Zhang Bin.
The flowers bloomed that year and the moon was full" poster. *From the web.
A generation of Hong Shang" stills. Courtesy of the producer.
In "Flowers", people eat shabu at the time-honored brand "Hong Changxing". Courtesy of the producer.
Recently, the continuous popularity of the TV series "Flowers" has immersed the audience in the passionate historical story of Shanghai's reform and opening up in the 90s of the last century; On the other hand, the various traditional delicacies and time-honored brands in Shanghai shown in the play have also been reproduced and continued in the audience's enthusiastic offline purchases and visits, becoming an emotional footnote for people to mark the times and recall the past.
Time-honored brands are national brands formed in the long-term development of China's industry and commerce, and they are not only loved by people for a long time, but also an important symbol of China's excellent traditional culture and cultural resources for economic and social development. It is not difficult to find that behind the growth of time-honored brands there are rich Chinese stories, which have always been valued by TV drama creators. In recent years, works such as "The Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full", "Sesame Hutong", "Wind and Rain Time-honored Brand", "Old Tavern", "A Generation of Hongshang", "Da Shengkui" and "Pearl River People" have been loved by the audience and have become a new artistic practice of telling Chinese stories with time-honored brands.
Legendary narrative expression.
Time-honored TV dramas are a combination of business legends and family stories in terms of narrative, with significant national characteristics and artistic appeal. These plays reflect the history of China's industrial and commercial development and growth in modern times from different perspectives. "Sesame Hutong" takes the development of the "Qinfangju" pickle workshop in Beiping as the object of narration, "Pearl River People" marks the territory of Lingnan time-honored brands with Lingnan traditional Chinese medicine, Cantonese cuisine and Cantonese opera, and "Da Shengkui" focuses on the ...... of more than 260 years of development history of the Qing Dynasty multinational ** business "Da Shengkui".Behind these stories are the rise and fall of the Jin merchants, Hui merchants, and Zhejiang merchants in modern China. The profound historical accumulation constitutes the distinctive industry and regional cultural background of the time-honored brand. In addition, time-honored brand stories are often the story of a family, containing narrative threads of ordinary people's struggle and growth. In "Sesame Hutong", the gold-lettered signboard of "Qin Fangju" was created by Yan Zhensheng and several generations of hard work and honest management; In "Wind and Rain Time-honored Brand", the history of the rise and fall of the "Yuan Zhenchang" distillery reflects the continuous exploration process of three families seeking a way out in the war years.
The theme of a time-honored brand always tells a legendary entrepreneurial story and creates one or several typical images with legendary characteristics. When we mention time-honored TV series, characters such as Bai Jingqi, Qiao Zhiyong, and Zhou Ying will appear in front of us. They have extraordinary qualities that distinguish them, and they are doers and trendsetters who promote the development of industry, commerce and society. These characters are surprisingly upright in business competition, turning businesses, ticket numbers, shops, pharmacies, etc. into profits, bringing back to life and writing business legends. What makes these images enter the hearts of the audience is the personality charm of the characters and the warm texture of the story. In "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full", although Zhou Ying came from a humble background, she also had the character weaknesses of ordinary people and the emotional expectations that often fell short, but the reason why she endured hardships and eventually became a generation of righteous businessmen is inseparable from her personality traits of independence, flexibility, and affection. The setting of first suppressing and then promoting makes the characters full of personality and opens up space for the growth of the characters. The protagonists in time-honored TV dramas are often trained in entrepreneurship, make choices in the tide of the times, and form legends with their own characteristics.
Traditional values are written.
Time-honored TV dramas highlight China's traditional business philosophy and form a commercial culture spirit with oriental characteristics. In the storytelling of time-honored brands, the founders and inheritors of time-honored brands need to go through various setbacks and tests in order to show the rich and complete growth path of the characters, but the spirit of business ethics of honesty and goodness, righteousness and benefit is the spiritual pulse that runs through it. Through the fierce collision between the two different business values of "benevolence and righteousness" and "fraud business", the TV series "Jingwei World" dialectically shows that "benevolence and righteousness" can release the greatest commercial value. The generation of this business ethical spirit is also based on the protagonist's own moral character outside of business. In "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full", when Zhou Ying was still a wild girl who went to the rivers and lakes to sell her arts, she assisted the little beggar Erhu's family, and later in order to save the seriously injured Wu Ping, she got into the sedan chair and rushed to joy, these behaviors all demonstrate her kind and brave character traits, which is the internal motivation for her to become the big boss of the Wu family's East Courtyard in the future, and then to the rich Qin Yishang. In addition, the inheritance of the spirit of business ethics is also reflected in Zhou Ying's entry into the Wu family to study business, Wu Weiwen's integrity education for her, and later Zhou Ying's own before and after the integrity education of her adopted son. In short, traditional Chinese business ethics not only build the spiritual and cultural background of national commerce, but also the inexhaustible source of the modernization and transformation of time-honored brands.
