities in the next month, helping to promote the film while compiling an outline of the film's content and core ideas, which she distributed to informed references sent by rural areas.
In the early stage, the educated youth were asked to process the outline text into their own commentary notes. This group of people were basically active elements carefully selected and young people who were full of fighting spirit to return to the city. Su Yun had no worries about their hard work.
Because of the lack of film resources and Su Yun's strong initiative to surrender, the films she sent were basically set to be shown for more than half a year. By the end of the broadcast period, the films had been replayed many times, and most of the working people understood the content of the story and could explain it to the new people. The educated youth also retired after their success, and this could also serve as a precedent for other regions to refer to when they continued to broadcast the film.
In addition to saying that Su Yun spared no effort to promote the film culture in rural areas, we can also say that capitalists are really too ruthless in squeezing out surplus labor...
When the villagers under the banyan tree were talking excitedly, the arrival of several uninvited guests suddenly broke the liveliness.
These are the most stubborn old lady in the village, Mrs. Li, her daughter-in-law Wu Xiulan, and her posthumous daughter Zhang Xiaoying.
It is said that when she was young, Mrs. Li was a maid in a wealthy family. Later, she was sold to the Zhang family as a daughter-in-law when they fled. Her husband died in an accident while fishing at sea, and the son she raised with great difficulty also died in the year of her marriage. Now, she and her three grandchildren are left to depend on each other.
But Old Lady Li particularly disliked her daughter-in-law Wu Xiulan, thinking that she gave birth to a girl and was unable to leave behind a bloodline for the Zhang family. She would often beat and scold her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, and was never in a good mood towards them.
The officers in the team tried to persuade Mrs. Li many times by saying, "Times have changed. It doesn't matter whether you have a boy or a girl. Women can still hold up half the sky," but they failed to change her mind.
To this day, Granny Li is still very kind-hearted to the boys from the other branch of the Zhang family who moved to the town. She gives them everything good, without caring at all that her own family members are starving and emaciated.
Everyone was surprised to see Wu Xiulan and Zhang Xiaoying, who were following behind, looking unusually energetic today and wearing new clothes without any patches.
But what is even more surprising is that Mrs. Li also bought a set of movie tickets for her daughter-in-law and granddaughter!
The price of movie tickets in their village is not high, 3 cents each. A set of New Year gift packages includes six movie tickets: "The Perfect Match", "Artificial Intelligence", "Memoirs of a Geisha", "The Sixth Sense", "Leon" and "The Perk". From New Year's Eve to the fifth day of the New Year, a movie is shown every night. The total price is 15 cents, which is cheaper than buying them individually. Many people who are thrifty and have some spare money bought the whole New Year gift package.
Why would Mrs. Li, who was so harsh on her daughter-in-law and granddaughter and whose head was full of feudal ideas, suddenly be so nice to them? !
"Has your mother-in-law finally figured it out? Now she knows that her granddaughter can also take charge?" An auntie couldn't help asking while Grandma Li went to the grocery store to buy movie tickets.
Wu Xiulan bit her lip and shook her head, unable to utter a word, but her tears fell like beads from a broken string.
"It's New Year's Day, why are you crying here, you unlucky person? Why don't you go back and cook? Don't you see how thin Xiaoying has become?" When Mrs. Li, who had just come back from buying tickets, saw the scene, she immediately started cursing.
"Grandma, don't scold my mom. I'm not hungry..." Zhang Xiaoying suppressed her fear and weakly pulled the corner of Grandma Li's clothes.
Old Mrs. Li glared at her granddaughter, and after seeing her tremble subconsciously, she seemed to react and changed her tone to a stiff one: "Okay, go home and have dinner, you have to go to the auditorium to reserve a seat later!"
Watching the three grandmas walking away, a young girl couldn't help but mutter, "Didn't the movie ticket reserve a seat?"
"So the seats are reserved based on the movie tickets? Oh, I was thinking of finishing my meal early like Old Lady Li and getting a seat in the front!" The old lady who was sewing shoe soles slapped her thigh.
"That's not necessary. Your location is clearly written on the movie ticket. Someone will take you there when you get there." A young educated youth girl passing by explained with a smile.
After talking about the location, the topic returned to the Zhang family: "What's wrong with Mrs. Li? Why was she so nice to Xiaoying and her daughter today? Not only did she not beat or scold them, she also gave them nice clothes to wear?"
You should know that usually, the clothes that Wu Xiulan and Zhang Xiaoying wear are all patched up, and are short and old.
Because the Zhang family had two unexpected resettlement allowances, and because Grandma Li and Wu Xiulan were hardworking, their family situation could be considered average in the village. Unfortunately, Grandma Li was obsessed with her nephew's family, and hid all the good things to guard against Xiaoying and her husband. She would send them to the town whenever she had the chance, and instead of giving the good food to her daughter-in-law and granddaughter, she gave it to her nephews and nieces, whose families were better off than hers.
When Mrs. Li said that her granddaughter Xiaoying was thin, a nagging person next to her said, "Why don't you think carefully about why your granddaughter is so thin?" Unfortunately, Mrs. Li pretended not to hear it and didn't feel the slightest bit of guilt.
Everyone was wondering, and an old lady thought about it again and again, and finally couldn't help but speak: "I went to the gathering the day before yesterday, and saw Old Lady Li at a tea stall, whispering with Zhang Laoer and his wife about sending away the daughter and replacing her with a son to carry on the family line..."
"No way! Has Old Lady Li lost her mind? She gave away her own granddaughter and took her nephew's grandson back home to raise him?!" This piece of news was like a stone that caused a thousand waves. The people under the banyan tree exploded immediately.
Those extremely poor and backward rural areas that can't afford to raise children give their children away to be raised. It's helpless and a feudal remnant of favoring sons over daughters. How can such a thing happen in a progressive village like theirs, where the economy is not as good as the best but better than the worst, and the civilized new style and academic performance are even better? !
"No wonder Mrs. Li was so nice to Xiaoying and her husband today. It turns out this was a 'beheading meal'!"
In light of previous events, many people suddenly realized what was going on, but at the same time, they couldn't help but become angry about it.