Some people have asserted in the past that the era of heroes and war songs is over, and the songs we sang with tears in the past have become cheap. However, after watching the drama "I'm Waiting for You in Heaven" in the auditorium of the People's Liberation Army Art Academy, which was presented to the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, this assertion was proved to be false.
1. About the background of the times
"I'm Waiting for You in Heaven" tells the audience the story of the soldiers who entered Tibet 50 years ago. In 1950, at the beginning of the founding of New China, the whole country was full of joy. On the territory of New China, in addition to Taiwan, there is Tibet that has not been liberated. After New Year's Day in 1950, Mao Zedong sent a telegram from Moscow to Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping, agreeing with the deployment of the leaders of the Southwest Bureau and the Second Field to liberate Tibet, that is, agreeing that the 18th Army should be mainly responsible for the task of liberating and operating Tibet. Bai Xuemei joined the army liberating Tibet with excitement. In their young hearts, they only had enthusiasm, courage, faith and hope. It was an era full of ideals, beliefs, sacrifices and dedication, an era of purity, fiery and passion. Fifty years later: In the context of the era of reform and opening up, while we introduced advanced Western science and technology, we also ushered in a new era of diversified ideas. Under the tide of market economy, people pay more attention to individual life than anything else. Heroes and passions gradually fade away. The lofty ideals and beliefs they once had are eliminated by the mediocre desires and humble needs of life in secular life. People are more concerned about Self-survival value rather than collective interests. The younger generation feels confused in this rapidly changing and colorful world. This is a colorful era, an era full of temptation and desire, and an era that is pregnant with more hope and more light. After retired general Ou Zhanjun learned that his eldest daughter Mu Jin was getting divorced, he decided to hold a family meeting to resolve the conflicts between his children's career and family. At the meeting, the two generations had a heated debate due to their different values, and the meeting broke up.
2. About Drama Conflict
This is a play with an unconventional dramatic structure. It is composed of multi-scattered points, multi-time and space, multi-paragraphs, and multi-linear overlapping and interweaving structures. This shows the play’s unique dramatic conflict style: ① The conflict between Ou Zhanjun, Bai Xuemei and their children’s values ??and ethics. ②The life and death conflict between the revolutionary ancestors who entered Tibet and the dangerous natural environment. ③The conflicts between the children of the Ou family and their respective families, marriages, money, and work. ④The love conflict between Bai Xuemei and Ou Zhanjun. Multiple conflict lines are woven through the interaction of three time and space levels: reality, memory and psychology, highlighting the unique artistic characteristics of the play.
3. About the theme
Belief, ideal, hero, life, love, death, friendship, betrayal, suffering, money, understanding, dedication, value, this is written in a smooth way A series of philosophical propositions will be involved and discussed to a greater or lesser extent, more or less, more or less, in our artistic creation.
Ou Zhanjun died of a sudden myocardial infarction. Ou Zhanjun's death is like a key that opens the memory of his wife Bai Xuemei that has been sealed for many years. The true story of the group of female soldiers who entered Tibet 50 years ago came to her like a tidal wave. In her memories and thoughts about history, she uncovered the mystery of the life experiences of her five children. The female soldier Liu Yurong sacrificed her young life while rescuing supplies with her sincere and passionate love for her fiancé and her longing for a happy life; for the sake of revolutionary ideals, the young Bai Xuemei gave up her illusions about love and romance and took the special circumstances of the war years. The method combined with the detachment leader Ou Zhanjun; the correspondent Xiao Feng fell off the cliff to save Bai Xuemei; the captain Su of the female soldier transport team died saving the Tibetan girl Nima who was on a pilgrimage; Dr. Xin unfortunately died on the way to the medical service. Bai Xuemei and his wife adopted the flesh and blood left by these comrades in arms and raised them one by one. Fifty years later, the eldest daughter Mu Jin and the second son Mu Kai in Tibet encountered marriage problems; after the second daughter Mulan was laid off, she failed to find a job in a hotel and was humiliated; the youngest son Mu Xin went to work with a female banker for a loan in business. The honest eldest son Mu Jun wants to go to Tibet to serve as a soldier out of love for his son Xiaofeng, and his heart is full of contradictions.
The love between flesh and blood, comrades-in-arms, nationality, and comrades are intertwined in the play, making people think of the hardships and beauty of that era.
4. About the characters in the play
The European War Army: a revolutionary soldier who has survived the smoke of artillery fire and has firm ideals and beliefs. He is brave and tenacious, attaches great importance to love and righteousness; he sticks to his personality and would rather bend than bend; he likes reading but is not good at talking; he has devoted his whole life to his wife Bai Xuemei, silently true love and care. Although he has a deep father's love in his heart for his five biological or adopted children, there is an insurmountable generation gap in understanding.
Bai Xuemei: A woman who has experienced the baptism of war and has a rich inner world. She was beautiful and cheerful, and like all young girls, she had an innocent and romantic pursuit and yearning for love. During the specific war years, she chose to give up romance and marry the detachment leader Ou Zhanjun. During the war years, she endured all hardships; during peacetime, she used her broad, generous, and gentle mind to resolve all conflicts in the family, bearing the blame of her children, and tolerating their incomprehension.
Mu Jun: The eldest son of Ou, secretary of the party committee of a certain factory. The son of comrade Su Yuying. Not good at talking, steady and honest. He is full of contradictions about his son Xiaofeng going to Tibet to join the army and inherit his father's military career.