The time-honored stories in the TV series also start from the protagonist's feelings for his family and country, and carry out value confirmation and interpretation of the Chinese spirit again and again. The success of time-honored brands in TV dramas is often closely related to the value orientation of "the rise and fall of the world, and the husband is responsible". When the operators of time-honored brands become rich, they always consciously respond to the call of the times for industrial rejuvenation and social transformation, and show the feelings of family and country to help the world with business. Whether it is "Wind and Rain Carved Building", "Cizhou Kiln", "Shilixiang Wine Workshop" and "Louwailou" in the early years, or "Wind and Rain Time-honored Brand", "Old Tavern" and "Generation of Hongshang" in recent years, the story of the time-honored brand is placed in the isomorphic narrative sequence of the family and the country. The "old tavern" in "Old Tavern" is not only a place for the shopkeeper Chen Huaihai to run a small business, but also a stage to show the national righteousness of the Anti-Japanese War. In "A Generation of Hongshang", although the two families of Liu and Yang are rivals in a series of turmoil such as the competition for the "bottom oil of the Qing Dynasty", in the face of national righteousness, Yang Tongchang and Liu Yunxiang still wrote the heroic and righteous ...... of the sons and daughters of Xiangxi devoting themselves to their family and countryIt can be said that the establishment process of the time-honored commercial brand has always written the economic ethics and moral pursuit of honesty, righteousness and profit, and economic prosperity, and carried forward the national spirit.
The embodiment of modern consciousness.
The TV series' narration of the entrepreneurial history of time-honored brands is not only an artistic expression of the brand's story and spiritual connotation, but also a useful exploration of telling Chinese stories through creative transformation and innovative development. Among them, how to present the modern consciousness and quality of "people" is the key point. The founders and inheritors of these time-honored brands on the one hand reflect the profound nourishment of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and on the other hand, they also reflect the innovative consciousness and pioneering spirit of daring to forge ahead, highlighting the complementarity of adhering to inheritance and pioneering innovation. Zhou Ying in "The Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Full", Liu Yunxiang in "A Generation of Hongshang", and Wang Xiangqing in "Da Shengkui", they all faced similar problems in the development and transformation of time-honored brands: how to make time-honored brands stand tall and full of vitality in the face of market competition. Taking Zhou Ying as an example, she booked cotton with farmers in advance with the best technique and deposit system, and eliminated all difficulties to prepare for the construction of Shaanxi machine weaving layout, and planned the future development path of her time-honored brand in advance, so that the Wu family's business could turn danger into a disaster every time it faced a crisis. It can be said that the founders and operators of these time-honored brands have integrated traditional Chinese virtues with modern innovation consciousness, and finally demonstrated management methods and business philosophy with modern consciousness.
In addition, in recent years, in modern and contemporary works such as "Flowers" and "Pearl River People", the time-honored brand culture has also been embedded in the exquisite narrative arrangement in the form of grass snake gray lines. "Flowers" ** Xinghualou Dingsheng Cake, Fresh Pork Ribs Rice Cake, Taikang Butterfly Cake, Tianbao Longfeng Jewelry, Hong Changxing Hot Mutton and other time-honored brands and products, outlining the vibrant commercial scene and market life in Shanghai in the 90s of the last century. For example, the pork rib rice cake that Mr. Bao and Ms. Wang often eat is a vivid metaphor for the intimate relationship between the two. Similar to "Flowers", which highlights the regional characteristics of time-honored brands, in "Pearl River People", the livelihood skills of the three Chen siblings include Lingnan traditional Chinese medicine, Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese opera and other industries with Lingnan characteristics, which successfully arouse the emotional resonance of local audiences and stimulate the vitality of the times for time-honored brands to interpret Chinese stories.
As a famous domestic brand, the time-honored brand has become an integral part of China's modern civilization that has lasted for a long time in the water integration with the people's daily households. In the history of the growth of time-honored brands, there are legendary stories and standing spirits. Creators should further tap its abundant resources, activate its hidden cultural code through the popular art style of TV dramas, and tell new entrepreneurial stories.
The author is vice president and professor of Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University).