AMBASSADORS BACKSTAGE: SCRIPTWRITERS TAKE ON A NEW ROLE

AMBASSADORS BACKSTAGE: SCRIPTWRITERS TAKE ON A NEW ROLE

N: How do you maintain the original style of Moment in Peking when adapting it from Lin Yutang's novel for a TV drama?

Z: In order to make a good adaption of this masterpiece, I read everything about him, including all his novels and reviews, so as to fully understand his background and mindset. Lin wrote this novel to help westerners better understand Chinese culture. Considering that a bulky novel is harder to chew, Lin wrote it in a series of short stories, which were later compiled into a full-length novel. Therefore, Moment in Peking is not a standard full-length novel. To make it into a lengthy TV drama, I combined several characters, while maintaining the spirit and style of the original novel.

N: How has the role of scriptwriters changed over the years?

Z: The time has gone when the scriptwriter was only responsible for the story itself. Now a scriptwriter is required to not only write the script, but also stage directions, costumes, scene and so on. The crew expects to crack on the moment they get the script– a scriptwriter who fails to let them do that is not recognized. I used to write a story based on the old Shanghai; the director at the time even asked me what patterns of table cloth should be chosen and what should be placed on the table, etc. Apart from that, scriptwriters nowadays are usually required to change the script to satisfy certain actor/actress etc., which could end up distorting the original story. This aching phenomenon in the fi lming and television industry is very unhealthy.

N: How do you see IP series*?

Z: I get a lot of contributions in my mailbox. But they always make me sad. They usually come in completed as 40 episodes, but are seldom usable– their themes are usually too old, or core ideas already eliminated by the market. On the contrary, IP series are standing at the front of the industry. They can easily win over the cohort of the original works. Traditional scriptwriters may have a hard time embracing the new online literature, but Pilot Media has already started to make full use of it. We are adapting a tomb-robbing novel online, called Tomb-Stealing Jade, which is of high IP value.

N: While people all over the world have started to take more interest in Chinese culture, how can the Chinese TV industry improve?

Z: Chinese TV series are rather popular among Asian countries. This is because we share similar viewpoints. However, the west has totally different concepts from us. I believe the key to win over a western audience is to produce TV series that have similar core values to the west. Take Zhang Yimou's new fi lm The Great Wall for example, it has achieved Hollywood standard no matter in technology, scene control or cast. However, it still conveys the old traditional Chineseconcept of “loyalty to the emperor”, which is hard for a western audience to appreciate. I even think the fi lm could have been better if the plot had been based on youngsters' opinions.

We live in an era where the whole world is connected by keyboards. The west inf l uences the east, and vice versa. The younger generations of directors and scriptwriters now share more similar viewpoints. This is why I am conf i dent in the future of Chinese TV series.

Pilot Media has also started to jointly work as a team with a scriptwriters studio in Hollywood. Decoding the Game – the series of fi lms we are now working on – is about a group of Chinese people living in the USA. Although the script we received from them is brilliant, there are still misinterpretation of Chinese culture that await to be corrected by the Chinese side of the team. It is fair to say that western fi lm makers still lack a basic understanding of Chinese culture – quite a lot western blockbusters even hire Japanese or Korean actors/actresses to act out Chinese roles. I believe by jointly working on the script, we can effectively reduce mistakes and biases in the fi lms.

* IP series: TV series adapted from popular original novels, videos, and games online.