Hibiscus: The daughter of an European eldest daughter, an editor of a magazine. The biological mother is Nima, a Tibetan girl. This is an intellectual woman in a new era. Unlike her mother Bai Xuemei, she pays more attention to individual life experience and pursues the happiness of individual life, so she has a reason to resist the almost arranged marriage of her parents.
Mulan: The biological daughter of the Ou family. This is a sensitive, sad, weak and kind woman. She has always suspected that she is not her parents' biological daughter. After being laid off, life was difficult, but I still had an innate stubbornness and strength in my bones.
Mu Kai: The second son of the Ou family. Head of a certain department stationed in Tibet. The son of Xin Ming, a doctor accompanying the female soldier transport team. He inherited his father's career and was a qualified soldier. Facing the breakdown of his family and the mystery of his life experience, he felt shaken and painful in his heart, but in the end he understood his parents and stayed in Tibet.
Mu Xin: The youngest son of the Ou family, chairman of a certain company. A very smart, capable and motivated man. In the face of the ever-changing times, he is good at accepting all kinds of new things and new concepts, and is good at seizing every opportunity in life. He works hard in the business world with his wit and ability, and has formed a set of values ??that are completely different from his father's generation.
Xiaofeng: Mu Jun’s son. Determined to serve as a soldier in Tibet, he is an ideal and thoughtful warrior in the new era. Young, energetic, smart, thoughtful, and independent-minded. Love the military career.
Zheng Yi: Hibiscus’s husband. The experience of serving as a soldier in Tibet left him with a long-lasting sexual and psychological disorder that is difficult to heal. This is a reality that he is unwilling to face as a man. Therefore, when it comes to Mujin's divorce, he would rather believe that Mujin has another man.
Cao Qing: President of a bank. This is a divorced woman with a strong appearance but a fragile heart. She has true love for Mu Xin, but she is not sure whether Mu Xin's feelings for her are for the bank president or a woman. The isolation and loneliness of single life made her long for a sincere relationship.
Su Yuying: Captain of the transport team for female soldiers entering Tibet. This is a calm, capable female officer with revolutionary ideals. She is deeply in love with her husband, whom she was introduced to through the organization. Facing the dangerous natural environment, she had to leave her son at a Tibetan home. As a mother, she felt unbearable pain in her heart. As a soldier, she accepted everything calmly. She died to save a Tibetan girl.
Xin Ming: The doctor accompanying the female soldier transport team. He is knowledgeable, handsome, and bookish. He loves Bai Xuemei in a way unique to intellectuals, implicit, affectionate, considerate and generous. He died on the way to rescue the Tibetan people.
Nima: A Tibetan girl on pilgrimage, beautiful, persevering and tenacious. Died on the pilgrimage.
Liu Yurong: Female soldier of the female soldier transport team. Youthful and beautiful, her love for life stems from the lofty revolutionary ideals and sincere love in her heart, and she is full of eager longing and yearning for a happy future life. In order to rescue supplies, he sacrificed his life on the plateau.
Xiao Feng: The correspondent of the European War Army. Young, smart, and thin. There is both hero worship and father-son love for the European War Army. On the way to pick up Bai Xuemei, she fell off a cliff and died.
Administrator: Logistics administrator of the female soldier transport team. Slightly older, steady, and kind, he gives people a father-like feeling in front of a group of young female soldiers. On the way to Tibet, he secretly saved his own food rations and died.
Zhao Yuening: A fourteen-year-old member of the female soldier transport team, thin and small, with a childish face.
6. About genre and style
This is an epic drama of heroism and romance. Tragic, grand, exciting, public, romantic, lyrical, and poetic. In terms of time and space processing, the director puts the scenes 50 years ago and the scenes 50 years later in the same space, allowing the audience to experience the plot in strong contrast. When the mysteries about the lives of their children were revealed one by one, the soldiers who entered Tibet gave silent answers to the contradictions and problems in reality with their firm beliefs, selfless feelings, and pure hearts. The children learned from the lives of their parents. Seeing true faith, ideals and convictions.
"I'm Waiting for You in Heaven" is a spiritual answer sheet written by Qiu Shanshan, a female writer from the Chengdu Military Region, about the history of Tibetan soldiers and those historical witnesses 50 years ago. Since 1990, she has visited Tibet eight times, interviewed more than 70 female soldiers, and came into contact with the stories of the older generation of female soldiers who entered Tibet in the early 1950s. These female soldiers, who seem to be extremely strong, shed tears involuntarily when they talk about their children, because their work and environment force them to say goodbye to them after giving birth to their children. A kind of emotion prompted the writer to decide to write a novel describing the fate of soldiers and sing for those unknown lives. At the same time, she paid special attention to collecting the history of the first batch of young female soldiers who marched from Sichuan to Tibet with the 18th Army. Gradually, the figures of those female soldiers who climbed mountains and waded into Lhasa, endured hunger and cold, began to become clear before her eyes.
"I'm Waiting for You in Heaven" is a typical academic style drama. Director Huang Dingshan made full use of the means of modern drama to adapt this lengthy novel with hundreds of thousands of words and a time span of half a century into a drama of just over two hours, inheriting the spiritual blood on the stage. He also boldly uses film montage techniques to alternately display different life scenes and different characters on the stage. With the same beautiful yearning, generations of people from different eras have handed in different answers. It triggered the audience to compare the arduous times with real life, to frustrate the golden drunkenness, to clear up the hesitation and confusion, and what rose in the hearts was people's eager yearning for a better life and lofty ideals and beliefs.